Progressive Insurance

I won't ever use Progressive. Have no idea if they are any good or not, but the top players in the company pumped a lot of money into the gay lobby part of the last couple elections in the state of Iowa and got some good candidates defeated so then they could push for the gay marriage thing we got now. True, the Iowa Supreme Court made the ruling, but the legislature can override the court. None of my money will ever go to Progressive. What they do with their own money is their business. To each his own.

Give former Iowa Congressman Danny Carroll a call and find out for yourself. dannycarroll.com

 

Progressive has been experimenting with writing for 48 states. Right now only a handful of agents can write 48 state coverage, according to one insurance agent with whom I spoke. For the most part, they still limit coverage to a certain radius, but will allow a few longer hauls. I think they will eventually move toward 48 states for all of their agents.

 

First I'd heard of that, that's really frustrating. Not to turn this into a political discussion, but I wish there was a reasonable way to get this kind of money out of politics without crushing the first amendment, or limiting what groups like the NRA, OOIDA, NAACP, etc could do.

 

I have ins with Progressive and did get an exception on the radius to 700 miles when the policy was started so I could get out west to the I-35 corridor without a hassle. I found out after the fact that the unlimited radius deals could only be had through a local agent in one of those states, including mine. Since the agent I went with was not in Georgia, he could not write it. Even with the radius there are exceptions as in 5 weeks per year and you have to notify the agent when you do it. Even if you don't, you're covered in 48 states. Although you could be cancelled or not renewed if they discover you've exceeded the radius on a regular basis.

Since then, I recently changed business form from partnership to corp. At first when I approached my agent to get the policy updated, my quote went WAY up but included no radius. He never has been able to tell me exactly what the increase was attributed to (going to inc form, a HOS violation in May, no radius), much less what affected the rate by how much. At the end, he said he got an "exception" from the company to let our existing quote stand and handle the change as an administrative change. That uncertainty is the reason I am shopping insurance again. I've lost confidence with my agent, not the company. I've since shopped a couple of agents in the Atlanta area that sound interested to get my business.

Here's my thoughts, your mileage may vary:

The radius has been a non-issue for us. I can see where it would be a huge deal out west. I negotiated it up from 500 to 700 when I was shopping. Fact is, the few long hauls I've called on were too cheap to take. We've done good business inside the radius, with our location being about ideal for such a thing. I've only needed to notify once and it was a deal worth pursuing. We only went out to 1,000 miles for 4 days! There were two others where I missed it by a 100 miles or so, and have since cleared it with my agent.

You can be profitable staying close to home base. You just have to establish your market and place the truck wisely. What that leads to is relationships with good customers that will load you at a decent rate without a lot of BS. Once they figure out you are a safe/reliable carrier and where you want to run your truck, it's in their interest to find freight that you will take. You don't get that by cold calling off the load boards.

Insurance rates are really not that big a deal. My inflated rate (driver with a major violation that hits three years next May, plus being a new carrier) adds 5¢ a mile to my operating cost. That's $25 on a 500 mile run. I can find a lot of ways to recover $25. The easiest way is just to ask for an extra $200 on the rate and meet in the middle at $100 LOL. I'm not saying ignore your ins rates - every dollar counts. But put it into perspective and don't think the sky is falling if your rate is higher than someone else's.

Our hard work and many dollars spent to keep the truck clean safety-wise is already paying off after only six months in business. Insurance agents that would hang up on me back in March are talking now. I've got a couple of quotes pending that may work out for some decent savings and open up the radius of operation. By next June, I'll be in an even better position with clean 3-yr MVR on my son. Even if I get 48 states, we probably won't change much with our market unless something irresistible comes along. That is, when that radius goes away I won't suddenly try to get loaded out to the west coast. But if a customer offers something good, I'll listen a little closer.

Overall I'm happy with Progressive as a company. I also have my motorcycles insured with them. They were the only company that didn't get all sketchy when I wanted to insure two antiques at a stated value. I went direct with that policy and they only required pictures to validate the condition and vin plates. Since one is a custom, the specialized companies (Hagerty's and the like) wouldn't do it, or wanted 3x what Progressive quoted with all sorts of conditions. With Progressive it was dead simple and the rate was better than two other companies that wanted a yard of paperwork just to get a quote. Obviously a commercial policy is a lot different than this, but the experience with the company on my truck policy has been similar.

 

I am on my third insurance agent with the same insurance company. My current agent was able to give me a better rate than the other two. I don't know if it is the agent and how they package my business or other factors. I have always had a good safety record. In the past I have had drivers with perhaps one or two moving violations, but nothing serious. That could also have had an impact on my premiums. I plan on staying with my agent as long as they can continue to give me good service and keep premiums low. I did have an increase of about $140 this year, but that isn't too much.I usually hope for my premium going a bit lower. I have never had a claim with them and I am certain that is a factor in keeping my premiums low.

One thing that has surprised me over the years is how much of a differential there can be with different insurance companies. All have exactly the same information on my company and drivers. Another thing that has always surprised me is how I can have a rate that is good and someone else may get a higher rate or vice versa. I have always gotten a high rate from Great West, yet I know a guy who gets a good rate from them. We do live in different states. I don't understand why I would be getting a high rate from Great West than this guy. To tell you the truth, I don't really want to do business with Great West due to a problem I had collecting from them when one of their insured backed into one of my trucks several years ago. I would still like for them to be more competitive.

 

That's really interesting, I think you and I are in the same state, and my local Great West agent beats the closest competitor by over $200/yr. I'm a one truck show, but surely that doesn't matter. I also got backed into by one of their insureds (Halvor Lines) and only had to get one estimate and send them pictures, and they sent me a check that day. Go figure.

 

I run 48 with Progressive and they asked and know it.

 

Just be thankful that you have a variety of Insurance companies that compete on rates.

In Ontario, I think there are only 2, maybe 3 Insurance companies that write for the trucking biz. So ... we get raped ... usually anywhere from $9- 12,000 a year for same insurance you guys have.

 

We are only about 100 miles from one another, josh. I am in Chattanooga. When my truck was hit by a Great West insured, they paid for the repairs fairly quickly, but I had a problem collecting on the down time while the truck was in the shop. It went on for several months. My truck was in the shop for several weeks.

I did have a Great West agent bid on my business. I don't remember if it was him or another agent who came back with a premium of about $800-1,000 higher than my current agent. They once came back with a premium of several thousand dollars higher than my current company. I did have a couple of them who got closer to what I currently pay. If you take away the general liability that the Great West agent took upon himself to include there was only a few hundred dollars difference.

 

My experience with progressive has been great. i could care less about the political shizz mentioned earlier. Any claims have been handled with no issues, rates are good. Plus my wife has worked for them for the last 10 years. I have seen how they handle things as a customer and from the inside and they are a great upstanding company..