MPI files rate request for first year of Driver Safety Rating system

Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) is proposing that no one pay increased premium during the first year of its new merit/demerit system, called the Driver Safety Rating (DSR), and that the maximum vehicle insurance discount remain at 25%.
MPI filed rates for the new program with the Public Utility Board on Jan. 30, 2009.
The Driver Safety Rating was accepted by the Manitoba government earlier this month, and will come into effect for Autopac policies and driver’s licences renewed after Nov. 1, 2009.
The objective of DSR is to reward safe driving through a system of premium decreases or increases tied, respectively, to safe and risky driving behaviours.
For example, a driver’s risk will be rated on a sliding scale of between +15 and -20, with zero in the middle. Drivers would move one merit point up the scale for each year they go without a conviction or at-fault accident. Conversely, they would incur demerit points, sinking them down the scale, for convictions or at-fault accidents.
Going up the scale would result in premium discounts, whereas going down the scale would result in premium surcharges.
“If the rates proposed today are accepted by the PUB, Manitobans will collectively pay almost [Cdn]$11 million less in driver premiums from the day the new model is introduced and onward,” said MPI CEO Marilyn McLaren. “The safest Manitoba drivers will pay no driver premium (or five dollars if they don’t own a vehicle), compared to their current driver premium of twenty dollars.”
MPI’s rate application covers the period beginning between Nov. 1, 2009 (when the Driver Safety Rating comes into effect) and Feb. 28, 2011. For this 16-month transition period, Manitoba Public Insurance is asking PUB to keep almost everyone’s rates about the same as or slightly lower than they would have been under the old system.
“As we increase the discounts for the safest drivers, we’ll also need to increase the penalties for those who persist in higher-risk behaviour,” McLaren said. “We want to ensure those drivers have a chance to improve their habits before higher penalties are introduced, so for the first year, we are proposing that no one will pay more, and the maximum vehicle insurance discount remain at 25%.
“Within a few years, we expect to introduce higher discounts for safer vehicle owners.”