If your commercial auto insurance rates went up again at your last renewal, you’re not imagining a trend. Commercial auto is the rare line of business that has posted a rate increase every single quarter for roughly 15 years straight, even in years when most other commercial insurance lines were flat or falling.
For business owners trying to budget for their next renewal, understanding why this line behaves so differently from the rest of your program, and working with an advisor who can put that context to work for you, is the first step to managing it instead of just absorbing it.
Key takeaways
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Commercial auto premiums rose 5.8% in the first quarter of 2026, marking the 59th consecutive quarter of rate increases, and climbed again in the second quarter, extending the streak further, according to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB).
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Commercial auto posted a net underwriting loss for the 15th consecutive year in 2025, even after improving to about $1.9 billion in losses from $4.9 billion in 2024, according to A.M. Best. Those losses are concentrated in liability coverage, which has posted a combined ratio above 100 every year since 2014, while physical damage coverage has generally stayed profitable.
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So-called “nuclear verdicts” of $10 million or more against commercial vehicle operators have grown sharply in frequency and size over the past decade, with a median trucking verdict of $36 million in 2022, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform.
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The U.S. expanded steel and aluminum tariffs in 2025 to cover more than 400 additional product categories, including auto exhaust parts and EV-related steel, adding new cost pressure to an already-strained vehicle repair and parts supply chain.
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Distracted driving remains a persistent cost driver, contributing to more than 3,200 deaths and roughly 315,000 injuries in 2024 alone, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Commercial Auto Insurance Rates Have Risen for Fifteen Years Straight
Most insurance lines move in cycles, a few years of rising rates followed by a period of softening as competition among carriers picks back up. Commercial auto insurance hasn’t followed that pattern. According to CIAB’s quarterly Commercial Property/Casualty Market Index, commercial auto premiums increased 5.8% in the first quarter of 2026 alone, marking the 59th consecutive quarter of rate increases, a streak that dates back roughly 15 years.
That increase came even as CIAB’s broader survey showed overall premiums softening across most other commercial lines, and the streak continued into the second quarter of 2026, with commercial auto premiums up another 4.5% even as property and several liability lines began to soften. The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), a nonprofit research organization backed by the insurance industry, and the Casualty Actuarial Society reached a similar conclusion in a joint study: claim severity in commercial auto liability rose 78% from 2014 to 2023, a 6.6% average annual growth rate, more than double the 29% rise in the broader Consumer Price Index over the same period.
That’s the real story behind the streak: this isn’t a cyclical correction; it’s carriers trying to catch up to a line of business where claim costs have been rising faster than premiums for years. It’s also exactly the kind of gap a SandStone advisor reviews with clients well before a renewal date arrives.
Why Commercial Auto Insurance Remains Unprofitable for Insurers
The clearest evidence that this isn’t just a pricing strategy is in the loss data itself. According to A.M. Best, commercial auto posted a net underwriting loss for the 15th consecutive year in 2025, though the loss improved to about $1.9 billion from $4.9 billion in 2024.
The line splits into two very different stories. Physical damage coverage, which pays to repair or replace your own vehicles, has generally been profitable and hasn’t posted a combined ratio above 100 since 2017. The losses are concentrated almost entirely in commercial auto liability, which has posted a combined ratio above 100, meaning claims and expenses exceeded premiums collected, in every year since 2014, reaching 113 in 2024 alone.
Rising claim severity, legal costs, and reserve deficiencies, insurers set aside billions more in 2025 to cover liability claims that turned out to cost more than expected, have kept pushing that side of the business back into unprofitable territory, and insurers have responded the only way they can sustainably respond: by raising rates.
Nuclear Verdicts Are Driving Up Commercial Auto Liability Costs
One of the biggest forces behind rising severity is litigation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a legal policy research organization, tracks what the industry calls “nuclear verdicts,” jury awards of $10 million or more, against commercial vehicle operators. Its research found that from 2013 to 2022, both the frequency and size of these verdicts increased substantially, with the median trucking verdict reaching $36 million in 2022 and the number of verdicts exceeding $50 million rising as well. This tracks closely with the near-tripling in commercial auto defense and cost containment expenses that Triple-I and the Casualty Actuarial Society documented over the past decade.
A single nuclear verdict doesn’t just affect the company involved. Because reinsurers and carriers price commercial auto based on the tail risk of these large losses, a rising trend in verdict size pushes up the cost of coverage across the entire line, even for businesses that have never been sued.
The Institute for Legal Reform’s research also estimates that rising commercial vehicle litigation costs are a meaningful contributor to broader inflation in consumer goods, since transportation costs flow through to the price of nearly everything shipped by truck. This is also where a SandStone advisor can add real value, by ensuring that your liability limits reflect what a serious claim can now cost, not what it cost five years ago.
Rising Repair Costs Are Adding to Commercial Auto Insurance Premiums
It’s not just litigation driving costs up; physical damage claims themselves have gotten more expensive to resolve. Modern vehicles increasingly rely on advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), cameras, radar, and sensors that require professional calibration after even minor collision repairs. According to Enlyte’s 2026 Envision Trends report, which draws on Mitchell estimating data, ADAS calibration appeared on nearly 35% of repair estimates in 2025, up from just 12% in 2022, adding an average of roughly $688 to the cost of a repair when present.
