Insurance Fundamentals Archives - Manitoba Public Insurance

We believe in doing what’s right – which includes being open and transparent with you about what you are paying for when you insure your vehicle.

More information for customers

To be more accountable to you, we have introduced graphics on the front of our annual statements of account and renewal notices that feature a full breakdown of where your premium dollars go for both Basic and Optional Autopac, based on an average passenger vehicle policy.

Below is the information customers will receive:

You can find more details about this graphic below. Please note that all figures are rounded to the nearest one per cent for ease of reading.

Basic Autopac

There are three areas your Basic Autopac insurance premiums contribute to: damage claims, injury claims and expenses.

Damage claims

Damage claims pay costs to customers arising from collision, comprehensive (vandalism, theft, hail, etc.), and third-party liability claims (coverage for claims others may make against you).

Injury claims

The injury claims section represents payments related to Personal Injury Protection Plan (PIPP) claims. PIPP guarantees that any Manitoban injured in an automobile collision anywhere in Canada or the U.S. receives comprehensive and world-class injury and economic loss coverage. Learn more.

Expenses

Running a business, including public auto insurance, includes expenses. To ensure that we are able to continue to deliver exceptional coverage and service, affordable rates and safer roads to you, our expenses include:

Operating expenses: This includes all of the expenses related to processing your claims. It also covers all non-claims related expenses, such as employee compensation, regulatory, and reinsurance costs. Note that operating expenses are net of any services fees collected (such as late payment fees, financing fees, etc.)

Commissions: Brokers receive a commission from MPI when performing transactions on MPI products and services.

Premium taxes: A three per cent provincial tax is charged on all premiums.

Road safety: As a key part of our mission, we are committed to increasing public awareness about risky driving behaviours and to providing more opportunities for Manitobans to enhance their driving skills. We do this through supporting community-based programming with our stakeholders and partners that promotes road safety awareness and education, developing and managing awareness and education initiatives as well as conducting research and analysis to better understand road safety issues. Learn more.

Drivers who maintain a safe driving record for a number of years get a discount on their Autopac premiums.

Premium discounts depend on your Driver Safety Rating.

Who qualifies

People registering passenger vehicles and light trucks, motorhomes, motorcycles and mopeds can qualify for a discount.

You can also qualify as the sole owner of a corporation, if you register the vehicle in your name rather than the corporation’s name. To do this, you’ll need a written agreement giving you “right of possession” of the car or light truck.

New or returning to Manitoba

If you are new or returning to Manitoba and have driving experience and claims experience from a reciprocal country, you may be eligible for a discount on your driver’s licence and insurance when you submit both documents. Your experience determines your placement on the Driver Safety Rating scale.

To prove your previous driving record, you need to bring both an original claims experience letter and driver abstract on letterhead. No photocopies, faxes, scans or photos are allowed.

Claims experience or claims histories are letters provided by insurance companies. The letter must contain:

Insurance company name and contact information.
Date of issue.
Name of policy holder(s) and policy number(s), and include the names of all drivers listed.
Effective and expiry date of the policy.
Details of any claims, or state clearly that there were no at-fault claims. Claims details should include date of loss, type of loss, percentage at-fault, and the name of the driver involved.

Driver abstracts or driver records are provided by government agencies responsible for driver licensing. The abstract must contain:

Name and contact information of the licensing authority.
Date of issue.
Driver’s name, date of birth, driver licence number, and class and/or stage of licence(s).
Current status of licence, showing date of issue and expiry.
Date first licenced.
Any licence restrictions.
Any convictions, suspensions or tickets.
Any accidents.
It must clearly state if there are no convictions, suspensions, traffic offences, or accidents.

