Commercial Business Insurance

Commercial Property insurance is designed to indemnify you in the event that your operation suffers direct physical loss to your property that has been damaged or destroyed from a covered peril, such as fire, storm damage, accidents, malicious actions, theft and other risks. Coverage is also available to reimburse for loss of use of the damaged property, loss of business activity, and/or extra expenses needed to expedite repair or replacement.

At Roanoke, we’ll tailor your Commercial Property insurance policy to meet the specific requirements of your transportation operation. Our staff will review your risks and current policy to assess if your property insurance can be combined with other coverages under a package policy. We’ll also determine if you have additional risks that go beyond the scope of a standard Commercial Property policy and require enhancements and broader coverage.

Our Roanoke professionals will evaluate your operation to assist you in determining the coverage amounts you need on your building and business personal property (inventory, furniture, equipment, etc.), the deductibles and coinsurance values that address your risk tolerance, and how the insurance is applied. We’ll look at the coverage amounts needed for valuable papers and records, adequate debris removal, increased cost of construction, contents, improvements and betterments, and equipment.

The General Liability insurance policy is a form of commercial insurance that provides the protection all General Liability insurance also provides coverage for liability arising from personal injury and advertising injury.

The policy covers accidents occurring on the premises or away from the premises. In addition to the limits of liability, the policy will defend you against claims, even if groundless, false, or fraudulent, as well as provide supplemental payments for attorney fees, court costs and other expenses associated with a claim or the defense of a liability suit.

In addition to bodily injury and property damage your GL policy also provides coverage for:

Personal and Advertising Injury Liability – Responds to allegations of Personal Injury arising out of the advertising of your products and services. Covered offenses might include libel, slander, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement and misappropriation of advertising ideas.

Medical Payments – Responds to medical claims for bodily injury which occur in the normal course of business, where the insurance company may choose to pay medical payments to avoid a lawsuit. This coverage does not extend to employee injury claims as this risk is covered under Worker’s Compensation.

Products and Completed Operations –Responds to lawsuits for bodily injury or property damage that is derived from your products and operations. For logistic service providers this coverage may respond to losses occurring due to injuries incurred while performing packing, crating, assembly, and pick and pack services.

Damage to Rented Premises – Responds to property damage to leased premises for which your company is held negligent and is legally liable to pay. Review your lease to determine your legal liability for your premises and to ensure you have both the coverages and insurance limits you need.

Even with this breadth of coverage, a General Liability policy goes only so far, and in an increasingly litigious environment where multi-million judgments are commonplace, it’s wise to protect a business’ financial assets with Excess Liability insurance, also known as Commercial Umbrella coverage. This policy is designed to kick in once the underlying limits of a General Liability policy and other primary policies have been exhausted.

At Roanoke, we have a portfolio of advanced specialty insurance products that can be added as endorsements to your General Liability policy or secured as separate policies to protect you against the varied management liability exposures you face.

Roanoke covers vehicles you own, lease or operate with Business Auto insurance. Whether you have one vehicle or an entire fleet, you need this coverage. Moreover, if your employees drive their own cars for company business and an accident occurs, you may be held responsible. You could also face significant exposures if one of your employees hires or leases a vehicle for company business. There are several components to a Business Auto insurance policy, including:

Liability Coverage

This provides protection against liability arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of any insured automobile. The insuring agreement agrees to pay damages for bodily injury or property damage for which you are legally responsible because of an automobile accident involving a covered auto. In addition to the payment of damages for which the insured is legally liable, the insurer also agrees to defend the insured for all legal defense costs. Defense costs apply in addition to policy limits.

Medical Payments Coverage

The insurer will pay all reasonable and necessary medical and funeral expenses incurred by an insured because of bodily injury caused by an accident. The insured is the named insured, the insured’s employees and guests, and any other person occupying a covered auto. This coverage offers a nominal limit of insurance to pay injury claims (without regard to fault).

Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage

Uninsured Motorist pays for bodily injury to an insured and/or their passengers that are injured by an uninsured motorist, a hit-and-run driver, or a driver whose insurer becomes insolvent. These benefits are paid under the named insured’s policy.

