Tag Archives: Driving

Factbox: Insurers return part of auto premiums as coronavirus cuts driving

(Reuters) – Major U.S. insurers are offering credit to auto and motorcycle policyholders following a decline in driving, as most Americans stay at home under widespread orders to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Following is a list of companies that have offered to return premiums:

ALLSTATE CORP

Allstate, one of the largest U.S. auto insurers, said it would return more than $1 billion in premiums to customers. Most customers will receive a “payback” of 15% of their monthly premium for April, May and June, the company said.

AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE

The auto insurer said it will return additional money to customers, taking the total to $425 million, through a 10% credit on personal auto policies in force from July to December end, and expanded discounts.

The company had begun the exercise in mid-April, when it said customers will receive $50 per vehicle covered by their policies, the company said.

AVIVA CANADA

Aviva Canada said it was offering $100 million in additional immediate relief measures to drivers, including options that would reduce insurance premiums. Customers who have stopped driving entirely could reduce their auto insurance premiums by up to 75%.

CHUBB <CB.BN>

The world’s largest listed property and casualty insurance company said it will give personal auto insurance clients in the United States credit on annual renewal premiums, reflecting a 35% cut for the months of April and May.

ERIE INSURANCE

The insurer said it would provide $200 million in dividends to personal and auto insurance customers in 12 states and the District of Columbia. This is in addition to the $200 million in rate reductions announced previously, bringing the total announced relief to $400 million.

FARMERS INSURANCE

Farmers and 21st Century-branded auto customers will receive a 25% reduction in their April premium. The insurer said it has also implemented flexible payment plans and a temporary pause on cancellations.

GEICO

Geico Corp, part of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said it will offer about $2.5 billion of credits to its 19 million auto and motorcycle policyholders. The insurer said it will offer a 15% credit on policies up for renewal between April 8 and Oct. 7, averaging about $150 per auto policy and $30 per motorcycle policy.

HANOVER INSURANCE GROUP

The company said it will return 15% of April and May auto premiums to its eligible personal lines customers. Hanover will also offer flexible bill payment options.

LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE

Liberty Mutual Insurance will give personal auto insurance customers a 15% refund on two months of their annual premium, returning about $250 million to Liberty Mutual and Safeco personal auto insurance customers.

METLIFE

The company said it is providing financial relief and preserving coverage in the event of missed payments. Active MetLife auto customers, who have paid to date, will receive a 15% credit for April and May based on their monthly premiums.

PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE CORP

Among the largest U.S. auto insurers, Progressive said it would provide about $1 billion to personal auto customers. The company will credit eligible customers 20% of their April and May premiums.

STATE FARM

The largest U.S. auto insurer said it would pay $2 billion in dividends to its customers, with premium credit of about 25% for the period between March 20 and May 31.

The company also said it was working to reduce auto insurance rates in every state. The national average for the cuts is 11%, saving customers a total of about $2.2 billion.

TRAVELERS COMPANIES INC <TRV.N>

The insurer said it was giving U.S. personal auto insurance customers a 15% credit on their April and May premiums through its new stay-at-home auto premium credit program. It said it will continue to provide auto coverage to customers whose jobs include using their personal vehicles to make food, grocery, pharmacy and medical supply deliveries.

USAA

USAA, America’s fifth-largest property-casualty insurer, said it will return a total of $800 million to its members.

Source: Company data

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni, Leslie Adler, Stev Orlofsky, Anil D’Silva, Shinjini Ganguli and Shailesh Kuber)

Factbox: Insurers return part of auto premiums as coronavirus cuts driving

(Reuters) – Major U.S. insurers are offering credit to auto and motorcycle policyholders following a decline in driving, as most Americans stay at home under widespread orders to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Following is a list of companies that have offered to return premiums.

ALLSTATE CORP

Allstate, one of the largest U.S. auto insurers, said on Monday it would return more than $600 million in premiums to customers. Most customers will receive a “payback” of 15% of their monthly premium in April and May, the company said.

AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE

The auto insurer said it would return a total of $200 million to auto insurance customers beginning in mid-April. Customers will receive $50 per vehicle covered by their policies, the company said.

