As business owners, you are often approached with advertisements and salespeople that state you can save 15% or more on your insurance premium from this company or that company. Some of these companies may actually have better rates and would save premium dollars for your business, but other companies will simply cut coverage to lower the premium. It is important to understand the coverage offered by different insurance quotes and how insurance premium is calculated.

Insurance premiums are usually computed using a predetermined rate that is multiplied by either your payroll or revenue totals for the policy term and then adjusted based on your business characteristics. For example, workers’ compensation insurance in Florida has rates predetermined by the state government and all insurance carriers in the state use those rates by multiplying it by your payroll in the appropriate classifications. Here is a link to an article with the 2009 rates for Florida landscaping businesses.

The insurance premiums for general liability policies are based either on your projected payroll or your projected revenues. This rating basis is then multiplied by a rate determined by the insurance carrier. When comparing premiums on these policies, you can look at the specific rate or make sure that both insurance carriers use the same payroll or revenue figures.

Equipment floater insurance typically has separate rates for the value of equipment that is individually scheduled on the policy and the value of unscheduled equipment that is protected under the blanket equipment coverage. As is the case for the other insurance policies, these individual rates should be listed on the ‘declarations page’ of the policy documents.

As a landscaping business, if you ever have questions regarding insurance rates and total premiums, please feel free to ask an insurance agent at BearWise Landscapers. We would also welcome the opportunity to walk through comparative insurance quotes received by your business to analyze differences in coverages and actual rates. Let us know how we can be of assistance to your business insurance needs!

The Agent Articles section of BearWiseLandscapers.com allows our insurance agents to provide practical information for landscapers. These agents can also obtain quotes and establish a custom insurance program for your landscaping business through our access to a variety of insurance carriers. This agent article is filed under (1) Insurance, 1 General Liability, 3 Equipment Floater, 4 Workers' Compensation, and you can follow comments to it through the RSS 2.0 feed. Feel free to leave your own response below: