Motor vehicle records in personal auto

In personal auto, the motor vehicle record (MVR) documents a driver’s driving history. The MVR report contains information such as identifying data, license status, convictions, traffic violations, accidents, license suspensions, and revocations. In the U.S., the information in this report usually comes from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for each jurisdiction. The information in the report can vary by jurisdiction. In the U.S., most service providers provide MVR data for all jurisdictions, so that you only need to integrate with a single service provider.

An insurer uses the MVR to evaluate the risks associated with a given driver. Violations are assigned point values, with more severe violations having a higher point value. A high MVR point total indicates a high risk driver and can result in higher policy premiums.

In PolicyCenter, the personal auto line of business provides an MVR integration for the U.S market. The default configuration provides an integration to a demonstration version of a service provider that simulates receiving MVR reports for selected drivers.

You can configure PolicyCenter to integrate with the service provider of your choice. You can extend the MVR integration to other lines of business, such as commercial auto. You can extend the MVR integration to other countries than the U.S.

See also

Motor vehicle record implementation

In personal auto, the Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) implementation in PolicyCenter provides:

  • Timely availability of MVR data for performing risk analysis and for rating
  • Elimination of the often manual lookup of MVR data in a secondary system

Since there is a cost associated with retrieving data from the external MVR service provider, PolicyCenter stores the retrieved MVR data to minimize future lookups. PolicyCenter requests the MVR report from an external service provider only if it does not have a copy or if the report is considered to be stale.

The retrieved MVR report is maintained in a separate MVR repository that is independent of the driver’s account or policy. This allows the MVR report to be reused for drivers associated with multiple accounts or policies. This also provides flexibility as to when to update an MVR report on in-force policies. In the default configuration, the MVR report for an in-force policy is updated at renewal or during a policy change.

Accounts maintain a subset of the MVR data. In the default configuration, this subset consists of accidents and violations. Accounts use this subset to:

  • Store the most current values for accidents and violations
  • Provide current values for submissions and renewals

Policies also maintain a subset of MVR data. In the default configuration, this subset consists of accidents and violations. Policies use this subset to:

  • Rate the policy
  • Trigger an underwriting issue
  • Allow the user to override the MVR values for accidents and violations

Accidents and violations

In personal auto, you can set the number of accidents and violations at the account and policy levels. You set these values in a policy transaction on the Driver Details > Roles tab. You might set these values if the MVR report:

  • Is not yet available.
  • Has inaccurate information.
  • Does not contain an accident or violation that occurred recently.

For example, in a quick quote or when the MVR report is requested at bind time, the agent can ask the applicant for the number of accidents and violations. This information is needed for generating a quote. Later, when the MVR report is received, the applicant’s information is validated against the report. If there is a discrepancy, PolicyCenter raises an underwriting issue that prevents binding the policy period. The agent can also choose Do Not Order MVR on the Driver Details > Roles tab if she knows that the MVR report does not exist or is inaccurate.

PolicyCenter propagates account values for accidents and violations to new policy transactions that create a new policy term, specifically submissions, renewals, and rewrites. PolicyCenter copies the number of accidents and violations on the account to a new policy term when a draft is created. For example, a new submission copies the number of accidents and violations stored on the account, while a policy change does not. In a policy change, the number of accidents and violations on the policy is not updated from the account. This is because the rating information cannot change on a policy term that has been bound.

See also