This article is meant for auto insurance brokers in BC.
If you haven’t already heard, ICBC will be making big changes to how Autoplan works starting September 1st, 2019. I’ve gotten many questions from students and brokers about the upcoming ICBC reform and figured I would respond with a short guide highlighting the features of this new system.
Calculating Your Basic Autoplan Premium
The calculation for determining basic premiums is roughly the same as before. The base premium is set at $1063/yr. Your basic premium will be equal to your base premium × driver category multiplier × vehicle category multiplier.
The vehicle category part of this equation is relatively unchanged. Your multiplier is based on rate class, territory, etc.
Where the biggest change has taken place is in the driver category part where it factors in driving experience, at-fault crash history, and listed drivers.
Individual Driving Factor (IDF) and Combined Driving Factor (CDF) to replace the Claims Rated Scale (CRS)
The biggest change here is that they are abolishing the CRS and replacing it with IDF and CDF (if there are multiple listed drivers on the policy).
Individual Driving Factor (IDF)
The individual driving factor is based on up to 40 years experience. ICBC will factor in out of province experience for a maximum of 15 years . That means even if you have 50 years of out of province driving experience, they will only give you 15 years credit here in BC.
Another important change is the length of the claims scan. ICBC will now look at crash histories for up to 10 years and penalize at-fault drivers accordingly. Penalties for at-fault crashes are harsh so make sure you raise this with your clients when they’re deciding whether to buy out a claim or not.
Note: losses before March 1st, 2017 (calculated based on loss settlement date NOT the occurrence date) are not counted.
That said, it’s not all bad. There are new discounts that can help your clients save money.
- Low KM Discount: you can get a 10% discount on premiums if you drive less than 5000km per year
- Automatic Braking System Discount: if your car is equipped with automatic braking systems installed by the manufacturer (like Volkswagen’s Front Assist system), you’re eligible for another 10% discount.
- Learner Protection: past claims made by a driver while they were a Learner does not count towards your IDF
- 10 Year Accident Forgiveness: if you’ve had your license for more than 20 years, and 10 years experience in BC, you can have 1 accident forgiven every 10 claim-free years.
- Senior Discounts: applicants over 65 years old and are the principle drivers and registered owner insuring their cars for pleasure use are eligible for a discount
- Disability Discount: 25% off
Combined Driving Factor (CDF)
If you have more than 1 person who might drive the vehicle (listed drivers), the CDF comes into play to weight different drivers’ IDF’s to arrive at the final driver category multiplier instead of relying solely on the Principal Operator’s CRS (as it was under the old system).
Note: the principal operator/driver is the one who has care/custody of the car more than any other listed driver. Principal drivers can be changed midterm when adding/removing a listed driver(s).
If there is a Principal Driver (PD) listed, the CDF will be based on 75% of the PD’s IDF score and 25% based on the listed driver with the worst IDF score.
If the PD is a Learner, the CDF is based on the listed driver with the highest IDF.
If the PD is a Learner and the Owner and there are no other listed drivers, they pay the default rate.
If there is no PD listed on the policy, the CDF will be based on 50% of the listed driver with the worst IDF score and 50% on the 2nd worst listed driver.
If there are no listed drivers (ie. in the case of a car purchased and insured for rental use), the premium is set at 2 times the base premium for personal vehicles and 1 time the base premium for company vehicles.
You can lower your CDF by adding a driver onto the policy that has a better IDF to pull the average down. BUT, this driver has to be a direct family member.
Listed Drivers
When you’re processing a renewal or a new policy after September 1st, 2019, you need to ask your clients about listed drivers. These are the people that need to be listed on the policy (and their IDF’s will be used to calculate your CDF using the weightings discussed above).
- Household members who might use the vehicle
- Employees
- Someone who might use the car more than 12 times a year
- Someone who had made a claim on their policy as an unlisted driver and you intend to allow them to drive the vehicle again
Note: people with no BC drivers license can still be a listed driver.
If an unlisted driver causes a crash and you did not buy Unlisted Driver Protection, the loss is still paid but a penalty would be applied.
Driving Convictions and Tickets
Driving convictions and tickets received after June 10, 2019 will affect the premium on your optional coverages. This is based on the conviction date (the date the ticket was paid) instead of the violation date (the date the ticket was issued).
Transition Factor
ICBC recognizes that some drivers will experience large premium increases. To help smooth out this process, insureds that are renewing will have their increases limited to a maximum of 20% until 2027. But if you’re taking out a new insurance policy (ie. cancelling and doing a new one), you do not have these protections so be careful with cancellations.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the changes/details and it does not include what ICBC plans to do with the optional coverages. It’s just to give you a basic understanding of the upcoming changes as I understand it now. Once I learn more, I’ll likely update this article.
Either way, I hope this helps shed some light on the new changes and enables you to better answer questions your clients might have.
If you have any comments about this article or corrections, definitely contact us.