Driving schools (non-fleet)

Driving schools and their instructors may be impacted by changes to auto insurance that come into effect on September 1, 2019. As a driving school, there will be a number of things to consider when purchasing or renewing a policy.

Are you a fleet customer?

Please visit icbc.com/fleetplan for information on what the changes to ICBC’s insurance rating model mean for you and your employees. The following information is for non-fleet driving schools.

Crashes follow the driver, not the vehicle

Under the new model, crashes are tied to the driver, not the vehicle. This means that drivers who are responsible for a crash will see that crash go on their record, not that of the registered owner of the vehicle. Driving school vehicle owners will no longer see any impact to their insurance discount if their students crash their car.

Understanding who you should list

To help protect against financial consequences, driving schools should consider listing:

All employees who will drive the vehicle(s)
People who will drive any of your vehicles more than 12 days in any 12 month period
People who have already had an at-fault crash on any of your vehicles within the prior five years
Those who will drive the vehicle such as owner/operators, household members and regular drivers.

Unlisted Driver Protection protects driving schools when an unlisted driver (such as any student that drives the vehicle less than 12 days in any 12 month period) has an at-fault crash. Unlisted driver crashes will impact future Unlisted Driver Protection pricing.

Find out more about Unlisted Driver Protection.

Add the learner premium to your policy

The learner premium is intended to account for the additional risk learners (new drivers who have never held a licence) represent on the road. Customers will only pay one learner premium per vehicle, regardless of the number of learners who will drive the vehicle.

For learner drivers, time spent in the learner stage will not count towards their driving experience, and crashes caused by learners will not go on their driving record either. We don’t want to penalize learners if they were to cause a crash while they are learning to drive.

If you will have learners driving your vehicles ask your Autoplan broker to add the learner premium to your policy. The learner premium does not apply to learners who already hold a driver’s licence, for example a commercial licence learner who has a Class 5 driver’s licence.

Your Autoplan broker can add the learner premium to a driving school policy without the driving school needing to list a learner.

Impacts for my employees and students

The impact of crashes on insurance premiums will depend on the rate class of the vehicle involved in the crash, and whether the claim is repaid.

If a listed driver (such as one of your instructors) causes a crash while driving a vehicle with a personal rate class – for example a company car rated for business use – that claim may impact all policies the driver is listed on, including other personal-rated vehicles, commercially-rated vehicles and their own personal insurance.

If a listed driver causes a crash while driving a vehicle with a commercial rate class – for example a bus – the claim will not impact their personal policies. It will only affect other commercial rate class policies where the individual is a listed driver.

For example, if a student is driving a vehicle rated as a heavy commercial vehicle and is responsible for a crash, that claim may affect all other commercial rated policies the student is listed, but will not impact any personal policies the student is listed on.

See Drivers of fleet or business vehicles for more information.