Hi again - sorry this has taken so long, most of my energy is now spent battling it out with insurers... As all of you likely know, our industry is in a dismal state - I'm going to give you a summary of my findings. if you are being offered a renewal by your current insurer (in particular Old Republic), take it and run! We have seen business being 'bought' by other insurers over the past 12 - 18 months and come renewals we seen premiums jacked up. Loyalty is starting to mean something in this industry again - so be weary of getting the 'best deal' only to find it it's going to put you further behind the following year.
Aviva – They are ramping up their space in trucking by hiring top talent from Northbridge & GCNA. I believe they are going to try and capitalize on the market downturn by hand picking 'best in class operations'. Beware though, Aviva has done this before and in a couple of years you could find yourself back on the streets. Aviva was the only trucking insurer to post positive results this last year (gross premium vs. total losses).
We have heard there are some increases being given, in the neighbourhood of 30 - 40%. Having said that, they continue to retain accounts due to the extreme under-pricing of their product initially.
They are only doing local cartage & dump operations - no cross border. The market for dump trucks is virtually NIL. If you like flipping the coin to see whether or not you get a renewal each year then try these guys.
Nothing has changed with Chubb, they remain a top choice for large national fleets.
Echelon – Recently Echelon had almost cleared out the underwriting dept at Intact Insurance. They took 3 underwriters who had all been there for 5 - 10 + years. Looks like they are ramping up to write a lot of trucking business this year. Unfortunately, they have teamed up with some unsavory brokers who will lie/steal & cheat in order to write business. From an ethical standpoint, I will not do business with this operation... but to each their own.
Facility Association - The Largest Commercial Trucking Insurance writer of 2019. We have seen many well run operations end up here due to insurers flipping on insureds and no other insurer stepping up to help out. There are some unsavory brokers out there who again, lie/steal/cheat in order to secure business for their clients. These brokers are rating vehicles as 'local' operations and will rate 1 - 2 units for cross border to get the US Filings. If you have a COI with "Novex" or "Royal Sun & Alliance" and any broker in the Mississauga/Brampton area - I would second guess using them as likely the insurance isn't going to pay out. This has been such an issue that some top brokers/insurers in transportation have met with stakeholders across the province in order to re-underwrite & come down on those who are taking advantage of the system.
If you're a trucking company with Facility you should be seeing rates like;
Local Radius - $20,000 - $30,000/truck
Canada Wide - $40,000 - $60,000/truck
US Exposure (20%) - $60,000 - $80,000/truck
US Exposure (50+%) - $80,000 - $100,000/truck
If you are with Facility and paying substantially less than this, you are likely being rated incorrectly by the broker. Good luck with any claims.
The Guarantee (GCNA) – Recently SOLD TO INTACT INSURANCE.. Nobody at this point knows what's going on. Any new submissions are being redirected to Intact Insurance and GCNA will only get them if/when Intact declines (so they tell us). These guys are pretty much closed for business. An underwriter left GCNA to go to Aviva (see above). Likely alot of operations will hit the streets once Intact's rating system comes into play and again, will cause a lot of upset in the industry.
Old Republic – If there is one market whose been consistant to their underwriting approach it’s Old Republic. If you are currently with this market, stay where you are. They are approaching each account on its own merits when it comes to your renewal. They avg. 7 – 12% increase this year. Old Republic primarily writes trucking insurance in Canada so it is very likely that they will ever exit this space.
Recently Old Republic has taken a stronger stance on non-renewing under performing accounts. Know the score – check your loss ratio with your broker for 3 – 5 years so you understand whether you’re heading to Facility this year because of crash frequency/severity.
Wawanesa – They have actually ramped up their staff of underwriters and loss prevention personnel. We might see Wawanesa grow their book of business for those who run local operations and dump operations.
Aviva – They are ramping up their space in trucking by hiring top talent from Northbridge & GCNA. I believe they are going to try and capitalize on the market downturn by hand picking 'best in class operations'. Beware though, Aviva has done this before and in a couple of years you could find yourself back on the streets. Aviva was the only trucking insurer to post positive results this last year (gross premium vs. total losses).