What uses qualify

The following insurance uses are eligible for a premium discount:

Pleasure passenger vehicle
Pleasure truck
Farm passenger vehicle
Artisan truck, up to and including 16,330 kg
Farming all purpose truck up to and including 4,540 kg or a body style of chassis mounted camper, crew cab, crew cab service truck, extended cab, extended cab service truck, light delivery, light pickup, panel van, service truck, sport utility vehicle
Fishing all purpose truck up to and including 4,540 kg or a body style of chassis mounted camper, crew cab, crew cab service truck, extended cab, extended cab service truck, light delivery, light pickup, panel van, service truck, sport utility vehicle
Common carrier local passenger vehicle
Common carrier passenger vehicle within 161 km of Manitoba
Common carrier truck local within a city or municipality
Common carrier truck within 161 km of Manitoba
All purpose passenger vehicle
All purpose truck
Accessible vehicle-for-hire
Limousine vehicle-for-hire
Passenger vehicle-for-hire
Taxi vehicle-for-hire
All moped uses, except u-drive mopeds, and dealer mopeds
All motorhome uses, except u-drive motorhomes
All motorcycles uses, except antique motorcycles
Collector passenger vehicle
Collector truck

Major offences

Conviction of a major offence can have an impact on your driver safety rating. Use our Driver Safety Rating Calculator to see exactly how major offences affect your premium.

Major offences include:

careless driving
speeding (more than 49 km over the posted limit)
racing a motor vehicle
driving while disqualified
failing to report an accident
failing to stop at the scene of an accident
failing to leave particulars where damage was caused to an unattended vehicle
disobeying a police officer
criminal negligence
causing death by criminal negligence
causing bodily harm by criminal negligence
manslaughter
dangerous operation of a motor vehicle
dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm
dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death
operation of a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol or a drug (including U.S. offences)
operation of a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol or a drug and a person under the age of 16 years was a passenger (including U.S. offences)
driving with a blood alcohol concentration equal to or over .08% (including U.S. offences)
driving with a blood alcohol concentration equal to or over .08% causing bodily harm
driving with a blood alcohol concentration equal to or over .08% causing death
driving with a blood alcohol concentration equal to or over .08% and a person under the age of 16 years was a passenger (including U.S. offences)
refusing to provide a breath, saliva or blood sample (including U.S. offences)
refusing to provide a breath, saliva or blood sample and a person under the age of 16 years was a passenger (including U.S. offences)
driving with a blood drug concentration over 5 nanograms (ng) of THC
driving with a combined blood alcohol concentration over .05 and blood drug concentration over 2.5 ng of THC
impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm (including U.S. offences)
impaired operation of a motor vehicle causing death (including U.S. offences)
theft
taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent
possession of goods obtained by crime
mischief
selling an automobile master key
arson
automobile vandalism
speeding in a construction zone (more than 49 km over the posted limit)

Buying back a claim

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the option to “buy back” your claim if you have a collision for which you were 50 per cent or more responsible. A buy back is like undoing your claim by reimbursing Manitoba Public Insurance for the percentage of the claim for which you were responsible.

For example, if you were 75 per cent responsible for the collision, you would reimburse Manitoba Public Insurance 75 per cent of the money we paid for repairing your vehicle, and other vehicles and property damaged in the collision, and for injuries resulting from the collision.

Buy backs are available for claims amounts of $5,000 or less. When a claim is bought back, the claim will not negatively affect your Driver Safety Rating, but it will appear on your Driver Abstract. The claim must have occurred in the past five years. When you buy back a claim from a past year, we adjust your premium for your current policy year only. One buyback is allowed every five years.

People buy back their claims for reasons that include:

keeping their vehicle premium and driver’s licence premium discounts
avoiding additional driver’s licence premiums

Not all claims can be bought back. To buy back a claim or to see if your claim is eligible, contact your adjuster.

Insurance spreads the cost of claims among many people so no one has to face the cost of a claim alone. For one person, the costs from an accident could cause bankruptcy. Spread among many people, the costs become affordable.

All auto insurance plans, including Autopac, group you with others, all of whom share three factors that make up your overall risk of claims. You’re grouped with others who live in a similar area, own similar vehicles and use their vehicles like you do. The money collected from your group covers you if you have a claim. In exchange for that protection, you share your group’s costs through your premiums. In part, your premiums depend on how much your group has cost the insurance fund. An important part of your group’s costs are injury claims. To make sure each vehicle shares the injury costs from an accident fairly, we divide those costs equally among all the vehicles involved.