CCC Intelligent Solutions, a separate auto claims and repair data provider, found a similar trend in its own 2026 Crash Course report: calibrations appeared on 28.3% of repairable estimates in the fourth quarter of 2025, up from 21.8% a year earlier, contributing to an average overall repair cost of $4,818. A joint analysis published in August 2026 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and its Highway Loss Data Institute (IIHS-HLDI) found that vehicles equipped with a bundle of driver-assistance features run about 10% higher in collision claim severity than otherwise identical vehicles without them, specifically because of these added repair steps, even though the same technology cuts collision claim frequency enough that overall collision losses still come out lower.
Layered on top of that, the U.S. Commerce Department expanded steel and aluminum tariffs in 2025 to cover more than 400 additional product categories, including auto exhaust parts and EV-related steel, adding a 50% duty on the metal content of those imports. For a commercial fleet with dozens of vehicles, that combination of more frequent calibration needs and pricier imported parts adds up fast.
Distracted Driving Continues to Drive Up Commercial Auto Claims
Driver behavior is still a major factor behind claim frequency and severity. NHTSA reported 3,208 deaths in distraction-affected crashes in 2024, along with an estimated 315,167 injuries, and cell phone involvement in fatal distraction-related crashes actually increased slightly, from 12% in 2023 to 14% in 2024.
For a business with drivers on the road every day, whether that’s a delivery fleet, a service business, or sales reps driving between appointments, distracted driving isn’t an abstract statistic. It’s one of the more controllable risk factors behind a company’s claims history, and it’s increasingly something underwriters ask about directly when evaluating a commercial auto risk.
What Rising Commercial Auto Insurance Costs Mean for Your Renewal
None of these forces are within a single business owner’s control, but how a company responds to them at renewal is. Underwriters increasingly reward businesses that can demonstrate active risk management: driver screening and motor vehicle record checks, telematics or dash-cam programs that document safe driving habits, documented vehicle maintenance schedules, and clear policies around cell phone use behind the wheel.
Reviewing deductible levels, confirming coverage limits are adequate given how large a single serious claim can now become, and evaluating whether a commercial umbrella policy makes sense are also worth discussing well before your renewal date, not during it.
Given how consistently commercial auto has diverged from the rest of the commercial insurance market, treating this line as a routine renewal line item is likely to lead to unwelcome surprises. This is where working with an independent SandStone advisor makes the biggest difference: rather than accepting whatever renewal terms a single carrier offers, an advisor can shop your fleet risk across multiple markets, document the safety practices already in place, and negotiate from a position that reflects your actual risk rather than the line’s industry-wide reputation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do commercial auto insurance rates keep going up every year?
A combination of factors is driving the trend: persistent underwriting losses for insurers, rising jury verdicts against commercial vehicle operators, more expensive vehicle repairs due to advanced safety technology and tariffs on parts, and continued distracted driving on the road. Commercial auto has posted rate increases for roughly 15 consecutive years as insurers try to catch up to these rising costs.
What is a “nuclear verdict” and why does it affect my insurance rates?
A nuclear verdict is a jury award of $10 million or more, typically against a commercial vehicle operator. Even if your business has never faced a lawsuit, rising verdict sizes across the industry push up the cost of reinsurance and claims reserves for all carriers, which gets reflected in premiums industry-wide.
Is commercial auto insurance actually unprofitable for insurance companies?
Generally, yes. According to A.M. Best, commercial auto posted a net underwriting loss for the 15th consecutive year in 2025. The losses are concentrated in liability coverage, which has posted a combined ratio above 100, meaning claims and expenses exceeded premiums collected, every year since 2014, while physical damage coverage has generally remained profitable.
How do vehicle safety features like ADAS affect insurance costs?
Advanced driver-assistance systems reduce how often accidents happen, but they make each repair more expensive because sensors and cameras often require professional calibration after a collision. That trade-off has contributed to rising average repair costs even as overall claim frequency has declined for some vehicle types.
What can my business do to manage rising commercial auto costs?
Focus on the factors within your control: driver screening, telematics or safe-driving monitoring programs, documented vehicle maintenance, and clear distracted-driving policies. Reviewing your deductibles, liability limits, and whether an umbrella policy makes sense with a SandStone advisor before renewal can also help you manage cost increases more predictably.
Should I work with an independent advisor instead of going directly to a carrier for commercial auto coverage?
In a market this volatile, yes. An independent advisor can compare terms across multiple carriers rather than presenting a single company’s renewal offer, document your fleet’s safety practices in a way that supports better pricing, and flag coverage gaps, like inadequate liability limits, before a claim exposes them.
Why Partner With SandStone
Commercial auto is one of the most difficult lines in the market to underwrite right now, which makes an experienced advocate at renewal more valuable, not less. SandStone Insurance Partners works with businesses across Florida, Georgia, and the Southeast to build commercial auto coverage and fleet risk management strategies that hold up against this market, rather than just renewing the same policy year after year. Contact your SandStone advisor today to review your commercial auto program before your next renewal.
Disclaimer: This blog provides general educational information about business insurance and is not legal, financial, or insurance advice. Coverage availability, eligibility, sublimits, exclusions, and policy features vary by state, carrier, industry, and individual underwriting. For coverage recommendations specific to your business, contact a licensed agent from SandStone.
