Commercial auto is the story across the Southeast — and trucking rates are leading the climb.
Five approved increases cleared our screen this cycle: high-impact, unfavorable filings approved in January 2026, across workers comp and commercial auto. Four of the five are commercial auto, and motor-carrier books are taking the steepest hits. Here's what your clients are about to feel — and where the rate filing hides the real increase.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Skyward takes ~25% in Mississippi — and writes an unreported-driver trap into the rules
Approved January 22, effective April 1. Skyward Specialty (Imperium) re-rates its Mississippi commercial-auto book about 25% on average as it adopts the ISO 2022 class plan — and roughly 1 in 5 policyholders face increases of 25% or more, with some truck risks above 50%. The rule change is the part to read: a new coverage limitation caps liability at the state minimum, and physical damage to the lienholder's interest, for any accident involving a driver who wasn't reported to the carrier. Garagekeepers rating was overhauled too, pushing many auto dealers up double digits.
Who feels it: Mississippi truck fleets, auto dealers, and any motor carrier with driver turnover. Move now — audit every client's reported-driver roster before renewal; an unreported driver behind the wheel is now a coverage gap, not just a surcharge.
Also Approved This Cycle
Sentry hits Alabama motor carriers with ~19% and a 10x safety scorecard
Sentry Select's Alabama trucking program rises about 19% across the board, then adds a 300-point safety scorecard whose factor runs from a 0.30 credit to a 3.00 surcharge — the wrong score costs ten times the right one. Driver turnover, maintenance and inspection ratios now drive price more than loss history. Long-haul operations over a 300-mile radius move to zone rating.
AmTrust reshuffles its Alabama comp book to lift multipliers ~40%
The cleanest example this month of the rate filing hiding the increase. AmTrust moves insureds between its paper companies so the applicable loss-cost multiplier jumps — Tier 1 from 1.26 to 1.76, and to 2.20 on Wesco and Milford paper. The headline rate looks routine; the tier migration is a quiet 30-40% hike. Contractors are squarely in scope.
Canal takes 18.8% in North Carolina — liability alone up 25%
Canal raises its 659-policyholder, $21.9M North Carolina trucking book 18.8% overall, with liability up a full 25%, after a new chief claims officer strengthened reserves. The carrier's liability indication was actually 46.7%, so this isn't the last move. A new vehicle-age factor penalizes older rigs on physical damage.
FCCI takes 14.1% in Georgia — preferred accounts hit hardest
FCCI re-rates a 575-policyholder, $32.2M Georgia commercial-auto book 14.1% as it adopts the latest ISO loss costs, with heavy truck and tractor exposures bearing the brunt. The twist: preferred-tier National Trust accounts see 14.6% — a bigger jump than standard risks. The Hartford ran a parallel ~18% Alabama auto increase (Trumbull paper) the same week.
Where's the workers-comp wave?
WC stayed quiet on rate. Across the Southeast in January, most large approved comp filings were favorable — Georgia, the Carolinas and others adopted lower NCCI loss costs, so the typical policyholder saw a decrease. The exceptions worked through the multiplier, not the rate line: AmTrust's Alabama tier migration above, and Liberty Mutual's Wausau paper in Virginia, which lifted its loss-cost multiplier ~9.1% to net a 2.7% increase for 1,137 policyholders even as the state's bureau loss costs fell ~7%. In a softening comp market, watch the multiplier, not the headline.
The wider market moved too — and Georgia's package and farm carriers led it.
Same screen, every other commercial line: general liability, businessowners, package, farm, cyber. Five more approved increases qualify this cycle, reaching roughly 6,300 policyholders. Georgia dominates, and a clear pattern runs through the list — carriers raising the number quietly, by stripping discounts and re-rating roofs and tiers rather than filing a big headline rate.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Auto-Owners re-rates 3,733 Georgia farms — and depreciates roofs at 11 years
Approved January 16, effective June 15. The region's largest non-auto book this window: 3,733 Georgia farm-and-ranch policyholders, $18.4M in premium, re-rated on a 54.5% indicated need. The coverage cuts do the damage. Roofs 11 years or older drop to actual-cash-value (the threshold was 16), the replacement-cost roof buyback is gone for new business, and mandatory deductibles climb to $5,000 on properties over $1M. The seasonal-home discount becomes a surcharge.
Who feels it: Georgia farm owners with older roofs and high-value dwellings. Move now — pull the roof age on every farm account and reset the client's expectation before the next storm, because most still think they have replacement cost.
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
Westfield's only severity-5: landlords and liquor stores singled out
The window's lone severity-5 commercial rate filing. Westfield re-rates 967 Georgia package policyholders ($7.6M) about 25% on average — capped by the state from a 43.5% indication — after a 117% loss ratio on non-residential lessors. New ZIP-code property factors can swing premium 20%+, and liquor-store property multipliers jump over 30%.
