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Concrete Pumpers: California ARB to offer assistence in emissions compliance

DIAI

2011-06-20 22:13

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has received some federal funding that will be used to provide loans to assist small businesses in complying with the ARB emissions regulations for Off-Road and Portable Diesel Equipment. Eligibility:

Your company has diesel vehicles or portable diesel equipment used in construction, agriculture, mining, or industrial operations.
Your company is a small business, meaning it has 500 or fewer employees.
Your company has its primary economic effect in California (which means most of your employees live in California, and most of your business operations are in California).

For more information, see ARB PLACE Program for Off-Road Vehicles and Portable Diesel Equipment

California ARB to offer assistence in emissions compliance

Your company has diesel vehicles or portable diesel equipment used in construction, agriculture, mining, or industrial operations.
Your company is a small business, meaning it has 500 or fewer employees.
Your company has its primary economic effect in California (which means most of your employees live in California, and most of your business operations are in California).

For more information, see: ARB PLACE Program for Off-Road Vehicles and Portable Diesel Equipment http://www.arb.ca.gov/ba/loan/off-road/off-road.htm

This Week is Flood Awareness Week 2011

nfip_video_taylors It’s important to be prepared for flooding no matter where you live, but particularly if you are in a low-lying area, near water or downstream from a dam. Even a very small stream or dry creek bed can overflow and create flooding. There are three steps that every individual can take now, to better prepare themselves and their families:

get a kit
make a plan
be informed about your flood risk

http://www.ready.gov/floodawareness

Why do I Need Uninsured Motorist Coverage?

The Importance of Uninsured Motorist Coverage

Frequently we see customers who select minimum limits on their Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage. However, this could very well be a case of being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Uninsured Motorist is inexpensive but important coverage for you and your passengers.

Coverage for YOU

First of all, UM is coverage for you & your passengers. It was recently estimated that one out of every five drivers in California is uninsured. The next time you are on the road, look at the drivers around you. The odds are one of the four cars you see is uninsured.

Secondly, UM (in California) is coverage for both uninsured and underinsured (UIM) motorists. A motorist with minimum limits only has $15,000 available per person for the medical bills for you or your passengers and $30,000 for the entire accident, no matter how many people are involved.

UM is a very inexpensive coverage to buy. As an example, one personal auto policy I looked at that had $100,000 per person / $300,000 per accident limits for UM portion & was only $32!

Many people think that UM isn’t important because their collision and medical insurance will cover these expenses. However, even in the best of circumstances the medical insurance deductibles will not be covered. In addition, some medical insurance policies could exclude injuries caused by another. And, what about your passengers? Your medical insurance certainly wouldn’t cover them.

As a guideline, you may want to consider setting the limits for UM to be the same as your regular automobile liability limits. So, for example, if you have 100,000/300,000 liability limits, you would also want to have 100,000/300,000 limits.

I Don’t Need Earthquake Insurance

I hear this a lot, so I thought I’d spend this rainy morning to write about why this might not be true and how it can actually be a pretty good deal.

Not a matter of if, but when

I hope that, if nothing else, we’re all on the same page here. The reality is that an earthquake will occur. What we don’t know is when and how strong. The San Andreas fault has been locked for some time. The last major earthquake occurred in 1857 when the Carrizo Plain section moved as much as 27 feet! Historical data points to earthquakes occurring on the San Andreas fault an average of every 150 years. Since it has been 157 years since the last “big one”, seismologists refer to the San Andreas fault as being “at least 10 months pregnant.” The United States Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey say there is a 99.7% chance of a 6.7 magnitude earthquake or larger striking California in the next 30 years.

Don’t look to the government to rebuild your home

Some people have the opinion that, since other areas have been declared disaster areas in the past that they will just rely on those funds from the government. Unless you can rebuild your home for around $30,000 you will come up short because that is all that FEMA will grant if the President declares a disaster and you have to qualify for the grant.

The deductible shouldn’t be an excuse

Other arguments I’ve heard is that the deductible is too high. True, the deductible is high, often around 15%. It is a valid point, however would you prefer to pay 15% or 100% if there was a total loss? If you assume that only 30% of your home was damaged you would still save half of the cost to repair or rebuild.

Let’s take my small home as an example. The earthquake coverage through CEA is $554/yr for $273,000 in coverage. The deductible is $40,950. By paying $554 I would save $41,000 even if my home was only damaged 30%. I would have to pay that amount for 74 years to break even. If an earthquake occurs earlier than that then I’m money ahead. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

If the “big one” hits, the insurance company won’t have enough money anyway

No, there are no guarantees in life. For all we know, an asteroid may one day hit the earth and kill us all off. One can, however, look at the likelyhood that something will or will not happen. Let’s take a look at the CEA, which holds about 2/3 of the earthquake policies in California.

