Major Carwash Insurer Pulls Out

BALTIMORE -- Zurich North America Small Business, a commercial insurance company handling more than 1,500 carwashes throughout the United States, said as a result of mounting losses it has decided to pull out of the carwash industry.

The insurance giant is planning on canceling all carwash policies as they come up for renewal in the next 12 months, according to Steve Peters, senior vice president of underwriting for Zurich.

"The way it works is we stay on the coverage until the policy for expiration is coming up, so it's really a 12 month process," Peters told Carwashing & Detailing Online.

Peters says that the central motivation for the company's pulling out of the industry is the fact that it was experiencing losses in three key areas: low-cost physical damage claims, liability claims and large losses from a property and fire standpoints.

Zurich began writing for carwashes about seven years ago, and covered washes in 49 states, the report said. The company is able to monitor its losses through monthly statements, and Peters says that these losses had been occurring for a while.

Zurich had been watching the loss history of the washes it covered since it first started writing policies for the industry, but it was not able to remain profitable on the policies and had no other solutions available, according to Peters.
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