Commercial auto is carrying Page 1 — Progressive's Ohio book alone touches 38,412 policyholders.
This month's screen — approved rate increases touching 1,000+ policyholders in workers comp and commercial auto — surfaced four qualifying auto increases and virtually no comp. Progressive leads on sheer reach; three regional carriers stack double-digit indications behind single-digit approvals. Workers comp stayed soft, and its one structural story lives on Page 3. Here's what your clients are about to feel.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Progressive takes 6.5% on Ohio commercial auto — the reach story of the month at 38,412 policyholders
Approved July 15. Progressive takes a 6.5% Ohio commercial auto increase across the region's largest book by a wide margin — 38,412 policyholders and $116.5M in premium. The average is modest; two things make this the headline. First, reach: no other filing this cycle comes close on headcount. Second, a moving target — Progressive's own indication was 13.2%, so it booked barely half of what its actuaries say the book needs, and it revised the Snapshot telematics scoring model while tightening eligibility for risks with multiple prior losses. Heavy trucks and low-score accounts absorb the most; the scoring change is broken out on Page 3. When a carrier this size takes half its indication, the rest reloads.
Also Approved This Cycle
Travelers stacks 13.2% on New Jersey commercial auto — on top of last year's 16%
Travelers takes 13.2% across its New Jersey commercial auto book (2,562 policyholders, $84.4M premium), following a 16% increase a year ago. Private-passenger-type vehicles rise 17.1% and its ACJ paper company runs +19%, driven by updated increased-liability-limit factors (Rule 100) that raise premium hardest at higher limits. Two years of compounding put many accounts well north of 30% above 2024 pricing. Effective November 1.
Brethren Mutual wins 11.2% on Maryland commercial auto against a 17.8% indication
Brethren Mutual takes 11.2% on its Maryland commercial auto book — liability +15%, physical damage +5% — across 2,016 policyholders and $5.8M in premium. Its own actuaries indicated 17.8%, so this approval closes only part of the gap. Effective October 1.
Donegal takes 8.4% on Maryland auto and steers away from heavy tractors
Donegal secures 8.4% on Maryland commercial auto (1,308 policyholders, $24.0M premium) despite a 19% indicated need, deliberately shifting its book away from heavy truck tractors and cement mixers and pushing higher mandatory deductibles ($1,000–$2,000) on collision and comprehensive. Contractor and haulage fleets feel both the rate and the deductible. Effective June 1.
Why no workers comp story on Page 1?
Comp barely registered on our screen this month — no qualifying workers-comp rate increase cleared the impact bar in the region. Bureau loss costs are flat-to-down, and the largest approved comp filing was actually neutral-to-favorable: AF Group held Maryland workers' comp rates flat while folding Star Insurance onto its system and cutting Star policyholders roughly 38%. That's the tell — comp is soft, and the structural comp story this month is a book consolidation, not a rate hike. It lives on Page 3.
Carriers are filing double-digit needs and taking single digits — the rate that isn't in this cycle is loading for the next.
Same screen, every other commercial line: businessowners, package and general-liability carriers are pushing rate — and repeatedly settling for a fraction of what their own filings say they need. Quincy Mutual took 19% against a 25.9% indication; The Hartford booked 8.1% against 19.6%; CNA took 7.4% while masking a 31.2% need. Translation: these Northeast books aren't done.
Industries in this issue's filings
Lead Filing
Quincy Mutual takes 19% on New York BOP — restaurants +28% — but its own need was 25.9%
Approved July 16, effective November 1. Quincy Mutual takes a 19% New York businessowners increase across a challenging NYC-weighted portfolio — 1,988 policyholders and $18.3M in premium — with restaurants up 28% and offices up 26%. But the number that matters is the gap: Quincy's own indication was 25.9%, so even a 19% approval leaves roughly seven points of unfunded need on the table. Restaurants, retail and office accounts renewing here should treat 19% as a floor, not a ceiling — the balance reloads into the next filing.
