Commercial loss control surveys
Commercial loss control is a visit to a business so underwriters can see the building, occupancy, protection, and operations. The matching LCA course is Commercial Risk Control.
Commercial loss control is the work behind many USA tags such as Loss Control - Commercial and Commercial Loss Control. The specialty line gets more specific: package, property, general liability, workers compensation, or niche markets.
The underwriter is not on site. They buy a report so they can see the building and the operation before they price or keep the account. You are the person who walks it.
Who buys this work
Carriers and managing general agents send commercial accounts to inspection firms. Those firms hire contractors and, less often on the public USA feed, employees. EXL Risk Control, Preferred Reports, Inspection Depot, and other firms post commercial inspector roles on Underwriter Services Association . The Apply button on this site goes back to that original posting.
The listing tells you the territory, the products, and whether you must already be trained. Many commercial contractor cards accept candidates who finish a short online course. EXL Risk Control says that on its public USA listings, including the Manhattan commercial inspector posting .
Pay is usually per completed report for contractors. Employee commercial roles may be salary or hourly. This site does not publish fee tables. A package survey, a property-only order, and a workers compensation visit are different products and take different amounts of time.
What you look at
You go to the business. You photograph the building and the operation. You note construction, occupancy, protection, and exposures the form lists. Restaurants, retailers, apartments, churches, job sites, and light manufacturing show up often on public EXL Risk Control listings.
A package survey usually covers property and general liability. A property-only order stays on the building and protection. A workers compensation order stays on how people get hurt. Inland marine, when it appears, covers equipment, cargo, or goods that move.
Construction means how the building is put together: frame, joisted masonry, masonry noncombustible, and the other classes the form uses. Occupancy means what the people inside actually do. A restaurant is not a warehouse even if both sit in the same block. Protection means sprinklers, alarms, extinguishers, hydrants, and the fire department the form asks you to record. Exposures means what sits next door, what the operation does to people and property, and the conditions the carrier named.
You measure when the form asks. Area, distances, and hydrant layout are common. You talk to the owner or manager about updates, hours, contractors, and housekeeping. You write what you saw, not what would make the account look cleaner.
What a visit looks like
The order names the insured, the address, the product, and the due date. You set the appointment. You ask who can walk the building and the operation with you.
Start outside. Photograph the elevations the scope wants. Look at the roof if you can see it. Note adjoining buildings, yard storage, vehicles, and anything that sits too close to the structure. Find the hydrants or other water supplies the form named.
Then go in. Walk the occupancy the order covers. A package survey on a restaurant will spend time in the kitchen, the hood, the dining room, and the utilities. The same product on a small manufacturer will spend time on the process, the storage, and the way people move through the floor. Follow the form. Do not invent a checklist that the firm did not issue.
Ask about construction and updates you cannot date from the street. Ask how the place runs on a busy day, not only on the quiet morning you arrived. If contractors or tenants share the building, write that down. If a space is locked, say so and follow the firm’s rules for a return visit.
A workers compensation specialty on a commercial account is a different walk. The building still matters. The question is how employees get hurt. See Workers compensation surveys .
What gets reported
The report is a commercial underwriting file, not a walkthrough essay. Photos have to match the notes. Construction, occupancy, protection, and the operations the order named have to be filled in. Hazards the form asks you to flag have to be flagged.
You submit in the firm’s app or template before the due date. The underwriter uses that file to price, decline, or condition the account. They do not need your opinion of whether the business “seems fine.”
Late or thin commercial reports cost the firm a client. They also cost you the next order in that territory.
Pay and schedule
Contractor commercial work is field time plus a long write-up. One site can fill an afternoon and the evening behind a keyboard. Residential stops are often shorter. Do not price your week as if every order were a driveway photo.
You usually set the appointments and drive a local radius from home. EXL’s public commercial listings describe that setup. You still owe the due date. A dead territory with long drives will pay worse than a dense one, even if the per-survey fee looks the same on paper.
Employee commercial roles can mean a set territory and a travel calendar. Read the listing.
How to get ready
Take Commercial Risk Control at Loss Control Academy. The course page title is Commercial Property and Casualty. If the listing is workers compensation, use the Workers’ Comp course instead. If the listing is inland marine, use the Inland Marine course . Mixed residential and commercial contractor cards also point at Personal Lines .
A certificate does not guarantee orders. It gives the hiring firm something to review next to your application. After you can finish a survey, join the inspector talent pool .
See current commercial openings on the jobs hub . See What a field inspector does on a survey for the visit loop that sits under every product.