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robintek

Apr 07
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Understanding Insurance Company Ratings

By Workplace Safety

It’s no longer enough to choose an insurance company simply because they offer what appears to be the best coverage or lowest rates. You also have to know the financial security of the company especially in these challenging economic times when even the largest companies might be teetering on the edge of insolvency.

Additionally, you want to know something about the company’s track record when it comes to paying claims and overall customer satisfaction. Not all insurance companies are the same and you should take a hard look at your prospective insurer before handing over a big premium check.

How can you find this information? Well, it’s easier than you think because there are several major companies that rate insurance companies. Each offers a detailed rating service and most of these services are free. The rating system for each of these rating companies is based on a letter grade system such as “AAA”, through “NR.” However, you should note that there are both subtle and significant differences in the letter grade system. A “C” rating might mean an average score for one rating company but might also suggest the insurance company is experiencing significant financial challenges with a different insurance rating company. Make sure you fully understand the rating system for each of the companies before jumping to an erroneous conclusion.

Some rating companies only rate the top 200 insurers, while others offer more comprehensive data. Here is a brief summary of the major companies which rate insurance companies.

A.M. Best – www.ambest.com

This rating agency is the only one which specializes in banking and insurance companies, reinsurers and covers the total insurance market spectrum including international markets such as the U.K and Canada. Also offers a comprehensive article base and in depth commentary.

Fitch Inc. – www.fitchratings.com

Provides a global rating service on insurance products through combining both local and international expertise on contemporary insurance issues and trends. Also offers a monthly newsletter dealing with specific insurance issues called “Insurance Insights.”

Moody’s Investor Services – www.moodys.com

You have to register to log in with this company before you can access their info. Covers title insurers, life, mortgage and property and casualty. Mainly focused on the financial health and outlook of insurance companies and overall realm of the financial market.

Standard & Poor’s – www.standardpoors.com

Must be a subscriber. Offers international rating services on property and casualty, life, annuities, health, title, mortgage, bond and reinsurance. Rating services include link market solutions and both the derivative product and financial subsidiaries.

Apr 07
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What is the National Council of Compensation Insurance?

By Workplace Safety

The National Council of Compensation Insurance (NCCI) is a group of people who hold the details that will lead to how insurance carriers set their rates. They’re the ones who are collecting and analyzing the information, and of finding the most efficient and accurate ways to parse the numbers and risks. Find out more about what they do, so you’re not taken by surprise when change makes its way to your business.

Core Services 

NCCI is looking to get the word out when it comes to insurance, so they spread the information and provide tools for everyone to learn more about workers’ compensation. They’re constantly going over the trends in every industry to spot which sectors may need more education when it comes to providing safe facilities and duties. They assist in coming up with exact prices and rates that insurance companies and employers will use to prepare their insurance plans. NCCI provides data products to more than 900 different insurance companies across 40 different states.

Who Uses These Services

This group is meant to advise and analyze both the market, the laws, the money, and the compliance levels of different regulations and mandates. The people who use this service the most are insurance companies, but independent bureaus, and self-insured organizations also rely heavily on the numbers and opinions of the organization. Risk managers, legislators, and workers compensation agencies will also utilize different tools available. General employers will check their own experience ratings with NCCI for signs that they need to change their workplace safety measures (a higher score will mean higher insurance rates.)

Who They Are

NCCI has over 900 employees who are working across different systems to get the information ready to make decisions. They’re faced with a nearly endless string of data, so it’s not small feat. They rely on regulators, coalitions, and trade associations as well as insurers to help them ensure that they’re getting everything right. It will be someone from this group that a state or regulatory agency will listen to when it comes to raising or lowering costs, so their influence is widely felt in a variety of industries. While big data is still in its infancy in terms of exactly how to organize it all, they’re constantly working on better ways to get to the heart of the problem.

Workers compensation can feel like just a line item to business owners who already feel like they can’t control their budgets, but it’s much more than that. There’s a lot of decisions made behind the scenes that determine what you pay and when you pay it. Understanding the climate of NCCI  can make it less of a mystery.

