Question Feasibility of a recovery/salvage startup?

[Biz2000]

Hello all once again, this time I'm back with a more ambitious idea, to start something of a side-business doing salvage/recovery work/light commercial diving in Minnesota/Wisconsin. My concerns are about the proper paperwork in order to do something like this as a business venture. Would I need to hold an ADCI commercial cert and have some sort of contractor insurance in the event of a catastrophe? I wouldn't anticipate doing this full-time, just as side option or at the very least to pay for equipment. I was led to believe that public safety divers pull up vehicles all the time, and they don't hold commercial certs (to my knowledge). I would imagine the county they work for would cover the insurance side of things.

Any input is welcome as always, and I apologize if this isn't the right forum for this type of question.

 

[Wookie]

I do not have an ADCI cert. I purely hold recreational certifications.

When I formed a commercial diving company, I formed it as a sole proprietorship in the state of Florida specifically to do work for the Navy. I followed the navy requirements to be insured as well as generate a diving safety manual in accordance with OSHA 29 CFR 1910 Subpart T.

The major OSHA limitation for SCUBA is that you are still required to have a 3 man team, and you are required to have a chamber if diving deeper than 100 feet, and scuba divers must have a buddy or be line tended. If surface supplied you are required to have a dive supervisor and a tender.

The commercial diving insurance company checks neither certs nor your diving safety manual. The Navy wanted to review both the manual as well as the insurance policy.

Public safety divers are not commercial divers, and typically are employed or otherwise fall under the auspices of a jurisdiction like a county or agency. They often are certified as public safety divers by an agency like ERDI. While a public safety diver may hook a to truck cable to a submerged car, they are not under contract to do so like a commercial diving company would be, nor are they utilizing salvage equipment like lift bags or air lifts to recover sunken “treasures”.

 

[DrakeTheDiver]

Hello all once again, this time I'm back with a more ambitious idea, to start something of a side-business doing salvage/recovery work/light commercial diving in Minnesota/Wisconsin. My concerns are about the proper paperwork in order to do something like this as a business venture. Would I need to hold an ADCI commercial cert and have some sort of contractor insurance in the event of a catastrophe? I wouldn't anticipate doing this full-time, just as side option or at the very least to pay for equipment. I was led to believe that public safety divers pull up vehicles all the time, and they don't hold commercial certs (to my knowledge). I would imagine the county they work for would cover the insurance side of things.

Any input is welcome as always, and I apologize if this isn't the right forum for this type of question.

I sent you a DM but I’ll also respond here, my PSD team will not do salvage work. If we are requested to locate and search a car for a body or evidence, we will and depending on the situation we will either mark the car or may hook a tow strap and cable to it, but otherwise we will not assist a tow company just for the sake of removing a car, and we can’t be requested just to remove a car or boat. There are dedicated companies that do just salvage, and they are generally required for those roles. I have never managed the paperwork side of things only being and employee but the county covers our insurance and so did my previous employers.

 

[Eastern Watersports]

As a point of technicality, OSHA does not apply to a sole proprietorship with no employees. OSHA is mean to provide safe work environments for employees. This is not to say that the suggestions OSHA have are worthless. They certainly are meant to provide a safe environment, but again, as a point of technicality, you as a sole proprietor without employees would not be held to any OSHA standard.

 

[rjack321]

As a point of technicality, OSHA does not apply to a sole proprietorship with no employees. OSHA is mean to provide safe work environments for employees. This is not to say that the suggestions OSHA have are worthless. They certainly are meant to provide a safe environment, but again, as a point of technicality, you as a sole proprietor without employees would not be held to any OSHA standard.

This is not accurate for my state. Washington State Labor and Industries will not allow a sole proprietorship to sidestep health and safety regs as a commercial diver. We have our own rules as an authorized state and sole proprietors don't get to bypass them.

I won't comment on how this might get enforced... But you are not going to get hired by anyone to actually do a commercial recovery in this state without insurance and you aren't going to get insured without complying with applicable regulations.

Would I need to hold an ADCI commercial cert and have some sort of contractor insurance in the event of a catastrophe?

Yes. If you don't have insurance yourself the chances of anyone hiring you to recover their car, truck, snowmachine are nearly nil. Because in the event of your demise (or a leak of gas/diesel with subsequent environmental damages sought) the party hiring you would 100% be named in a suit by your heirs or environmental agencies seeking cost recovery. And nobody wants that.

I question the extent you could conduct enough recoveries part time to pay for insurance. Let us know how this pencils out please.

 

[Eastern Watersports]

This is not accurate for my state. Washington State Labor and Industries will not allow a sole proprietorship to sidestep health and safety regs as a commercial diver. We have our own rules as an authorized state and sole proprietors don't get to bypass them.

I won't comment on how this might get enforced... But you are not going to get hired by anyone to actually do a commercial recovery in this state without insurance and you aren't going to get insured without complying with applicable regulations.

As you can see our comment was in reference to OSHA. We can not comment on how each state's own Safety and Health Administration operates. @Wookie only made reference to OSHA.

 

[VikingDives]

Just start a youtube channel. You don't need training, insurance or a lick of sense. See: "Chaos Divers A Couple of Idiots" on youtube.

 

[rjack321]

As you can see our comment was in reference to OSHA. We can not comment on how each state's own Safety and Health Administration operates. @Wookie only made reference to OSHA.

That does not solve the crux of the issue. The OP needs liability insurance otherwise their house and all their assets are potentially at risk from something like a fuel spill. They can't get liability coverage without abiding by applicable industry standards.

 

[Wookie]

I agree with both RJack and Easternwatersports. As a sole proprietorship I couldn’t follow OSHA requirements, of course, but the OSHA requirements are there for a reason, and so I followed them as best as I could regarding record keeping, physical requirements, etc. And I generated a dive safety manual. It was good enough for the Navy (in my case, either ships husbandry or mine shape recovery shallower than 100 feet). Had we had an accident, I’d have been waving in the breeze.

 

[Biz2000]

So if I were to generate some sort of safety manual, would I be able to start an LLC and get insurance for said company? What kind of insurance would one be looking for doing something like this, and would I absolutely positively need an ADCI commercial cert to perform this work? Would that be a requirement of obtaining proper insurance? The cert doesn't appear completely necessary for jumping in and hooking up a truck at 50' or less on average, but that's just an outsiders uninformed opinion so please correct me if I'm wrong.

I was planning on soliciting multiple sheriff/fire depts. around my area as well as towing companies to hopefully have a large enough influence to get calls.