I was sold on Progressive at first but then I looked at the commission and said wait a second.
Why not write with Safeco when they at least pay 17% on the front and the same on the back end as Progressive (10%) Why so little???
I think one day Progressive will be a stand alone insurance and have agent employee’s working for them. Watch them,
I heard from a rep close in they want more of the captive biz such a State-Farm and All-state. We will see what happens.
You know whats so funny is they plug Drive on one commercial and then plug Progressive Direct. I call this greed and a huge double standard. Shame on you Progressive.
If Progressive wants agents to write for them, they simply need to pay a competitive commission rate.
After the bazillions they spent convincing the public they were a direct writer, but having gained no ground against their agents, the least they can do is sweeten the deal.
Even after all of their cheatin’ we still stayed with them – mainly because they’ll write most things, and we don’t have the hassle of the DMV-minded underwriters at our other carriers that look for reasons we shouldn’t get paid. (They forget where the money originates from; they think it’s them!)
The independent agents promoted PROGRESSIVE for years, then the brand recognition is pulled away but this new DRIVE INS. refers to PROGRESSIVE so the agent must now build another company and push PROGRESSIVE too, at a poor ten percent pay. How sad they claim to be soo good but are the worst pay, reminds me of the clothing sweet shops. At 10% they want us to help pay for all advertising,it only gets worse with PROGRESSIVE for the independent as DRIVE/PROGRESSIVE tries ANOTHER EXPERIMENT. DRIVE/PROGRESSIVE DOES NOT HAVE THE AGENTS WELL BEING IN MIND.
WHAT COMPANY HAS SPENT MORE MONEY EDUCATING DRIVERS THEY CAN BUY DIRECT
OR ON LINE?WHAT COMPANY LED THE WAY ON
REDUCED COMMISIONS?WHAT COMPANY HAD AGENTS
SPEND MILLIONS ON SIGNS TO BUILD UP A
NAME THEN TAKE IT DIRECT & ON LINE?
WHAT COMPANY HAS TAUGHT MOTORCYCLE,AUTO,
RV,& BOAT DEALERSHIPS TO HAVE CLIENTS
CALL 1 800?????????WHY DO YOU SELL FOR THIS COMPANY?
I WILL ONLY SELL A PROGRESSIVE POLICY IF I CAN’T PLACE THEM ANYWHERE ELSE. I DON’T BELIEVE IN CUTTING OFF MY NOSE TO SPITE MY FACE. I STILL NEED TO PAY MY BILLS EVERY MONTH; BUT, THEY ARE NEVER MY FIRST QUOTE. ALSO, I’VE FOUND THAT THEY GIVE DIFFERENT RATES/PRICING TO DIFFERENT AGENCIES. I HAVE PEOPLE CALL ME AND SAY THEY ALREADY HAVE A PROG QUOTE FOR X AMOUNT & MY QUOTE HAS NEVER BEEN THE SAME, IT WILL BE HIGHER (9 OUT OF 10 TIMES) AND EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE IT’S LOWER. NOW, IS THAT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD IF THEY WANT US AGENTS TO HUSTLE POLICIES FOR THEM? JUST SELL PROG WHEN YOU CAN’T PLACE YOUR CLIENTS ANYWHERE ELSE. AFTER ALL 10% IS BETTER THAN NOTHING!!!
1) WHAT COMPANY HAS SPENT MORE MONEY EDUCATING DRIVERS THEY CAN BUY DIRECT
OR ON LINE.
Actually the answer is GEICO. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year in advertising, and Warren Buffet pays for it. Sure progressive has started to advertise like crazy this past year, but GEICO has been doing it since 1996. They are the leaders for direct writers (the largest in the country as a matter of fact)
2)WHAT COMPANY LED THE WAY ON
REDUCED COMMISIONS.
That answer is GEICO as well. Their agents get no commission at all, they are just paid wages.
Doubt they’ll go captive without writing home insurance. They won’t have much success without it. Customer’s either want the same company or at least the same agent for all their insurance. Not gonna happen if Progressive goes captive agent style. They’re not even that competitive in Texas here, anyway… Safeco beats them hands down..
