b'Contract Surety and Customer Risk Perhaps the largest threat to your Albeit out of context with the insurance overview provided herein, I have to appeal to you all about this subject. It is no less than alarming how many businesses are filing for bankruptcy protection or have gone bank- business today because of COVID-19 rupt during COVID-19. You just have to open the daily paper and there are another one or two bankruptcies or receiverships.is the financial stability of your As trade contractors, owners and general contractors impose on you to provide bid bonds, performance bonds, and labour and mate-rial payment bonds to guarantee project completion.customers. I appeal to you to be no Keeping in mind that many owners and general contractors may be experiencing financial difficulties of their own, how comfortableless than obsessively vigilant of your are you that your customer that just awarded that $500,000 job will remain in business long enough to make good on its payment in full to you for your work? customers financial condition before Underwrite your customers and suppliers. Perhaps the largest threat to your business today be-cause of COVID-19 is the financial stability of your customers. I appeal to you to be no less thanentering a contract.obsessively vigilant of your customers financial condition before entering a contract. Now is the time to expend a little more on credit verification. You may supply the project guarantee, but you face an increased payment risk if you do not underwrite your customers, no matter how well you know them. Also, you may want to take some time to examine your exposure to supply chain risk. This pan-demic exposed many threats to an organizations normal flow of goods and services from externalNOWsuppliers, which could entail a disruption from sole source suppliers (where only one source of supplyAVAILABLE ASPHALT WITH A A NEW ROOFINGIN BULK FROMLOWER EVT WHICH is available) or single source suppliers (where you rely on only one supplier when others are availableREDUCES FUMESBy BITUMAR AND ODOUR.to you). Contingency planning is fairly common in large business, and it can be extremely effective for all business sizes.11155 St-Catherine Street EastMontreal-East, QCH1B 0A4Tel. : 514 645-4561Emerging Coverage and Best Practicesbitumar.comIt is wrong to use the word emerging as disease outbreak insurance coverage has actually beenZEROODOUR 40 %35 %available since at least SARS was over and done with. These coverage issues are on the forefront for When cold 30 %% of fumes in the air 75 % Reductionconsideration by businesses as we re-start our economy. Outbreak insurance can be purchased, and in Up to 177C 25 %75 % less fumes than 20 % contracting I think it may actually be a very good idea, perhaps joined by a couple of other coveragesregular roofing asphalt 15 %that may impact project completionwhere you generate your profit.For example, is a suite of protection BURPAK ZERO contains an10 %odour suppressant which 5 % Regular BURsuch as (but not limited to) outbreak, active assailant/shooter and weather insurance something viablecombined with a lower0 % ZEROtemperature of installation,93 121 149 176 204 232* 260 288** 316Cfor the roofing industry? Should you now look at credit/accounts receivable insurance on your cus- Temperatureminimizes asphalt odourtomers? Food for thought, and no doubt a discussion for the OIRCA Risk Management Committee.Zero complaint on odour * Theidealviscositytemperatureistypicallylowerby23Cfor When the tragic events of 9/11 happened, most of us were not prepared for a terrorist attack. Shortly BURPAKZEROwhencomparedwithregularroofingasphalt. Complaints are timeTherefore,thereisnoneedforthekettletemperatureconsuming and reducetoexceed232CwhenusingBURPAKZERO.thereafter, many businesses set up business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Of course, the im- productivity on job sites **MaximumtemperatureofakettleasperASTMD312.pact of 9/11 was more shocking to us than any direct effect. Now we have experienced a disaster of our own, and many of us had to immediately adapt to the emergency measures imposed on us by govern-ment at all levels. Many of us were once again unprepared, and so let us all take what we have learned from this outbreak and implement ironclad business continuity and disaster recovery plans, so we are ready should either another COVID-19 wave or some other catastrophic event hit.Its likely your traditional insurance coverage will provide insufficient protection for you against events like what we are undergoing with COVID-19. At Fenn & Fenn Insurance Practice Inc., our com-mitment to maintaining available competitive general liability insurance to the ICI roofing industry remains our priority. Most recently, we are delighted to announce that we have developed a solution to the increasing problem of property insurance availability to roofing contractors as our marketplace continues to become more difficult. As you have allowed us the privilege to look into your world for the past 18 years or so, our role has expanded well beyond the provision of liability insurance to advise and deliver other risk and insurance solutions and, on occasion, advice on the uninsurable. I invite you to write to me or connect to me directly by phone, on LinkedIn or on Facebook and discuss any issues that are of concern to you today that perhaps I have not raised above or maybe about which I have provided insufficient detail in this article. My thanks to our Business Development, Risk Advisory & Corporate Strategy specialist, Mike Travis MBA, CRM, for his valuable contributions to this article.Thank you for your time. Contact Simon Fenn at 416-605-7341 or 905-836-6066 Ext. 234, or by email at simon@fenninsurance.com.ORN THE ONLY SOURCE FOR PROFESSIONAL ICI ROOFING CONTRACTORS IN ONTARIO ONTARIO ROOFING NEWSISSUE 2 202019'