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Worker's Comp for Delivery

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grottolee

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Where do you guys get your workers comp from( if you have delivery in your restaurant) My current insurer has given me a quote but I was wondering if anyone knew of a company that specializes in pizza/delco. Thanks
 
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On key issue for work comp with delivery is the ability to show what hours were worked delivering vs other work. Driving has a higher work comp rate than kitchen work. If you have an employee that does both they will assume ALL the wages are delivery unless you can show that they are not.

We accomplish this by having employees clock in by job. That way it is clear what hours were driving and what were kitchen.

With that said, getting work comp covereage is not hard to do and at least in our state, there is no difference from carier to carrier on rates.
 
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bodegahwy:
On key issue for work comp with delivery is the ability to show what hours were worked delivering vs other work. Driving has a higher work comp rate than kitchen work. If you have an employee that does both they will assume ALL the wages are delivery unless you can show that they are not.

We accomplish this by having employees clock in by job. That way it is clear what hours were driving and what were kitchen.

With that said, getting work comp covereage is not hard to do and at least in our state, there is no difference from carier to carrier on rates.
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Do you have your drivers clock in and clock out/clock in when they take a delivery and when they return to the store?

One thing I like about our POS system is the ability to show the number of hours the drivers were actually on the road vs. not on the road. We use that to submit our workers comp info. Saves a ton of money.
 
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No, they clock in for a shift as a driver or as a cook. If they are in the kitchen and we send them on a run to catch up, they clock out and back in as a driver. When they are through taking runs, they clock out and back in as a cook.

Our POS will not let you check out a run unless you are clocked in as a driver. We also pay a very different hourly rate for drivers than we do for cooks.
 
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bodegahwy:
Our POS will not let you check out a run unless you are clocked in as a driver. We also pay a very different hourly rate for drivers than we do for cooks.
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It can be set up to allow instore personnel to check out runs. You may not want to set it up as such, but I just wanted to mention this in case you were not aware that it could be set up that way.
 
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I like it the way it is. That way it accurately reflects what we are doing and I can see if the manager is scheduling appropriately.

Also, since the work comp rate for driving is close to double the rate for kitchen, but the wage is close to half, it comes out as a wash on cost per hour as long as we keep careful track of it. Employee can not check out runs unless on the clock as a driver, and employees will not want to clock in at driver wages to do kitchen work. Fair to all, easy to keep track of.

I can’t think of why I would want people taking delivery runs when not clocked in as a driver.
 
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bodegahwy:
I like it the way it is. That way it accurately reflects what we are doing and I can see if the manager is scheduling appropriately.

Also, since the work comp rate for driving is close to double the rate for kitchen, but the wage is close to half, it comes out as a wash on cost per hour as long as we keep careful track of it. Employee can not check out runs unless on the clock as a driver, and employees will not want to clock in at driver wages to do kitchen work. Fair to all, easy to keep track of.

I can’t think of why I would want people taking delivery runs when not clocked in as a driver.
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What I was saying was that on my POS, the clocking in/out happens dynamically. You really don’t care what a person is “clocked in as” - as long as you are able to know if they were delivering or not.

For example, I know that Steve worked 35 hours last week. 20 of those hours he was dispatched on deliveries. 10 of those hours he was not. Steve did not have to clock in and out over and over again. All he did was dispatch his deliveries to himself and return himself.

Most POS’ I’ve seen will not allow a driver to clock out unless they have cashed out. You cash out your drivers every time they come back from a run?
 
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So what you are saying is that you only have to pay the worker’s comp rate for a driver when he/she is acually out on the road. And you can have them rated at a kitchen rate when they are waiting for deliveries? My POS does show the amount of hours they are actually dispatched on the road a week.
 
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We were told by ours that it can be per shift. If they are a driver the entire shift hours are delivery…if they are cooking that day we can put them under the regular restaurant rate. Also some of you may not know but ours allows 10% of an officers salary to be counted under a lower rate ours is “clerical”
 
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So if I have them clocked in at minimum wage and they are cooking and driving during a shift, I can claim them as a kitchen employee?
 
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Not for us…if an employee is working a shift it is the highest classification for their duties. So if they deliver and cook it is delivery. If they cook and deliver it is delivery 😃 But if they cook and no deliveries it would be cook.

Kris
 
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Kris:
Not for us…if an employee is working a shift it is the highest classification for their duties. So if they deliver and cook it is delivery. If they cook and deliver it is delivery 😃 But if they cook and no deliveries it would be cook.

Kris
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So, for your company, I guess it comes down to the definition of “shift”?

Say someone is scheduled to cook from 12-4 and drive from 4-8, do you have to claim them as driver the whole time, or since it’s a separate “shift” you can claim 4 hours cook, 4 hours drive?

And thus, how would it be any different if the employee just happens to work 17 shifts that day - 12:00-12:23 driving, 12:23-12:41 cooking, 12:41-13:10 driving, etc., etc. ?
 
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I would look to the policy wording for clarification of the terms used…Your idea of a shift and an insurers idea of a shift may be different and when push comes to shove they can afford lawyers to win when a “grey” claim comes up…
 
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Our POS does not require the driver to check out in order to clock out. We would not do this back and forth all day. An employee might come in at 2PM to help with prep and switch to driving when the rush starts or we might take someone from the kitchen and put them on the road for an hour to take a few runs to catch up if we get behind on deliveries.

We have checked all this out with our insurance broker. As long as there is a separate shift with duties documented we are fine. There is no problem with having more than one shift in a day. What would NOT work is the idea of calculating the time on the road and calling that delivery and the rest kitchen but still paying driver wages. There needs to be a clear cut change of shift with records to back it up. Our insurer agreed that having an employee clock in at driver wages with runs checked out in the one case and at kitchen wages with no runs checked out meets the test. For that reason we would NEVER have someone on kitchen wages take runs as it would call in to question ALL the other kitchen shifts/wages for at least that employee.

