Taxi drivers are sent to the pool – Newspaper Kommersant No. 68 (7513) dated 04/19/2023

The share of OSAGO contracts transferred to the reinsurance pool amounted to only 13%. This shows the proportion of unprofitable customers in the segment. At the same time, 80% of such contracts fell on taxi drivers due to increased accident rates. However, experts do not expect an increase in the share of contracts this year due to an increase in the use of new cars.

The share of OSAGO contracts transferred to the reinsurance pool at the end of 2022 was 13%, while taxis accounted for 80% of all such contracts. The data was disclosed on Tuesday, April 18, by the President of the Russian Union of Motor Insurers (RSA) Evgeny Ufimtsev. As Kommersant was explained in the PCA, the number of contracts in the segment sent to the pool reached 3.6 million, by taxi – 95.4 thousand.

The reinsurance pool in OSAGO was created to distribute loss-making customers among all insurers on the market, explains Roman Lobodin, director of the compulsory types of insurance department at AlfaStrakhovanie. Only certain segments of the market with a high unprofitability are transferred to reinsurance, the rest of the business is left by insurers on their own retention, says Andrei Zmiy, head of the corporate insurance department of the Soyuz Insurance brokerage company.

Experts specify that taxis make up a large share of contracts transferred to the pool due to the high accident rate. Aleksey Yanin, Managing Director for Ratings of Insurance and Investment Companies of Expert RA, believes that this segment is financially unattractive for insurers, since there is a high level of unprofitability. The frequency of insured accidents under OSAGO, in which taxi drivers were the culprits, amounted to 33%, which is almost seven times higher than the frequency of insured accidents under OSAGO on average in the Russian Federation, noted in the PCA.

Independent expert Andrei Barkhota explains that a significantly higher share of unprofitability for cars in taxis is explained by the greater wear and tear of cars due to their active use. In addition, this is due to the actively used option to change taxi drivers in one car, the expert points out.

At the same time, the current share of OSAGO contracts transferred to the reinsurance pool (13%) roughly reflects the share of unprofitable clients, notes Andrey Zmiy. Tatyana Nikitina, senior director of NRA ratings for financial companies, clarifies that insurers transfer obligations for various categories of drivers in high-loss regions to the pool. In regions with an average and low level of unprofitability, drivers with a high BMR (bonus-malus ratio determines the level of insurance premium), short experience and taxi drivers usually fall into the pool, she adds.

Insurers incur costs if they transfer the policy to the pool. Roman Lobodin notes that the insurer transfers part of the insurance premium under the contracts transferred to the pool according to the market share and receives a share in the losses of the reinsurance pool also according to the market share. According to the PCA, the average premium for OSAGO for taxis at the end of 2022 was about 23 thousand rubles, the average premium for OSAGO in the whole of the Russian Federation was about 6.8 thousand rubles. However, Andrey Zmiy assures that the transfer to the reinsurance pool reduces the losses of the insurer, distributing them among all participants in this pool.

At the end of 2023, experts do not expect that the share of OSAGO contracts transferred to the reinsurance pool will change significantly. The dynamics will directly depend on the cost of car repairs, Alexei Yanin believes. The growth of unprofitability will hold back the involvement of new Chinese cars, as well as an increase in OSAGO tariffs. According to Andrei Barkhota, it is possible to manage unprofitability through tariffs – reduce them for new cars and for one driver, raising it for taxis. The justification will be the increase in the cost of spare parts for cars of automakers that left the Russian Federation. This will encourage taxi companies to buy new Chinese cars, for which, he notes, the accident rate and unprofitability are lower.

Julia Poslavskaya