Viriyah Insurance tries to sell more carrier liability policies

The company is already well known as a leader in car insurance, so it might divert its marketing efforts towards other segments, said Sayom Rohitasathira, deputy managing director.
Since the end of the previous elected government’s tax-break programme for first-time car buyers, growth in sales of new cars has slowed, at the same time as high household debt and economic uncertainty have had an impact on purchasing power, factors that have significantly affected Viriyah.
The company saw new premium income from motor insurance drop by between Bt600 million and Bt700 million since new-car sales entered a slump. As a result, its total premium income last year dropped to Bt32 billion from Bt33 billion in 2014.
Sayom said the company had realised that it can sell more car insurance through brokers, while also bringing in more income from carrier-liability policies for transport and logistics businesses. The onset of the Asean Economic Community has stimulated logistics business in border provinces, which presents an opportunity for the company, he said.
“Viriyah has connections with more than 100 motor-insurance brokers, and we have to reinforce those relationships,” he said.
Viriyah has 3 million motor-insurance customers, and 50,000 of those policies are for commercial trucks. But less than half of them have carrier-liability insurance with the company.
“In the past, we did not have much exposure to large vehicles because we were concerned about a high loss ratio, but trucking operators now see the importance of safety and have adopted GPS navigation for their vehicles to reduce accidents. We plan to offer telematics equipment to connect with GPS on those vehicles and offer fair premiums to them if they buy both motor and carrier-liability insurance,” he said.
Within five years, premium income from non-motor insurance should be 20 per cent of the total, compared with just 9 per cent now, he said.
Krit Hincheeranun, market-|ing manager, said the company |this year would increase coopera-tion with insurance partners in |Laos and Cambodia to offer carrier-liability policies to operators of |fleet vehicles and commercial trucks that have trade activities with Thailand.
It will offer motor insurance to small trucks run by subcontractors of those operators as well.
Viriyah is also in contact with state-owned insurance providers in Myanmar on initiating similar partnerships to those in Laos and Cambodia.
Sayom said the volume of new car sales would not be high as before because of low purchasing power, and motorists had to be more selective when buying insurance. Renewals could help sustain its motor-insurance premiums; the company projects a renewal rate this year of 80 per cent, up from 75 per cent last year.
In general, new cars [dealerships?] will offer free first-class motor insurance to attract buyers and around 50 per cent of those don’t have claims with the insurance companies. Those are the targets of Viriyah in encouraging those to renew policies apart from the existing customers.
One way to enhance renewals is to add benefits to existing policies, so the company plans to offer Bt2,000 in cash to its customers who don’t have cars during fixing, he said.
The company believes total |premium income this year could grow by at least 5 per cent to Bt35 billion.