AVIVA CANADA

Aviva Canada said it was offering $100 million in additional immediate relief measures to drivers, including options that would reduce insurance premiums. Customers who have stopped driving entirely could reduce their auto insurance premiums by up to 75%.

CHUBB

The world’s largest-listed property and casualty insurance company said it will give personal auto insurance clients in the United States credit on annual renewal premiums, reflecting a 35% cut for the months of April and May.

ERIE INSURANCE

The insurer said it would reduce rates for personal and commercial auto insurance customers in 12 states and the District of Columbia. It estimated the amount of financial relief for Erie Insurance customers to be about $200 million.

FARMERS INSURANCE

Farmers and 21st Century-branded auto customers will receive a 25% reduction in their April premium. The insurer said it has also implemented flexible payment plans and a temporary pause on cancellations.

GEICO

Geico Corp, part of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc , said it will offer about $2.5 billion of credits to its 19 million auto and motorcycle policyholders. The insurer said it will offer a 15% credit on policies up for renewal between April 8 and Oct. 7, averaging about $150 per auto policy and $30 per motorcycle policy.

HANOVER INSURANCE GROUP

The company said  it will return 15% of April and May auto premiums to its eligible personal lines customers. Hanover will also offer flexible bill payment options.

LIBERTY MUTUAL INSURANCE

Liberty Mutual Insurance will give personal auto insurance customers a 15% refund on two months of their annual premium, returning about $250 million to Liberty Mutual and Safeco personal auto insurance customers.

METLIFE

The company said it is providing financial relief and preserving coverage in the event of missed payments. Active MetLife auto customers, who have paid to date, will receive a 15% credit for April and May based on their monthly premiums.

PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE CORP

Among the largest U.S. auto insurers, Progressive said it would provide about $1 billion to personal auto customers. The company will credit eligible customers 20% of their April and May premiums.

STATE FARM

The largest U.S. auto insurer said it would pay $2 billion in dividend to its customers, with premium credit of about 25% for the period between March 20 and May 31.

TRAVELERS COMPANIES INC

The insurer said  it was giving U.S. personal auto insurance customers a 15% credit on their April and May premiums through its new stay-at-home auto premium credit program. It said it will continue to provide auto coverage to customers whose jobs include using their personal vehicles to make food, grocery, pharmacy and medical supply deliveries.

USAA

USAA, America’s fifth largest property-casualty insurer, said  it will return $520 million to its members. Every member with an auto insurance policy in effect as of March 31 will receive a 20% credit on two months of premiums in the coming weeks.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni, Leslie Adler, Stev Orlofsky and Shinjini Ganguli)

Saudi Arabia’s women drivers get ready to steer their lives

Driving instructor Ahlam al-Somali (R) reads instructions before getting ready to drive with trainee Maria al-Faraj at Saudi Aramco Driving Center in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, June 6, 2018. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – On June 24, when Saudi women are allowed to drive for the first time, Amira Abdulgader wants to be sitting at the wheel, the one in control, giving a ride to her mother beside her.

“Sitting behind the wheel (means) that you are the one controlling the trip,” said the architect, dressed in a black veil, who has just finished learning to drive. “I would like to control every single detail of my trip. I will be the one to decide when to go, what to do, and when I will come back.”

Abdulgader is one of about 200 women at the state oil firm Aramco taking advantage of a company offer to teach female employees and their families at its driving academy in Dhahran to support the social revolution sweeping the kingdom.

“We need the car to do our daily activities. We are working, we are mothers, we have a lot of social networking, we need to go out – so we need transport,” she said. “It will change my life.” (Click for Wider Image picture essay https://reut.rs/2thn2qN )

Women make up about five percent of Aramco’s 66,000 staff, meaning that 3,000 more could eventually enroll in the driving school.

Last September, King Salman decreed an end to the world’s only ban on women drivers, maintained for decades by Saudi Arabia’s deeply conservative Muslim establishment.

But it is his son, 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the face of the wider social revolution.

Many young Saudis regard his ascent to power as proof that their generation is finally getting a share of control over a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of old men.

