Latest Auto Headlines
All the headlines from our Auto Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Report Calls for Prior Approval for All States
Nov 12 2013 // Holding automobile insurance regulation in California as an example, the Consumer Federation of America issued a report on Tuesday showing that auto insurance expenditures in America rose by 43 percent on average over the...
Allstate’s Esurance Hopes Bundling Auto, Home Coverages Will Separate It From Geico
Nov 12 2013 // Esurance, the online car insurance seller owned by Allstate Corp., is betting that bundling auto and home policies will help it compete with Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Geico unit and Progressive Corp. Esurance started...
North Carolina Man Accused of Auto Insurance Fraud
Nov 12 2013 // William Henry Bullock, 64, of Knightdale, North Carolina has been arrested on a charge of obtaining property by false pretense, according to North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin. Department of Insurance...
NTSB Faults Parade Plans in Fatal Texas Train Collision
Nov 11 2013 // The lack of safety planning by parade organizers and the city of Midland, Texas, has been faulted by federal investigators in an accident in November 2012 in which a freight train rammed a tractor-trailer truck towing a...
Insurance Kiosks the Wave of the Future?
Nov 8 2013 // Milk…check; Eggs…check; Bread…check; Car insurance…wait, what? Most Americans’ grocery lists don’t typically read this way, but a new approach to selling personal auto insurance from...
Association Recommends Insurance Guidelines for Carsharing Operations
Nov 8 2013 // An association for operators of car sharing services has developed guidelines for what insurance they should make available to consumers participating in their services. The San Francisco-based CarSharing Association...
Federal Safety Regulators Criticized for Missing Bus Safety Hazards
Nov 8 2013 // U.S. bus regulators are overlooking or not catching serious safety hazards before fatal crashes and need to change their auditing practices, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The U.S. Federal Motor Carrier...
Tough New DWI Laws Take Effect in New York
Nov 5 2013 // New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Nov. 1 that individuals who drive drunk with a conditional license will now face a felony, which is the same penalty for those who drive drunk with a revoked license. Previously,...
UPS Driver in Michigan Works 51 Years, No Crashes
Nov 1 2013 // UPS driver Tom Camp from Livonia, Mich., and his big, brown truck have done something no other UPS driver has accomplished: 51 years without an accident. That’s after an estimated 800,000 to 900,000 miles on the road...
ISO Launches Standardized Motorcycle Program for Personal Lines Insurers
Oct 30 2013 // ISO has filings underway for its new standardized motorcycle program. The program consists of forms, rules, and loss costs tailored to fit the specific requirements for insuring a motorcycle. The base policy provides...
Insurance Company Pays $16K to Vermont Auto Customers
Oct 30 2013 // Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation says a Wisconsin-based insurance company has paid nearly $16,000 in restitution to Vermont auto insurance customers whose damage claims were not evaluated properly. An...
Insurers Rated on Customer Satisfaction with Auto Claims: J.D. Power
Oct 30 2013 // Customer satisfaction with auto insurance claims handling is improving, due in large part to insurers’ improvements in managing the first notice of loss (FNOL) process and providing faster payments to claimants,...
Usage-Based Auto Insurance on Road to Becoming Standard Offering
Oct 29 2013 // Technology is spurring innovation and altering risk scenarios throughout the economy including in auto insurance. While advanced auto safety features, the shared economy and driverless cars promise to reshape auto...
Rusbuldt on McKinsey 2: Agent-Carrier Relationships Make a Difference
Oct 29 2013 // Bob Rusbuldt, president and CEO of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America – the Big “I”- takes issue with a McKinsey report that claims local independent agents will soon be extinct. In this...
Why McKinsey’s Prediction of Demise of Independent Agents Is ‘Dead Wrong’
Oct 28 2013 // A recent report from McKinsey & Co. had some bad news for local property/casualty insurance agents— many of them will be out of business within the next five to 10 years. McKinsey contends that “the economics...
Texas DPS Touts Success of Border Crime, Vehicle Safety Initiative
Oct 25 2013 // The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced that a multi-agency law enforcement initiative, dubbed Operation Strong Safety, that targeted crime, unsafe commercial vehicles and unsafe driving practices has been...
State Auto’s Restrepo Takes Over As PCI Chair
Oct 25 2013 // State Auto Insurance Companies President, Chairman and CEO Bob Restrepo has been elected chair of the board of governors of the 1,000-member Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI). The one-year term began...
GEICO Success Highlights Advertising Dollars vs. Agent Commissions Debate
Oct 22 2013 // Direct writer GEICO’s success in auto insurance sales is due to spending dollars on effective advertising rather than on agents, according to recent research from analysts at Nomura Equity Research, which notes that...
Sixth Circuit Highlights the Importance of Policy Definitions
Oct 21 2013 // In one of the more unusual cases interpreting terms of an insurance policy, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati highlighted the importance of policy definitions, finding in Bennett v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins....
The Future is Now for Usage-Based Auto Insurance
Oct 21 2013 // Technology is spurring innovation and altering risk scenarios throughout the economy including in auto insurance. While advanced auto safety features, the shared economy and driverless cars promise to reshape auto...
