UBER INSURANCE DEAL
Economical Insurance has announced a new and significant relationship with Uber in Canada. The relationship will provide insurance coverage to every Uber Rides and Uber Eats trip in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. The relationship will officially launch September 1, 2020. This announcement came after Economical Insurance announced its plans to convert from a mutual company to a publicly traded share company. Economicals most recent launch was Vyne which uses advanced technology to provide faster service, improved workflows and sophisticated products and pricing for brokers and their customers. The insurance coverage for drivers operating with Uber will continue seamlessly.
MISREPRESENTATION IN MANITOBA
Manitoban drivers seem to excel in getting caught with auto insurance fraud. The number of Manitobans charged with auto insurance fraud has tripled since 2019, reports Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI). MPI executive Curtis Wennberg said the increase in people getting caught is largely due to MPI’s increase in investigating suspicious claims.
According to the insurer, by the end of July 2020, there had been 88 fraud charges laid against 33 people. The rise in charges is stark compared to the 30 charges laid against 10 people during the same period in 2019. A special investigation unit (SIU) at MPI is responsible for handling suspicious claims, and according to the Crown corporation, and in 2019 the SIU saved more than $10 million for MPI rate players in 1,200-plus investigations.
TALKING TELEMATICS
On September 17, Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association (CIECA) produced a webinar discussing collision industry disruptions, what they are and how they will disrupt the industry. The speakers for the webinar were Frank Terlep and Jake Rodenroth. Terlep is the current CEO of AutoTechcelerators and has been involved in this industry since the late 80s. Rodenroth is the director of OEM and industry relations for asTech. During the webinar, Terlep took the driver’s seat and shared his insight on major disruptions affecting the collision repair industry now and in the future.
The greatest takeaway from the webinar was learning how the traditional FNOL will be disrupted due to the insurgence of telematics based FNOL. Telematics based FNOL will cut out the middleman and send collision victims straight to the insurers, jumping the steps a consumer would normally take when they suffer a collision, such as calling insurance, locating a shop, estimating cost and scheduling the repair. However, with telematics you would skip that and right after an accident, the car will tell the customer exactly what shop to go to, estimate the cost and schedule a repair.
