Commercial auto opened 2026 with a wall of approved increases — and the books are big.
Approved in January 2026: high-impact, rate-increase filings touching 1,000+ policyholders each across workers comp and commercial auto in the Northeast. Auto dominates. Several carriers tempered double-digit hikes below their own indicated need, which is the tell that more is coming. Here's what your clients are about to feel.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Massachusetts' residual market resets the floor: limos +15%, long-haul +24.4%
Approved January 5, effective March 1. Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers — the Massachusetts residual market — re-prices a 47,200-policyholder, $244.6M book that every carrier in the state benchmarks against. Limousine services take 15%, taxis 11%, and zone-rated long-distance haulers a steep 24.4%. The filing also raises compulsory minimum limits to 25/50/30, so even flat-rated risks pay more.
Garage liability is the lone bright spot, down 6.2%. Because CAR rates anchor the voluntary market, this filing pushes the whole Massachusetts commercial-auto floor higher for 2026.
Also Approved This Cycle
Hereford starts a phased 16% on NYC livery — and halves PIP limits
8.9% hits now; the state approved a phase-in to 16% through 2028. Hereford also cuts default Additional PIP from $150,000 to $50,000 and strips the Collision Avoidance, Luxury Vehicle and TLC Safe Driver discounts. Black-car and ambulette fleets feel it most.
State Farm lifts NY commercial auto 19% — liability +25%
Overall 19%, but BIPD liability jumps a full 25% and some APIP coverages nearly 38%. The driver: a 199% commercial-auto combined ratio in 2023 and loss reserves up 119% since 2022. The carrier says losses are deteriorating four times faster than before — read this as a first installment.
GEICO raises Ohio fleets 18.2% as it moves into heavy trucks
BIPD rises 20.7% on average; nearly 1 in 4 accounts could see 25%+. GEICO is expanding into heavy trucks and for-hire transport, cites a 100% BIPD loss trend, and admits its own data is too thin — so it benchmarked Progressive to set the rates.
Intact cuts WC up to 25% for tech and finance
The exception that proves the rule: Intact opens a Super Preferred tier (0.75 multiplier) cutting workers-comp rates up to 25% for established Massachusetts technology and financial-services firms with clean loss runs. A real placement opportunity for a narrow, low-hazard class.
Why only one workers comp story?
WC was quiet for rate increases this window. The large approved WC filings in the Northeast were favorable or neutral — Intact's tech/finance cut is the standout, and most bureau loss-cost adoptions landed flat to down. Commercial auto carried the month. That contrast — a client's auto premium jumping 19% while their comp holds or falls — is your conversation starter.
The package market moved too — and State Farm is pulling discretionary discounts off the table.
Same screen, every other commercial line approved in January. CMP and businessowners dominate, and the common thread is carriers narrowing underwriter discretion: when the credits you used to lean on disappear, the 'average' renewal climbs even without a rate change.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
State Farm's NY package filing: 17.7% average, and the discount door is closing
Approved January 29. State Farm raises its New York commercial multi-peril book 17.7% on average across 24,649 policyholders and $70.6M in premium. Syracuse-area warehouse lessors take up to 26.7%, and one Manhattan restaurant with incidental alcohol saw a $19,883 increase.
The structural sting: State Farm nearly triples the premium threshold to qualify for discretionary IRPM credits, to $10,000. Mid-sized apartment and condo accounts that relied on those credits lose them — a quiet increase on top of the headline number.
Two Filings Worth a Closer Look
State Farm hits CT rental condos with +43% and a doubled deductible
The region's only severity-5 rate increase this cycle. State Farm raises rental-unit (Other CMP) rates 43% on average, rebases the all-peril deductible from $500 to $1,000, cuts the sprinkler discount from 5% to 1%, and removes many alarm credits. Safe properties pay more, not less. Effective April 15.
CNA caps underwriter discretion on community associations
CNA takes 5.5% on average but 12% for HOAs over 250 units — against a 30.9% indicated need — and caps individual risk modification at +/-25%. Larger associations are penalized by design, and agents lose room to negotiate. Effective December 1.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NY | Carolina Casualty (Berkley) | Other Liability — GL | 4 / 5 | 1,889 | Aug 1, 2026 |
| NY | Various | Other Liability — CGL | 4 / 5 | 1,012 | May 1, 2026 |
Also on the radar
A cluster of severity-3 businessowners increases just misses our impact bar but carries reach: NorGUARD-tier WC consolidation and Hanover small-commercial re-rates are queued for later cycles. And a large NY commercial-package book changed hands mid-month — those mid-sized apartment and condo accounts that lost their State Farm IRPM credits are effectively shopping right now.
