Buses, ambulances and Plains truck fleets take the heaviest commercial-auto hits this cycle.
April's qualifying commercial-auto increases land hardest on the vehicles communities depend on. Cincinnati's Kansas book nearly doubles some bus rates, an AIG emergency-services program catches up on years of deferred ISO loss costs, and Shelter takes Nebraska liability up 30%. Workers comp again stayed favorable to neutral on rate across the quadrant.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Cincinnati moves Kansas auto to ISO — and bus operators see up to 97.5%
Approved Apr 6, effective Sep 1. Cincinnati adopted the ISO Optional Class Plan across its $18.2M Kansas commercial-auto book — 1,792 policyholders — at an 18% average. The averages hide the real damage: public-transit and bus operators face increases up to 97.5%, church buses up to 72.9%, and heavy trucks in Olathe up to 77.3%, all citing poor uninsured-motorist experience. New mandatory exclusions arrive for drones, livery conveyance and abuse/molestation, and the physical-damage deductible now applies to fire and lightning losses that used to be covered from dollar one.
Who feels it: bus and transit operators, churches with vans, and mid-size firms relying on hired/non-owned auto. Move now: re-quote any bus or transit account before September and read the new fire/lightning deductible into your clients' coverage expectations.
Also Approved This Cycle
AIG's emergency-vehicle program catches up: ambulances +44%, fire +43%, school buses +42%
AIG's National Union paper was four years behind on ISO adoptions, producing a 93.8% indicated need tempered to 40%. Ambulances average +44%, fire departments +43.1%, school buses +42.2%, and the five-times deductible cap is eliminated. A small filed count, but it touches the fleets every community relies on.
Shelter takes Nebraska commercial auto up ~20% — liability +29.9% on truck fleets
Shelter General raises Nebraska commercial auto roughly 20% on average, with liability base rates up 29.9% on a 171.9% bodily-injury/property-damage loss ratio. High-limit ($300k+) increased-limit factors jump and for-hire truck fleets are disproportionately hit, with some renewals reaching 33%. Effective June 16.
Why does workers comp stay quiet — four months running?
It's a genuine regional pattern, not a screening gap. Midwest/NW workers comp runs through NCCI loss-cost adoptions and dividend/tier programs that have been favorable or neutral for policyholders all winter — Iowa and Kansas even posted comp decreases this quarter. The pressure in this region is concentrated in commercial auto and the package market, which is where every page-1 lead has landed since January. That contrast — comp softening while a client's auto renewal jumps 40% — is your conversation starter.
April's wider market is the fullest of the quarter: farm, package, excess and dealer contracts all reprice.
Same screen, every other commercial line: with the quadrant widened to all twelve states, this is the busiest qualifying list of the year — reaching roughly 24,000 policyholders across six states. American Family's Missouri farm migration leads, with State Farm's Nebraska package book, Oregon excess liability and Washington dealer service contracts all close behind.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
American Family calls its Missouri farm migration 'rate-neutral' — some farmers see 81%
Approved Apr 23, effective Mar 1. American Family moved its Missouri commercial farm-and-ranch book — 4,154 policyholders, $25.2M premium — from AAIS to the ISO Commercial Farmowners program. The state average is marketed as rate-neutral, but the form swap drives individual swings up to 81%. The coverage cuts matter more than the number: a new cosmetic-damage exclusion for metal roofs and siding (hail dents you'll now own), an actual-cash-value roof depreciation schedule for older dwellings, and a PFAS 'forever chemicals' exclusion.
Who feels it: row-crop and livestock operations, especially with older buildings or metal structures. Move now: walk farm clients through the metal-roof and ACV roof changes before the next storm season — that's where a 'rate-neutral' renewal turns into a five-figure uncovered claim.
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
State Farm raises Nebraska multi-peril 15.3% — over $10M of new premium
State Farm's Nebraska commercial multi-peril book takes a 15.3% across-the-board increase — more than $10M of new premium across 9,258 policyholders, the largest package book in the quadrant this cycle. Retail, hospitality and real-estate classes carry it. No structural twist here: this one is a straight rate move, which makes it the cleanest renewal conversation on the page.
Berkley reprices Oregon excess liability ~35% across 2,209 accounts
The region's only severity-5 excess-liability rate increase this cycle. Berkley raised commercial umbrella rates roughly 35% with schedule-rating changes effective June across a 2,209-policyholder Oregon book — a reminder that the umbrella layer is hardening alongside the primary lines beneath it.
Continental hikes Washington VSC rates ~78% and strips EV/screen coverage
Continental (CNA) raised vehicle-service-contract rates about 78% — up to 90% on new and CPO vehicles — after reporting loss ratios as high as 186%. A new Essential tier excludes infotainment screens over 20 inches, LED assemblies and EV/hybrid propulsion batteries: exactly the expensive parts on modern inventory.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SD | Auto-Owners | CMP — Commercial Package | 3 / 5 | 4,330 | Apr 15, 2026 |
| KS | Nationwide | Other Liability — General Liability | 4 / 5 | 1,753 | Aug 17, 2026 |
| ND | Grinnell Mutual | Other Liability — GL (confined livestock) | 3 / 5 | 1,597 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| KS | EMC | Other Liability — General Liability | 4 / 5 | 1,605 | Jul 1, 2026 |
| MO | American Family | CMP — Commercial Farm & Ranch | 4 / 5 | 1,422 | May 23, 2026 |
| IA | Lyndon Southern | CMP — Businessowners (new program) | 5 / 5 | n/d | Apr 24, 2026 |
Also on the radar
The umbrella market is hardening across the region: a Kansas personal-umbrella filing touching 52,155 policyholders (approved Apr 2, severity 5) is the largest single book in the sweep, echoed by a Missouri personal-umbrella increase at 7,860 policyholders — personal lines, but a clear signal. On the structural side, Auto-Owners' South Dakota package book (4,330 policyholders) withdraws builder's-risk coverage entirely, and a Washington general-liability filing (3,357 policyholders) adds mandatory lead and multi-unit residential construction exclusions — both lead page 3.
