Commercial auto is doing the heavy lifting in the Northeast this month — and New Jersey is where it lands hardest.
A quiet cycle for workers comp, a loud one for fleets. The qualifying rate increases skew to commercial auto, led by two New Jersey filings — one small and sharp, one enormous and still catching up to its own indication. Here's what your clients renew into.
Industries in this issue's filings
Also Approved This Cycle
Progressive holds NJ to +2% — but the indication says 11.3%
The region's largest auto book this cycle: 30,518 NJ policyholders and $293M in premium. The filed increase is a modest 2%, driven by severe bodily-injury, property-damage and PIP loss trends and softened by good physical-damage experience. The gap to the 11.3% indication is the story — this rate is not done moving.
Pie's PA comp climbs 7.4% and reshuffles the class tiers
The region's one qualifying workers-comp rate increase — and it stacks on an April hike. Pie replaces a flat multiplier with five class-group tiers, loading roofing and construction trades hardest. Contractors renewing in PA feel it twice: once in the base rate, once in the new tier.
AmTrust's VT specialty auto jumps 48.5% — the region's steepest
A small book (29 policyholders) but the biggest rate move in the Northeast this month. AmTrust adopted the latest ISO commercial-auto loss costs and folded the paper into its specialty program; the indicated need is more than double the 48.5% approved. New snow-plow, fungi and unauthorized-passenger exclusions ride along (see page 3).
Occidental lifts CT trucker rates 14.5% after years of heavy losses
A genuine motor-carrier filing: Occidental adopts ISO loss costs and revises its multipliers after a multi-year run of high loss ratios, still landing well below indicated. New business-type and years-in-business factors surcharge higher-risk haul types and newer ventures. Who feels it: CT for-hire truckers, new authorities most of all.
Why so little workers comp?
Northeast comp is genuinely soft right now. Bureau loss costs are flat-to-down across New England, and the large comp filings this cycle were neutral or favorable — Arbella even added objective Premier/Standard tiers in CT. Pie's PA increase is the exception, and the reason a client's comp premium can still rise in a softening market. The real movement this month is commercial auto, concentrated in a few specialty books and two big New Jersey filings.
The package market is moving too — and the filed rates are trailing the indications badly.
Same screen, every other commercial line. Businessowners and package filings dominate this cycle, led by a New Jersey increase that sits far below its own liability need. Across the board, carriers filed under indicated — the rate is chasing the risk, not leading it.
Industries in this issue's filings
Three Filings Worth a Closer Look
The Hartford adds 8.6% to WV small-commercial package
West Virginia package pricing rises 8.6%, with extra factor hikes aimed at retail, restaurants, medical offices and professional services — plus a stiffer umbrella state factor and higher minimums. The classes carrying the most load are exactly the Main Street accounts most agents write.
Travelers takes DC cyber up 16.1% and adds a catastrophe load
Rising ransomware, funds-transfer-fraud and dependent-business-interruption losses drive a 16.1% cyber increase, plus a 10% systemic-aggregation catastrophe load for correlated events. At 16.1% filed against a 16.4% indication, this rate is tracking the risk almost exactly. Who feels it: any DC business carrying standalone cyber.
CNA recalibrates RI businessowners — +6.1% with a 20% cap
CNA re-ran its multi-peril GLM models and loaded a large property-catastrophe provision against double-digit liability trends, landing at 6.1% overall but well short of indicated. A renewal-transition rule caps increases at 20% and decreases at 5%, so the worst-hit accounts get there over time rather than all at once.
The Rest of the Qualifying List
| State | Carrier | Line / Sub-type | Severity | Policyholders | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PA | Coterie | CMP — Businessowners | 3 / 5 | 1,584 | Jan 1, 2027 |
| VT | The Hartford | CMP — Commercial Package | 3 / 5 | 1,309 | Nov 7, 2026 |
| RI | AmTrust | CMP — Businessowners | 4 / 5 | 18 | Sep 9, 2026 |
Also on the radar
Two big books moved the other way: Selective trimmed NJ general liability about 3% across a 27,438-policyholder, $186M book (though abuse coverage still rose 14% — see page 3), and Progressive shaved PA commercial auto 0.8% on 37,950 policyholders despite a +14% indication. Watch the indicated-vs-filed gaps everywhere this cycle: Preferred Mutual's 10.4% sits under a ~25% liability need, and nearly every carrier filed below indicated — the rate is catching up to the risk, not getting ahead of it.
Scoring models and exclusions moved more than the rates did — and two carriers left a line entirely.
Same region, the structural story: GLM segmentation, predictive tiers, third-party scores and new exclusions reshaping what gets covered and at what price. Two outright market exits this cycle, and a scoring wave that now spans auto and businessowners alike.
Industries in this page's filings
Market Exits
Main Street America exits Maryland commercial package entirely
A full withdrawal — new and renewal — of the Commercial Package product in Maryland, effective Nov 1, 2026. The policyholder count isn't reported, but a whole-product exit sends every affected MD account shopping at once. Get ahead of the non-renewal notices rather than reacting to them.
Accredited drops its RI businessowners line; book rolls to Fortegra
As Attune moves its program book to Fortegra, Accredited non-renews all 103 Rhode Island BOP policies starting November 2026. Affected insureds need a standalone replacement or a confirmed landing spot in the new program — don't assume the roll-over is automatic.
New Scoring & Tiering Models
Federated swaps PA hazard plans for predictive tiers — and contractors lose automatic AI
Federated replaces its risk-hazard and liability factor plans with predictive property and liability tiers. It's revenue-neutral overall, but individual accounts swing hard, and contractors lose automatic additional-insured coverage. A companion WV filing runs the same GLM with swings up to +75%. The headline says 0%; the account-level reality doesn't.
Imperium tightens NJ auto tier eligibility on a scoring model
Skyward's Imperium reworks tier eligibility to capture driver and operational risk that standard ISO averages miss — no headline base-rate change, but the tiering now decides who qualifies for the better price.
Also Filed This Cycle
Also on the radar
The scoring wave runs wider than the cards: EMC's new 30-tier RI small-auto program, Jet's new MD commercial-auto launch, and a Great Plains final-mile program all price on ISO loss costs with proprietary tiers. AmTrust's VT specialty-auto realignment — the +48.5% move on page 1 — also layers in snow-plow, fungi and unauthorized-passenger exclusions. Two bright spots: Zurich cut RI commercial-package property rates 15.8% after switching its catastrophe model to Verisk Touchstone, and Arbella added objective Premier/Standard WC tiers in a softening CT market.
