Archive for the ‘takeaway insurance’ Category

How to get a suitable takeaway insurance quote.

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

If you are looking for a takeaway insurance quote and choose to do this over the internet, you will be absolutely bombarded with choice. A simple search on the most popular search engine, Google, throws up over 30,000 results in the UK alone.

The big question is, who do you actually go to for a quote? If you have a couple of spare weeks, you could approach the first three pages worth of companies on the search engines. But hey, in reality this is not really going to happen. The usual scenario is that you get your existing renewal through, which has increased, and you say to yourself you must do something about this. Then, two days before renewal you realise you haven’t done anything and then it is a mad panic to get an alternative sorted out.

To decide who to go to, you need to think of a few things. Firstly, do you need to have a local business insurance broker dealing with your cover? If so, this would surprise us as in 2010 you can deal with a broker anywhere in the country and still get a similar service. If you do need a local one, then search for the correct insurance related phrase, but put in your town as well. This should throw up the main ones operating nearby.

Secondly, do you want absolute basic cover (not recommended) or the level of protection that a professional adviser thinks you should have. If you want the latter, then you need to speak to a specialist, maybe one that can offer separate, specific, takeaway, restaurant and fish and chip shop insurance quotes. If you speak to a company that tries to offer a basic commercial policy, you should spend a bit more time looking for a more specific one. The reason being that if an insurer has a bespoke policy, then they will know and understand the market better.

Lastly, check on the instalments. You may have a competitive quote, but if you add in an excessive monthly instalment chsarge of 8, 9 or 10%, the competitive quote may cost you more money.

In summary, you need to spend as much time as you can possibly afford getting a quote. Whilst you can get one at the last minute, you should try and set aside some time before renewal to sort this out.

Posted in business insurance, fish and chip shop insurance, takeaway insurance | Comments Off

Takeaway insurance – are delivery drivers covered?

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Takeaway insurance is one of those types of policies that can, depending on the provider, be really expensive or too cheap.

The reason for this is that you can be faced with a commercial insurance company that wants to be a player and needs to have a policy for every type of customer. But, what they really want is the good, profitable business and takeaways can, at times, be very unprofitable.

So, you have some companies that simply price themselves out of the market. On the other hand, you will have others that either a charge a makrket, ball park, rate or they just come in with an exceptionally cheap quote.

Although we are still feeling the pinch of the worst recession in living memory, you should not scrimp and saving on your insurance. What happens if, as most takeaways do, you have delivery drivers?

They will have their own car insurance, unless you provide a fleet of vehicles. But, what about the damage they may cause at someones home during the delivery? Yes, it is unlikely, but if it does get to the stage of a claim, then this is because there has been serious damage. A spilled curry on a carpet is going to set you back hundreds, if not thousands of pounds.

The cheapest policies may either not provide you with this cover or they may have such a high excess, it is not worth having anyway. This is when you need to make a decision, do you need to save £50 or a £100 when the cover may not be quite up to scratch?

The answer is of course no. Try and get your policy on interest free monthly instalments and spread the cost, this way it may not seem quite so bad.

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Takeaway insurance – frozen food cover restrictions

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Everyone accepts that a standard, run of the mill, business insurance quote will contain terms, warranties, excesses and exclusions. If you then proceed to take out the quote, then your policy cover is based on the particular policy from the insurer concerned.

No-one can, or will, expect a policy to pay out on every single claim or loss. The whole point of insurance is that it provides you with financial protection in the event of an unforeseen loss.

If you can reasonably foresee that a loss will occur, then technically it is not covered. If you think of commercial building insurance, if you do not maintain your property and the roof has cracked, holes and all sort of vegetation growing out of it, if there is a water leak into the property then insurers can, quote rightly, turn down the claim for lack of maintenance or care.

As far as takeaway insurance is concerned, this cover is based on a policy wording as well. One area of essential cover is for frozen food. Most takeaways wil have stock that is refrigerated or frozen. If there is a break down of this freezer than it can cause a loss of stock.