Similar to Uninsured Motorist coverage, Underinsured Motorist applies when the other driver has auto liability insurance at the time of an accident, but the limits carried may be insufficient to pay for damages for which the driver is responsible. The two coverages are mutually exclusive and do not overlap or duplicate each other.

Comprehensive Coverage

Provides protection against loss or damage to a covered auto resulting from loss other than a collision or upset. This coverage also provides for supplemental payments for transportation expenses in the event of total theft of a covered auto or a non-owned auto.

Collision Coverage

This coverage provides protection against loss or damage to a covered auto or a non-owned auto resulting from the impact with another vehicle or object. Collision losses are paid regardless of fault.

Rental Reimbursement

The Business Auto policy provides a coverage option if an auto is insured for Comprehensive coverage that pays for the rental of a temporary replacement vehicle only if the auto is a private passenger type auto and is stolen or otherwise not drivable because of an accident. Daily and maximum limits apply to this coverage.

Towing and Labor

When this coverage is added, the insurer pays for towing and labor costs each time a covered auto or non-owned auto is disabled, up to a stated amount.

Personal Injury Protection

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) is an endorsement that adds no-fault benefits. No-Fault means that in the event of an automobile accident each party collects from his or her own insurer, regardless of fault. The PIP endorsement is only required in certain states with No-Fault Laws. The endorsement applies only to bodily injury and not to property damage. (The state of Michigan is the exception to property damage.) No-Fault Laws vary widely from state to state.

Contingent Auto Liability

Protects you in the event a motor carrier that you’ve hired has Auto Liability insurance insufficient to cover an auto accident involving bodily injury or property damage. This may occur because of inadequate limits of insurance, the policy has been voided, cancelled or suspended, or the insurer of the policy is insolvent. Legal precedent has been set holding the domestic forwarder/property broker and shippers liable in such cases.

Credit Risk insurance is a critical risk-mitigation component in protecting against bad debt or slow pay losses. It is designed to protect the money due for goods and services already supplied to a customer. In the event that a customer can’t pay, as a result of insolvency, political risk, exchange rate fluctuations and a host of other factors, the credit insurer will pay. The insurer will then pursue the customer for payment.

Credit Risk insurance serves as a safety net, protecting your business from defaulting customers and bad debt, which would otherwise arise when a customer is unable to pay. This helps clients like you increase revenue, enhance borrowing capacity and generate new sales by improving cash flow and minimizing bad debt losses. What’s more, with Credit Risk insurance secured, financial institutions will be more positive about funding requests, with insured companies often being able to negotiate better finance terms.

Fraud, dishonesty and theft by employees are major problems confronting businesses of all sizes. Crime insurance from Roanoke can provide the coverage needed for a variety of exposures including:

Employee Dishonesty

Employee dishonesty is considered to be a criminal act committed by an employee acting alone or in collusion with others. There must be intent by the employee to cause the employer a loss and to obtain a financial benefit for the employee or someone else.

Coverage is provided for dishonest acts of employees of the named insured whether acting alone or with others. It insures against loss of money, securities, and property. Coverage may be extended to cover your ERISA obligation for employee benefit plans.

Forgery or Alteration

Forgery is generating a document or signature that is not genuine. Alteration is changing a document in a manner that is neither authorized nor intended. This coverage form insures against loss caused by the forgery or alteration of a covered item drawn against the insured’s accounts. A covered item might be a check, draft, promissory note, bill of exchange or similar instrument. Coverage may extend to defend you for refusing to pay a forged item.

Theft, Disappearance and Destruction

Theft means any act of stealing. Disappearance lacks the elements of knowing if the crime was a theft, burglary or robbery. Destruction is the damage to premises caused by a theft or attempted theft.

Section 1 of the form covers money and securities against loss by theft, disappearance, or destruction inside the premises. Section 2 covers money and securities outside the premises in the care and custody of a messenger.

