1st Look 2019 - The Commercial Auto Insurance Marketplace In Massachusetts

The first numbers on the state of the 2019 Commercial Automobile insurance marketplace in Massachusetts are in…

As with our review of the private passenger auto insurance marketplace, Agency Checklists now takes its first look at the current state of the commercial automobile insurance marketplace in 2019.

All of the data presented here is provided courtesy of the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers and represents the state of the market as of January 2019, the latest date for which there is complete data available. 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

As we stated in this week’s Private Passenger Market Share overview, data on the state of the 2017 auto insurance marketplace has yet to be released by the Division of Insurance. According to the 2016 Report from the Division of Insurance, however, total Direct Written Premium 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.

To have a look at the national commercial auto marketplace, as well as a ranking of the largest insurers by Direct Written Premium and marketshare, please refer to our NAIC 2019 Market Share Report: The Top 25 Commercial Auto Insurance Companies In The U.S.

MAPFRE begins 2019 at the top of the list…

Similar to the Private Passenger Auto Insurance marketplace, MAPFRE/Commerce has begun 2019 with a slight lead over Safety as the number one commercial auto insurer in the Commonwealth. This lead, however, is only by .19%.

This mirrors the pattern seen over the past couple of years. 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 coming in at number one on this list. All in all, however, the first and second largest insurers’ difference in this marketplace continues to be almost negligible in 2019.

The list of the top 20 Commercial Auto Insurers in Massachusetts ranked by Premiums from highest to lowest as of February 2017:

COMPANY	PREMIUMS	MARKET SHARE
1. COMMERCE	13,282,918	14.52%
2. SAFETY	13,106,662	14.33%
3. ARBELLA	10,205,548	11.16%
4. TRAVELERS	8,954,556	9.79%
5. TOKIO MARINE & NACHIDO	6,928,453	7.57%
6. HANOVER	4,627,444	5.06%
7. LIBERTY MUTUAL INS	4,336,347	4.74%
8. PLYMOUTH ROCK	4,053,970	4.43%
9. PROGRESSIVE	3,617,070	3.95%
10. FIREMAN’S	3,605,222	3.94%
11. SELECTIVE INSURANCE	2,032,858	2.22%
12. TWIN CITY FIRE INS	1,957,535	2.14%
13. ZURICH	1,877,975	2.05%
14. NATIONAL GRANGE	1,459,287	1.60%
15. UTICA	1,234,260	1.35%
16. FARM FAMLY	1,136,074	1.24%
17. EMPLOYERS MUTUAL	1,045,596	1.14%
18. AMERICAN CASUALTY	915,871	1.00%
19. FEDERAL	747,418	0.82%
20. FEDERATED MUTUAL	745,017	0.81%

Graphs from January 2019, January 2014, and January 2009 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 January 2019, followed by the top ten writers by market share five years ago as of January 2014, and then finally, as of January 2009.

These graphs are provided for those interested in seeing how the Massachusetts commercial automobile insurance market has evolved over the past decade.