Too bad Geico doesn’t have independent agents. I believe he was referring to companies that weren’t initially set up as direct-business. Geico has always been that way, Progressive wasn’t always set up that way. I still don’t understand why, if Drive is supposed to be for independent agents, they are offering DIRECT quotes online… it just doesn’t make sense!
Rather than spending tons of money on advertising their new brand name, they shouldn’t cut down their claim expenses. I guess we all agree that Progressive had one of the fastest claim services in the industry, but not anymore. Most of their experienced claim adjusters are gone(?) and they’re busy hiring BRAND new adjusters who never had any experiences. Yes, they still inspect the insured vehicle within same day, but they don’t release the estimate for a week until they get a confirmation by their supervisor. The supervisor is the only one who has authorization releasing any information, so, it takes forever to repair insured vehicle.
Hey Bubba, 10% is worse than not writing it at all, because the customer is usually marginal. After all, who writes a preferred insured a cheesey auto policy with Progressive, and then a home, boat and excess policy with a preferred market?
That dude is probably a walk-in client, cash in-hand, a day late at 4:45pm. You take his cash, they sweep your account, you make the extra stop to make the deposit, and by the way, he’s going to do it all over again next month and every month thereafter. You’re losing money on these clowns.
Jimmie, GEICO has been around for much longer than 1996. Many of us remember when they were gasping for air until Metropolitan threw them a line and dragged them out of the hole. They started as an insurance company for government employees, which is a finite pool to draw from. By the way, Progressive is larger than GEICO – thanks to the share that agents write for them. As for the TGIF clerks at GEICO? They spend more time quoting business than writing business. As for financing advertising? The current GEICO customer pays for it. Buffett pays for nothing. The day he pays is the day he sells.
I was at the meeting! Progressive all but admitted they tried to bury their agents with the internet. They pumped the hell out of their TV advertising and when all was said and done, the agents were still the huge majority of their book. Problem was, however, that they trained the public that the name “Progressive” was synonimous with “direct writer”. problem was people knew them as direct writers, but no one was really buying their insurance!
So, they brainstormed and decided that GEICO was too small a piece of the cheese to cut into, so they figured they can develop a pseudo-captive force by hood-winking agents into posing as “Drive” agents. Agents could buy the cheesey sign, get their name mentioned in the yellow page ad (for a price), and they actually advertise Drive as a national competitor to State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide and Farmers.
Unless you’re an SR22 Mill, you have other choices. Only the DMV-dwelling policy peddlers will “qualify” to fit the model as “Drive” agents. The rest of us will continue what we do – write proper limits and round accounts, make relationships and serve our clients.
What do these all have in common? Experiments that Progressive has tried. I purchased a very small book of business from another agent and all of the business he had with Progressive was Supersaver with 5% renewal commission. No wonder he decided to quite writing PC business. Captain Evergreen was a failure as well. The superbowl halftime show was a real laugh with Stevie Wonder driving a classic car. What kind of message did that send? We insure blind drivers? ET – never really used the expensive rights they purchased. Why? Do they think the new experiment will work? Possibly….
I represent Progressive now Drive and I don’t want my clients serviced by my competitor truck with Progressive blastered on it with the 800# for direct sales. I am starting to rewrite policy’s with my other companies.
1st of all, the reason why I put the 1996 date is because that is when Berkshire Hathaway bought GEICO, ie: when all the massive advertising started
2nd of all, I know exactly when GEICO started writing insurance in the first place (1936) and who started the company (Leo and Lillian Goodwin). And Warren DOES take care of the advertising.
And lastly, Progressive is larger than GEICO, that is correct. However, a good chunk of their business is written through local agents, and not direct, whereas 100% of GEICO is direct, and when you put that into consideration, GEICO is the largest direct writer of auto insurance in the country.
“That dude is probably a walk-in client, cash in-hand, a day late at 4:45pm. You take his cash, they sweep your account, you make the extra stop to make the deposit, and by the way, he’s going to do it all over again next month and every month thereafter. You’re losing money on these clowns.”
I have a severe dislike for those types of clients. I think we have 1-2 CSRs here who’s full time job could be working with them. And you’re right, its every flipping month. The solution is to have an agency fee on application when they choose to pay monthly, and have your lowest paid employee service the policy thereafter. They’re usually pretty simple situations and policies after all.