We went through an extended review of this issue with our insurer. Kris is right, if there are different duties the same shift the rate to be paid is the higher rate. If you can not document which shifts are which, all the shifts for that employee will considered to be at the higher rate. For many shops this means that managers who occasionally take a couple of runs will be considered drivers in a work comp audit.

Our work comp does not differentiate between manager duties and kitchen duties.

In most states, including ours, “officers”, assuming they own 10% or more of the business, are exempt from workman’s comp if the ownership so chooses.
 
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bodegahwy:
We have checked all this out with our insurance broker. As long as there is a separate shift with duties documented we are fine. There is no problem with having more than one shift in a day. What would NOT work is the idea of calculating the time on the road and calling that delivery and the rest kitchen but still paying driver wages. There needs to be a clear cut change of shift with records to back it up. Our insurer agreed that having an employee clock in at driver wages with runs checked out in the one case and at kitchen wages with no runs checked out meets the test. For that reason we would NEVER have someone on kitchen wages take runs as it would call in to question ALL the other kitchen shifts/wages for at least that employee.
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I think we are saying the same thing - but maybe not. You bring wages into this, and I’m assuming you are only able to pay a single wage per “clock-in”.

This is the way it works for us - the employee clocks in - “as what” doesn’t really matter since there are (for workmans comp purposes only 2 classes - driver or not driver). The employee is setup in the system with 2 wages - one wage for when on the road, one wage for when not on the road. (Let’s not get sidetracked on the split wage thing - as it doesn’t really matter here - assume each wage is the same)

If the employee takes a delivery, the employee dispatches the delivery to himself and leaves the store. He is now being paid “on the road” wages. When he returns, he “returns” himself, and is now being paid “not on the road” wages.

This gives me an exact number of hours my drivers are actually driving. My insurance company eats this up - it’s exactly what they want. Workmans comp audits are a breeze because I have exact numbers. End of the year I say “I had 12,345 driver hours and 9,987 inside hours” - and can provide anything from a 1 page summary to a 2 foot think detail of that.

I’m not paying much higher “driver premiums” on a slow monday lunch day driver that is taking 1 delivery an hour. Why should I? His risk is much lower than the driver taking 5 deliveries an hour at dinner.

I guess what I don’t understand is why (from what you are saying) your insurance company is more concerned with what “shift” (whatever that means) someone is labeled as instead of what they are actually doing at any given point in time during that shift.
 
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bodegahwy:
On key issue for work comp with delivery is the ability to show what hours were worked delivering vs other work. Driving has a higher work comp rate than kitchen work. If you have an employee that does both they will assume ALL the wages are delivery unless you can show that they are not.

We accomplish this by having employees clock in by job. That way it is clear what hours were driving and what were kitchen.
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Not trying to beat a dead horse or argue - just trying to understand.

You make my point perfectly in your first post. The key issue is the ability to show what hours were worked delivering vs. other work - exactly!

So, if you can show, to the minute, what hours were worked delivering vs. other work, why is your insurer forcing you into this “shift” thing?
 
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Agree with Bodge…

Make sure you keep good records…you should understand the plan and know what took place up to 5 years from now.

Anything your insurance tells you should be documented somewhere. Our work comp audits at the end / begining of every year. As some of you may or may not know you are paying basically a deposit and at the end of the year they may or may not look at the caculations but in the end they can tack on any changes they want to make. Diligence avoids surprises. Knowledge of YOUR policy is key.

I am not sure if it is just missouri which does this but thats what we do.

I used to dread the end of year meeting…but actually look forward to it now, usually the same guy and he thoroughly explains to me some things. Wish I could say the same for all the insurance coverage I have. Sometimes all the policies are all gibberish.

Bodge…as of July 1, 2009 our insurance (MEM) requires all owners/officers to report min. 26,400 salary with 10% allocated for clerical or outside sales. Probably cuz we are in a different state. edit 😃 Thanks for the idea though it was worth double checking!
 
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RG agree with you too…if you can and have the ability to document minutes go for it. It makes perfect sense. In our case If I had the capability and the desire to have more bookkeeping I think this would be a winable argument with insurance…but for us the per shift definately works for us.

I will say work comp does not look at all the clock ins and clock outs…they just use our tax returns and my quick book reports. We still use good ol time cards! :cry:

I would imagine you are able to save a couple hundred bucks a year…with this economy that is a nice chunk of change. 😃
 
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I am not talking about the standard end of year work comp audit. Yes, it is called the same thing… but a full blown audit where they come back and question your standard audit report is a very different thing. As Kris stated, they can come back and make what changes they feel are warranted.

The officer/owner thing is not about duties it is about ownership status. In our state, a 10% owner of the business can be entirely EXEMPT from work comp. No premium at all. Also, no benefits.

We pay “tipped” wages to drivers which are below minimum wage ($6.00) and kitchen wages which are a good bit higher ($11-$13). With the other duties for drivers thing, I think the potential headaches of minimum wages far outweigh the potential savings on work comp. If you pay your drivers “tipped” wages and then document that they are not engaged in “tipped” work, I suspect you may be opening the door to some issues you might rather avoid.

If your insurance agent says that splitting a shift by duties performed is fine in your state, more power to you. If I were in your shoes, I would ask for that in writing. Not sure how your POS would accomplish that in any case. Ours will report the length of a run, but only by time stamping the next one they take out: no way to tell if they were on the road 30 minutes or came back after 20 and spent 10 minutes folding boxes. So you pay driver wages when they are driving and then cook wages for side work between runs? Very generous. Certainly FAR more expensive than the difference in work comp!
 
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