Third-party data is now setting commercial-auto price — credit scores moved into the rating engine.
Same region, the structural changes the rate number hides: scoring models, underwriting-guideline revisions and coverage cuts approved in January. The headline this month is credit-based scoring entering commercial auto — two major carriers wired third-party scores into their tiering.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · Structural Signal
The Hartford wires a TransUnion credit score into commercial-auto tiering
Approved January 14, effective January 15. The Hartford raises its Ohio truck/tractor/trailer book ~11% but the real story is the engine: a new TransUnion CreditVision insurance score becomes a primary tiering variable, with tier factors swinging from 0.46 to 2.50 across a 70-level matrix built on 13 underwriting variables.
Business credit inquiries now directly move your premium. A fleet with a spotless driving record can still pay more because of its credit file. This is the trend to watch in 2026 — third-party data pricing small commercial auto.
New Scoring Models — The Trend Is Real
Progressive tightens new-venture pricing on a 24,500-policy book
Progressive's Ohio business-auto book (6.8% average) reworks its scoring: New Venture discounts tightened, the Snapshot telematics maximum discount cut for high-mileage drivers, and a Business Experience factor that raises premiums for any business under 36 months old. Heavy vehicle classes hit hardest.
National General adds a 'Full Coverage Factor' that penalizes liability-only fleets
Across a 3,315-policy NJ book, National General's new Full Coverage Factor charges more to fleets carrying liability only, and a refreshed driver model (through 2024) swings some rates up to 23%. PIP-medical base rates rise 20%, CSL 13%.
GEICO's CT rework allows individual swings up to +94%
GEICO's Connecticut business-auto book averages 5% but the new tiering allows individual increases as high as 94%. The CDL discount is now based on the percentage of CDL holders rather than years of experience — a change that can penalize growing fleets. A new Non-Business use class is added.
Underwriting Guideline Changes
Hereford cuts the safety net on NYC for-hire drivers
Beyond the rate (page 1), Hereford halves default Additional PIP from $150,000 to $50,000 and removes the Collision Avoidance, Preferred Luxury and TLC Safe Driver discounts — leaving black-car and ambulette drivers more exposed at higher cost. A flat 20% surcharge now hits drivers with under three years of TLC experience.
State Farm rebases the deductible and guts safety credits
On its 43% CT rental-condo filing, State Farm doubles the all-peril deductible to $1,000, cuts the sprinkler discount from 5% to 1%, and removes many Home Alert alarm discounts — penalizing the exact loss-control measures it once rewarded. Owners of older rental units carry the gap.
Coverage Contraction
CAR raises Massachusetts compulsory minimum limits to 25/50/30
The residual-market filing doesn't just raise rates — it lifts the compulsory minimum financial-responsibility limits and adopts new increased-limit factors for BI and PD. Risks that kept old minimums must re-rate upward, and higher-limit buyers pay steeper factors. Effective March 1.
Berkley raises abuse-and-molestation rates up to 45%
Berkley raises Massachusetts Abuse & Molestation base rates ~23% (up to 45.1% for some companies) across all 10 classes, citing a 7.3% annual ISO loss trend. Foster and adoption placement, residential youth facilities and high-hazard counseling carry the steepest increases — a core social-services exposure getting materially pricier.
State Farm raises the bar for discretionary credits in NY
On its 17.7% New York package filing, State Farm nearly triples the premium needed to qualify for IRPM credits, to $10,000. Apartment and condo accounts between $3,500 and $10,000 in premium lose eligibility entirely — a structural increase that lands even on clean, mid-sized risks.
Also on the radar
Two more credit/telematics signals corroborate the scoring wave: a State Farm Ohio commercial-auto filing adds Drive Safe & Save Business telematics with up to a 15% surcharge, and multiple carriers leaned on competitor data (Progressive) to set their own rates. On the favorable side, Intact's Super Preferred WC tier (page 1) shows the market still has appetite for clean tech and finance risks. The through-line: who your client is on paper — credit, tenure, telematics — increasingly decides the price.
