PHONE IT IN
Accident Support Services International (ASSI) has launched “Start from Home,” an online service to allow drivers that have been in a collision to begin their own collision reports online, from home. The service can be accessed through reportacollision.com, and specifically allows drivers whose collision meets the threshold to report the event at a collision reporting centre to instead start an online report from their personal devices. The website allows drivers to provide a typed statement and capture several fields to complete an accident form. The goal of the new program is to reduce wait times at collision reporting centres. So far the service is available in Ontario, Alberta and P.E.I.
HUNGER PAINS
The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is warning that more auto insurers could be pushed out of Alberta following a record-breaking August hailstorm. Aaron Sutherland, IBC vice president for the Pacific and Western Canada region said the hailstorm resulted in $900 million in unexpected claims and comes “at a time when Alberta’s auto insurance system is in crisis due to the province’s rate cap.” He said that, under the rate cap, auto insurers are unable to recover from the growing cost of claims over the last two years. This has created a dire economic environment, he said, forcing several companies to leave Alberta’s auto insurance market. “Unless the rate cap is removed, the high number of new claims from the hailstorm will contribute to Alberta’s already tenuous market conditions, which may result in more insurance carriers making an exit from the market.”
