第四次短期：产品，人工和法律趋势如何推动车辆保险费率提高[信息图]

The fatigue that businesses are feeling, after multiple years of rising commercial auto insurance rates, is real. Factors ranging from the rise in attorney representation in bodily injury claims to the higher costs of replacement parts for technically complex cars and trucks continue to drive up claim costs for insurance carriers.分心的驾驶, heavily impacted by mobile phone usage, continues to pose serious risks to all drivers.

进一步加剧了问题，新冠肺炎pandemic增加了供应链的阻塞，劳动力短缺和通货膨胀压力，这些压力几乎有望扩大对利率的需求。同时，随着2020年锁定和法院重新开放后，驾驶员返回道路，以较正常的水平重新开放，预计身体伤害成本上升的负面趋势将恢复。

Auto Rate Increases Show No Signs of Slowing

In this article, we’ll explain:

• What you need to know about the shortages and inflation.
• How they could impact your commercial auto premiums.
• Other factors that are causing insurance prices to go up.
• What you can do to gain more control over your business insurance costs.

汽车和卡车短缺

There are currently many stressors on new car and truck inventories. The pandemic, along with other factors, made it nearly impossible to build vehicles and produce parts throughout most of the world for months and months. Shortages of raw materials (steel, glass, aluminum) used in vehicle manufacturing and precious metals used in computer chips so critical to car technology are the main culprits. Additional supply chain blockages and worker shortages have only compounded the problem.

This means there simply aren’t enough new cars, trucks, and other vehicles available to meet customer demand. While the shortage is making the limited number of new autos more expensive, the resulting demand for used cars presents the most direct impact to commercial auto insurance claim costs. That’s because when a car is declared a total loss after a crash, insurance carriers generally pay claims based on the current value of the used car or truck, also known as the actual cash value.

According to Cox Automotive, used car inventories are running 53 percent below August 2020 levels and 68 percent below 2019 levels.¹美国劳工统计局和曼海姆咨询局的记录库存和需求飙升，²pegs the cost of new vehicles at around 50% higher in October 2021 than they were in the quarter leading into the pandemic shutdowns (January to March 2020).

较重的卡车不能免疫这一趋势。二手级卡车价格在2021年9月与上一年的价格上涨了57％，连续第二个月份通过了100,000美元。

业内专家认为,这可能需要到2023 for new car and truck supplies to return to normal. This is all dependent on the future of the pandemic and resolvingsupply chain issues.

Auto Parts and Worker Shortages

事故发生后，还需要修理它们所需的相同零件。零件短缺导致车辆维修成本增加。根据CCC智能解决方案的数据，在2021年10月的前10个月中，平均零件的价格上涨了6％。³The higher cost of parts is being passed on to insurers paying for repairs.

由于与供应链相关的不确定性，因此很难获得某些零件，从而导致时间比通常的维修时间更长。与许多其他企业一样，汽车维修店很难雇用合格的维修技术人员，这是维修时间增加的另一个因素。

拥有无法驾驶的汽车的企业依靠较长的租车，通常由保险公司支付的费用，达到一定限制。根据碰撞周，⁴在2021年的第三季度，相关租金的租金总长度（LOR）为15.2天，与去年同期相比，近三天增加了近三天。

法律责任时代的核裁决

The impact of升级法律判决和索赔相关的支出is another factor in rising insurance rates. Legal judgements against businesses slowed some during the coronavirus pandemic, when courts were closed and fewer court cases tried. The trend is widely expected to return as courts ramp back up. Some of the issues contributing to these higher verdicts against businesses include:

• Mistrust of corporations.An increasing number of people believe that companies are unlikely to do the right thing, a societal trend leading to more people filing lawsuits and, when on a jury, deciding in favor of plaintiffs.
• Plaintiff attorneys are becoming more sophisticated.Many have invested a significant amount in tactics to increase the number of clients they represent and overall number of lawsuits, including:
  • Strategic marketing and advertising
  • Legal data and analytic capabilities
  • 呼叫中心
  • 法律推荐和客户领导公司
• Plaintiff attorneys have also increased the use of policy-limit demands as a tactic使保险公司有责任保护其被保险人，请在尚无适当信息的情况下就索赔解决。除此之外，他们在为其案件和使用社交媒体筛查陪审员的案件中寻找有利的场所而变得更加积极。
• Changes in the legal environment.The trend of juries assigning broad responsibility to corporations beyond what it stipulated in contracts, has increasingly resulted in often outsized verdicts for plaintiffs.

所有这些压力都有助于更多的判决，以支持原告和更大的支出。较高的成本转移给了保险公司，这可能导致保费增加。

What Businesses Can Do to Gain More Control Over Their Insurance Costs

虽然似乎不可能做任何导致商用车保险成本增加的短缺和其他因素，但可能会以几种方式抵消它们。考虑以下方法来保存：

• Implementworkplace safety practicesincluding programs that encourage safe driving to help reduce the number of claims your company faces in the first place.
• 将更多的业务保险与单个提供商合并以赚取折扣。
• 要求您的保险代理查看您的保险范围，并寻找获得正确保护的最佳价值的方法。
• Usetelematics to monitor worker driving habitsand manage vehicle maintenance.

If you have any questions about your current commercial auto premium or your overall business insurance coverage, contact your agent or a旅行ers representative. They’ll provide you with the answers you need and can make recommendations on how you can get18IUCK新利官网 以及您所有的业务覆盖范围，最佳成本。

Sources:
¹Cox Automotive Analysis
²U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Manheim Consulting
³CCC Auto Trends, October 2021
⁴Collision Week