Our latest look at the state of the Commercial Automobile insurance marketplace in Massachusetts in 2018…
Similar to the private passenger auto insurance marketplace, Agency Checklists takes a look this week at the current state of the commercial automobile insurance marketplace.
All of the data presented here is provided courtesy of the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers and represents the state of the market as of November 2018. For those unfamiliar with the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurer, “CAR” is the official statistical agent for motor vehicle insurance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
A look at the market as a whole
While our bi-monthly look at this marketplace comes from the latest data at CAR, the Division of Insurance also does an official overview of the market as well, using complete data for the entire marketplace, in this case from 2016. Based on the official Division report, total Direct Written Premium for this line totaled $835,081,080 dollars in 2016, with a total of 212 companies writing commercial auto in the Commonwealth.
Of that number, the top 20 companies wrote approximately $547,057,695 dollars in Direct Written Premium, essentially commanding a 65.5% share of the market place.
The remaining 192 companies wrote $288,023,385 in Direct Written Premium which translated into a 34.5% market share.
Safety and MAPFRE/Commerce are top the list at the end of 2018
MAPFRE and Safety continue to occupy the top two spots for the insurers with the largest commercial auto insurance market share in Massachusetts.
This mirrors the pattern seen over the past year or so. If our readers may remember, in December 2016, Safety briefly had risen to the number one spot to overtake Commerce in the commercial auto insurance sphere. This was reversed by the end of 2017, however, with MAPFRE/Commerce coming in at number one on this list.
Safety, however, currently continues with the largest number of premiums and corresponding market share. Together the two Massachusetts-based insurers control more than 30% of the market share in this line of insurance.
The following is a list of the top 20 Commercial Auto Insurers in Massachusetts ranked by Premiums from highest to lowest for the Policy Year 2018:
| COMPANY | PREMIUMS | MARKET SHARE |
| 1. SAFETY | 126,135,137 | 15.66% |
| 2. COMMERCE | 124,589,954 | 15.47% |
| 3. ARBELLA | 87,025,065 | 10.81% |
| 4. TRAVELERS | 59,007,961 | 7.33% |
| 5. PLYMOUTH ROCK | 49,344,157 | 6.13% |
| 6. LIBERTY MUTUAL INS | 39,033,250 | 4.85% |
| 7. TOKIO MARINE & NACHIDO | 34,839,451 | 4.33% |
| 8. PROGRESSIVE | 32,147,239 | 3.99% |
| 9. HANOVER | 32,033,598 | 3.98% |
| 10. FIREMAN’S | 28,080,331 | 3.49% |
| 11. ZURICH | 16,796,159 | 2.09% |
| 12. UTICA | 14,718,732 | 1.83% |
| 13. SELECTIVE INSURANCE | 13,701,602 | 1.70% |
| 14. NATIONAL GRANGE | 13,060,917 | 1.62% |
| 15. TWIN CITY FIRE INS | 12,606,249 | 1.57% |
| 16. GREAT AMERICAN | 12,471,791 | 1.55% |
| 17. EMPLOYERS MUTUAL | 7,576,329 | 0.94% |
| 18. AMERICAN CASUALTY | 7,490,293 | 0.93% |
| 19. FEDERAL | 7,128,920 | 0.89% |
| 20. ARGONAUT INSURANCE COMPANY | 6,773,418 | 0.84% |
Graphs from November 2018, November 2013 and November 2008 depicting the evolution of this marketplace over the past decade
The following charts list the market share for the top ten commercial auto insurance writers in Massachusetts as of November 2018, followed by the top ten writers by market share five years ago as of November 2013, and then finally, as of November 2008.
These graphs are provided for those interested in seeing how the Massachusetts commercial automobile insurance market has evolved over the past decade.
November 2018
And how the market share distribution looked just five years ago:
November 2013
Now compare the above graphs with the top ten commercial auto insurance companies in Massachusetts from a decade ago:
November 2008
