Motor cover renewals see over 50% increase

Renewal of vehicle insurance policies has recently seen an increase of more than 50%. In some cases, growth has surged as much as six times. “We are experiencing an average increase of 3-4 times in insurance renewal enquiries for old vehicles. Consumers are definitely taking cognizance of the motor vehicles act amendments and wanting to comply with the same. The encouraging part is to see traffic from both online and offline distribution platforms,” said Sanjay Datta, head (underwriting and claims) at ICICI Lombard General Insurance, the largest private insurer. Sajja Praveen Chowdary, business head of motor insurance at Policybazaar.com said that Policybazaar.com has seen its two-wheeler policy renewals going up from 10,000 per day to 60,000 in the last one week, while the renewal run rate among car owners has gone up by more than 70% from 3,500 per day to 6,000 per day. “At this rate, we expect to hit 1 lakh policy renewals per day by the end of next week,” he added. “Earlier, out of 100 visitors looking to renew their policies on our website, about 60% of two-wheeler customers held an expired policy, while the figure for car customers was 30%. However, in the last four days, applications from customers with expired motor policies went up at 87% among bike owners and 52% for cars,” Chowdary said. “With time, we are sure that the amended motor vehicles act would help in converting the large uninsured base in our country,” Gurneesh Khurana, head of motor business at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, said.