Third Look 2020: The Commercial Auto Insurance Marketplace In Massachusetts

As with our review of the private passenger auto insurance marketplace, this is Agency Checklists’ bi-monthly update on 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 2019. For those unfamiliar with the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurer, “CAR” is the official statistical agent for motor vehicle insurance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

A quick overview of the overall market…

While no new official data on the Commercial Auto Marketplace in Massachusetts is available from the Division of Insurance, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners has issued its annual market share data for the U.S. Commercial Auto marketplace which we have linked to below. For those interested in comparing this latest update with other information Agency Checklists has published on the Commercial Auto Insurance marketplace, please refer to the following reports:

Agency Checklists lists of top commercial auto insurers in the us

The following is a list of all the companies writing commercial auto insurance in Massachusetts as of January 2020. Some things to note:

In our last look at this market place, Commerce had a 14.66% share, it now has 15.89%.
Safety had 13.92% in our Second Look of 2020, while this time around it has 14.81%.
The third-largest commercial auto writer Arbella is the only insurer that notified us that it was offering a credit to its commercial insured policyholders as a a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For those interested in reading our interview with him, please refer to the article, “Arbella Announces The “Arbella Lay-Up Credit” In Response To The COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Commercial Auto Insurance Market Shares

RANK	COMPANY	PREMIUMS	MARKET SHARE
1.	COMMERCE	36,860,778	15.89%
2.	SAFETY	34,373,272	14.81%
3.	ARBELLA	25,215,845	10.87%
4.	TRAVELERS	19,972,535	8.61%
5.	PROGRESSIVE	12,183,242	5.25%
6.	PLYMOUTH ROCK	11,204,135	4.83%
7.	FIREMAN’S	10,685,355	4.61%
8.	TOKIO MARINE & NACHIDO	10,155,377	4.38%
9.	HANOVER	7,775,480	3.35%
10.	LIBERTY MUTUAL INS	7,551,451	3.25%
11.	TWIN CITY FIRE INS	5,587,079	2.41%
12.	ZURICH	4,738,925	2.04%
13.	SELECTIVE INSURANCE	4,731,007	2.04%
14.	NATIONAL GRANGE	3,906,155	1.68%
15.	UTICA	3,690,997	1.59%
16.	GREAT AMERICAN	3,246,196	1.40%
17.	AMERICAN CASUALTY	3,219,419	1.39%
18.	FARM FAMILY	2,410,851	1.04%
19.	EMPLOYERS MUTUAL	2,030,407	0.88%
20.	N&D MUTUAL	1,966,924	0.85%
21.	BANKERS	1,819,301	0.78%
22.	GREEN MOUNTAIN	1,744,051	0.75%
23.	FEDERATED MUTUAL	1,459,162	0.63%
24.	CENTRAL MUTUAL INS	1,454,839	0.63%
25.	FEDERAL	1,326,509	0.57%
26.	HARLEYSVILLE INS	1,304,326	0.56%
27.	US FIRE	1,230,697	0.53%
28.	OLD REPUBLIC	1,222,641	0.53%
29.	MERCH MUTUAL	1,192,438	0.51%
30.	QUINCY MUTUAL	1,106,278	0.48%
31.	MIDDLESEX INS CO	896,913	0.39%
32.	MOTORISTS	779,253	0.34%
33.	ARCH	669,567	0.29%
34.	PREFERRED MUTUAL	592,654	0.26%
35.	STATE AUTO	507,616	0.22%
36.	NEW HAMPSHIRE	482,503	0.21%
37.	NEW YORK AND GENERAL INS	309,979	0.13%
38.	PENN MNFCT ASSC INS	302,950	0.13%
39.	ATLANTIC SPECIALTY	270,553	0.12%
40.	CINCINNATI	263,990	0.11%
41.	SOMPO AMERICA	232,358	0.10%
42.	EVEREST NATIONAL	204,654	0.09%
43.	STARR INDEMNITY	134,543	0.06%
44.	CHURCH MUTUAL	122,565	0.05%
45.	GUIDEONE MUTUAL	94,660	0.04%
46.	ARGONAUT INSURANCE COMPANY	87,370	0.04%
47.	RLI	83,233	0.04%
48.	GREENWICH	78,867	0.03%
49.	LANCER INSURANCE CO.	66,497	0.03%
50.	AMICA MUTUAL	65,938	0.03%
51.	AXIS REINSURANCE	65,237	0.03%
52.	BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY	43,388	0.02%
53.	STARSTONE NATIONAL	40,416	0.02%
54.	AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE	37,853	0.02%
55.	QBE	37,107	0.02%
56.	PENN LUMBERMENS	31,544	0.01%
57.	MARKEL	29,387	0.01%
58.	MITSUI SUMITOMO	29,311	0.01%
59.	ALLIED WORLD SPECIALTY	24,808	0.01%
60.	HARCO NATIONAL	20,964	0.01%
61.	IMPERIUM	17,694	0.01%
62.	SECURITY NATIONAL	16,204	0.01%
63.	STATE FARM	12,429	0.01%
64.	AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE	11,803	0.01%
65.	NORTH AMERICAN SPECIALTY	3,794	0.00%
66.	HDI GLOBAL	375	0.00%
		232,034,649	100.00%

A majority of the top Commercial Auto Insurers are Massachusetts-based

Similar to other years, the top three commercial auto insurers in the Commonwealth continue to be Massachusetts-based, Commerce (MAPFRE), Safety, and Arbella, with a combined market share of 41.6%. Out of the top 10 commercial auto carriers operating in the Commonwealth, a total of six are based here in addition to the top three: The Hanover, Plymouth Rock, and Liberty Mutual. The following three graphs show the evolution of this marketplace over the past decade with looks at the makeup in March 2010, March 2015, and March 2020.