Progressive is very good for working with unique situations though. We use them a lot for international students. Writing some of the unique stuff that they do also helps to break the monotony of the everyday stuff.
All of this being said, I now have my doubts about Drive. How does Progressive intend to support Drive once this initial introducation is over with? Will they yank the Drive TV ads and only have their own direct ads? Also, the majority of people who know of Progressive are going to visit PROGRESSIVE’S website for a quote, not DRIVE. Currently Progressive’s site has a small section to link to Drive, but how long will that last? My concern is that this is just a ploy to get more direct business and segregate the agency business. I hope I’m wrong.
JIM IF 60% OF THE AGENCY FORCE DID WHAT YOU ARE DOING & PLACED BUSINESS WITH COMPANIES PAYING 15% PROGRESSIVE WOULD HAVE TOO ALSO.YOU ARE THINKING LONG TERM.
YOU WILL BE THE WINNER NOT PROGRESSIVE.
Don’t go there! The e-mail that I received talking about Drive provided a link to their web page.
The link hijacked by browser–reset my home page and messed up my controls. I’m still trying to clean it up. The web page is just a form of advertisement for a lot of other stuff.
It made me so mad, I’m considering canceling my insurance and going with someone who won’t hijack my internet!!
Don’t go there! The e-mail that I received talking about Drive provided a link to their web page.
The link hijacked by browser–reset my home page and messed up my controls. I’m still trying to clean it up. The web page is just a form of advertisement for a lot of other stuff.
It made me so mad, I’m considering canceling my insurance and going with someone who won’t hijack my internet!!
Is is a coincidence that we get a rate increase in Georgia just as Drive is launched? Is Drive really an effort to get clients to Drive By the Independent Agent and Drive to Progressive Direct?
Are they pricing us out?
I was sold on Progressive at first but then I looked at the commission and said wait a second.
Why not write with Safeco when they at least pay 17% on the front and the same on the back end as Progressive (10%) Why so little???
I think one day Progressive will be a stand alone insurance and have agent employee’s working for them. Watch them,
I heard from a rep close in they want more of the captive biz such a State-Farm and All-state. We will see what happens.
You know whats so funny is they plug Drive on one commercial and then plug Progressive Direct. I call this greed and a huge double standard. Shame on you Progressive.
Why are they offering online quotes if this is for the independent agents? Who do they think they’re fooling?
Dear Sheep: Here we go again. If you are not happy with Drive Insurance, write it with someone else. Mr. Wolf has enough to feast on.
If it is going to be a new company then let them leave the Progressive name off. I am not going to advertise for my competition.
reminds me of an old popular song, by the o’jays, when i was much younger:
THE BACKSTABBERS
If Progressive wants agents to write for them, they simply need to pay a competitive commission rate.
After the bazillions they spent convincing the public they were a direct writer, but having gained no ground against their agents, the least they can do is sweeten the deal.
Even after all of their cheatin’ we still stayed with them – mainly because they’ll write most things, and we don’t have the hassle of the DMV-minded underwriters at our other carriers that look for reasons we shouldn’t get paid. (They forget where the money originates from; they think it’s them!)
The independent agents promoted PROGRESSIVE for years, then the brand recognition is pulled away but this new DRIVE INS. refers to PROGRESSIVE so the agent must now build another company and push PROGRESSIVE too, at a poor ten percent pay. How sad they claim to be soo good but are the worst pay, reminds me of the clothing sweet shops. At 10% they want us to help pay for all advertising,it only gets worse with PROGRESSIVE for the independent as DRIVE/PROGRESSIVE tries ANOTHER EXPERIMENT. DRIVE/PROGRESSIVE DOES NOT HAVE THE AGENTS WELL BEING IN MIND.
WHAT COMPANY HAS SPENT MORE MONEY EDUCATING DRIVERS THEY CAN BUY DIRECT
OR ON LINE?WHAT COMPANY LED THE WAY ON
REDUCED COMMISIONS?WHAT COMPANY HAD AGENTS
SPEND MILLIONS ON SIGNS TO BUILD UP A
NAME THEN TAKE IT DIRECT & ON LINE?
