Safeco Makes Commercial Auto Ins. Sales Faster, Easier

Safeco Business Insurance has expanded its online sales platform to make it faster and easier for agents to sell commercial auto insurance to small businesses.

The platform, called ESP(TM), allows agents to quote, bind and instantly issue commercial auto policies online. This allows agents to sell insurance in minutes, rather than days. 5,400 agents representing Safeco Business Insurance collectively sell or renew nearly 100,000 commercial auto policies every year, adding up to a significant time savings.

With the ESP process, agents can select the “full quote” option, enter data on drivers and vehicles, and instantly receive a final price that they can bind and issue. ESP technology automatically pre-fills common customer information fields, based on vehicle identification numbers, and the system adjusts its questions according to the data entered. Or, they can choose to enter a “quick estimate” to get a ballpark price without having to enter detailed driver and vehicle information. As a result, agents spend a lot less time on data entry.

“By introducing ESP for commercial auto, we’re giving our agents a real opportunity to profitably expand their small-business accounts,” said Tom Troy, vice president of underwriting for Safeco Business Insurance.

ESP is accessible at www.safecoplaza.com/esp for both businessowner policies (BOPs) and commercial auto risks. Initially, agents will be able to use the system to sell Safeco’s most popular commercial auto policies – non-fleet policies for vehicles garaged in a single state. Safeco accepts both monoline commercial auto policies and policies written along with a Safeco businessowners policy (BOP) or commercial multiperil (CMP) package.

In 2003 and 2004, Safeco will enable agents to use ESP to sell workers’ compensation policies, commercial multi-peril (CMP) package products and other commercial auto policies – including fleet vehicles, multi-state garaging locations and farm vehicles.