Computer Fraud

Computer fraud is a specialized kind of theft where a computer is used to transfer property from inside the covered premises to a person outside those premises. This form covers money and securities and property other than money and securities.

Extortion

Extortion is the surrender of property away from the premises as a result of a threat of bodily harm to someone who is, or allegedly is, being held captive. This form covers money and securities and property other than money and securities.

Cyber insurance is an emerging risk and affects all business sizes across all industries, including transportation and logistics service providers. Losses can result from a computer virus at an employee workstation, theft or loss of a laptop that contains customer and vendor information, theft of confidential information from a vendor’s server, theft of physical documents in a warehouse containing personal data, among other things. If a data leak results in the theft of valuable intellectual property, identity theft or reputational harm, a business can expect a stiff third-party claim for expenses and losses.

Freight forwarders are at heightened risk for targeting by cyber criminals because all of their business activities are conducted electronically. Additionally, a cyber breach often also generates regulatory investigation as well as an internal need for a forensic analysis of your data and systems. These can be very costly, too. Adding to the financial hardship, you most likely will have to notify all affected parties, seek legal defense, and manage the crisis internally and in the public forum.

Roanoke can provide with you Cyber insurance, designed to help with all these costs. Additionally, some policies can be customized to offer crisis management services in addition to coverage for business interruption and other losses you face from a cyber attack that are not covered by standard business property policies.

If you have additional questions about Cyber Insurance, here are a few resources that may help:

• What is Cyber Insurance?
• How Do I Apply for Cyber Insurance?
• Cyber Insurance Claims Process

Businesses and organizations today are facing an increase in Directors & Officers Liability (D&O) claims, with the biggest jump in claims brought about by regulatory actions and whistleblower bounties. When “wrongful acts” are alleged to have been committed by executives in their capacity as directors and officers of an organization, courts may award against the executives themselves, the organization as a whole, or both parties. To properly insure a business, Directors and Officers Liability insurance is available to protect the personal assets of an insured company’s executives from losses arising out of claims for “wrongful acts”. The policy also provides for reimbursement to the company with respect to loss for which the company has indemnified its directors and officers for their incurred liability.

Directors and officers of companies and organizations may be sued for many alleged wrongdoings. The following list contains just some examples of wrongful acts that may give rise to litigation:

• Improper disbursement or expenditure of corporate assets
• Negligence in the performance of duties while acting in their capacity as directors and officers
• Alleged breach of contractual obligations
• Misstatement of financial reports, or improper or misleading advertising due to negligence
• Misrepresentation of capabilities in contract negotiations
• Breach of fiduciary duty by failing to regularly attend board of directors meetings, failure to perform supervisory functions or to maintain adequate internal control
• Actions which exceed the authority granted by the charter and by-laws
• Certain types of discrimination, failure to follow prudent hiring practices, or breach of employment contract
• Failure to stop an action which results in damage to the company or organization, or failure to defend the company or organization against invalid claims
• Improper disclosure of significant information prior to disclosure
• Disputes involving proxies or the election of directors
• Anti-competitive trade practices

A General Liability policy does not provide Directors and Officers Liability insurance coverage, and a company’s Errors and Omissions insurance will not respond to these types of claims. When reviewing your insurance program, it is essentially that you consider your exposures in this area. It is always recommended that you consult a licensed insurance broker with a specialty in your industry to determine how best to protect you, your company and executives. The professionals at Roanoke will review your specific needs with you.

Companies and businesses over the last several years have seen a spike in employment practices claims. This is partially due to the proactive stance the EEOC has taken on behalf of employees that allege discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination and other employment violations. There has also been a significant increase in wage-and-hour lawsuits over the last few years.

Furthermore, even when a business takes measures to make sure they are in compliance, things can go wrong with employees feeling they have been discriminated against, paid unfairly, harassed or simply made uncomfortable at work. These circumstances often lead to employee claims against the company with monetary damages sought.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) from Roanoke can provide the indemnification your company needs to properly protect itself against these types of claims. This insurance is designed to cover legal fees, settlements and damage awards that result from employee allegations claims of misconduct against your company’s employees and managers. Some insurers will even cover the costs of investigations and legal fees associated with regulatory actions. Keep in mind that General Liability insurance and Directors and Officers insurance don’t cover claims of employment practices wrongdoing.

