“Cyber liability is a major concern and there are two major factors – a data breach and the cyber risk associated with an outside hack with some of the vehicles,” said Ken Deason, of Federated Insurance, as he gave an overview of different insurance auto glass companies need in an industry webinar. “Our cyber insurance coverage covers if your information is held for random and more.
The webinar, Assessing Your Shop Insurance Needs, was hosted by the Automotive Service Association (ASA) and took a closer look at different scenarios auto service companies including auto glass business owners, could find themselves in and how insurance has changed since the pandemic’s onset. Deason said his goal was to provide an overview of what shop owners often overlook, may not think about, or forget to ask as far as meeting their insurance needs.
“The property and liability side, including some specialized coverages that are specific to your industry, are things we are good at,” explained Deason.
An example of this can be seen with the rise in cyber safety. According to Deason, many businesses have probably dealt with cyber and data compromising in some fashion within the last five plus years. To combat the issue Federated updated several of its available policies when instances started arising years ago.
“Another [insurance-related] topic that has moved to the forefront in many areas is employment-related practices liability, you really have to look no further than the COVID pandemic and all that came with it involving employee safety,” said Deason. “What should you or shouldn’t you be doing as a business owner to mitigate the spread? – masks, hand sanitizers, closing down your shop, reopening, all of those types of things. And that is really something that has taken a life of its own and it’s something that we could have never forecasted a few years ago that this would happen.”
He noted that new coverage options including employee tools, pollutant cleanup and faulty work were added as a result of several meetings with auto glass business owners across the country. In relation to insurance changes, as a result of COVID, some believe certain practices will remain – attendees asked. Changes like virtual training allow more rural areas and smaller shops to participate at an “affordable price.”
“A lot of changes center on employee awareness and knowing what’s going on with employees and their habits,” said Deason. “For example, some people can work from home and what does that create from a workman comp standpoint? If you work from home and get hurt how does all of that work or some people can’t work from home? This is why we make sure that the employer has a plan to deal with situations as they arise. We’re trying to give information out as best we can when it becomes available. And from what I can tell, we’re all learning as we go.”
