N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 11 § 168.1
Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 50, December 11, 2024
(a) Section 2332 of the Insurance Law requires that all rates, rating plans, rating rules and rate manuals approved to be effective on and after January 1, 1981, which are applicable to noncommercial private passenger automobile collision, no-fault, bodily injury liability and property damage liability coverages, shall reflect "______ an appropriate rate differential between an experienced and inexperienced principal operator." The enactment of section 2332 represents a legislative recognition that experienced drivers will have significantly better accident records and lower insurance losses than inexperienced drivers. Pursuant to statutory requirement, the superintendent conducted a public hearing on the subject of a rate differential between experienced and inexperienced operators. The purpose of this implementing regulation, which requires a differential for inexperienced drivers, is to eliminate or minimize subsidization of inexperienced drivers by experienced drivers.(b) A substantial number of insurers currently utilize some form of surcharge for inexperienced drivers above the rate for experienced drivers. Surcharges for inexperience vary among insurers, but average approximately 20 percent above their rates for experienced drivers. Leading insurers submitted preliminary data during the course of the public hearing which indicated that loss ratios for inexperienced drivers (i.e., those licensed less than three years) were substantially greater than 20 percent above the loss ratios of experienced drivers (i.e., those licensed three or more years).(c) A review of all information available at this time indicates that a differential for inexperienced drivers of at least 20 percent is justified. It would be inappropriate to require a larger initial minimum differential, because: (1) prior to the enactment of section 2332, most insurers' statistical plans did not require that loss data be maintained on inexperienced operators. Because the number of inexperienced drivers is relatively small in relation to the total number of drivers, even those insurers which have maintained such a classification have difficulty in assembling credible statistics;(2) insurer classification systems and books of business vary widely, making it difficult to rigidly apply the experience of one insurer to that of another; and(3) the minimum differential prescribed by this regulation will result in a rate increase for many inexperienced drivers (offset by an actuarially equivalent decrease for experienced drivers). The initial minimum increase for inexperienced drivers has thus been tempered until more comprehensive data become available for each insurer.
N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 11 § 168.1