Imprelis – Landscapers Using This Product Should Follow Dupont’s Web Site September 2, 2011

As a landscaper’s insurance niche agent with many landscaper clients, I felt it would be important to share information about the herbicide known as Imprelis.  Lots of landscapers and turf management firms in our area use Imprelis, but recently it has  been linked to damages to evergreens on lawns and golf courses in the North Carolina area as well as other states along the Eastern seaboard.

Dupont manufactures Imprelis and they have publicly communicated their desire to promptly and fairly resolve problems associated with it.  You can visit the web site that Dupont set up for help with Imprelis at  www.imprelis-facts.com.  Dupont also set up a toll free hotline number, 866-796-4783, so that people with damages can report them more easily.   If you have any clients that have experienced damage to trees or shrubs due to the use of Imprelis, encourage them to contact Dupont through the website or the hotline phone number.  Also, the web site states that by mid-August, Dupont will start a product return and refund procedure and you may want to follow the news for your refunds there.

With this information provided by Dupont regarding potential damages posed by the use of Imprelis, you might decide to discontinue its use.  I would recommend that you retain any unused Imprelis product that has been prepared as it might be important for any possible refunds.  As I stated earlier, the website can keep up to date on any product return and refund procedures.

Here at Clinard Insurance Group,  in Winston Salem, NC, we insure landscaping companies of all stripes, from lawn maintenance companies to landscape architects to nurseries.  We want all landscapers to be informed insurance consumers and that mission extends here to helping you  with information that you may not have discovered yet regarding Imprelis.  If we can help you with your landscaping insurance needs, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557, or visit us on the web at www.LowRatesForLandscapers.com.

Landscapers Workers Compensation – Summer Brings Seasonal Dangers For Your Employees June 10, 2011

A portion of your workers compensation insurance  rate is determined by the losses that you claim on your policy over time.  High loss frequency or severity will drive up your experience modification factor on your policy and cost you in higher workers comp rates for years to come.  If you want to learn more about how this works, please visit my blog article on protecting your experience modification factor.   For landscapers and lawn care firms, Summer means more work, but also creates some specific risks for your employees.  I’ve put together a few tips for  protecting  your employees from some of these seasonal risks.

Any discussion of summer seasonal risks to landscapers has to begin with heat related illnesses.  You should take the time to be sure  that your crews are prepared for an emergency.  Look out  for symptoms like profuse sweating, skin that is extremely hot or cold to the touch, dizziness or nausea.  Consider going with shorter work schedules and  schedule that start earlier and stop at mid day heat and resume again in the late afternoon.  Provide plenty of cool water (at least 4 cups of water per hour) and make sure that workers have shady places to take their breaks.  Do not wait until an employee feels sick in order to allow them to take a break. 

Another summer seasonal risk to your landscaping workers is snakes.  Warn everyone to be careful  where they place their hands and feet when moving debris.  Require everyone to always wear gloves when moving debris about and advise them not reach blindly under debris when moving it.  Boots should be worn by all employees and they should be at least 10 inches high.   If someone encounters a snake, have them step back and allow it to proceed.  A snake’s striking distance is usually ½ the total length of the snake.  If someone is bitten, note the color and shape of the snake’s head.  Keep bite victims still and calm to slow the spread of any venom in case the snake is poisonous.  Do not cut the wound or attempt to suck the venom out, lay the victim down so that the bite is below the level of their heart and cover the bite with a clean, dry dressing.

Insects can also be a danger.  Find out  in advance if any of your employees are allergic to any insect bites or stings and if so, you be sure to keep the appropriate medicines available to them at all times out on job sites.  Severe reactions to bites or stings such as chest pain, nausea, loss of breath, sweating or slurred speech require immediate medical treatment.

Your landscaping workers may also face exposure to herbicides and pesticides.  Make sure that anyone engaged in using these chemicals is fully trained and understands exactly what to do in case of overexposure. 

Taking precautions with your employees during the summer months should help you avoid some injuries and reduce the costs of  those that were unavoidable.  Employee downtime and higher workers compensation rates are not an enjoyable way to spend your profits.  At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we insure dozens of landscaping companies all across North Carolina.  Our specialize landscapers insurance program can help you save money while getting the protection you need  on your general liability insurance, the insurance on your trucks and your equipment as well as your workers compensation insurance.  Give us a toll free call today at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.LowRatesForLandscapers.com.

