How much money do Insurance companies really spend on SS claims? | GTAMotorcycle.com

How much money do Insurance companies really spend on SS claims?

Sebi

Don't call me Shirley
Site Supporter
I'm curios if there is anyone here in the industry that could perhaps shed some light into some statistics on claims made by SS in terms of what kind of claim (Ie. theft, at fault collision etc) was made and their frequency relative to other bike types. I'm sure SS's have a statistically higher chance of having an accident due to their average buyer demographic and speed/acceleration capabilities but what about hard concrete facts? Are claims on SS's really that frequent to justify the perverse rates?
 
I'd be willing to wager a bowl of soup
you're never going to see that data released publicly
 
How much money do Insurance companies really spend on SS claims?

As little as possible :agave:
 
The majority of your premium on any bike is allocated to the accident benefits portion of the policy. Fixing the human being on the bike is where most claims dollars are paid.
Then in the last 47 years of paying insurance premiums they turned a nice tidy 6 figure profit on me.
 
How much of a subsidy from the rest of us do you need?
 
If sport bikes pay the most insurance $ (and in my experience they do) and the insurance company raises their rates across the board by x% because cars cost more to fix and people spend too much time on their phone, guess who pays the most extra cash. We are subsidizing the automotive industry more then any other sector and that !@#$% has to stop or the industry is gonna go broke.
 
Highly unlikely you would get that info, insurers likely don't keep stats on "SS" bikes, as you know each bike has it's own rating cat, (hence some owners are told they won't insurer bike X but they will insure bike Y, (both of which, as riders we consider SS). The insurers will blacklist some bikes but not all within a category. IE if suddenly Suzuki Boulevard cruiser experienced a high number of claims they may blacklist that bike but not blacklist "cruisers"

Also because some insurers consider a certain model as SS, doesn't mean other insurers do, so it would by nearly impossible to compile such a stat.

I'm curios if there is anyone here in the industry that could perhaps shed some light into some statistics on claims made by SS in terms of what kind of claim (Ie. theft, at fault collision etc) was made and their frequency relative to other bike types. I'm sure SS's have a statistically higher chance of having an accident due to their average buyer demographic and speed/acceleration capabilities but what about hard concrete facts? Are claims on SS's really that frequent to justify the perverse rates?
 
Actuaries are members of a secret society
also, they are geeks of the highest order
their practices and the data behind them are locked up tight
 
If sport bikes pay the most insurance $ (and in my experience they do) and the insurance company raises their rates across the board by x% because cars cost more to fix and people spend too much time on their phone, guess who pays the most extra cash. We are subsidizing the automotive industry more then any other sector and that !@#$% has to stop or the industry is gonna go broke.
You'd have to use the new new new math to come to that conclusion. i.e. SS pays most per vehicle (cost per vehicle), autos have more accidents (raw number of accidents), instead of looking at proportions, to find that SS "subsidizes". Autos pay way more raw money into insurance than motorcycles. If a class of motorcycle has a disproportionate number of accidents for it's percentage of the number of vehicles, then insurance should rise for that class. It could also be that a subclass of SS riders have way more accidents, so regular SS riders might subsidize them until they too enter the subclass.
 
Actually the Insurance Bureau of Canada sets the ratings for each bike model and the insurance companies base their rates on the IBC's rating. I just recently managed to have one of my bikes (Kawasaki Z900RS SE) which is a retro standard but was rated as a Sport/Naked Sport motorcycle by IBC so the insurance rates were outrageous. I have a Triumph Speed Triple that is $675 a year and the Kawasaki is almost $1200. I lobbied the IBC and this is what I got back finally:

Good afternoon Mr. xxxx,

I do apologise for the delay in getting back to you.
We have thoroughly reviewed your concerns regarding the classification of the Kawasaki Z900RS SE.
It has been decided that the current classification of Sport / Naked Sport is not appropriate for this particular model.
The necessary corrections have now been processed and the Kawasaki Z900RS and the Z900RS SE now appear in our database classified as a “Standard” motorcycle.

Please note the changes have only just been made in our database. If any insurance companies happen to still show the old classification, they may not have downloaded the updated files yet. But you can let them know you have confirmation directly from IBC that it has been changed.

Hopefully this addresses your concerns. And again, I appreciate your patience as the issue was looked into. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know.

Kindest regards,

____________________________________________________________
Ryan T. Barrowman
Research Analyst
Industry Products
Insurance Bureau of Canada
 
Actually the Insurance Bureau of Canada sets the ratings for each bike model and the insurance companies base their rates on the IBC's rating. I just recently managed to have one of my bikes (Kawasaki Z900RS SE) which is a retro standard but was rated as a Sport/Naked Sport motorcycle by IBC so the insurance rates were outrageous. I have a Triumph Speed Triple that is $675 a year and the Kawasaki is almost $1200. I lobbied the IBC and this is what I got back finally:

Good afternoon Mr. xxxx,

I do apologise for the delay in getting back to you.
We have thoroughly reviewed your concerns regarding the classification of the Kawasaki Z900RS SE.
It has been decided that the current classification of Sport / Naked Sport is not appropriate for this particular model.
The necessary corrections have now been processed and the Kawasaki Z900RS and the Z900RS SE now appear in our database classified as a “Standard” motorcycle.

Please note the changes have only just been made in our database. If any insurance companies happen to still show the old classification, they may not have downloaded the updated files yet. But you can let them know you have confirmation directly from IBC that it has been changed.

Hopefully this addresses your concerns. And again, I appreciate your patience as the issue was looked into. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know.

Kindest regards,

____________________________________________________________
Ryan T. Barrowman
Research Analyst
Industry Products
Insurance Bureau of Canada

Where did you get the classification information from? I checked the IBC site, but it doesn't look easily accessible at first glance.
 
I didn't I just knew the z900RS was classified wrong due to the high insurance rate I was being quoted.
 
I didn't I just knew the z900RS was classified wrong due to the high insurance rate I was being quoted.

lol damn!

I was hunting for a replacement for the fz09 before i got the Grom. Now i didn't actually spend much time shopping around but this is the result:

FZ10 was $25 more a month
S1KR - $2,500
GSXS - $2,500
Tuono - $2,500

/boggle
 
Insurance companies don't actually study motorcyclists in great detail, it's too small a market for them. They guess based on what they know about car drivers. They know bike risks are different -- they don't know what is different and they really don't care. That's why yu'll never see innovative products for insuring bikes.

Every wonder why accident stats show 45-60 year old cruiser riders as the highest category for claims and fatalities yet insurers charge them the least? Or why a 30 year old doctor pays $1300 to insure a SS while a Store Manager pays double? It's because they rate bike risk based n what they know about card drivers.
 

Back
Top Bottom