Industry News
Hierarchy of Controls Applied to Landscape Maintenance Fleet Safety
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
The National Safety Council introduced the Hierarchy of Controls in the 1950s as a safety framework. The framework is organized as an inverse pyramid of risk mitigation practices that can help organizations reduce workplace hazards.
Building a Scalable Safety Program with SafetyOne™ for Landscape Professionals
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
Rancho Mesa provides our clients the key components for building the infrastructure of a modern-day safety program through the SafetyOne™ Platform. By fundamentally layering your safety program through SafetyOne, you will build a system that can keep up with your growth, measure your goals, and keep your organization engaged.
Discussing The Hidden Levers Behind Lower Insurance Premiums with Drew Garcia and Bill Arman
During a recent interview at NALP’s ELEVATE Conference, RMI Landscape Vice President Drew Garcia joined Bill Arman from The Harvest Group to discuss how landscape companies can take greater control of their insurance outcomes. The conversation dives into practical ways businesses can reduce risk, tighten operations, and make everyday decisions that lead to stronger coverage and more favorable premiums. Fewer incidents in the field, better processes, and a proactive mindset can make a measurable difference.
Connecting Leaders in the Green Industry: Highlights from the 2026 NALP Leaders Forum
Author, Greg Garcia, Account Executive, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
This year’s National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) Leaders Forum took place in beautiful Santa Barbara, CA, just up the coast from San Diego. As always, this is one event that my brother Drew Garcia and I really enjoy going to every year. In fact, this marks Rancho Mesa’s 8th consecutive year sponsoring this event.
Using Technology to Reduce Risk in the Landscape Industry with Bryan Mours
Rancho Mesa's Vice President of the Landscape and Tree Care Group, Drew Garcia, interviews Bryan Mours, founder of Mours Enterprises, where they explore the technology being used to reduce risk within the landscape industry.
The Impact of Claim Frequency and Severity on a Landscape Company’s Experience MODs
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
The experience modification rate (ExMod or MOD) is a measure produced by insurance rating bureaus to summarize a company’s claim history versus their industry peers. A rating generated below 1.00 is considered a credit to the workers’ compensation policy while a number above 1.00 is a debit. The ExMod has a direct impact on the cost of workers’ compensation insurance.
Training Your Landscape Fleet Drivers with Rancho Mesa
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
Landscape businesses are well aware of the risks associated with their employees operating vehicles on a daily basis. The commercial insurance market has also taken notice of the risks and responded with rate increases and a diminishing appetite to write the policies.
Have you Experienced Turbulence in Your Commercial Auto Insurance Renewal?
Landscape maintenance contractors with large fleets of service trucks are tough to place in the current insurance market. This, along with a hardening general liability market has lead to some frustrating insurance renewals.
Rancho Mesa Insurance’s Green Industry Practice Group has helped over a 100 landscape and tree care customers currently operating across the country with navigating this turbulent market. Connect with them for a more detailed review of your company’s insurance placement needs.
Four Areas of Focus for Landscape Contractors During A Hard Insurance Market
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
The property and casualty insurance market continues to impact landscape contractors resulting in increased costs, changes to carrier appetites, and overall concerns for insurability. There are four areas of focus your business can review to help manage the things that are somewhat unpredictable during this difficult insurance market
Understanding Premise Liability for Landscape Maintenance Companies
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
Vice President at Rancho Mesa, Drew Garcia sits down with John Fischl, Regional Executive with Sentry Insurance, to discuss premise liability risks for landscape maintenance companies, focusing on preventing slip and fall accidents and strategies for mitigating these risks.
Creating a Standard Operating Procedure for Work-Related Incidents
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
In order to improve a process, there needs to be a baseline. When it comes to tracking, reporting, and following through on a work-related incident, injury or illness, creating a standard operating procedure (SOP) sets the foundation. Flow charts can help all stakeholders better visualize the process and show potential next steps based on yes/no questions. This type of operating procedure also shows the duties and obligations for the individual employee, supervisor, human resources personnel and safety manager that is involved.
Risk Management and Contract Strategies to Protect Your Landscape Business
In this second episode of a special two-part series, Landscape Group Vice President Drew Garcia, is joined by Josh Ferguson, attorney with Freeman Mathis & Gary, to discuss contract strategies and risk mitigation for slip and fall incidents.
Navigating Snow and Ice Contracts: Best Practices for Landscape Contractors
In this first episode of a special two-part series, Landscape Group Vice President Drew Garcia, is joined by Josh Ferguson, attorney with Freeman Mathis & Gary, to discuss risk management for snow and ice operations and what landscape contractors should know.
Most Commonly Reclassified Lawn Care and Landscape Workers Compensation Governing Codes
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
The year 2025 will mark my 10th year working with landscape, lawn care and tree care professionals across the country. This long-term approach allows our team the time to learn and grow with the industry. Being able to understand landscape operations and accurately relay this information to the insurance carriers is a critical component to the overall insurance program we put together for our clients.
Navigating Subcontract Agreements with Charles Stec, J.D.
In the first of a special two-part series, Construction Group Vice President Daniel Frazee and Landscape Group Vice President Drew Garcia, interview Charles Stec, J.D., accomplished attorney at Lanak and Hanna, to discuss how construction companies can best navigate subcontract agreements.
Using Rancho Mesa’s KPI Dashboard to Improve Your Workers’ Compensation Program
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President, Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
Landscape business leaders can now provide their management team with resources to better support their workers’ compensation program. Rancho Mesa offers its landscape, lawn care and tree care customers an industry specific Workers’ Compensation Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that can be used to help benchmark a company’s experience modification rate (i.e., Ex-Mod, Experience Mod), and the underlying performance trends that can help stakeholders stay informed.
Focus on Frequency with a Small Work Comp Deductible
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President of the Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
Economies of scale create leverage for landscape businesses as they grow. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 2022 table of incident rates notes that the landscape industry has an incident rate of 3.4 per 100 full time employees. Landscape is classified by BLS under Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services; this sub class has an incident rate of 1.9. The average for all other industries is 3.0.
Optimizing Landscapers’ Commercial Auto Insurance
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President of the Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
Lawn and landscape professionals across the country have seen the direct impact of a very difficult and challenging commercial auto market. In particular, green industry businesses who specialize in service and maintenance, which require a larger fleet, have felt more of the direct market pressure.
Developing A Strong Subcontract Agreement with Tree Care Partners
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President of the Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
Having strong service partners that support your customers outside of your core operations is an important part of business. Many commercial landscape businesses have regional relationships with professional tree care companies to support the needs of their customers.
Take Your Safety Program to the Next Level through Leading Indicators
Author, Drew Garcia, Vice President of the Landscape Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
When it comes to measuring safety, most green industry (i.e., lawn, landscape, and tree care) businesses rely on OSHA rates, the experience modification, and, if you’re a Rancho Mesa customer, your Safety KPI Dashboard. This data is important; however, it only captures lagging information. Take your safety program to the next level by measuring predictive, preventive, and proactive - leading indicators.