4th Look 2020: The Commercial Auto Insurance MA Marketplace

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 May 2020. For those unfamiliar with the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurer, “CAR” is the official statistical agent for motor vehicle insurance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Agency Checklists lists of top commercial auto insurers in the us

An overview of the U.S. commercial auto insurance marketplace as a whole

According to the latest data from The National Association of Insurance Commissioners and outlined in our 2020 report, the Direct Written Premium for the top 25 commercial auto insurers in the U.S. was approximately $45,141,569,289 in 2019.

Of this group of the nation’s largest commercial auto insurers, Liberty Mutual was the only company based in Massachusetts who made the list. It is ranked the third-largest commercial auto insurer with $1,888,125,510 in Direct Premiums Written and a 4.18% share of the national marketplace.

An overview of the commercial auto insurance marketplace in Massachusetts

In addition to this bimonthly update and the NAIC’s annual report, the Massachusetts Division of Insurance also publishes its own official data on the make-up and market share of the commercial auto insurance marketplace. This report often reflects all of the official data available that has been verified and compiled by the Division of Insurance itself. A link to the 2020 update on the DOI’s commercial auto insurance marketplace can be accessed here.

Below is a list of all of the insurance companies that currently write commercial auto in Massachusetts along with how much they have written and how big their market share is as of May 2020. Some interesting things to note:

MAPFRE/Commerce continues to edge out Safety as the largest commercial auto insurer in Massachusetts with a 15.85% market share
Since our last look, Safety’s market share has increased to 15.20% from 13.92% based on March 2020 numbers.
The third-largest commercial auto writer Arbella is the only insurer that notified us that it was offering credit to its commercial insured policyholders as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. For those interested in reading that article, please refer to the article, “Arbella Announces The “Arbella Lay-Up Credit” In Response To The COVID-19 Pandemic.“
While Liberty Mutual is the third-largest commercial auto insurer in the U.S., it is interesting to note it is only the ninth-largest in Massachusetts with a 3.4% market share.

Commercial Auto Insurance Market Shares

A breakdown of all the current writers of commercial auto insurance ranked by Premiums and corresponding market share.

COMPANY	PREMIUMS	MARKET SHARE
1. COMMERCE	60,359,746	15.85%
2. SAFETY	57,859,550	15.20%
3. ARBELLA	43,536,554	11.43%
4. TRAVELERS	32,895,546	8.64%
5. PROGRESSIVE	20,065,051	5.27%
6. PLYMOUTH ROCK	18,914,768	4.97%
7. FIREMAN’S	17,283,607	4.54%
8. TOKIO MARINE & NACHIDO	13,722,320	3.60%
9. LIBERTY MUTUAL INS	13,052,060	3.43%
10. HANOVER	12,122,571	3.18%
11. ZURICH	9,185,635	2.41%
12. SELECTIVE INSURANCE	7,798,556	2.05%
13. TWIN CITY FIRE INS	7,788,361	2.05%
14. NATIONAL GRANGE	6,713,021	1.76%
15. UTICA	6,506,447	1.71%
16. AMERICAN CASUALTY	4,797,381	1.26%
17. FARM FAMILY	3,770,085	0.99%
18. EMPLOYERS MUTUAL	3,690,584	0.97%
19. GREAT AMERICAN	3,670,457	0.96%
20. US FIRE	3,148,116	0.83%
21. N&D MUTUAL	3,073,975	0.81%
22. FEDERATED MUTUAL	2,926,689	0.77%
23. GREEN MOUNTAIN	2,917,799	0.77%
24. BANKERS	2,869,440	0.75%
25. CENTRAL MUTUAL INS	2,380,152	0.63%
26. QUINCY MUTUAL	1,932,919	0.51%
27. HARLEYSVILLE INS	1,920,161	0.50%
28. MERCH MUTUAL	1,832,096	0.48%
29. NEW HAMPSHIRE	1,576,075	0.41%
30. MIDDLESEX INS CO	1,534,588	0.40%
31. FEDERAL	1,266,810	0.33%
32. MOTORISTS	1,226,048	0.32%
33. OLD REPUBLIC	1,222,641	0.32%
34. PREFERRED MUTUAL	962,976	0.25%
35. STATE AUTO	883,133	0.23%
36. NEW YORK AND GENERAL INS	780,145	0.20%
37. ARCH	669,567	0.18%
38. ATLANTIC SPECIALTY	500,749	0.13%
39. PENN MNFCT ASSC INS	425,201	0.11%
40. LANCER INSURANCE CO.	422,070	0.11%
41. CINCINNATI	263,990	0.07%
42. PENN LUMBERMENS	253,826	0.07%
43. QBE	236,355	0.06%
44. SOMPO AMERICA	232,358	0.06%
45. EVEREST NATIONAL	204,654	0.05%
46. GREENWICH	190,199	0.05%
47. STARR INDEMNITY	134,543	0.04%
48. CHURCH MUTUAL	122,565	0.03%
49. AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE	105,743	0.03%
50. AMICA MUTUAL	103,105	0.03%
51. GUIDEONE MUTUAL	94,660	0.02%
52. ARGONAUT INSURANCE COMPANY	87,370	0.02%
53. RLI	83,233	0.02%
54. AXIS REINSURANCE	65,237	0.02%
55. BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY	62,809	0.02%
56. MARKEL	46,960	0.01%
57. STARSTONE NATIONAL	40,416	0.01%
58. AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE	37,853	0.01%
59. STATE FARM	34,069	0.01%
60. MITSUI SUMITOMO	29,311	0.01%
61. CUMIS	25,178	0.01%
62. ALLIED WORLD SPECIALTY	24,808	0.01%
63. HARCO NATIONAL	20,964	0.01%
64. IMPERIUM	17,694	0.00%
65. SECURITY NATIONAL	16,204	0.00%
66. NORTH AMERICAN SPECIALTY	3,794	0.00%
67. HDI GLOBAL	375	0.00%
	380,741,923	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 42.5% up from 41.6% our last look..

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 May 2010, May 2015, and May 2020.