Insurance Speak: On the road again?
Susanna Gotsch and Marc Fredman from CCC Information Services highlight several auto trends insurers should be watching.
The Crash Course 2021 report from CCC Information Services Inc. (CCC) published on March 17 and offers numerous insights into topics such as how the coronavirus has affected the property & casualty industry, including auto insurance, trends to watch, how driving habits have changed, where new risks have emerged, and what’s ahead for carriers, manufacturers and drivers.
Susanna Gotsch, an industry analyst at CCC, and Marc Fredman, their senior vice president and chief strategy officer, provide some details from the report in the latest Insurance Speak podcast. CCC has been providing data to the insurance industry for 26 years through the Crash Course report.
Initially, there were fewer accidents at the start of the shutdowns related to the pandemic. Instead of commuters on the road, delivery services and truckers were delivering food and other products to millions of people sheltering in place across the country. The number of accidents dropped, but the severity and cost of the accidents that did occur increased.
Gotsch says that the number of airbag deployments from accidents also increased as speed became a major contributing factor to incidents. The overall number of miles driven in 2020 dropped 13% and has shown a slow return in 2021. Gotsch anticipates that the number of miles driven in 2022 will be close to the figures seen in 2019.
Light truck sales also increased in 2020 as more delivery service vehicles took to the road. Interestingly, the actual age of drivers shifted to a younger demographic as they filled the increased delivery demands or chose not to isolate themselves like their older counterparts.
Fredman shared that CCC is seeing a greater interest in innovation across the claims space and that telematics is playing a major role in helping to determine whether a vehicle is repairable or a total loss. He also said that they have seen a dramatic increase in the number of insurers using artificial intelligence to capture information.
For more insights on the auto insurance market, listen to the podcast above or subscribe to Insurance Speak on Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play or Libsyn.
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