How your Autopac premium is set

Your rates are determined based on a combination of the following four objective, risk-based factors:

Your vehicle: Your insurance costs are determined in part by the claims costs associated with the year, make and model of the vehicle you drive. Claim costs may be lower for a car that has more safety and loss prevention features.
Where you live: Manitoba is divided into four territories for vehicle rating purposes. Each geographic region is identified with varying degrees of risk. The lower the risk, the lower your insurance rates.
What you use your vehicle for: Insurance rates differ depending on what you use your vehicle for. That’s because what you use your vehicle for affects how likely you are to have a claim. For instance, if you only drive to the grocery store and back (pleasure use), you’re less likely to have a claim than if you drive your car regularly as a courier.
Your driving record: If you drive safely – with no at-fault claims, traffic convictions or drug or alcohol-related administrative suspensions – you save money on your insurance. On the other hand, if you drive unsafely, you pay more.

Manitoba Public Insurance is the one-stop source of insurance, registration and licensing in Manitoba. If you are new to Manitoba, you should follow the steps listed below if you wish to register and insure vehicles in Manitoba.

1. Get a claim history letter from your previous insurer. This letter may help you receive a premium discount based on your driving record.

2. Get your Manitoba driver’s licence before buying your Autopac insurance or you can’t qualify for a premium discount. You must get a Manitoba driver’s licence within three months of moving to Manitoba. Of course, if your driver’s licence from the place you left is about to expire, you must get a Manitoba licence right away. You need a valid driver’s licence to drive in Manitoba.

Young drivers who have moved to Manitoba need to know a few special rules. You can apply for a Class 5 Learner driver’s licence if you’re 15.5 years old and you’re enrolled in our Driver Z high school driver education course. If you’re not enrolled in this course, you’ll have to wait until you’re 16. Remember that with a Class 5 Learner Stage licence you can only drive with someone who has held a Class 5 Full Stage driver’s licence for at least three years.

3. If your vehicle doesn’t have a valid Certificate of Inspection (COI) proving it’s safe, get your vehicle inspected at an authorized inspection station. To register your vehicle here, it must have been awarded a “Passed” grade on the COI. It’s illegal to drive your vehicle here if it has failed the inspection.

4. If your vehicle has a valid COI from your former home, you may be able to use it to register your vehicle here. Contact us to find out if your COI is valid in Manitoba.

5. Buy your Autopac insurance. You have up to three months to transfer your current registration and insurance to Manitoba if:

it’s privately owned
it’s a passenger car or truck not used commercially

Otherwise, you must register here immediately. Also, if your registration and insurance from your former home expires or is cancelled within three months of moving to this province, you must register here immediately.

Please note: Eligible commercial vehicles registered in other western provinces may be operated in Manitoba with registration reciprocity for up to 90 days per calendar year.

To operate a vehicle on the roadway in Manitoba you must have a valid vehicle registration and Autopac insurance. Find information on registration, licence plates, vehicle inspections and buying or selling a vehicle on the Registration page.

Manitoba Public Insurance offers you a variety of automobile insurance options:

Autopac – Basic (required): Includes personal injury insurance, all-perils insurance and third-party liability insurance.
Autopac – Options: You can choose to enhance your Basic insurance by adding one of our many insurance options. Some of our most popular insurance options allow you to increase your third-party liability limits and reduce your deductibles. You can also purchase insurance for rental vehicles, new or lease vehicles, or Excess Value Coverage for high-end vehicles.
Commercial Coverage: Our Special Risk Extension (SRE) products provide insurance for specialized risks – things like large commercial trucking fleets and garage risks.

You can purchase your Autopac insurance through our province-wide network of more than 300 independent Autopac agents.

How insurance protects you

Automobile insurance protects you in three broad categories:

Personal injury insurance (protection against personal bodily injury, loss of life or loss of income)
All-perils insurance (comprehensive protection against damage to your own vehicle as a result of an insured collision, vehicle upset or causes such as vandalism, theft, hail and fire)
Third-party liability insurance (protection against your obligation to pay if you’re legally liable for someone else’s injuries, death or damage to their property)

Short-term Autopac

Do you need Autopac insurance and vehicle registration for as short as 30 days or as long as 244 days?

If you own a motorhome or classic sports car that you use for only a few months at a time, short-term Autopac insurance and vehicle registration might be a good choice.

Your premium is based on the number of days in your policy, times your daily Autopac premium, plus five per cent of that amount.
A $15 application fee per policy applies (non-refundable).
Payment in full only.
No refunds are available for short-term policies issued for 30 days and then cancelled.

Topic: Insurance Fundamentals