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
The Hartford takes 8.1% on its Pennsylvania package book — barely a third of a 19.6% need
The region's biggest wider-market book: 20,286 Pennsylvania Spectrum commercial-package policyholders and $54.9M in premium. The 8.1% average lands well under The Hartford's 19.6% indicated need, with habitational and restaurant classes hit hardest through revised market-group factors. Booking barely a third of the indication doesn't close the gap — it compounds into the next filing. Effective December 23.
CNA's 7.4% Maryland BOP hides a 31.2% indicated need — and a cap that admits it
CNA takes 7.4% on its Maryland Connect businessowners book (1,848 policyholders, $6.0M premium) against a 31.2% indicated need — the widest indicated-to-approved gap on this page. A four-year transition rule caps annual renewals at +20%, which tells you the carrier expects to keep filing. Retail, real estate, restaurant and repair classes are in scope. Effective November 9.
Philadelphia Indemnity's 5.7% New York GL is really a niche-class repricing (indicated 19%)
The headline 5.7% spreads across a $58.5M, 8,132-policyholder New York general-liability book, but the action is in niche programs: health & fitness +20.7%, real estate +20%, plus a new swimming-pool surcharge (1.08–1.15) across condo, HOA, apartment and health-and-fitness risks. Philadelphia's indication was 19% — the average understates where fitness, habitational and pool-equipped accounts actually land. Effective April 2027.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CT | The Cincinnati Insurance Companies | Other Liability — General Liability | 4 / 5 | 1,054 | Apr 1, 2027 |
| DE | American National P&C | CMP — Farm & Ranch | 4 / 5 | 1,098 | Sep 29, 2026 |
| CT | State Farm Fire & Casualty | CMP — Combinations | 4 / 5 | 6,580 | Mar 1, 2026 |
| PA | Spinnaker (Harborway) | Other Liability — GL Combinations | 4 / 5 | 1,630 | Nov 1, 2026 |
Also on the radar
The theme this page is pent-up rate. Every featured carrier booked well under its own indication — Quincy 19% vs 25.9%, The Hartford 8.1% vs 19.6%, CNA 7.4% vs 31.2%, Philadelphia 5.7% vs 19%. And Cincinnati's Connecticut GL in the table below (14.8%) still trailed its 22.6% indication. None of these books are finished; unfunded need doesn't vanish, it re-files. Advise renewals to plan for a second wave, not a one-and-done.
Under the rate line: a 52.3% wellness repricing, scoring models in four filings, and a comp book quietly consolidating.
Same region, the filings whose headline rate hides the real move: new scoring algorithms, underwriting-guideline changes, coverage contraction and market exits approved in July. Great American repriced its sports-and-wellness liability book 52.3% while halving the medical limit; Progressive and Cincinnati rebuilt commercial-auto pricing around index and class-plan scores; and three carriers exited Northeast programs outright.
Industries in this page's filings
Lead Filing · Coverage Cut + Rate
Great American reprices sports & wellness liability 52.3% — and halves the medical-expense limit
Approved July 1–30, effective December 1. Great American is assuming Vantapro's sports-and-wellness book across Pennsylvania, Vermont and Michigan and repricing it 52.3% — against indicated needs running from 122.7% (MI) to 134.5% (VT). At the same time it cuts the medical-expense limit from $25,000 to $10,000 and adds per-unit charges for cryotherapy, cold plunge, saunas, automated massage and water slides. Gyms, studios, leagues and wellness centers should treat the medical-limit cut as the real headline: insureds pay materially more for materially less, and at barely 40% of the indicated need, the next filing is already loading. Matching Maine and Vermont filings cleared on the same terms.
New Scoring Models — The Trend Is Real
Progressive's Snapshot rebuilds commercial-auto scoring in two states at once
The Ohio filing on Page 1 (6.5%, 38,412 policyholders) revises the Snapshot telematics scoring model and tightens eligibility for repeat-loss risks. A companion Maryland filing takes 8.9% against a 16.9% indication while reworking driver-age, USDOT-score and model-year factors — and adding a regulator-flagged over-64 driver surcharge. Same insurer, same direction: accounts now move on their own score, not the state average.