Apr 07
Love0

Picking the Right Respirator

By Workplace Safety

Choosing the right respirator relevant to the nature of the employment is critical to a worker’s safety. Exposure to different hazards means that not just any respirator will suffice.

Two main classes of respirators are available:

Air-Purifying Respirators (APR)

These respirators are designed to filter air borne contaminants such as fumes or noxious dust. Other forms of APR models use a canister or cartridge containing a material that absorbs the contaminants.

APRs are tight fitting to the face and have different designs. These designs include particulate respirators, powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR), gas masks and chemical cartridge respirators. They come in four different designs, including:

Full face piece – Fully covers the face from underneath the chin to an area above the eyes. This feature provides added protection to the eyes, especially from chemical irritants.

Half-face mask – Gives protection from beneath the chin to and including the nostrils.

Quarter-mask – Protects the mouth and nose.

Mouth bit respirator – Normally used for escaping a hazardous situation only. Contains a bit which is inserted into the mouth and nose clip to seal the nostrils closed.

Supplied-air respirator (SAR)

These respirators provide breathable air via an air line or a compressed work tank. SARs come in two different types. The first has a loose fitting respiratory inlet, such as a helmet or a hood which envelopes both the neck and head, that is supplied purified air through airlines. This type may have face pieces which fit loosely.

The other form of SAR has either a half or full face piece and has very snug respiratory inlets.

Choosing the Most Suitable Respirator

Selecting the most suitable respirator must be performed by an expert, such as a safety professional. The expert will consider the appropriate apparatus only after they have identified and evaluated the potential respiratory hazard and considered the relative limitations of the respiratory apparatus for the situation.

Key Questions to Ask

Here are some factors an employer should consider when determining whether a respirator may be required:

Establish the existence of a hazard by considering warnings about the material, like its chemical components or the nature of the particulates that might be released through the work performed.

Determine whether there is limited oxygen present.

Is the hazard airborne such as a particulate, fume, or vapor?

Ask whether the respirator will be used for an emergency or in combating fires.

Evaluate whether the work is strenuous and will be performed in hazardous atmospheric circumstances.

Is there any agent present which might be possibly fatal, carcinogenic, skin absorbable or acts as an irritant?

Will the work be conducted in a confined space or will the worker be exposed to abnormal temperatures?

The key is that respirators should be used to suit the work. The proper choice of respirator is vital to the health and safety of workers in many types of employment.

Apr 07
Love0

Workers Compensation for Wineries

By Workplace Safety

Mad Men may have made alcohol in the workplace look normal, but most people tend to see a drink only at the end of the day. Each business comes with its own dangers, and winery owners need to take into account the specifics. For those who purchase workers’ compensation for their winery, there are a number of circumstances to consider. Find out more about how to balance safety with your budget.

Glamor and Hazards

Few things seem more glamorous than a winery, with sophisticated, well-dressed people sipping out of glasses and declaring what hints they taste, so it’s easy to ignore the dangers within. For those working in the tasting rooms, the floor has to be dry so they don’t slip, they need to use their spit buckets if they taste with the customers, and they need to cut people off when they’ve had enough. But the real hazards may be what surrounds them.

Wine Cellars and Barrels 

Barrels might be stored very high up, which in certain states (e.g., California) can be extremely dangerous. Earthquakes and forklift operator error may cause far more than liquids to be lost. So far, there is no regulation to change how high they’re stacked either. Winery owners may not fully account for the risk they’re taking when it comes to safety. When barrels collapse or fall, they pose deadly consequences. Until there’s a mandate to change their configurations, it may be worth rethinking barrel stacking for worker safety. A winery’s reputation is tied in with how well they treat their employees, so just one incident could mean a major debacle both in terms of direct costs (e.g., fines and raised insurance rates) and indirect costs (e.g., a loss of customer loyalty.)