FCCI raises GL by deleting discounts, not rates
FCCI re-rates 683 Georgia GL policyholders ($10.3M) without touching base rates — it strips historical class deviations. A 72% credit for contractors with subcontracted work goes to zero; shopping-center and real-estate-development credits are cut hard. The rate page looks flat; the discount removal is the increase. Same carrier group as the page-1 Georgia auto filing.
EMC doubles cyber for Kentucky schools via a tier reshuffle
EMC expands its Kentucky cyber tiers from four to five, and the reclassification is the story. Schools jump to the new Tier 5 for a 100% increase; Tier 1-2 manufacturers move to Tier 3 for 35-52%. Average lands near 14%, but data-heavy classes pay far more. Eligibility is now tied to how much sensitive data a risk stores.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GA | GuideOne (Specialty / Elite) | CMP — Businessowners | 4 / 5 | 510 | Jun 1, 2026 |
Also on the radar
Two big personal-lines books cleared severity but sit outside our commercial screen — worth knowing because the same carriers write your clients' commercial accounts: a 17,832-policyholder North Carolina personal-umbrella increase (approved Jan 29) and a 12,727-policyholder Mississippi personal-umbrella rate hike (approved Jan 6, severity 5). And GuideOne's Georgia BOP filing carries a ~180% jump in sexual-misconduct-liability charges for religious organizations with daycares — churches running preschools are the ones to flag.
The scoring wave reached the Southeast — and the multiplier is where rate cuts get clawed back.
Same region, the part of the filing the rate number hides: approved January actions whose real story is a new scoring model, a guideline change, or a multiplier move that decouples premium from the state's loss costs. Two themes run the month — third-party data pricing farm and trucking risk, and loss-cost-multiplier levers offsetting the WC decreases the bureaus handed everyone.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · LCM Offset — Market Signal
The Hartford's Virginia comp book fell ~3% — but only because the multiplier ate most of the cut
Approved January 28, effective April 1. The region's largest book this window — 43,874 Virginia workers-comp policyholders, $92.7M in premium. Net favorable: premiums down about 3%. But the structural story is a retention gap. The state advisory cut pure premiums roughly 8%, and The Hartford raised its base multipliers and tiering deviations about 10% — passing along only part of the relief. The same lever Liberty's Wausau paper used to raise rates, The Hartford used to soften a cut. Read the multiplier, not just the loss costs.
New Scoring Models — The Trend Reaches the Southeast
American National scores Virginia auto on LexisNexis and odometer readings
American National rebuilds its Virginia commercial-auto program around LexisNexis Attract Commercial and Attract Home scoring, with a mandatory three-year score refresh and a vehicle-mileage surcharge above ~30,000 miles. Unlicensed farm vehicles earn a 50% credit; thin-credit and high-mileage fleets move into costlier tiers. The program also drops limited Mexico coverage.
Same carrier, same engine — now scoring Alabama farms
American National runs the LexisNexis Attract Home 3.0 score and a new CLAS rating system across its Alabama farm-and-ranch book, then layers on mandatory wind/hail and hurricane deductibles by coastal zone (1-2%), mandatory inflation protection at replacement cost, and mandatory equipment-breakdown coverage. Third-party credit and catastrophe modeling now sit at the center of farm pricing.
MS&AD scores Georgia trucking on telematics — and penalizes new ventures
MS&AD's Georgia Fleet Safety Trucking program adds a telematics-driven scorecard that prices on driver turnover, inspection ratios and moving violations, plus a 1.30 surcharge for fleets under a year old. The program average runs ~22%, some fleets to 30%. A new basket-deductible endorsement lets one deductible apply across liability, physical damage and cargo.
Underwriting & Coverage Changes
Starr charges for employees' personal cars by the mile
The structural core of a small Tennessee Starr filing (also a ~10% rate increase): a new non-ownership-liability charge applies whenever more than 20% of a company's employees regularly drive personal vehicles for business — priced per 20,000 reimbursed miles, the equivalent of adding a five-year-old vehicle to the policy. Reimbursement-style blanket deductibles for garagekeepers and tow on-hook coverage ride along. Any employer with a mobile sales or service force should price this before renewal.
Skyward's unreported-driver coverage cap (cross-referenced from page 1)
The rule worth repeating from this month's lead. Under Skyward Specialty's new Mississippi rules, an accident involving a driver not reported to the carrier caps liability at statutory minimums and physical damage at the lienholder's interest — coverage language, not just a surcharge. Pair it with the new owner-operator written-agreement requirement and the message is clear: the carrier is using underwriting rules, not only rates, to shed risk.
Also on the radar
January's throughline is mechanics over magnitude. Across the region, carriers reached the same numbers three different ways: scoring models (American National in VA auto and AL farm, MS&AD in GA trucking), discount removal (FCCI stripping a 72% contractor credit in Georgia GL, page 2), and loss-cost-multiplier moves that decoupled premium from the state's falling comp loss costs — one to raise rates (Liberty's Wausau paper, page 1), one to soften a cut (The Hartford, above). The rate number is rarely the whole story.
