April's commercial-auto increases zeroed in on the riskiest fleets — heavy trucks and medical transport.
Approved in April 2026: rate-increase filings touching 1,000+ Northeast policyholders across workers comp and commercial auto. Heavy trucking and for-profit medical transport carried the steepest numbers, and carriers kept leaning on non-owned and hired-auto exposures. Here's what your clients are about to feel.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
NJM raises a 13,260-policy NJ auto book — heavy trucks +18.4%
Approved April 2, effective July 1. NJM re-prices a 13,260-policyholder, $137.7M New Jersey commercial-auto book with an 8% fleet-factor impact for anyone running five or more vehicles, heavy and extra-heavy trucks at +18.4%, and a flat 25% hike to non-ownership liability across all employee tiers.
NJM adopts the latest ISO Hired Auto loss costs (factor up from 2.29 to 2.56) and adds refined pricing on driver age, violations and claims. Employers whose staff drive personal vehicles for work — a huge, often-overlooked exposure — feel the 25% non-owned increase directly.
Also Approved This Cycle
Medical transport liability up 20.8% in New York
National Liability & Fire, running a 112.8% loss ratio, raises ambulance, NEMT and medivan liability 20.8% on average — with stacked limit-factor changes pushing some renewals toward 33%. A new standalone Public Auto manual and a 30% renewal cap signal tighter underwriting ahead for for-profit medical fleets.
Hereford's phased livery hike continues toward 16%
Hereford's NYC for-hire book — approved earlier in the phase-in — keeps climbing toward a 16% total through 2028, with default Additional PIP cut to $50,000 and safety discounts gone. Black-car, taxi and ambulette operators face both higher rates and thinner coverage on each renewal. (See page 3 for the coverage cuts.)
Carolina Casualty lifts NY staffing comp ~10%
Berkley's Carolina Casualty raises New York workers-comp 9.6% for temporary-staffing agencies, PEOs and specialized high-severity construction — classes it flags as high frequency. The loss-modification factor moves to 1.60 to match competitor pricing. Staffing and PEO books are the ones to re-shop. Effective October 1.
Two PA auto filings push past their indicated caps
Pennsylvania saw a steady run of mid-size commercial-auto increases — carriers adopting ISO loss costs with maximum caps in the 22% range. Non-fleet contractors and certain territories repeatedly drew the top of the band, a continuation of the 'tempered now, more later' pattern from February.
Why medical transport keeps surfacing
For-profit ambulance, NEMT and medivan operators have shown up in three of the last four Northeast cycles. The driver is a structural loss problem — National Liability & Fire's 112.8% loss ratio is typical for the class. Carriers are separating these risks into dedicated manuals and capping renewals, both signs the repricing isn't finished. If you write medical transport, the conversation is overdue.
The package and liability market got harder to predict: caps came off, and exclusions piled on.
Same screen, every other commercial line approved in April. Two forces collided — carriers removing the renewal caps that softened past increases, and carriers loading on mandatory exclusions for emerging exposures. Main Street pays on both ends.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
State Farm's PA package filing caps increases at 60% — and some businesses will hit it
Approved April 23, effective July 15. The region's largest filing this cycle by headcount: 32,216 Pennsylvania CMP policyholders and $70.7M in premium. The average lands near 12% — restaurants average 12.6% — but State Farm's indicated need was 20.1%, and individual renewals can climb as much as 60%.
Retail, food service, real estate and repair-shop classes are squarely in scope. When a carrier files a 60% ceiling, it's telling you the loss math runs hotter than the average suggests — budget the worst case for exposed accounts.
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
Hiscox removes its 30% renewal cap in New York
The transition rule limiting BOP renewal increases to 30% is gone, exposing insureds to full re-rates at once. Business Income rating factors jump 500%, clothing retailers +22%, financial-services firms +25%, and pre-1980 buildings get a mandatory lead exclusion. Effective October 19.
Selective raises the price of additional-insured status 150%
Across a 27,970-policy, $195M NJ GL book, the broad contractor additional-insured endorsement jumps from 3% to 7.5% of GL premium, splits into Basic and Broad tiers, and is clarified to NOT extend to completed operations. General contractors requiring AI status from subs just got more expensive to work for. Effective November 1.