Accidents Happen

No matter how safe your workplace is, it’s never going to be immune from having an accident occur. Without the right coverage, you may be opening yourself up to a lawsuit from the employee or family who claims an extreme amount for either real or imagined damages. With the right safeguards in place though, like liability insurance and complete workers’ compensation policies, you reduce your chances of being crushed by financial penalties. Choosing a carrier who will contain the fall-out is going to be as important as implementing safety laws in the workplace.

Your Costs

Costs are determined by your risk assessment and how much you pay your employees. You will get a classification based on how you operate, with each classification having its own base rate when it comes to workers’ compensation. Enforcing safety laws is one of the best ways to bring your rates down, as is hiring the right employees and taking the right precautions.

Mar 03
Love0

How Points, Tickets and Traffic School Affects Your Auto Policy

By Personal Perspective

So the police pulled you over and you got a speeding ticket? Don’t despair. Along with the chunk of change you’re required to send the state or city, you might be eligible to take a traffic class that will keep the points off your record — and your Auto premiums from rising.

In 41 states, the DMV transfers these points to your driving record. Insurance companies generally check this record when you take out or renew an Auto policy, change coverage, or drop or add cars and/or drivers.

Garner a few points and your premium will increase at renewal, especially if you have more than one violation in three years. For instance, according to Insurance.com, a speeding ticket will raise your premium by 11% to13%.

To keep your record clean and avoid a surcharge if you’re cited for a minor violation, you might be able to complete an in-person or online traffic course. Laws, deadlines, and limitations vary by state. Most states also allow drivers who have accumulated points to have them removed by taking a safe driving class.

If you have a clean driving record and go to traffic school, most insurance companies will offer a 5% to 15% discount on Liability and Collision coverage when you renew your policy.

As a rule, taking a driver safety class will either remove points from your record for minor violations or give you a discount, but not both. There might be some variations, depending on state laws and insurance company. For example, only drivers over age 25 might be eligible for the discount, or all drivers of the insured vehicle must take the course to qualify.

For more information, just give us a call.

Mar 03
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Paperless Paper Trails: Establishing a chain of evidence in cybersecurity cases

By Cyber Security Awareness

In old procedural shows like Dragnet, early episodes of Law & Order, Hill Street Blues, Magnum P.I., they always talk about the paper trail. This is the chain of signed documents and verified contracts and letters and memo that, on TV at least, usually lead us right from the first clue all the way to the guy who committed the crime. Paper trails can also be used to frame an innocent third party or prove one’s innocence, showing that someone was “nowhere near the scene of the crime” at the time of the arson.

In cyber-crime, the chain of evidence, the paperless paper trail, is actually much easier to track than the kind that’s actually printed and written on sheets of paper. Here are a few things not everyone knows about how evidence is tracked from computer to computer:

  • Documents and programs can be traced back to their computer of origin

Every time you send off a .doc file, your computer leaves an impression on it as sure as the signature imprint left on a bullet by a registered firearm. If you post a photo to the internet of yourself at a crime scene, law enforcement can download the picture and trace it back to your computer. A GOP lawmaker actually got busted for libelous emails some years back when the emails were traced back to his wife’s computer.

  • Word documents save every single revision

If you type a word and then backspace over it, the Word file will remember you doing that. This has actually been brought up in some pretty high profile cases. For instance, the Invasion of Iraq.

  • Deleted files leave clues behind

Even if you manage to delete every trace of evidence regarding your cyber-crime, the computer may still show a log of what was deleted, when, and by whom. Combined with a little bit of conventional detective work, this can make it quite easy to figure out what was going on.

You can get rid of a paper trail by shredding it and burning the scraps. Paperless paper trails are a little trickier. If you’ve sent any compromising documents out into the web from your computer, then it’s too late. The evidence is already out there, and zapping your computer with a magnet and smashing it to bits isn’t going to do you any good. With the right cyber-sleuth on the case, a single photo from a hacker’s phone can be as good as a signed confession.

