Understanding Carsharing Risk and Insurance Claims in the United States

Carsharing offers consumers short-term access to vehicles, which facilitates better mobility and reduces the need for personal vehicle ownership. Carsharing does not require consumers to have automobile insurance. Instead, carsharing operators insure their members and are responsible for the risks and liabilities associated with vehicle use. Carsharing operators are burdened with obtaining cost-effective insurance under a use model that lacks massive actuarial data and analysis. This study analyzed 28 operator years of trips and claims data collected from six carsharing operators in the United States from 2008 to 2015. A total of 328,726 valid trips and 125 valid insurance claims occurred during this period. Crash risk, measured on a per mile and a per insured vehicle year basis, was estimated from these data. The average cost per insured vehicle year of carsharing insurance was estimated to be $789 for operators. A substantially heightened risk was observed for older drivers (drivers older than age 65 years) compared with drivers in the other age brackets as well as national averages. Teenage and young adult drivers between the ages of 18 and 25 years, who traditionally have the highest risk, had only a moderately higher risk than adults, which is likely because of driving experience and the clean driving record requirements before membership can be obtained. Adults between the ages of 30 and 65 years had the lowest risk in all measures, as was found in nationwide data. However, the actual risk of carsharing vehicles will vary by use patterns and other unobserved factors; actual costs will also vary by insurance policy.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2542-10
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309441469
• Authors:
  • Shaheen, Susan
  • Shen, Diwen
  • Martin, Elliot
• Publication Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 84–91
• Monograph Title: Public Transportation, Volume 4: Paratransit, Accessibility, Mobility, and the Sharing Economy
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2542
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age groups; Automobile insurance; Insurance claims; Risk; Vehicle sharing
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01590923
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309441469
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-6052
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 24 2016 5:07PM