Boston, Massachusetts, June 23, 2016 – Strategy Meets Action (SMA), a leading insurance strategic advisory firm, has just released a new research report: Telematics in P&C Insurance: The Need to Move Beyond Pricing. The report provides a snapshot of telematics/usage-based insurance programs in North America. The primary focus is on the data: what data insurers are collecting, how that data is being used, and what future plans are contemplated for leveraging telematics data.
“While pricing is the primary focus for UBI in North America and will continue to be important, the opportunities for enhanced and new value propositions based on the data already being collected offer the most interesting potential for the future” said Mark Breading, SMA Partner and author of thereport.
Key findings of the research include the following:
- Of insurers that write personal auto or commercial fleet, 59% either have UBI programs in the market or are in the planning/piloting stages for these programs. Conversely, this means that 41% have no current intent to enter the UBI market.
- While a wide variety of data is collected that could support different value propositions, pricing is still the dominant use for UBI.
- The significant data being collected on location, routes driven, and others factors signal opportunities to create new services and value propositions in the future.
Telematics for usage-based insurance continues to advance in North America, albeit at a measured pace. Some of the hype from a few years ago has been tempered by the reality of the regulatory environment, the need for actuaries to collect a historical base of data, and the adoption of programs by customers. Still, telematics is an important force in the personal auto insurance market as well as in commercial fleet, and has the potential to create new competitive advantages for those that think beyond pricing.
Insurers, IT solution providers, agencies, and media that are interested in learning more should contact Mark Breading at mbreading@strategymeetsaction.com or 614.562.8310.