Mar 03
Love0

Slow Internet Issues Could Be Serious

By Cyber Security Awareness

You pay premium prices for business class Internet, and it winds up leaking through the Ethernet like honey off of a spoon. In 2016, you need high speed Internet in order to run a successful business, so getting it back up to speed when it starts to slow down is a top priority. Here’s a quick troubleshooting guide to help you determine whether you can apply a quick fix, or if you might need to make a phone call:

Boosting Your Wifi Signal

The issue might not be your Internet connection, but your Wifi signal. It doesn’t matter how fast your web connection is when you’re too far away from your Wifi router or it’s putting out a weak signal. Plug directly into your Internet with a wired connection. If it runs fine, you may simply need to buy a more powerful router, switch to wired connections, or rearrange your office space so that your router can reach everyone who needs it.

Someone’s Doing Some Heavy Downloading

Let your employees know that business-class internet doesn’t mean “Go ahead and do all your bit torrenting at the office from now on.” Downloading twenty eight movies at once while uploading fifteen others is going to slow you down.

Do a Security Check

Your network may be infected with a worm. More so than most viruses and malware, worms can really drag your connection down to a crawl. A network scan will be able to help you root out the intruder if this is the case.

See if Someone is Stealing Your Wifi

Places of business are an easy target for Wifi thieves. You can check your router device list to see if someone is connecting without permission. If so, you can change the password, and/or switch your security settings to WPA2-AES.

Call Your Provider

Call your provider and ask there are any issues in your area. It may simply be a temporary issue that they are already hard at work rectifying. And if that doesn’t work…

Start Shopping Around for a New Provider

Your provider might just not be up to the task of providing you with top-notch business grade Internet. If there are competing ISP’s in your area, don’t hesitate to get some quotes and compare download speeds. Brand loyalty is all well and good, but you don’t owe it to an ISP that isn’t providing.

Mar 03
Love0

Can Robotics Be Hacked?

By Cyber Security Awareness

If you can plug it into a wall, you can hack it. The question is not so much whether or not industrial robotics and so on can be hacked, but under what circumstances, and whether or not it’s a serious threat.

Something worth acknowledging up front is that hacking is a crime of opportunity. It’s rare that a victim of hacking or cyber-crime is specifically targeted. Certain high-profile organizations and people are, of course, at a greater risk, but not so much because they are being targeted by single, brilliant cyber-crooks. Rather, a high-profile individual or company is at risk because a lot more people are attempting to hack them. It can take one person a hundred years to guess your password, but it might take a thousand people only a weekend.

Hackers are looking for vulnerabilities anywhere they can find them. They’re not picky. If they can’t hack into a bank account, then they’ll use some bots and algorithms to try credit card numbers. If you work with robotics in your business, you’re not a target because of your robotics, you’re a target because a hacker thinks your security is weak.

If your robot is hacked, then what’s the worst that can happen?

In sci-fi movies, we see hacked robots rob banks on behalf of their new masters or, at the very least, they put cars together all wrong. The reality is far less exciting.

It’s possible for a hacker to bring production to a halt by cracking into a robotics system, but a robotic arm built to attach car doors is not going to be reprogrammed to pickpocket factory workers. Rather, the robot provides a means of cracking into whatever network it’s attached to. It could be a webcam or a tablet or USB drive. All the hacker cares about is that it’s an opening to load viruses, spyware, etc. Anything that’s connected to your network can be used to attack anything else that’s connected to your network.

Again, hacking is a crime of opportunity. This means that if you have decent security measures in place, then you’re going to be a low-priority target for a hacker. Hackers are not usually spending all week, or even a full hour, trying to crack into any given system. They’ll try for a few minutes, and then move on. Just having security measures in place at all makes hackers reluctant to bother with you.

Mar 03
Love0

Don’t Void Your Warranty…

By Cyber Security Awareness

It can be tricky to know what will and what won’t void the warranty on your phone, your PC, your tablet or your laptop. You probably have a manual laying around somewhere that can lay this out in more detail, but feel free to rely on this as a quick FAQ on some of the more common questions on what will and won’t void a warranty on an electronic device:

DIY Repairs

Some do-it-yourself repairs will void your warranty, some won’t. As a general rule, repairing cosmetic damage almost never voids your warranty. If you have to replace the screen on your phone, for instance, then your warranty will remain valid as long as you let them know that you’ve replaced your own screen. Replacing the entire shell casing, on the other hand, might be a bit of an issue, but luckily, your warranty probably means that you can go have your casing replaced for free.

Rooting Your Phone

If you take a ROOTed phone in for repairs, they’re going to tell you to hit the bricks. Here’s the good news: you can just unROOT your phone. There’s an app called Universal Unroot that can do the job for you quick and easy.

This applies to a lot of mods and hacks for your phone or tablet: they’re reversible. You may be able to bring your phone in for repairs by simply restoring it to factory conditions and collecting on your warranty.

Customizing a Desktop or Laptop Computer

Even though they’re built as all-in-one units, if you have a Mac, you’re probably going to wind up adding more RAM to it. It varies from brand to brand, model to model, but most sellers and manufacturers will honor the warranty even if you’ve added some bells and whistles to its hardware within certain limitations.

Cosmetic Modding

A general rule of thumb for cosmetic modding of a phone or a PC is: If you need more than a screwdriver to crack the casing open, then you’re probably voiding your warranty. They sell stickers and decals specifically for cosmetic modding of your devices, and you can go ahead and put your PC in a custom case, but once you’re peeling open the parts that weren’t meant to be exposed, you’re doing potential damage that will definitely void your warranty.

We’ve provided some general guidelines here, but some companies are more or less strict than others. When in doubt, shoot them a quick email and see what’s covered.

Mar 03
Love0

Motorcycle Insurance Basics

By Personal Perspective

You’re one with the road when you ride your motorcycle. However, you need to ensure your ride and your assets are protected if you ever cause or are in an accident. Know the basics of motorcycle insurance as you purchase this valuable protection.

Types of Motorcycles Covered

Standard motorcycles are covered by a motorcycle insurance policy. However, you can also use your policy to insure your specialty bike, including:

  • Scooter
  • Moped
  • Cruiser
  • Touring and sport-touring bike
  • Vintage bike
  • Motocross bike
  • Street or sports bike
  • Limited-production and custom bike
  • Off-road/dual-purpose bike
  • ATV

Types of Motorcycle Insurance Coverage

Unlike auto insurance, motorcycle insurance is not mandatory in every state. However, replacing your bike or paying for someone’s medical expenses after an accident can wipe out your financial assets.

A standard motorcycle insurance policy protects your assets and includes several essential coverage types.

  • Bodily injury – Pay medical bills for anyone who’s injured after an accident you cause.
  • Property damage liability – Cover expenses caused when your motorcycle crashes into someone’s personal property.
  • Uninsured/underinsured motorist – Pay for property damages, injury bills, lost wages and other expenses after a collision with a driver who does not have insurance or adequate insurance coverage.

Additionally, you may purchase several optional coverages, such as:

  • Personal Injury Protection (PIP) – This no-fault insurance covers the medical expenses of your passenger or pedestrians after an at-fault accident.
  • Medical payments – Pay for your medical treatment after an at-fault or no-fault accident.
  • Comprehensive – Replace your lost or stolen motorcycle or repair a damaged bike after vandalism, a natural disaster or other non-accidental incident.
  • Collision – Repair your damaged bike and replace damaged riding apparel and helmets after a collision.
  • Optional equipment – Replace customizations you make to your bike.
  • Accessory – Receive up to $30,000 based on the actual cash value (original value minus depreciation) of your bike’s customized parts and equipment.
  • Towing and labor – Receive a payout if you’re stranded, need a tow or break down. It also covers labor costs associated with a flat tire, dead battery, low fuel or fluids or lost key.
  • Trip interruption – Cover mechanical breakdowns and receive cash for lodging, food and transportation if you file a claim while you’re on a long distance ride.

Motorcycle Insurance Costs

Your motorcycle insurance policy cost depends on your policy’s deductible and the type and amount of coverage you purchase. Factor in your riding habits and personal preferences, too. You may want increased coverage if your bike is expensive, you ride highly-populated areas or you’re an inexperienced motorcyclist.

Motorcycle insurance gives you peace of mind and protects your asset

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