No clean rate headline this month — the commercial-auto story moved into the rating engine.
March produced no workers-comp or commercial-auto filing that cleared our rate-increase bar on severity, reach and approved status across the twelve-state quadrant. But fleets didn't get a pass: the action this cycle is structural — scoring models, telematics travel-tiers and 'black box' physical-damage algorithms. The whole story is on page 3.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Why page 1 is a pointer this month, not a lead
Our page-1 screen looks for approved, unfavorable, high-severity rate increases of 1,000+ policyholders in workers comp and commercial auto. In March, across all twelve states, the qualifying commercial-auto moves were either severity-3 (below the floor without 25,000-policyholder reach) or were rate changes whose real substance is a new scoring algorithm — which is exactly what page 3 exists to cover.
The honest read: March is a structural month. Carriers spent it rebuilding how fleets are priced rather than pushing a flat percentage. Berkshire Hathaway Homestate and Canal both reset their Oregon commercial-auto math, and a wave of livestock and small-commercial liability re-rates landed across the Dakotas and the Mountain West. Turn to page 3 — that's where your renewal conversations start this cycle.
Also Approved This Cycle
Is a quiet rate month good news?
Not exactly. A flat headline rate paired with a new scoring model can move an individual client's premium more than a clean 10% hike would — and it's harder to spot on a renewal. When Berkshire Hathaway Homestate's Oregon filing carries a 256% maximum individual swing on an 18% average, the average is the least useful number on the page. Read the structure, not the headline.
Liability is repricing across the Dakotas and the Mountain West.
Same screen, every other commercial line: with the quadrant widened to all twelve states, March fills out where it used to be quiet. Six general-liability and farm filings qualify across Idaho, the Dakotas, Montana and Nebraska — and the real story in most of them is a structural change tucked behind a modest average rate.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Hiscox caps Idaho property managers at +50% — and penalizes early cancellation
Approved Mar 26, effective June 15. Hiscox raises Idaho small-commercial general liability about 7% on average across 1,991 policyholders, but property-management classes take a capped 50% increase against a 176.7% indicated need — the cap is the only thing holding them back. The structural move that touches everyone: a new 25% minimum earned premium that penalizes landscapers, janitorial, mobile-food and small contractors who cancel mid-term, plus a +/-25% schedule-rating plan.
Who feels it: Idaho property managers, landscapers, janitorial and mobile-food operators. Move now: warn clients on the new minimum earned premium before they bind — cancelling early now costs a quarter of the annual premium, and the property-management cap means another increase is likely next cycle.
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
SECURA reprices North Dakota GL on ISO loss costs — up to 52% on some risks
SECURA raises its 2,129-policy North Dakota general-liability book 6% on average, but individual risks reach 52% on revised ISO loss costs. Agricultural consultants, sports and recreation camps, and abusive-conduct classes are specifically targeted with higher base rates and minimums. The largest GL book in the quadrant this cycle.
Nationwide Agribusiness raises Nebraska farm rates — livestock up to 21%
Nationwide Agribusiness raises its 2,226-policy Nebraska farm-and-ranch book 5.4% on average, with livestock-heavy operations reaching 21%. It introduces a Farm Flexible Deductible that aggregates property deductibles policy-wide and revises replacement-cost and wind/hail factors — a structural change that can quietly raise out-of-pocket exposure on a storm claim.
Grinnell raises South Dakota confined-livestock GL base rates ~350%
Grinnell Mutual reprices its South Dakota GL on updated ISO loss costs, and confined-livestock care, custody and control base rates jump from the $180-$280 range to $800-$1,300 — roughly 350%. The filing also adds a mandatory punitive-damages exclusion, a litigation-funding disclosure endorsement, and narrower additional-insured forms limited to the named insured's own negligence.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MT | Hiscox Ins Co | Other Liability — General Liability | 4 / 5 | 1,358 | Jun 15, 2026 |
| ND | Grinnell Mutual | CMP — Businessowners | 4 / 5 | 797 | Apr 1, 2026 |
| MO | United Fire Group | BOP — Legacy form withdrawal | 4 / 5 | 507 | Feb 4, 2026 |
Also on the radar
Two structural moves outrank their rate lines: Grinnell's North Dakota businessowners book (797 policyholders) debits buildings over 50 years old 20% and drops automatic-increase factors from 8% to 0% — page 3. And United Fire Group withdrew its legacy Missouri ArtisanPro and PremierPro BOP forms (507 policyholders), forcing a migration that can non-renew heavy-subcontracting contractors. A large neutral Missouri Employers Mutual workers-comp filing touching 13,336 policyholders (Mar 5) reshuffled experience tiers without an average rate change — the kind of quiet move that still shifts an individual comp renewal.
