Texas Program Targets Top Drivers in Tough ZIP Codes

Commissioner Elton Bomer this week announced a Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) initiative to help good drivers in almost 400 under served ZIP codes to find reasonably priced auto liability insurance.

"We often hear that many good drivers pay too much for car insurance because they were stuck in high-risk county mutual companies or in the assigned risk plan," Bomer says. "I want to make sure these drivers have a shot at less expensive coverage. The MAP is their chance to save money—sometimes hundreds of dollars."

TDI will launch the auto insurance Market Assistance Program (MAP) in four stages. It will start on July 1 in El Paso and Travis counties and the Lower Rio Grande Valley; September 1 in Harris County; November 1 in Dallas and Tarrant counties; and January 1, 1999, across the rest of the state. Applications from eligible drivers will go to eight insurance company groups that agreed to participate after their executives met with Bomer.

Insurers voluntarily participating in the auto MAP are Allstate, Farmers, GEICO, Nationwide, Progressive, Prudential Property & Casualty, Southern Farm Bureau and State Farm. Together, they write about two-thirds of car insurance sold in Texas. The insurers must agree to insure MAP applicants at the rates charged their standard and preferred customers.

The MAP will be available to drivers who meet the following eligibility requirements:

• Residence in one of the 383 ZIP codes designated by TDI as under served because of higher-than-average concentrations of drivers in county mutual insurance companies or in the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association (TAIPA). The association is Texas' assigned risk plan for drivers turned down by at least two insurance companies.
• A clean motor vehicle record, with no traffic citations for at-fault accidents or moving violations during the three years immediately preceding their application to the MAP.

Drivers can get help from the MAP even if they already have car insurance. The purpose is to help good drivers find lower priced liability coverage more in keeping with their driving records. All a consumer must do to get assistance is call TDI's MAP Unit at a toll-free phone number. This unit also operates TDI's residential property insurance Market Assistance Program.

A MAP staff member first will ask the caller's ZIP code and whether the caller or any family member living in his or her household has had any traffic tickets or accidents in the past three years. If the answers indicate possible eligibility, the MAP staffer will then offer to take the caller's application.

The application—called a Consumer Profile—will include each applicant's driver's license number, address, phone number, birth date, gender, year, make and model of vehicle and current auto insurance status. If other drivers are in the household, the Customer Profile will include their drivers' license numbers or birth dates.

The MAP section will ask the Texas Department of Public Safety for each applicant's Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) for the preceding three years to verify the absence of citations for moving violations or at-fault accidents. Only applications in which all drivers to be covered have clean MVRs will be deemed eligible and forwarded to insurance companies.

TDI plans to use the Internet to transmit each eligible application to all eight participating insurance company groups. The information will be password-protected.

A company may apply its normal underwriting standards in deciding whether to accept a MAP applicant as a policyholder. Insurers will contact applicants directly or through agents if they need more information before deciding whether to sell them car insurance policies. Although the MAP is designed to help consumers find less expensive liability policies, insurers may offer additional coverages, such as collision and comprehensive, at preferred or standard rates.