Exclusions, market exits and driver-scoring define April — coverage is contracting fastest.
Same twelve states, the structural changes the rate filings hide. April's signal shifts from pure scoring to coverage contraction: a countrywide medical stop-loss exit, mandatory lead and construction exclusions, EV-battery carve-outs, builder's-risk withdrawals, and a CARFAX-powered vehicle score that now prices Montana fleets on the trucks' history, not the drivers'.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · Market Exit — Market-Wide Signal
A carrier exits medical stop loss countrywide — blaming GLP-1 drug spend and cancer costs
Approved Apr 2, effective Jan 1. A medical stop-loss writer withdrew from the market countrywide — Oregon included — and is terminating its underwriting and actuarial staff for the line. The stated drivers: high medical inflation, surging GLP-1 pharmacy spend, and rising cancer unit costs and frequency, re-baselined to Milliman 2024 stop-loss trend. Self-insured employers with high pharmacy or cancer exposure now have to replace coverage in a tightening market. When a carrier exits an entire line rather than re-rate it, it's the clearest signal there is that the underlying cost trend has outrun pricing — and adopting carriers everywhere take note.
New Scoring Models — The Trend Is Real
Acuity scores Montana fleets on the truck's history, not the driver's record
Acuity added the TransUnion Commercial Vehicle History Score — powered by CARFAX data — to its 1,549-policy Montana business-auto book, pricing each vehicle on odometer history, mileage and prior-owner count. Non-trucking service fleets can see up to 29.1% and truck fleets up to 12.2% regardless of how clean the driving record is. The vehicle's past life is now a rating input.
IAT brings a Progressive-style driver-point system to Washington trucking
IAT (Harco National) moved its $43.5M Washington trucking book to ISO rating with a 171-level driver-modification point table modeled on Progressive's, plus a mandatory 25% surcharge for team-driven units and surcharges for drivers under 25 or over 75. Driver-level scoring, long a personal-lines tool, is now standard in for-hire trucking.
Cincinnati's ISO Class Plan is a scoring reset under the rate
Behind the bus-rate headline (page 1), Cincinnati's adoption of the ISO Optional Class Plan re-buckets every Kansas auto risk and re-weights uninsured-motorist loads. The same ISO machinery driving the 97.5% bus max also quietly reprices the ordinary fleet — read the new class assignment, not just the percentage.
Coverage Contraction
Auto-Owners withdraws builder's-risk coverage in South Dakota
Auto-Owners' South Dakota package re-rate (page 2 radar) is a coverage strip as much as a rate move: builder's-risk coverage is withdrawn entirely, the minimum deductible doubles from $100 to $250, hotel inflation-guard is removed, and broad abuse/molestation and data-privacy exclusions are added across the 4,330-policy book. Contractors relying on the carrier for builder's risk need a replacement market now.
Western National adds lead and multi-unit construction exclusions
Western National's Washington GL filing (3,357 policyholders, $27.2M) adopts ISO loss costs and adds mandatory lead-liability and multi-unit residential construction exclusions for no premium credit, restructures Not-for-Profit D&O into an endorsement, and applies 8-16% abuse/molestation surcharges plus NAICS-based EPLI loads up to 20%.
Argo layers seven new exclusions onto Idaho commercial auto
Argo's Idaho commercial-auto refresh carries no headline rate, but the coverage cuts are heavy: a named-driver limitation, exclusions for assault/battery, weapons, cyber and injury to temporary or casual workers, a metal-scrap transport exclusion, and an unattended-auto (keys-in-vehicle) physical-damage exclusion. A clean-looking renewal that quietly narrows the policy — read every endorsement.
Underwriting & Guideline Changes
Lyndon Southern launches an Iowa BOP at +76% with stacked exclusions
A new Iowa businessowners program raises the loss-cost multiplier from 1.456 to 2.60 — a 76% rate move — with +25% on family restaurants and +50% on electronics, furnishings, variety stores and salons. Mandatory exclusions arrive for lead, asbestos, aluminum wiring and cyber, and contractors subcontracting over 30% of work are ineligible. The same carrier whose Kansas dealer program the regulator rejected in March.
American Family excludes metal-roof cosmetic damage and PFAS
The Missouri farm migration (page 2) is a guideline reset: a cosmetic-damage exclusion means hail dents to metal roofs and siding are no longer covered, an ACV roof schedule depreciates older dwellings, and a PFAS exclusion strips 'forever chemicals' liability common to ag inputs. The 'rate-neutral' label hides real coverage loss.
Church Mutual caps med-pay at $10k as it migrates to ISO classes
Church Mutual moved its business-auto book to standard ISO class plans and withdrew its proprietary $15k and $20k medical-payments limits, capping coverage at $10k. Companion states saw average increases near 28%, with some risks to 43%. School and church transport accounts carry the specialized-class repricing — confirm the new med-pay cap with any client who carried the higher limits.
Also on the radar
April's structural theme is contraction across the widened quadrant: a countrywide medical stop-loss exit, mandatory lead/asbestos/construction/EV exclusions, builder's-risk withdrawals, and PFAS carve-outs all landed in one cycle. Vehicle- and driver-level scoring is now standard in for-hire trucking — IAT's Washington point system and Acuity's CARFAX-powered Montana score price the truck and the driver, not just the garage zip. And watch Lyndon Southern: the carrier the Kansas regulator rejected in March is now live in Iowa with a 76% rate and heavy exclusions.
