MPI claims remain below pre-pandemic numbers
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/10/2022 (1236 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Manitoba Public Insurance continues to report fewer collisions on provincial streets and highways and reduced damage claims paid out than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Crown auto insurer’s 2021 annual report, it received 258,659 claims between April 2021 to March 2022, compared to 228,956 tallied during the first year of the pandemic.
The report notes, pre-pandemic, more than 293,000 Manitoba drivers filed claims in 2019-20, while almost 298,000 were in collisions in 2018-19, and almost 300,000 in 2017-18.
“To date, COVID-19 restrictions have decreased frequency of accidents due to reduced vehicles on the road. Management is maintaining focus on providing value to our customers through this uncertainty.”
MPI also paid out $883 million in damage claims in 2021-22, up from $780 million in 2020-21, but still lower than the more than $1 billion in the year before the pandemic and $1.1 billion in 2018-19.
MPI board chairman Mike Sullivan, in a message in the report, said: “At MPI, we remain proud to provide Manitoba drivers with coverage that is among the most comprehensive in Canada and rates that are among the lowest.”
Noting the Public Utilities Board had approved an overall 1.57 per cent rate decrease for Manitoba drivers this year, Sullivan said it means — for example —a 40-year-old Winnipeg couple and their 16-year-old son, all with clean driving records, would pay $1,420 to insure a 2018 Ford F150 XLT SuperCrew, it would cost them $5,120 in Toronto and $4,457 in Calgary to insure the same vehicle.
Sullivan also noted how this year MPI has added an additional level at the top of the discount scale, to give the safest drivers an additional discount on insurance premiums, while also increasing premium discounts on the top six levels of the scale.
MPI continued its community service, the report noted, loaning four of its claim centres to Shared Health for much of the pandemic, while also raising $525,000 for the United Way and $96,000 in a fundraising drive to help the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, while there are fewer collisions on the roads, the average cost per claim has varied very little.
MPI says the average cost per claim was $3,415 in 2021-22, up slightly from $3,407 the year before, and not must different than the $3,435 and $3,410, respectively, during the two years prior to that.
Meanwhile, the MPI report said the Crown corporation earned $98 million in profit in 2021-22, before giving out $312 million in rebates to customers, and $362 million in profit the year before.
All told, MPI says it has given out a total of $500 million in rebates to customers during the pandemic.
» The Winnipeg Free Press