Philadelphia hits PA social services with +25% abuse rates
Philadelphia Indemnity raises Sexual Abuse & Molestation rates 25% for non-profits, specialty schools and camps, citing a 100.2% PA loss ratio and a 9% annual ISO loss trend. For specialty schools, SAM premium now approaches 39% of the GL premium. Effective March 2027.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NJ | CNA (American Cas / Continental) | CMP — Businessowners | 3 / 5 | 5,342 | Sep 1, 2026 |
| PA | Liberty Mutual (Ohio Cas) | Other Liability — GL | 3 / 5 | 8,867 | Jul 1, 2026 |
| NJ | Penn National | CMP — Businessowners | 3 / 5 | 1,224 | Sep 1, 2026 |
| NY | Various | Other Liability — CGL | 3 / 5 | 10,906 | Oct 1, 2026 |
| PA | Various | Other Liability — Combinations | 3 / 5 | 12,549 | Jul 31, 2026 |
Also on the radar
A severity-5 State Farm umbrella rebuild in Pennsylvania (approved Apr 12) sits behind a 58% indicated need — the PA combined ratio hit 342% in 2022 — raising per-layer minimums and basic premiums for 2,916 policyholders. And large severity-3 GL books are stacking up: 27,970 in NJ (Selective), 12,549 in PA and 10,906 in NY. The reach is there even where the severity score isn't — these accounts feel real change.
A carrier walked away from 25,000 New York accounts — and the rest tightened the screws.
Same region, the structural changes the rate number can't show: a full market exit, removed renewal caps, scoring models and coverage cuts approved in April. When a carrier exits, thousands of businesses shop at once — and the filings around it show why the market is hardening.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · Market Exit — Region-Wide Signal
Community Mutual exits New York — 25,031 commercial-package policies non-renewed
Approved April 3, effective December 16, 2025. Community Mutual withdraws entirely from the New York commercial-package market, mass non-renewing 25,031 active policies after terminating its program-manager agreement with Roundhill Express. The book is concentrated in the five boroughs, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester.
This is the single biggest displacement in the region this cycle. Retail, real estate, restaurants and repair shops across downstate New York need replacement coverage now — and they're shopping into a market that, as the rest of this page shows, is actively tightening. First call wins.
Coverage Contraction & Cap Removal
Hiscox removes its 30% NY renewal cap — and adds a lead exclusion
Hiscox retires the transition rule that capped BOP renewal increases at 30%, exposing insureds to the full weight of its 12–15% adjustments at once. Business Income rating factors jump 500%, and a mandatory lead exclusion applies to pre-1980 buildings without abatement. The safety net is gone for 4,885 policyholders.
Selective makes additional-insured status cost more — and cover less
Across a 27,970-policy GL book, Selective raises the broad contractor AI endorsement from 3% to 7.5% of GL premium (a 150% jump), splits it into Basic and Broad tiers, and clarifies that standard ElitePac AI does NOT extend to completed operations. Subs cost more to add, and the cover is narrower than GCs assume.
Penn National layers on tobacco, cannabis and PFAS exclusions
Against a 47.1% indicated need (taking ~10%), Penn National adds mandatory exclusions for tobacco/vape, cannabis and PFAS, plus a cyber exclusion — and forces a $1,000 PD deductible on residential roofers. Retailers, roofers and car washes lose scope and gain deductibles in one filing. Effective September 1.
Underwriting Guideline Changes
NJM raises hired-auto and non-owned exposure across the board
Beyond the heavy-truck rate (page 1), NJM adopts ISO Hired Auto loss costs (factor 2.29 to 2.56) and applies a flat 25% increase to non-ownership liability for all employee tiers — the exposure that quietly sits on any employer whose staff run errands in personal cars. An 8% fleet-factor revision hits every 5+ vehicle account.
State Farm rebuilds PA umbrella pricing on a 58% indicated need
State Farm's PA commercial-umbrella filing — the only severity-5 structural action this cycle — raises basic premiums (flat $210), lifts per-layer minimums and restricts schedule-rating eligibility to $750+ premium. The driver is brutal loss experience: a 342% combined ratio in 2022 and 131.6% over five years. Effective June 15.
New Scoring Models & Tiering
National Liability & Fire splits medical transport into its own manual
Alongside the 20.8% liability hike (page 1), the carrier creates a standalone Public Auto Manual for for-hire passenger transport and adds a 30% renewal cap (Rule 25) — a clear signal it intends to re-underwrite the segment hard. NEMT and medivan operators are being formally separated as a distinct, watched risk class.
State Farm's 60% PA cap defines the rest of the program
State Farm's 32,216-policy PA package filing (page 2) is a rate-only action, but the 60% individual cap against a 20.1% indicated average is itself the structural story: it locks exposed retail, food-service and real-estate accounts into a multi-year escalator. The cap is the schedule, not the ceiling.
CNA's 20% NJ cap hides an uncapped need up to 106%
CNA re-rates a 5,342-policy NJ businessowners book on a new predictive model across eight coverage-perils, capping renewals at +20%/year for three years. Some uncapped indications reach 106.4%, so the cap guarantees recurring double-digit increases. Water and weather perils carry the heaviest new factors. Effective September 1.
Also on the radar
The hardening showed up in the caps themselves: Hiscox removed one, while CNA, State Farm and Preferred Mutual added them — and a removed cap and a newly-added cap both point the same way, toward higher true need. With Community Mutual's 25,031 NY accounts shopping into this, expect downstate retail and real estate to be the most-quoted risks of the spring. The agent who calls first, with a realistic number, keeps the account.