- 5 Years in Business
- CVOR under 35% (not conditional either)
- Good Loss Ratio
- Over 20 Power Units
- Bit of a 'sleeper' market. But if you run a solid & compliant shop - ask your broker to approach them.
- 5 Years in Business
- 30+ trucks
- Unlimited US Exposure
- Acceptable SMS/CVOR (not “Conditional”)
- Currently an “Active” market
We have heard there are some increases being given, in the neighbourhood of 30 - 40%. Having said that, they continue to retain accounts due to the extreme under-pricing of their product initially.
- Currently a “Passive” market
They are only doing local cartage & dump operations - no cross border. The market for dump trucks is virtually NIL. If you like flipping the coin to see whether or not you get a renewal each year then try these guys.
- Currently an “Passive” market
Nothing has changed with Chubb, they remain a top choice for large national fleets.
Echelon – Recently Echelon had almost cleared out the underwriting dept at Intact Insurance. They took 3 underwriters who had all been there for 5 - 10 + years. Looks like they are ramping up to write a lot of trucking business this year. Unfortunately, they have teamed up with some unsavory brokers who will lie/steal & cheat in order to write business. From an ethical standpoint, I will not do business with this operation... but to each their own.
- Currently an “Active” market
- Currently an "active" market
- No more than 30% US Exposure
Facility Association - The Largest Commercial Trucking Insurance writer of 2019. We have seen many well run operations end up here due to insurers flipping on insureds and no other insurer stepping up to help out. There are some unsavory brokers out there who again, lie/steal/cheat in order to secure business for their clients. These brokers are rating vehicles as 'local' operations and will rate 1 - 2 units for cross border to get the US Filings. If you have a COI with "Novex" or "Royal Sun & Alliance" and any broker in the Mississauga/Brampton area - I would second guess using them as likely the insurance isn't going to pay out. This has been such an issue that some top brokers/insurers in transportation have met with stakeholders across the province in order to re-underwrite & come down on those who are taking advantage of the system.
If you're a trucking company with Facility you should be seeing rates like;
Local Radius - $20,000 - $30,000/truck
Canada Wide - $40,000 - $60,000/truck
US Exposure (20%) - $60,000 - $80,000/truck
US Exposure (50+%) - $80,000 - $100,000/truck
If you are with Facility and paying substantially less than this, you are likely being rated incorrectly by the broker. Good luck with any claims.
The Guarantee (GCNA) – Recently SOLD TO INTACT INSURANCE.. Nobody at this point knows what's going on. Any new submissions are being redirected to Intact Insurance and GCNA will only get them if/when Intact declines (so they tell us). These guys are pretty much closed for business. An underwriter left GCNA to go to Aviva (see above). Likely alot of operations will hit the streets once Intact's rating system comes into play and again, will cause a lot of upset in the industry.
- 5 years in business, 20 – 50 trucks (they will write as low as 15)
- Currently an “Passive” market
- 1 – 100+ trucks
- Business for at least 3 years
- No US limits
- Currently an “Active” market
- 1-9 trucks
- Unlimited US exposure
- Currently a “passive” market
- Currently an “Active” market
Old Republic – If there is one market whose been consistant to their underwriting approach it’s Old Republic. If you are currently with this market, stay where you are. They are approaching each account on its own merits when it comes to your renewal. They avg. 7 – 12% increase this year. Old Republic primarily writes trucking insurance in Canada so it is very likely that they will ever exit this space.
Recently Old Republic has taken a stronger stance on non-renewing under performing accounts. Know the score – check your loss ratio with your broker for 3 – 5 years so you understand whether you’re heading to Facility this year because of crash frequency/severity.
- Currently an “Active” Market
- Currently a “passive” market
- Currently a “Passive” market
- Currently a “passive” market
Wawanesa – They have actually ramped up their staff of underwriters and loss prevention personnel. We might see Wawanesa grow their book of business for those who run local operations and dump operations.
- Currently an “Active” market
- 160 KM radius (max).
- No US Exposure
- Will Write Dump Truck Operations