Most insurers we deal with offer a limit of £1,000 or £2,000 for this section, so it can be a big loss. But, please read through your terms. Nearly all insurers insist on the freezer being less than 5 years old. The reason being that it can be reasonably assumed that an older freezer may fail. If this is the case, and you have a good quality freezer over 5 years old, then your insurers may provide cover if you can prove that you have the freezer annually inspected and maintained.

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Fish and chip shop insurance

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Anyone want to take a guess on what day of the week we do not receive any enquiries for fish and chip shop insurance? Today being Friday is a big clue. It is the same with most types of takeaway insurance, as the week rolls on, the businesses become busier and busier and as Friday arrives, the last thing they want to do is to spend time on administrative duties.

So, what can we do for takeaways and chippies to make their job easier? We have many years of experience in doing the donkey work for you and if you are looking to compare business insurance, whatever you do, then you need to give us a call.

If you think across most aspects of business life, there are intermediaries or third parties who can help you access the services and products you want. Insurance is no different, You have the choice of going direct (= no choice and no independent advice) or going to a broker (= lots of choice and independent advice).

The good thing for the chip shop owner is, when they receive their annual renewal, all they need to do is give us a quick call, any day of the week is fine(!) and we will do the rest for you.

Our job is to look around for alternatives, we are legally obliged to get you a good deal. If you go direct, you only get one product from one insurer, what is the point of that? Go to a broker and at least you know you are getting a few options.

Posted in fish and chip shop insurance, takeaway insurance | No Comments »

Takeaway insurance – public liability for deliveries

Friday, March 5th, 2010

All businesses, whether large or small, will have some potential liabilities. Whilst the risk may be there, the likelihood, in percentage terms, is usually very, very low.

As and independent business insurance broker, our role is to discuss with customers what their potential risks are, and to arrange insurance cover wherever possible.

Some risks are uninsurable (ie shop lifting & damage caused by wear and tear or poor maintenance) whereas for most, if you are prepared to pay, risks are insurable.

The key is to ensure that your policy does take account of all of your business activities. When we are considering takeaway insurance, we need to think about the additional risks beyond those at the risk, or shop, address.

One of these is the public liability risk when undertaking deliveries. We are not talking about the motor insurance, but the risk of your delivery driver causing damage. You may not think there is a high risk but there have been a fair few claims for curry stains to carpets when a bag has split.

Some policies will only cover this risk if you get it specified on your policy, others will include it as standard. The two things to be aware of are first, that your policy notes that you do undertake deliveries and second, that your third party property damage excess is not too high. A reasonable excess is £100, some insurers increase these to £500 which in reality, makes the cover not worthwhile.

Speak to an independent insurance broker and get some good, free, professional advice.

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Chinese Takeaway Insurance – do I need a special policy?

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Different types of food establishments essentially present the same risks to insurers. Whilst there can be a vast difference in the type of food cooked, how it is cooked and how busy the business is,  most underwriters will tend to have a very simple, dual pricing, for takeaway insurance.

The dual pricing only refers to the fire risk presented by the business. If you have a fixed frying range, as we describe it, the Frank Ford type, then you will present a slightly increased fire risk (to an insurer) and consequently you will need to pay a higher premium.

It is always best to declare the fullest information possible, to prevent any problems in the event of a claim. So, Chinese takeaway insurance is really no different from Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian or Spanish – to an underwriter.

Specialist policies are not really available across the market. If there is one it tends to only have cosmetic differences aimed at trying to gain market share. The nuts and bolts of the policy really are the same. If, as you have in Scotland, it is a Chinese takeaway and fish & chip shop, then it needs to be declared as such.

The only real difference to the insurers may relate to cooking using a wok. They will put on a condition excluding losses attributable to fires from unattended woks whilst cooking. It is difficult to repudiate a claim on this condition, it is really there to remind the business owners that they must not leave a wok, over a naked flame cooker, unattended.

Posted in Chinese takeaway insurance, takeaway insurance | No Comments »