For Abdulgader, June 24 will be the day to celebrate that change, and there is only one person she wants to share it with.

“On June 24, I would like to go to my mother’s house and take her for a ride. This is my first plan actually, and I would like really to enjoy it with my mother. Just me and my mother, without anyone else.”

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Alison Williams)

U.S. pedestrian deaths surge; experts see tie to cellphones

FILE PHOTO: A woman crouches down to take a cell phone photograph as pedestrians walk past in New York, U.S., October 19, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

By Tom James

(Reuters) – U.S. pedestrian deaths rose sharply for the second year in a row in 2016, according to a study released on Thursday, a trend experts said mirrors increased driver cellphone use and distracted driving.

Last year saw an 11 percent rise in pedestrian deaths over 2015, making it the largest increase in the 40 years that national records have been kept, according to officials with the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety offices and commissioned the research.

This followed a 9.5 percent increase in 2015.

The study’s author, Richard Retting, called the results “frankly quite startling,” adding that “there’s clearly something happening. This is not a one-off.”

Retting said that he viewed the surge as largely attributable to cellphone use, saying that while it was statistically difficult to rule out other causes entirely, the coinciding rise in deaths and cellphone use suggests a connection.

None of the other factors typically affecting pedestrian deaths – such as population growth, yearly miles driven and walked in the United States – tracked the rise as closely as cellphone use.

Retting said wireless data use on cellphones has shot up dramatically, with 2014-15, the most recent period for which numbers are available, seeing a doubling of the amount of mobile data used in the United States and a 45 percent increase in the number of multimedia messages sent.

A 2016 U.S. Department of Transportation study showed that, while overall numbers for cellphone use in 2014 and 2015 remained relatively flat, the rate of drivers holding up phones and using their hands to manipulate them had more than doubled since 2009, and among the youngest drivers had more than quadrupled.

The replacement of flip phones by smartphones has also increased the risk, said Charlie Klauer, a lead researcher at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

“Smartphones are much much harder to use … and they are far more capable,” Klauer said. “Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook: All of it makes them very dangerous.”

Distracted drivers can also be difficult to catch. While 14 states ban all handheld cellphone use while driving, 32 only prohibit texting, forcing officers to prove drivers seen holding or touching phones were not doing something else, said Kara Macek, a spokeswoman for the governor’s association.

Results among states were mixed in the survey. While 34 saw an increase, 15 states and the District of Columbia saw decreases, and Maine saw no change.

(Reporting by Tom James in Seattle; editing by Patrick Enright and Cynthia Osterman)

Utah enacts lowest U.S. drunken-driving limit

FILE PHOTO: Utah Governor Gary Herbert talks about the state's economic development in Salt Lake City, Utah January 11, 2012. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo

By Tom James

(Reuters) – Utah Governor Gary Herbert on Thursday signed a law setting the blood alcohol limit for drunken driving at 0.05, the lowest threshold in the United States, over strong objections from the restaurant and beverage industry.

The proposal lowers the predominantly Mormon state’s blood-alcohol limit from 0.08, currently the standard across all U.S. states, to 0.05 as of Dec. 31, 2018, to try to improve road safety in the state.

“I signed (the bill) into law to help strengthen Utah’s impaired driving laws and to reduce the number of alcohol-related deaths on our roads,” Herbert said in a statement Thursday.

Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association, said her organization and other industry groups opposed the measure and see it as likely to hurt the hospitality industry in the state.

“It will be punishing those people who drink responsibly, and go out and enjoy an evening,” Sine said.

The American Beverage Institute, a lobbying group, which had previously taken out ads advocating against the measure in newspapers in the state, earlier condemned Herbert’s plan to sign the bill.

Herbert also said he would call a special legislative session to address the “unintended and collateral consequences” of the law, and to help “modify and improve it.”

The National Transportation Safety Board has advocated for a national 0.05 limit, and its representatives testified twice in support of the Utah bill before the legislature, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The board said studies show that impairment starts after one drink, even at blood-alcohol levels as low as 0.04, the limit for commercial truck drivers nationwide.

(Reporting by Tom James in Seattle; Editing by Sandra Maler)