ICBC Autoplan
No-fault insurance is here.
Enhanced care.. Lower premiums.. Hit-and-run coverage changes.. Income replacement..
BC is now a “No-fault” jurisdiction. This means that in most circumstances lawsuits involving bodily injury or vehicle damage are no more. In the past most claims involved collecting under the other persons insurance or suing for damages. Now most of your coverage is available under your own policy. Your basic insurance covers extensive coverage for medical expenses, rehabilitation, lost wages, and coverage for your vehicle if someone else damages your vehicle in an accident. You should be aware that you can still be sued for non vehicle property such as buildings, houses, telephone poles, or property being transported. If you are traveling outside the province you can still be sued for vehicle damage and injury. All of this to say, third party liability is still an important coverage in your ICBC policy. Thankfully the premiums for extended third party coverage were drastically reduced to the point that it makes sense to just keep the same levels you carried pre no-fault insurance.
Drivers should know that there is a limitation on the amount of coverage available under your basic insurance for income replacement. You are entitled to 90% of your wages up to $113,000 per year should you not be able to return to work after an accident. If you are not covered by some sort of work disability insurance already you can purchase additional coverage through ICBC above the $113,000 provided under your basic insurance. Please talk to us about a quote for this coverage.
There was also a change to hit-and-run coverage under the no-fault insurance model. Previously this coverage was included with your basic coverage, but now it has been moved to be included with collision coverage. If you do not carry collision coverage you can purchase stand alone hit-and-run coverage separately for a reasonably small yearly premium.
What changed on September 1, 2019?
Claims Rated Scale is gone.. Listing additional drivers.. New coverages.. New discounts.. New rules..
Its no secret that good drivers pay too much for insurance when you consider the risk they represent to ICBC. The new rate model aims to make the premium drivers pay more representative of the risk they represent to ICBC. A majority of drivers will be better off under the new system, but that means drivers with less experience, drivers with previous at fault accidents, new residents, and new drivers will ultimately pay more.
The biggest change coming to Autoplan is the ability to list additional drivers. Starting September 1, 2019 registered owners will be asked to list all drivers who may drive the vehicle during the policy term, and of those drivers to declare a Principle Driver if there is one person who uses the vehicle most of the time. The Principle Driver’s Individual Driver Factor (discount/surcharge) will make up 75% of the premium and the secondary driver with the highest Individual Driver Factor will make up the remaining 25% of the premium.
Instead of being uninsured, if an unlisted driver is involved in an accident a one time financial penalty will be applied to the claim. The penalty would be 15 times the premium difference of each the basic insurance and optional coverage, up to $5000 in the case of basic insurance premium, and up to 2 times the optional insurance premium. Because registered owners may not be able to predict if a friend or non-household family member may use the vehicle, registered owners can now purchase Unlisted Driver Protection to protect against the imposed financial penalty.
Unlisted Driver Protection does not apply to:
household members or employees of the owner, lessee, or principal driver;
people who do not hold a valid driver’s license;
people who drove any of the owner’s or lessee’s vehicles more than 12 days in the 12 months prior to the crash; and
people who have two or more at-fault crashes on any of the owner’s or lessee’s vehicles within the last five years prior to the crash.
There are also a few new discounts ICBC is implementing. The new Low Kilometer Discount applies a 10% discount to the basic insurance rate on a vehicle driven in an eligible rate class if the vehicle is driven less than 5000km per year. Also, there will be a 10-15% distance-based discount on Extension Third Party Liability, Collision, Comprehensive and Specified Perils coverages for eligible customers who drive their vehicle less than 10,000km per year. At renewal you can submit a photo of the odometer that has been taken within the last 7 days. There is a also a new Advanced Safety Technology Discount for vehicles that are equipped with an Autonomous Emergency Braking System.
To learn more about all the new changes to ICBC Autoplan after September 1, 2019 please see: https://apps.icbc.com/change/default.html
How much will my insurance cost?
Due to the September 1, 2019 changes quoting is a little more limited.
If you have a BC drivers licence please give us a call or drop by our office for a quote. You’ll want to have the year/make/model/trim package information available, as well as know if the vehicle comes equipped with an autonomous emergency braking system. If there are additional drivers please have on hand their BC drivers licence number and birth date.
For those clients who are are new to the province and are looking for a quote, you should first obtain a BC drivers licence so that ICBC can calculate and set your Individual Driver Factor (discount/surcharge). Without a BC drivers licence you will carry no discount and you will have to come to our office for an exact quote because we will need to sight your current drivers licence and create an ICBC account for you first. In order to obtain a BC drivers licence you may have to submit drivers abstracts from past driving jurisdictions in order to prove your driving experience. For more information on what you need to get a BC drivers licence you can call 1-800-950-1498, walk into a drivers licensing office (closest to our office is at 4126 MacDonald Street, Vancouver), or go to the ICBC website: https://www.icbc.com/driver-licensing