Cincinnati rebuilds DC commercial auto around ISO's class plan — +41.6% on a 7% indication
A small book (123 policyholders) but a structural template: Cincinnati adopts ISO's Optional Class Plan, flips rating factors from additive to multiplicative, and adds new NAICS, vehicle-mass, body-type and trailer-to-truck-ratio variables. The 41.6% overall dwarfs the 7% indicated need because the plan itself re-sorts every risk. Watch this design migrate to bigger Cincinnati books. Effective May 2027.
State Farm slips a public-records Customer Rating Index into Connecticut package
Behind a 10.6% Connecticut multi-peril increase (indicated 15.5%, contractors +26%, listed on Page 2), State Farm introduces a public-records Customer Rating Index scoring factor and a new HSB-rated cyber suite, plus a mandatory fixed expense constant. The rate is the visible half; the CRI is the half that will move individual accounts next year.
Underwriting Guideline Changes
ALPS raises West Virginia lawyers' cyber 48.3% and re-tiers by firm size
ALPS takes 48.3% on its West Virginia lawyers' cyber-liability program against a 64.3% indicated need, abandoning flat per-attorney pricing for a firm-size-tiered structure with higher base premiums for larger firms. Solo and small firms that bolted cyber on as a cheap endorsement are the exposure here. Effective on approval.
Spinnaker's Harborway GL tightens Connecticut — 27.8% and mandatory roofing exclusions
Part of a multi-state Harborway GL program tightening (Pennsylvania and Connecticut both cleared this cycle), the Connecticut filing takes 27.8% against a 32.7% indication with a 130.6% max, adds contractor trade factors, and makes roofing, open-roof and spontaneous-combustion exclusions mandatory — plus a 25% minimum earned premium for contractors. Trades accounts lose coverage and pay more. Effective November 1.
AF Group holds Maryland comp flat while absorbing Star Insurance
The month's structural workers-comp story — and the reason Page 1 carries no comp rate hike. AF Group kept its Maryland comp rate flat overall while folding Star Insurance onto its Guidewire system, removing Star's class deviations and cutting Star policyholders roughly 38%. This is consolidation, not a rate action, but Star insureds should confirm how their class lands on AF Group's rating. Effective January 1, 2027.
Coverage Contraction & Market Exits
American National rebuilds Connecticut farm rating — 0% overall, swings to +229%
A rate-neutral headline hiding a full rating-plan overhaul: American National moves Connecticut farm-and-ranch to split-peril ISO rating with roof-age and construction-type factors, consolidates building codes, mandates inflation protection and drops the Ting electrical-monitoring endorsement — with individual accounts swinging up to +229% as Argonaut policies migrate to ANPAC. The average is meaningless; where a farm lands on the new curve is everything. Effective November 1.
A bright spot: Acuity cuts Pennsylvania commercial auto 4.7%
Against the region's auto-rate tide, Acuity files a 4.7% Pennsylvania commercial-auto decrease led by an 11.2% physical-damage cut, adopting ISO Pennsylvania increased-limit factors. Truck-fleet and delivery classes with clean physical-damage histories are the beneficiaries — a rare softening signal worth shopping. Effective December 1.
Three Northeast programs exit — contractors, Attune BOP and Argonaut's book
Erie is withdrawing its Fivestar Contractors program in DC, non-renewing all 47 legacy-system policies as it migrates to ErieSecure Business. Accredited is pulling its Michigan Attune BOP, non-renewing 255 policies as the book moves to Fortegra (Lyndon Southern) at roughly 29% higher rates. And Argonaut is exiting Vermont commercial auto and BOP, transferring 1,084 auto and 657 businessowners policies to affiliate American National (ANPAC). All three sets of insureds are effectively shopping now.
Also on the radar
The scoring wave has corroboration beyond the featured cards: Atlantic Specialty (Intact) launched its Shepherd Casualty companion commercial-auto program in Connecticut with a 25% telematics credit, and Next Insurance bolted a LexisNexis risk-score model onto its Maryland GL book (1.4% on the surface, 12.7% indicated). A second genuine bright spot: Zurich cut DC commercial property 18.6% after switching catastrophe rating to Verisk's Touchstone model. Third-party data is now pricing Northeast small commercial in both directions.
