Commercial auto

[statefundsux]

Hi
I have a commercial auto account I’m having a hard time placing. He is a tile contractor in CA got his license this year wrote business auto through guard in may. Just him as a driver clean record and just one truck. Policy lapsed in July for non Payment No losses or claims. Tried rewriting through guard but they declined because Of the lapse. Tried quoting through BTIS (National General) but they wouldn’t write it. Need help! Thanks

[Pete@NobleWest]

Have you tried Progressive or Bellingham Underwriters?

[statefundsux]

I cant get an appointment with Progressive because they want to see production reports of >500k in premium with direct appointments and its my first year in business. I will give your other suggestion a try though!
Thanks

[d's insurance store]

This isn't the kind of answer you're looking for and I'm likely going to come off as an arrogant agency owner, but why are you devoting so much energy and effort to a small commercial account that is already demonstrating the kind of financial distress that forecasts low quality business.

New-in-business trades people have a very tough time paying their bills. This account is already demonstrating by virtue of a May inception date and a July non-pay lapse and now an October rewrite request they're having cash flow issues.

My question to you as agent is why are you devoting time and effort for what?...maybe $200 in annual commission without taking into account the agency resources involved in cancel/rewrite?

If this is the only type of account you can chase and service at the moment, unless you're collecting cash broker fees, then frankly, I'm not seeing much of a benefit for agency engagement from a strictly business standpoint.

Far be it for me to tell you how to run your business or which types of business to pursue, but there seems to be a disconnect here.

[wariline]

Commercial auto in CA has been pretty tough for a couple of years now. Many carriers are now requiring supporting business. However, there are still many write artisan contractors - Mercury, Travelers, Kemper Specialty, Metlife, Amtrust, Nationwide & Progressive. Guard's rates, however, is very competitive as they were slow to take their rate increase. If full pay is an option to the insured, I'd talk to the Guard UW again.

[mccluney]

Wow There is much wisdom in d's insurance store's comment. Especially given the rate of increase in commercial auto lines premium in the past couple of years I recently quoted a transport carrier with a one ton P/U and a four-car hauler trailer. New venture. $30,000 annual premium Berkshire. They took it!

[Josh Coyle]

If you're not open to using a wholesaler (I imagine that's your best bet when starting out new and trying to place smaller accounts like these), do you have access to Mercury? They don't have the option to get out of the monoline Auto business because they are primarily a CA Auto only player.

Most standard carriers I've seen mentioned prior are not going to entertain a small contractor monoline Auto account. I would be very surprised to see Travelers, Hartford, Nationwide, etc. quote this type of risk without supporting business. Many would also likely reject the supporting business for a tile contractor if the work is residential / new residential based on California, so I doubt that's an option either.

[Baseball1]

Why would one be interested in rewriting a single auto that had been cancelled for non-payment? As a new agent, the concentration should be on operating efficiently and not spending time in chasing substandard accounts. A large component of a good account is on time premium payments. The companies may have their faults, but they are correct about this aspect of the business.