Truck Application Insurance: Fill & Download for Free

Largely because the non-wage costs to hire have gone up.This is no great secret, and I’m always amazed at the number of people who don’t get it, but businesses don’t care how much you make. They care how much you cost.Look, I like the people who work for me, and I’m lucky to own a company small enough I still know the name of and have talked in person to everyone who has worked for me. I want these people to be happy and make good money. But, when I’m deciding whether or not to hire a new employee or give an existing employee a raise, I care about how much they’re going to cost, not how much they’re going to make.And the non-wage costs have gone up fast over the last 40 years. The most obvious example is health insurance. My health insurance expenses have more than doubled over the last decade. (I’d have to actually run the numbers, but I’d be willing to bet they’ve doubled in the last 5 years.) That’s not due to Obamacare alone…though it hasn’t helped. I’m sure there’s plenty of answers on Quora arguing about why health care costs have shot up over the last couple decades. For the purpose of this answer, I don’t care why they have gone up; I just know that they have.But it’s not healthcare alone. Payroll taxes tripled in the 80s, and half of that comes out before employees ever see it on their check. Unemployment insurance has about doubled. Not surprisingly, it’s done that since they raised the benefit period from 13 weeks to as many as 73 weeks about a decade ago. (It’s since gone back to 26 weeks, but that’s still twice as long as it was.)And there are tons of mandates that make employment cost more, but employees never see it in their checks. OSHA has a ton of training requirements: a Hazardous Communication Standard, Forklift training, etc. I employ Class A and B drivers, so there’s drug testing and DOT physicals to provide. I once counted it up, and there’s between 2 and 5 days a year in training that I’m required to give my employees…time they’re not performing their primary job functions. The Family and Medical Leave Act requires me to give people time off for certain reasons. True, this is unpaid time, but I still have to replace that employee short-term and guarantee them a position when they return. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires me to spend money on reasonable accommodation for disabilities ranging all over the place.I’m not going to make an argument here that any of that is wrong. I don’t want my forklift operators running around without training. I don’t want my truck drivers coming in under the influence of controlled substances. We actually offer paid time off, not just unpaid, for a lot of the FMLA events. But, all of those things cost more, and most of them weren’t around 20 years ago. None of them were requirements 40 years ago, and they’ve all raised the cost of employing someone. If I were a larger company, I’m sure I could give you actuarial reports on how much FMLA and reasonable accommodations under the ADA cost per hour of work. Even as a small company, I can tell you this: it’s more than they cost in 1980.And then, once we get past the regulatory costs, we get the litigation costs. Even as a small company, I’ve got a human resources staff whose job is, as far as I can tell, all about lawsuit defense. A couple of months ago, they recommended that we remove the question, “Are you legally able to work in the United States?” from our job application. Because it could open us up to equal employment lawsuits. Despite the fact that we are also legally required to check the employment eligibility of any new hire. The cost to revise our application isn’t huge, but it is a cost. And there’s a ton of those type of costs.A couple weeks ago, we had to seek legal advice because we found some methamphetamine and a pipe in one of our bathrooms. We had camera footage showing who had been in the bathroom just before it was found, and the guy had a history of drug use. But we had to get legal counsel before we could deal with it. And I’m sure that counsel is going to run into mid four figures.All of these things add up. 4% of wages for payroll taxes. 2% on workers compensation rates. 1% for unemployment insurance. Call it a 2% on training, accommodation, and qualification mandates, and another 1% on defensive policies and legal services meant to head off lawsuits. The increase in health insurance premiums averages 10–15% of salary in my company over the last few years. That’s 25% of wages.Without all those hidden employment costs, wages could be 25% higher today and no business would see a difference on their income statement.

A jobless man applied for the position of ‘office boy’ at a very big company.The employer interviewed him, then a test: clean the floor.“You are hired.” – the employer said. ”Give me your email address, and I’ll send you the application to fill, as well as when you will start.”The man replied, “I don’t have a computer, neither an email.”“I’m sorry,” said the employer, “if you don’t have an email that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.”The man left with no hope. He didn’t know what to do, with only $10 USD in his pocket.He then decided to go to the supermarket, bought a 10kg tomato crate, then sold the tomatoes door to door. In less than two hours, he succeeded and doubled his capital.He repeated the operation 3 times and returned home with $60 USD. The man realized that he could survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and returned late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday. Shortly later, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.Five years later, the man’s company was one of the biggest food retailers. He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance.He called an insurance broker and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email. The man replied: “I don’t have an email.”The broker replied curiously, “You don’t have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Do you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?”The man paused for a while, and replied: “An office boy!”

NYC is actually VERY film-friendly, even if you're an indie filmmaker with nothing but pocket lint. First, stating the obvious. If you're not using more than a tripod and otherwise hand-held equipment, you can film wherever you want in NYC as long as you let people through when they want to go through. If you get up early enough, you can actually get some decent footage in the can before people start walking through. You often want to be up very early anyway, because every filmmaker loves the "magic hour". No one except the rather unintrusive homeless are going to be around at 5-6am on a weekend. You can even get a scene with an empty Brooklyn Bridge if you're lucky.But let's say you want to bring in your own extras, and you want to do some serious recording on a busy street. To use major equipment, such as dollies, or you claim "exclusive use" of an NYC street, normally, you need a $1 million dollar liability insurance policy (in my experience, a minimum of around $500) and then a $300 city permit application fee. If you're poor, you can apply for not only the permit fee to be waived, but also the insurance requirement.You have to tell them exactly what you need for your production, and what you're going to do. One permit application can cover a laundry list of needs for an entire production. If you forget anything, you have to apply for a second permit though. After that, you're generally at the mercy of the film department for "what they're going to do for you". But think about it. I'm sure they treat Scorsese a little better than they would me, but officially, once I plunk down my application fee, I have just as much right to ask for that busy street to be closed off for my filming as anyone else.I did that actually. I wanted a street in Long Island City, Queens, for my film. I didn't want any cars parked along it. I also wanted to film in a nearby park. Totally approved, and they throw in a traffic cop for free if you need him. We had a cop eating donuts in his car for half a day, and didn't actually use him. As for the "no cars"... well, as per requirements, we put up "no parking" signs the day before, so people would know not to park there.I figured there would be a few stragglers, so I actually hired a "towing unit" to standby. The towing unit is expensive. Another $400 or so minimum I'm afraid. But man, we made good use of it. Absolutely no one paid attention to our signs. Probably should have had larger signs with brighter colors. The tow truck operator was shaking his head, saying it'd take him way too long to get rid of these cars. However, we put him to work anyway, and eventually he towed at least 20 cars! Don't worry, he actually finds them another legal spot. They don't get impounded. However, a lot of owners were no doubt shitting themselves, wondering where their cars went.In the end, we got our footage, in a film, Sky Paradise, that was screened as part of the New Filmmakers NY Festival at The Anthology Film Archives, this red building here, at 2nd and 2nd in Manhattan, and later at The Philip K. Dick Film Festival in the Producers Club Theater!UPDATE: Read details of how the festival went here! My big screeningAnd... here is the final film, Sky Paradise, in all its glory. The street scene in question starts at 3:26. No cars!