From the CEA Claims-Paying Capacity page:

The CEA has about 800,000 policyholders located throughout the state. Earthquakes are generally regional events, and any given seismic event is unlikely to affect all CEA policyholders.
CEA assets are available only to pay claims to homeowners and renters who have protected their homes by purchasing a CEA earthquake policy. The CEA is not responsible for damage to commercial properties or to uninsured residential properties.
By law, the State of California is not liable for the CEA’s liabilities, and the CEA does not pay any state liabilities. Therefore, CEA assets are not used to repair infrastructure items such as bridges and freeways.
If an earthquake causes insured damage greater than the CEA’s claims-paying capacity, policyholders who are victims of that quake may be paid a prorated portion of their covered losses. Or, the CEA Governing Board may approve installment payments. The CEA is not permitted to file bankruptcy.
Ever since hurricane Katrina insurers in the so-call “catastrophic” insurance market have been required to do much more work in their risk modeling, which is a way to measure worst-case scenarios. They do this by taking into account where the fault lines are and where the insured homes are. By measuring the spread of policies throughout the many areas of California they can be reasonably sure that when there is an earthquake it will only affect a small portion of their policies. The current modeling for the CEA is set base on their having enough funds available to pay claims for a 1 in 500 year event.

Understand the risk, do the math, and make a decision

“You’re just trying to sell more insurance!” True, that’s my job. I’ve witnessed situations where customers have had “bad things” happen and had inadequate or no coverage. Look, nobody enjoys paying for insurance. Under the best circumstances (i.e. no claims), your policy is a worthless piece of paper. When “bad things” happen, though, that piece of paper can be golden.

Selling insurance isn’t really my goal here. My goal is for you to understand your risks and decide how you will deal with a loss should it happen. Although it is usually the least expensive way to deal with risk, insurance isn’t the answer for everyone. A contractor might decide that he’ll just pitch a tent and start rebuilding himself. That’s fine. What I want to try to avoid is folks that just ignore the risk. Those people are called “victims”.

For more information:

California Earthquake Authority: http://www.earthquakeauthority.com/
USGS San Andreas Fault Information: http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/earthq3/safaultgip.html
USGS Earthquake History: 1857 Fort Tejon Earthquake: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/parkfield/1857.php
Los Angeles Times: Past offers lessons on future Big One: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-quakearchive10jan10,0,138145.story

Have you had your jewelry appraised lately?

If you haven’t had your jewelry appraised in the past three years, you may be under-insured. Due to labor increases in India (where 90% of all diamonds are cut) diamond prices have spiked another 20% after rising 15% last year. This along with higher prices for precious metals could make a big difference especially if an appraisal hasn’t been done in a while.

Wrestler Hulk Hogan Sues Ex-Wife for Failure to Buy Umbrella Coverage

Umbrella coverage is an inexpensive way to add additional coverage. When you have much to lose, it is a necessity.

Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan is suing his ex-wife, saying as his former business manager she failed to purchase umbrella insurance, and, as a result, Hogan paid out-of-pocket to settle a lawsuit with a man who suffered severe brain injuries in an automobile accident involving Hogan’s son. Read More…

Why do I need Workers’ Compensation Insurance?

It’s the law

Workers Compensation law was established in most states between 1910 and 1920. It is designed as a trade-off. In exchange for preventing employees from being able to sue employers for on-the-job injuries or illness there is a requirement for employers to maintain workers’ compensation insurance. It is required even if you only have one employee.

Failure to have workers’ compensation coverage is considered a criminal offense. In California the basic punishment is either a fine of up to $10,000 or up to one year of jail time with other penalties on top of that.

What if I have no employees?

Unless you’re a roofer, you are usually not required to have workers’ compensation coverage. However, it is required for any employee you hire even if it is only temporary. We have seen customers hire casual labor who ended up being injured. For that reason, we recommend all businesses have a workers compensation policy even if they currently have no employees. A minimum-premium policy (also called a certificate policy) typically runs between $500 and 600 per year.

For more information

CA Div of Workers Compensation: Employers Frequently Asked Questions http://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/faqs.html

Risk of Online Banking in your Business

The Problem

money-macro-eye We’re all used to seeing the various advertisements from banks that tell us that we’re safe using their website for banking. Unfortunately, that only protects personal accounts. That’s right, under federal law, only personal accounts are protected from loss from computer fraud. There is no such protection for business. What about all of the sole proprietors that operate entirely out of their personal checking account? Well, from the reading I’ve done by using it both for personal and business purposes you will lose the protection you would have for just a personal account.

What to do

First of all, don’t co-mingle (combine) your business and personal accounts because you could lose the protection of your personal funds. Next, talk to your bank and learn how your bank protects your business account against computer fraud and what options you have. Third, buy computer fraud coverage. Some policies will include a nominal amount such as $5,000. Raising the limit to $50,000 might cost as little as $75.

Why do I need Flood Insurance?

2 inches of water can cost you $7800

Floods are the most common natural disaster in the U.S. The reality is that anywhere it rains, it can flood. Many conditions can result in a flood:

hurricanes, broken levees, outdated or clogged drainage systems and rapid accumulation of rainfall.

Frequently, homeowners who have in the past been required by their mortgage to keep flood insurance cancel their insurance once their flood zone is updated to a lower risk classification. It’s understandable; nobody likes being forced to do something they don’t want to. Ironically, the cost for flood insurance in these moderate-to-low risk areas is often a third of the cost when it was required. In addition, nearly 25% of flood insurance claims come from these moderate-to-low risk areas.

Even dry desert areas where one would least expect a flood are at risk. When arid regions are inundated with rain, the ground cannot absorb enough water and massive destruction can occur from the rapidly moving waters. Flash floods are the #1 weather-related killer in the U.S. They can roll boulders, tear out trees and destroy buildings and bridges.

For more information, see the National Flood Insurance Program Website http://www.floodsmart.gov or contact our office.