WHAT COMPANY HAS TAUGHT MOTORCYCLE,AUTO,
RV,& BOAT DEALERSHIPS TO HAVE CLIENTS
CALL 1 800?????????WHY DO YOU SELL FOR THIS COMPANY?
I WILL ONLY SELL A PROGRESSIVE POLICY IF I CAN’T PLACE THEM ANYWHERE ELSE. I DON’T BELIEVE IN CUTTING OFF MY NOSE TO SPITE MY FACE. I STILL NEED TO PAY MY BILLS EVERY MONTH; BUT, THEY ARE NEVER MY FIRST QUOTE. ALSO, I’VE FOUND THAT THEY GIVE DIFFERENT RATES/PRICING TO DIFFERENT AGENCIES. I HAVE PEOPLE CALL ME AND SAY THEY ALREADY HAVE A PROG QUOTE FOR X AMOUNT & MY QUOTE HAS NEVER BEEN THE SAME, IT WILL BE HIGHER (9 OUT OF 10 TIMES) AND EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE IT’S LOWER. NOW, IS THAT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD IF THEY WANT US AGENTS TO HUSTLE POLICIES FOR THEM? JUST SELL PROG WHEN YOU CAN’T PLACE YOUR CLIENTS ANYWHERE ELSE. AFTER ALL 10% IS BETTER THAN NOTHING!!!
To ED…
1) WHAT COMPANY HAS SPENT MORE MONEY EDUCATING DRIVERS THEY CAN BUY DIRECT
OR ON LINE.
Actually the answer is GEICO. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year in advertising, and Warren Buffet pays for it. Sure progressive has started to advertise like crazy this past year, but GEICO has been doing it since 1996. They are the leaders for direct writers (the largest in the country as a matter of fact)
2)WHAT COMPANY LED THE WAY ON
REDUCED COMMISIONS.
That answer is GEICO as well. Their agents get no commission at all, they are just paid wages.
Doubt they’ll go captive without writing home insurance. They won’t have much success without it. Customer’s either want the same company or at least the same agent for all their insurance. Not gonna happen if Progressive goes captive agent style. They’re not even that competitive in Texas here, anyway… Safeco beats them hands down..
Too bad Geico doesn’t have independent agents. I believe he was referring to companies that weren’t initially set up as direct-business. Geico has always been that way, Progressive wasn’t always set up that way. I still don’t understand why, if Drive is supposed to be for independent agents, they are offering DIRECT quotes online… it just doesn’t make sense!
Rather than spending tons of money on advertising their new brand name, they shouldn’t cut down their claim expenses. I guess we all agree that Progressive had one of the fastest claim services in the industry, but not anymore. Most of their experienced claim adjusters are gone(?) and they’re busy hiring BRAND new adjusters who never had any experiences. Yes, they still inspect the insured vehicle within same day, but they don’t release the estimate for a week until they get a confirmation by their supervisor. The supervisor is the only one who has authorization releasing any information, so, it takes forever to repair insured vehicle.
Hey Bubba, 10% is worse than not writing it at all, because the customer is usually marginal. After all, who writes a preferred insured a cheesey auto policy with Progressive, and then a home, boat and excess policy with a preferred market?
That dude is probably a walk-in client, cash in-hand, a day late at 4:45pm. You take his cash, they sweep your account, you make the extra stop to make the deposit, and by the way, he’s going to do it all over again next month and every month thereafter. You’re losing money on these clowns.
Jimmie, GEICO has been around for much longer than 1996. Many of us remember when they were gasping for air until Metropolitan threw them a line and dragged them out of the hole. They started as an insurance company for government employees, which is a finite pool to draw from. By the way, Progressive is larger than GEICO – thanks to the share that agents write for them. As for the TGIF clerks at GEICO? They spend more time quoting business than writing business. As for financing advertising? The current GEICO customer pays for it. Buffett pays for nothing. The day he pays is the day he sells.
I was at the meeting! Progressive all but admitted they tried to bury their agents with the internet. They pumped the hell out of their TV advertising and when all was said and done, the agents were still the huge majority of their book. Problem was, however, that they trained the public that the name “Progressive” was synonimous with “direct writer”. problem was people knew them as direct writers, but no one was really buying their insurance!
