Commercial auto is the whole story in the Southwest this month — and the increases are steep.
Every qualifying page-1 filing approved in May was commercial auto: nine high-impact, unfavorable rate increases touching 1,000-plus policyholders each across eight states. Texas and California carry the weight, the headline numbers run from 13% to 50%, and nearly every carrier is bolting a scoring or telematics model onto the rate. Here's what your fleet clients are about to feel.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Kemper hikes Texas bodily injury 24.4% — and singles out mid-size fleets for up to 48.8%
Approved May 7, effective Jan 22. Infinity County Mutual (Kemper) raises Bodily Injury rates 24.4% across a 32,559-policyholder Texas book — $168M in premium — by re-weighting Increased Limit Factors toward BI. Fleets of 6 to 17 units take a specific factor penalty on top, and individual accounts at high limits reach 48.8%. The carrier ties it to post-HB-19 litigation costs and rising BI frequency and severity, so this is a trend, not a one-off.
Also Approved This Cycle
State Farm raises Oklahoma liability ~50% and turns on fleet telematics
The region's only severity-5 page-1 increase. BI/PD jumps roughly 49.9%, hired-and-non-owned auto +31.5%, and a new Drive Safe & Save Business program can swing premium 15% on driver behavior. The Customer Rating Index surcharge ceiling rises to 2.5x — a poor-data account can now pay 250% of base. 22,531 policyholders.
Progressive takes ~8% in California — but its own data says it needs 36%
The biggest book in the region: 85,906 policyholders, $1.0B premium. The filed number looks tame, but Progressive's indicated need is 36.4%, so a correction is loading. It expands the Unacceptable Risks list, reclassifies restaurant delivery into a pricier Food Delivery class, and rewards dashcams and telematics — a clear push toward surveillance-based pricing.
Travelers takes 15.8% in Texas — heavy trucks see up to 32%
An average 15.8% on 8,977 policyholders ($263M premium), but extra-heavy trucks, truck-tractors and high-limit ($1M-plus CSL) accounts fare worse — nearly one in three sees 25% or more. New Rule 100 limit factors, fresh ISO loss costs, and Carfax mileage and D&B delinquency scoring all stack on the base rate.
DB Insurance raises California trucking 25.6% with a 25% new-venture penalty
A genuine motor-carrier filing: DB Insurance (Dongbu) lifts California for-hire trucking rates 25.6% on 4,476 policyholders, with liability-heavy policies reaching 30%. Operators in business under a year carry a 25% New Venture surcharge, and extra-heavy tractors over 45,000 lbs and 500-plus-mile radius runs pay the most. Real trucking, real increase.
Where's workers comp?
Quiet, and mostly favorable. The qualifying Southwest WC filings approved in May were rate decreases, dividend plans or loss-cost adjustments that help policyholders — the structural WC story is on page 3, where AF Group pulls Williamsburg National out of California comp. One increase missed our 1,000-policyholder floor but is worth flagging: Imperium / Skyward Specialty (TX) got a 50.2% total commercial-auto increase approved, staggered at a 25% cap per year for three years, against a 133% liability loss ratio — oil-and-gas, logging and heavy-construction fleets. Small book, big signal.
Package and liability carriers are re-pricing Main Street — and rewriting the deductibles too.
Same screen, every other commercial line: businessowners, package and general liability increases approved in May across Utah, Texas, California and Colorado, reaching roughly 45,000 policyholders. The averages look moderate, but the structure underneath is shifting — bigger deductibles, new building-height and roof-age factors, and contractor classes singled out for the steepest jumps.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
WCF National enters Utah hotels — and brings roof-age tiering and trafficking exclusions with it
Approved May 12, effective Jul 1. WCF National (Advantage) expands its Utah businessowners product into the hotel and motel space and adopts ISO's 2026 GL loss costs across 2,190 policyholders, with some restaurant area-rate moves reaching 37%. The catch is in the tiering: roofs over 15 years and occupancy under 60% drop into non-standard rates, and selecting the Hotel/Motel broadening triggers mandatory human-trafficking and controlled-substance exclusions. Growth and contraction in one filing.
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
Cincinnati raises Texas GL 21.6% — and quietly re-rates the owner's payroll
A 21.6% general-liability increase on 3,200 policyholders, built on updated ISO loss costs and limit factors. The hidden piece: the executive and partner payroll cap jumps nearly 25% ($31,900 to $39,800), so owner-operators in mercantile and contracting classes pay GL premium on $7,900 more of their own pay. Some accounts see far higher.
Capital Insurance adds a building-height factor and quadruples the theft deductible
Capital Insurance Group (Monterey) takes ~11% on 10,510 California policyholders, but the structure moves more than the rate: a new 'Number of Stories' factor penalizes taller buildings on fire and water perils, the base theft deductible quadruples from $250 to $1,000, and lessor's-risk centers with light-industrial or contractor tenants get reclassified higher.
