ICBC has published a year in review for 2024 on it's website. According to the review overall customer satisfaction for Autoplan services was 85%, driver licensing services was 74% and claims services was 75%. $51 million was invested to create safer roads, sidewalks, and communities across British Columbia.
CEO's Introduction
Basic ICBC Insurance Rates
Basic insurance rates will remain the same until March 31, 2026.
On Line Claims Tools
New claims tools are being implemented that will accomplish the following:
- Quicker decisions to repair or scrap damaged vehicles
- Quicker tranfer of ownership to ICBC for scrapped vehicles
- Online submission of claim documentation
- Improved submission tools for healthcare providers and repair facilities
New Licensing Facilities
Surrey and West Kelowna now have new driver licensing facilities to relieve the pressure on nearby offices and provide a faster process for customers in those cities.
Road Improvement Program
The Road Improvement Program contributed approximately $10 million across 334 projects in 2023/24. For every $1 invested, ICBC saved $4.50 in claims costs, based on a May 2024 evaluation of the program’s past projects.
Not All Sunshine and Roses Perhaps
The Insurance Bureau of Canada reports the following:
When including commissions and premium taxes, ICBC's financials show that 34 cents of every dollar it collected in premiums last year went to the Crown insurer's operating expenses. That works out to $407 per driver, on average. In contrast, private auto insurers report operating expenses averaging 26 cents per premium dollar, according to data from the General Insurance Statistical Agency (GISA), the statistical agency run by Canada's provincial insurance regulators. A lower expense ratio means a lower portion of consumer premiums are devoted to operating expenses, bolstering the argument that drivers could benefit from significant savings if ICBC was opened to competition.
The Vancouver Sun reported:
Ernst & Young found that for 30 different driver profiles across nine provinces, auto insurance in provinces with publicly owned models with some form of no-fault insurance have lower rates than in provinces with private insurance models. It didn’t compare different levels of services.
It's difficult to decide if ICBC is a bargain, inefficient, or a political football.
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Auto insurance is a complicated topic. Contradictory claims by the private insurance industry and public insurers always seem to only focus on any perceived advantage for either side. ICBC's overall admin costs of 34 cents per premium dollar seems higher than the private insurance industry's claim of only 26 cents per premium dollar, implying ICBC is more inefficient. Does the ICBC admin costs include the cost of running the entire licencing system? If so, our tax dollars are lower as a result, while the private insurers' customers must still pay tax dollars for their provincial licencing system.
Another relatively unknown fact is that while ICBC's investment returns on their claims fund are plowed totally back into the system to reduce the net cost of providing insurance, the private industry gets to pass their investment returns directly to their shareholders, not back to their customers.
I'm not a total fan of no-fault systems, though. I think there's a lot of injured parties facing a lifetime of ongoing medical expenses and reduced earning capacity as a result of crashes. the no-fault system seems to short change these people by having a fixed schedule of payments for the class of injury, regardless of its impact on the individual.
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