Clinard Insurance Group Named Rough Notes E-agency Of The Month February 2011 March 8, 2011

In this blog, I usually try to focus on insurance policy and coverage help that will allow insurance consumers out there to become more informed buyers of the insurance product they need.  In this article, I want to deviate from that tack just a bit and take a moment to sing the praises of Clinard Insurance Group in particular.

The occasion for this change in approach on this blog is that Clinard Insurance Group,  an independent insurance agency in Winston Salem, NC has been named the e-Agency of the month by Rough Notes magazine.   Rough Notes is a national insurance industry magazine with over 40,000 subscribers.  So this is a big honor and we want to let all of our readers know about it.

The Rough Notes article focuses on our digital marketing efforts in particular but does give a lot of other information about our agency and our more traditional marketing methods as well.  This is an important marker for those of you out there considering an agent for your business insurance.  The reason this is so, is that we take our digital and traditional marketing expertise and we use it help our business insurance clients grow their businesses as well.  We understand that if your business grows, then so does ours.    One of the ways you can see us working hard for our clients is through our partners page that is a place where our business clients can offer coupons to the online world to help increase their client base.

If you would like to read the rough notes article and see photos of some of the people behind the scenes at Clinard Insurance Group, just click here.  I hope you enjoy this inside look at our agency.

At Clinard Insurance Group we want all insurance consumers to be informed buyers.  We work hard to try and disseminate information to the public about insurance issues that affect their lives and their businesses.  If we can help you with your home insurance, your auto insurance, your life insurance or business insurance, please call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us on the web at www.ClinardInsurance.com.  Also, keep in mind that we also specialize in used car dealer insurance, auto repair and body shop insurance, restaurant insurance, and insurance for small contractors and landscaping companies. 

The source information for this article was originally posted to a blog at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com and you can find the full version at that site.

Landscapers Insurance Help – How To File A Workers Compensation Claim July 27, 2010

Savvy landscaping contractors buy workers compensation insurance as part of their landscapers insurance program.  If you don’t and you are paying someone to work for you, whether you consider them a subcontractor or not, then you shouldn’t go a day more without a policy.  But assuming you already have a workers compensation policy, how exactly do you file a claim?

Filing a workers compensation claim is easy and simple.  You want to do this as soon after the employee injury as possible.  In NC the claim form states that you must file the claim within 5 days of the injury.  To do so, you must complete a Form 19 claim form and mail, fax, or email it to your insurance company claims department.  The Form 19 is a standardized claim form to be used for all workers compensation claims in North Carolina.  The reason for this is that the policy and claims payments are all overseen by the NC Industrial Commission.

If you don’t have a form 19 on hand, check your policy as most insurance companies will insert a few blank ones in the policy that they send to you.  It’s ok to make copies of this form when you run out.  You can also get one in pdf form from the NC Industrial Commission website.

The Form 19 will ask for contact information for you and for your injured employee.  They will also need to know the details of the injury, how and when and where it occurred.  This information usually comes from the injured employee’s supervisor.   Next you will need to fill in the occupation of injured person and information about how many hours they work each week and what their wagers are per hour and per day.  This information will help settle the disability portion of the claim.

The rules require that you provide a copy of the completed Form 19 to the injured employee or the employee’s representative (read lawyer) at the same time that the Form 19 is submitted to the insurance company.  Last of all, you must give your injured employee a blank Form 18 which is a form they can use should they wish to contest the claim settlement.  You can obtain blank Form 18 copies the same way you got the form 19, by clicking here,  or you may call the NC Industrial Commission at 800-688-8349.

At Clinard Insurance Group, in Winston Salem, NC, we work hard to help all of our clients become informed insurance consumers.  Understanding how to file a workers compensation claim for your landscaping company is important as you will want to move fast in the event of an accident or injury and spending time trying to figure out how to file a claim will only slow you down.

Should you need help with  your landscapers insurance policies, from workers compensation to your general liability, commercial auto and equipment insurance, please consider us as we specialize in insuring landscapers of all types and sizes all across North Carolina and South Carolina.    We can put our extensive knowledge to work for you with one quick phone call.  Call us, toll free, at 877-687-7557 or visit us online at www.LowRatesForLandscapers.com.

The source information for this article was pulled from articles which can be found in their entirety at www.InsuranceAnswerGuy.com.