Federated targets Texas trades: painters +25.1%, jewelers +16.7%
Federated Mutual files a 27.9% indicated need on the liability side of its Texas BOP. Painting and paperhanging contractors lead at 25.1%, fencing and glass at 18.2%, jewelry stores 16.7%, food stores 13.1%, with HVAC and plumbing near 11%. The tell: Federated says its own closing ratios for those contractor classes fell from 28% to 14%.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UT | Auto-Owners | CMP — Commercial Package | 3 / 5 | 16,708 | May 12, 2026 |
| CO | Liberty Mutual (Ohio Casualty) | General Liability | 3 / 5 | 10,827 | Jan 1, 2026 |
Also on the radar
Two big-reach severity-3 increases just miss our impact bar but carry real footprint. Auto-Owners takes only ~5% on its 16,708-policyholder Utah package book (the region's largest other-lines book this month) — but withdraws Builder's Risk coverage entirely, drops Inflation Guard, and adds mandatory data-privacy GL exclusions; contractors mid-project should check their towers now. And Liberty Mutual raises Colorado GL an average 10.7% across 10,827 policyholders — with snow-plowing rates up 62.5% (class 00812, $17.08 to $27.77 per $1,000) and Denver hospitality up to 10%.
The fine print moved more than the rates: trucking markets are exiting, and scoring models are everywhere.
Same region, the filings rate numbers hide: approved actions whose real story is a market exit, a new scoring algorithm, or a coverage cut. The Southwest's signal this month is trucking under stress — two carriers are leaving for-hire trucking outright — alongside an ISO cyber advisory that resets the base policy for every adopting carrier.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · ISO Advisory — Market-Wide Signal
ISO's new Arizona cyber forms exclude cyber-war 'by any means' — and strip generative-AI media coverage
Approved May 15, effective April 2027. This advisory forms filing rewrites the base cyber policy most Arizona carriers build on. A mandatory War Exclusion now explicitly reaches cyber-attacks deemed acts of war 'by any means.' A new Generative-AI endorsement removes media-liability coverage for losses tied to AI-generated content — a live exposure for any marketing team using AI tools. And a Litigation Funding Mutual Disclosure condition lets insurers demand details on third-party claim financing. Every carrier that adopts these forms inherits all three at once.
Market Exits — Trucking Under Pressure
Shelter exits Oklahoma for-hire trucking — and cancels the federal filings with it
Shelter General discontinues its for-hire Trucking (Truckmen) program statewide, non-renewing roughly 1,328 motor carriers. The trap: it cancels the state and federal filings (BMC-91X) tied to each policy at expiration — a lapse can shut a fleet down at the DOT level. Private carriers hauling their own goods are unaffected. Move these accounts well before renewal.
Harco National block non-renews its entire California trucking book
Harco National (IAT) pulls its full California motor-carrier program and leaves commercial trucking in the state, citing an inability to reach adequate rates. Only 13 accounts, but a clean read on California trucking-market stress — and those insureds are shopping right now, by October.
AF Group withdraws Williamsburg National from California comp
AF Group pulls Williamsburg National out of California workers' comp and re-underwrites those policies into sister companies — a fresh rate look for everyone moved. In the same action, ProCentury (a $52M book) goes MGU-only: agents without that contract lose access, and California ag risks shift into Star Insurance tiers.
New Scoring & Telematics Models
EMC scores Arizona small-business comp with a 6-tier predictive model
EMC's Small Business Initiative replaces flat pricing with a Generalized Linear Model — six tiers of deviation from NCCI rates. Newer businesses, those with a low clerical mix, and accounts with high actual-versus-expected claims get sorted into costlier tiers. The state itself questioned how EMC 'floors' clerical-class rates. Around one in five small accounts could see a tier shift at renewal.
MS&AD's trucking scorecard can triple premium on bad telematics
MS&AD's Financial American motor-carrier program adds a telematics Scorecard Factor that reaches a 3.0x multiplier for poor safety data, a 30% new-venture penalty for fleets under five years, and a new optional Basket Deductible that spans liability, physical damage and cargo in one occurrence. A 22% liability increase rides alongside.
Coverage Contraction
SafePort caps contractor subs at 25% of sales — and excludes short-term rentals
SafePort's Texas BOP refile averages just 5.9%, but the rules do the work: contractors who subcontract more than 25% of gross sales become ineligible, short-term rentals (Airbnb/VRBO) join the ineligible-occupancy list, and mandatory cyber, assault-and-battery, aluminum-wiring, lead and asbestos exclusions attach to every policy. Individual accounts can still spike to 71%.
IAT's Occidental raises Colorado motor-carrier rates 31.3% on ISO limit factors
IAT's Occidental Fire & Casualty adopts updated ISO increased-limit-factor circulars on its Colorado motor-carrier program, lifting rates an average 31.3% — up to 40% — with high-limit liability accounts hit hardest. The second IAT trucking signal in the region this cycle, after Harco's California exit. Higher limits, higher load.
Also on the radar
The scoring wave on page 1 isn't isolated: State Farm's enhanced Customer Rating Index (OK and TX) and Progressive's telematics push in California are the same third-party-data trend reaching commercial auto. On coverage, Auto-Owners withdrew Builder's Risk from its Utah package book — flagged on page 2 — leaving mid-project contractors exposed. And the trucking pressure is broad: between Shelter (OK), Harco (CA) and the rate filings from DB Insurance, Hanover, Skyward and IAT, for-hire motor carriers across the Southwest are facing exits and double-digit increases at the same time.