Umbrella Liability insurance provides excess liability coverage over several of an insured’s primary liability policies. In addition, some Umbrella Liability policies provide coverage that is broader than the insured’s primary policies.

An Excess Liability insurance may be written on what’s known as a following form basis, which means it is subject to the same terms as the underlying policies; it may be a self-contained policy, which means it is subject to its own terms only; or it may be a combination of these two types of excess policies.

Our experienced professionals at Roanoke will review your assets, exposures, and the amount of risk your business can tolerate in order to secure a competitively priced Umbrella insurance policy from the top-rated insurers we represent.

If your transportation or logistics company sponsors an employee benefit plan, you have exposures that fall under the general rubric of “fiduciary liability.”

Fiduciary Liability insurance can be issued to either the employer that sponsors the benefits plan or to the plan itself. It is appropriate for retirement plans, health plans, life insurance and disability plans, and employee benefits plans of all kinds. Protection is available for ERISA and non-ERISA benefit plans, including multi-employer plans, also known as Taft-Hartley plans, such as those provided by unions.

Fiduciary Liability insurance protects the insured against allegations that the fiduciary—the money or benefits handler—has breached their duty. The accusation can focus on an error or negligence in administering a plan, including but not necessarily limited to misinterpretation of plan documents, providing imprudent investment options to plan participants, misrepresenting investments, mishandling enrollment or other paperwork, and giving bad advice or faulty instructions to participants.

Policies can cover expenses associated with civil lawsuits, written demands for damages that haven’t proceeded to court, administrative or regulatory actions, and investigations by the government or an official agency. Coverage options include legal defense fees, awards to or settlements with claimants, and voluntary correction programs even when there isn’t a claim. The specific coverage you receive depends on the insurance agreement you choose. Our staff at Roanoke will go over all of this with you.

We also offer ERISA bonds, which are required by law for all applicable plans, as well as Employment Benefits Liability insurance, which can enhance a General Liability insurance policy to cover errors in the administration of a plan.

Inland Marine insurance is designed to cover a variety of property risks that may be mobile in nature or have special valuation requirements. At Roanoke, we specialize in securing the key Inland Marine policies for the transportation and logistics providers. This includes everything from Motor Truck Cargo to cover goods of others while in transit including loading and unloading while the insured is acting as a common or contract carrier; Warehouse Legal Liability, which provides third-party coverage that responds when a warehouse operator’s failure to exercise reasonable care in the handling and storage of a customer’s goods results in loss of, or damage to, those goods; and Contingent Cargo, which protects you in the event the carrier’s insurance fails to respond to a claim.

Other examples of Inland Marine policies that we write include equipment floaters to protect against loss or damage to electronic data processing equipment and media owned, leased or used by the insured; and Valuable Papers & Records, to pay the cost to reconstruct damaged or destroyed valuable papers and records

Workers’ Compensation is statutory insurance required for employees of businesses. This coverage obligates the insurer to pay all medical expenses, loss of wages, and other benefits required of the insured by the Workers’ Compensation law or occupational disease law of any state listed in the policy.

Workers’ Compensation represents a major expenditure for firms across all industry sectors, including for transportation and logistics providers, with a number of factors contributing to the cost of insurance: rising medical costs; fraud; a company’s loss history and how these losses compare to other comparable businesses within its sector; frequency and severity of claims; among other issues. At Roanoke, we not only provide our clients with Workers’ Compensation insurance, but we also work with them to help reduce exposures, increase safety in the workplace, and contain costs – all factors in driving down premiums. We can provide assistance in setting up an accident investigation program, safety programs, and more to help reduce on-the-job accidents and injuries and get employees back to work as soon as possible with return to work programs.

Our staff may also recommend a review of your experience modification worksheet and payroll audits, to see where there may have been problems or miscalculations.