2nd Look 2021: The Commercial Auto Insurance Marketplace in Massachusetts

Our second update of the year features the latest CAR data as of January 2021

As with our recent review of the Private Passenger Auto Insurance Marketplace, the following is Agency Checklists’ second bi-monthly update on the current state of the Commercial Auto Insurance marketplace. Every two months, Agency Checklists reports on the latest data to give a snapshot of the current state of the Commercial Automobile insurance marketplace in Massachusetts.

All of the data presented here is provided courtesy of the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers and represents the state of the market as of January 2021. For those unfamiliar with the Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurer, “CAR” is the official statistical agent for motor vehicle insurance in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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 2021 report, the Commercial Auto Insurance marketplace is the seventh-largest line of insurance in the U.S. As of March 2021, the Direct Written Premium for the top 25 commercial auto insurers in the U.S. was approximately $45,788,021,304.

Of this group of the nation’s largest commercial auto insurers, Liberty Mutual was the only company based in Massachusetts who made the list. The Boston-based insurer is the fourth-largest writer by market share. In 2020, it reported $1,689,377,411 in Direct Premiums Written and $1,762,177,865 in Direct Premiums Earned nationwide, representing a 3.69% share of the enitre U.S. Commercial Auto insurance marketplace.

An overview of the Commercial Auto insurance marketplace

According to the latest data on the Commercial Auto Insurance marketplace in the Commonwealth, there are currently 193 companies that are licensed to write commercial auto insurance here.

The latest figures from the Division of Insurance (based on 2019 data) state that the Total Direct Written premium for the entire marketplace was $916,026,84 in 2019, an increased from 2018 when it was $855,021,922.

A look at the state of the Commercial Auto Insurance Marketplace

Seven of the top 10 commercial auto carriers operating in the Commonwealth are headquartered in Massachusetts. The following is the complete list of Commercial Auto insurers as of January 2021.

Company	Premiums	Market Share
1. COMMERCE	15,606,676	15.19%
2. SAFETY	13,293,388	12.94%
3. ARBELLA	11,544,862	11.24%
4. TRAVELERS	9,780,803	9.52%
5. PROGRESSIVE	7,370,756	7.18%
6. TOKIO MARINE & NACHIDO	5,325,427	5.18%
7. PLYMOUTH ROCK	5,272,359	5.13%
8. FIREMAN’S	4,437,557	4.32%
9. HANOVER	4,074,608	3.97%
10. LIBERTY MUTUAL INS	2,880,103	2.80%
11. SELECTIVE INSURANCE	2,857,976	2.78%
12. TWIN CITY FIRE INS	2,080,403	2.03%
13. ZURICH	1,974,681	1.92%
14. UTICA	1,617,533	1.57%
15. AMERICAN CASUALTY	1,531,627	1.49%
16. NATIONAL GRANGE	1,423,409	1.39%
17. EMPLOYERS MUTUAL	1,332,897	1.30%
18. FARM FAMILY	1,293,970	1.26%
19. N&D MUTUAL	915,648	0.89%
20. FEDERATED MUTUAL	847,445	0.83%
21. US FIRE	840,290	0.82%
22. GREEN MOUNTAIN	836,782	0.81%
23. BANKERS	701,873	0.68%
24. MERCH MUTUAL	600,803	0.58%
25. HARLEYSVILLE INS	519,065	0.51%
26. GEICO	454,872	0.44%
27. NEW HAMPSHIRE	454,428	0.44%
28. CENTRAL MUTUAL INS	451,914	0.44%
29. MIDDLESEX INS CO	423,981	0.41%
30. QUINCY MUTUAL	349,183	0.34%
31. GREAT AMERICAN	322,330	0.31%
32. MOTORISTS	292,109	0.28%
33. PREFERRED MUTUAL	213,413	0.21%
34. ATLANTIC SPECIALTY	173,709	0.17%
35. PENN MNFCT ASSC INS	165,888	0.16%
36. STATE AUTO	147,079	0.14%
37. NEW YORK AND GENERAL INS	127,075	0.12%
38. ARGONAUT INSURANCE COMPANY	65,911	0.06%
39. LANCER INSURANCE CO.	40,798	0.04%
40. BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY	36,113	0.04%
41. AMICA MUTUAL	29,625	0.03%
42. STATE FARM	2,880	0.00%
43. PENN LUMBERMENS	2,334	0.00%
44. MARKEL	369	0.00%
45. AMERICAN AUTOMOBILE	304	0.00%

Shifts & trends in the Commercial Auto Insurance Marketplace

The following three graphs show the evolution of this marketplace over the past decade. In order to give some perspective on the shifts in the Marketplace, the three graphs depict the Top Ten Commercial Auto insurers for the month of January 2021, followed by the same graph from five years earlier in January 2016, and then finally from a decade ago in January 2011.

The goal is to present a side-by-side comparison on how this Marketplace has shifted during this highlighted period.

January 2021

January 2016

January 2011

2021 Market Share CAR Commercial Auto Reports

1st Look 2021: The Commercial Auto Insurance Marketplace in Massachusetts

Compare all of our 2020 CAR Commercial Auto Market Share Update Reports

For those interested in reviewing all of our bi-monthly updates throughout 2020 to get a sense of how the Commercial Auto Insurance marketplace has evolved over the past year, please find links to Agency Checklists’ five other updates below: