Fluid Truck’s captive insurance programme began writing on 1 April and in an exclusive interview for the Global Captive Podcast, head of insurance Courtney Claflin explained the rationale and motivations for the new formation.
Captive Intelligence revealed in February that the American commercial vehicle truck rental company had established Nereus Insurance Co Inc, domiciled in Washington DC, and would begin by writing auto liability, commercial auto physical damage (APD) and excess.
Fluid Truck makes it easy to rent commercial vehicles 24/7 and currently operates in 400 cities in the U.S. It offers trucks, vans and electric vehicles to more than 100,000 users on its platform.
Claflin said the drivers for Fluid Truck to go down the captive route were for two-fold, and not dissimilar to the motivations for many new captives right now – “control” and to “offset the commercial pricing of product”.
“We’ve reached the point where our premiums far outstrip the claims, and so consequently, much like everybody else, you’ve got two main components behind the formation of a captive, which is capture the underwriting profits and corresponding investment income from your risk financing arrangement,” he said.
“And two, to control your own destiny and be able to chart it out yourself. As opposed to being the tail on the dog.”
When it came to choosing the domicile, for Claflin it was a straightforward decision to return to Washington DC where he has extensive experience from his time at University of California.
“I enjoy the law, the law is fantastic,” he added.
“The regulators themselves, Sean O’Donnell and Dana Sheppard, I have a very good relationship with them. I’ve built a lot of captives and a lot of programmes with them. it’s stable for me in the captive world.”
Listen to the full interview with Courtney Claflin, head of insurance at Fluid Truck, on the Captive Intelligence website here, or on any podcast app. Just search for ‘Global Captive Podcast’.