This is March's real edition: commercial auto is being re-engineered, not just re-priced.
Same twelve states, the structural changes that define the month. Carriers rebuilt commercial-auto rating in Oregon with ISO Risk Analyzer symbols and GPS-based travel tiers, while liability writers across the Dakotas reset livestock base rates and bolted on punitive-damages and litigation-funding endorsements. The headline averages stay modest; the individual swings reach 256%.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · Scoring Model — Market Signal
Berkshire Hathaway Homestate's ISO Risk Analyzer swings Oregon auto up to 256%
Approved Mar 5, effective Oct 1. Berkshire Hathaway Homestate adopted ISO Risk Analyzer commercial-auto vehicle symbols across its Oregon book, shifting bodily-injury/property-damage rates +26.5% while cutting physical damage 13.9%. The average increase is about 18% — but the new symbol-driven model produces individual swings as high as 256%, and the carrier's own expected liability rate need is 68%. When a scoring model can more-than-double one account while barely moving the next, the state average stops being a planning tool. Every carrier adopting the same ISO Risk Analyzer symbols inherits the same volatility.
New Scoring Models — The Trend Is Real
Canal prices Oregon truckers on the zip codes they actually drive through
Canal launched an optional hybrid mileage-plus-telematics program with Travel Tiers that rate by the GPS routes a vehicle takes, not just where it's garaged — and it requires active ELD data sharing. Overall +13.1%, max +37%, against a 33.5% indicated need. Your fleet's premium now follows its dispatch map.
Berkshire Hathaway shifts risk from physical damage to liability
The ISO Risk Analyzer adoption (lead, above) doesn't just rescore — it re-weights the policy, raising liability 26.5% while cutting physical damage 13.9%. Accounts carrying high liability limits absorb the move; the physical-damage 'discount' rarely offsets it. Read the new vehicle symbols on each renewal, not just the average.
Coverage Contraction
Grinnell adds punitive-damages and litigation-funding endorsements in South Dakota
Behind the ~350% confined-livestock base-rate jump (page 2), Grinnell adds a mandatory punitive-damages exclusion, a litigation-funding mutual-disclosure endorsement that lets the carrier demand details on third-party claim funding, and narrower additional-insured forms covering only the named insured's own negligence. Livestock and ag care-and-custody accounts lose ground on both price and coverage.
Hiscox's 25% minimum earned premium reshapes Idaho cancellation
The Idaho GL filing (page 2) is a guideline change as much as a rate move: a new 25% minimum earned premium penalizes landscapers, janitorial, mobile-food and small contractors who cancel mid-term, and a +/-25% schedule-rating plan hands underwriters wide discretion. The same change lands in Montana on the same June 15 date.
Grinnell debits older North Dakota buildings 20% and zeroes inflation guard
Grinnell's North Dakota businessowners reset puts a 20% debit on buildings over 50 years old, drops the automatic-increase (inflation-guard) factor from 8% to 0%, and sets flat $1,000 minimum premiums for apartments and houses of worship. Owners of older buildings carry the age debit, and the zeroed inflation guard quietly erodes replacement-cost adequacy over time.
Underwriting & Guideline Changes
United Fire Group forces a legacy-BOP migration in Missouri
United Fire Group withdrew its ArtisanPro and PremierPro businessowners manuals, migrating roughly 507 Missouri policyholders into a new BOP-Pro product. Eligibility tightens: contractors subcontracting over 25% of work or running over $500,000 payroll face non-renewal. A market exit dressed as a product refresh — confirm which clients are mapped to the legacy forms now.
Hiscox brings the same early-cancellation penalty to Montana
Hiscox's Montana GL filing mirrors Idaho: property management +50%, retail/food service and plumbing +20%, and the same 25% minimum earned premium on insured-initiated cancellation for landscapers, janitorial, mobile-food and small contractors. One carrier resetting two Mountain-West states on the same effective date is a pattern worth flagging to clients.
Also on the radar
March confirms two parallel waves across the widened quadrant: ISO Risk Analyzer and GPS travel-tiers reprice Oregon commercial auto while livestock and small-commercial liability re-rates land across the Dakotas, Idaho and Montana — most carrying a structural change behind a modest average. A favorable counterpoint: a good-sentiment Oregon commercial-auto scoring filing (408 policyholders, approved Mar 12) rewards clean fleets on the same ISO machinery. And keep watching United Fire Group's Missouri BOP exit — legacy-form withdrawals tend to arrive in clusters.