So, they brainstormed and decided that GEICO was too small a piece of the cheese to cut into, so they figured they can develop a pseudo-captive force by hood-winking agents into posing as “Drive” agents. Agents could buy the cheesey sign, get their name mentioned in the yellow page ad (for a price), and they actually advertise Drive as a national competitor to State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide and Farmers.
Unless you’re an SR22 Mill, you have other choices. Only the DMV-dwelling policy peddlers will “qualify” to fit the model as “Drive” agents. The rest of us will continue what we do – write proper limits and round accounts, make relationships and serve our clients.
What do these all have in common? Experiments that Progressive has tried. I purchased a very small book of business from another agent and all of the business he had with Progressive was Supersaver with 5% renewal commission. No wonder he decided to quite writing PC business. Captain Evergreen was a failure as well. The superbowl halftime show was a real laugh with Stevie Wonder driving a classic car. What kind of message did that send? We insure blind drivers? ET – never really used the expensive rights they purchased. Why? Do they think the new experiment will work? Possibly….
I represent Progressive now Drive and I don’t want my clients serviced by my competitor truck with Progressive blastered on it with the 800# for direct sales. I am starting to rewrite policy’s with my other companies.
Insurance dude.
1st of all, the reason why I put the 1996 date is because that is when Berkshire Hathaway bought GEICO, ie: when all the massive advertising started
2nd of all, I know exactly when GEICO started writing insurance in the first place (1936) and who started the company (Leo and Lillian Goodwin). And Warren DOES take care of the advertising.
And lastly, Progressive is larger than GEICO, that is correct. However, a good chunk of their business is written through local agents, and not direct, whereas 100% of GEICO is direct, and when you put that into consideration, GEICO is the largest direct writer of auto insurance in the country.
“That dude is probably a walk-in client, cash in-hand, a day late at 4:45pm. You take his cash, they sweep your account, you make the extra stop to make the deposit, and by the way, he’s going to do it all over again next month and every month thereafter. You’re losing money on these clowns.”
I have a severe dislike for those types of clients. I think we have 1-2 CSRs here who’s full time job could be working with them. And you’re right, its every flipping month. The solution is to have an agency fee on application when they choose to pay monthly, and have your lowest paid employee service the policy thereafter. They’re usually pretty simple situations and policies after all.
Progressive is very good for working with unique situations though. We use them a lot for international students. Writing some of the unique stuff that they do also helps to break the monotony of the everyday stuff.
All of this being said, I now have my doubts about Drive. How does Progressive intend to support Drive once this initial introducation is over with? Will they yank the Drive TV ads and only have their own direct ads? Also, the majority of people who know of Progressive are going to visit PROGRESSIVE’S website for a quote, not DRIVE. Currently Progressive’s site has a small section to link to Drive, but how long will that last? My concern is that this is just a ploy to get more direct business and segregate the agency business. I hope I’m wrong.
JIM IF 60% OF THE AGENCY FORCE DID WHAT YOU ARE DOING & PLACED BUSINESS WITH COMPANIES PAYING 15% PROGRESSIVE WOULD HAVE TOO ALSO.YOU ARE THINKING LONG TERM.
YOU WILL BE THE WINNER NOT PROGRESSIVE.
Don’t go there! The e-mail that I received talking about Drive provided a link to their web page.
The link hijacked by browser–reset my home page and messed up my controls. I’m still trying to clean it up. The web page is just a form of advertisement for a lot of other stuff.
It made me so mad, I’m considering canceling my insurance and going with someone who won’t hijack my internet!!
Don’t go there! The e-mail that I received talking about Drive provided a link to their web page.
The link hijacked by browser–reset my home page and messed up my controls. I’m still trying to clean it up. The web page is just a form of advertisement for a lot of other stuff.
It made me so mad, I’m considering canceling my insurance and going with someone who won’t hijack my internet!!
Is is a coincidence that we get a rate increase in Georgia just as Drive is launched? Is Drive really an effort to get clients to Drive By the Independent Agent and Drive to Progressive Direct?
Are they pricing us out?