Known for being a first mover in usage-based insurance for personal lines auto, Progressive is taking the concept to the commercial side as well.
The company has launched a new product, Smart Haul, for commercial truckers. The program gives customers savings on their commercial auto policy of an average of $1384 on their premium if they qualify with certain safe-driving metrics.
Smart Haul was announced September 6, and is available now to owner operators and small fleets that use newly mandated electronic logging devices (ELDs). Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations require the devices to encourage safety and manage and track the hours of service in a day. Progressive’s product will use the same data obtained for the rule, and won’t the driver to get another device or reconfigure the one they have.
“We know many drivers are still becoming comfortable with ELDs and we think turning the ELD requirements into opportunity to save some money for safe driving will appeal to lots of truckers,” says John Bardagallo, Progressive’s Commercial Lines President.
Smart Haul rates are calculated based on how the user drives according to their ELD driving data. Vendors that Progressive has partnered with include KeepTruckin and Transflo, according to business development consultant Dave Lubeck.
“Once the customer’s consent is provided, we contact the ELD vendor and they provide the customer’s most recent driving data to us,” Lubeck adds. “If driving history warrants, higher savings may be available through those vendors with whom we have agreements allowing us to access the data.”
Some Progressive customers maybe familiar with the name Smart Haul already. Last year, the company begun using the ‘Smart Haul’ name for a beta program that helped provide truckers with a free ELD device in exchange of sharing their driving data for analysis. The analyzed data, their companies’ Snapshot driving data and help from ELD vendors helped officially launch the new Smart Haul UBI Program.
“Early market response to our Smart Haul program has been encouraging,” states Lubeck. “We expect it to continue to grow as market utilization of ELD devices increases and truckers develop richer telematics driving histories. We also continue to evaluate applications for our other lines of businesses as well.”
