Every year at renewal, your insurance carrier pulls your loss runs. Every time you shop for new coverage, the first thing any agent asks for is your loss runs. Yet most fleet owners have never actually read theirs — and that's costing them money. What Loss Runs Are Loss runs are a detailed report of every claim filed against your insurance policies over a specified period (typically 3–5 years). They show the date of loss, type of claim, amounts paid, amounts reserved, and claim status (open or closed). Think of them as your insurance credit report. Just as your credit score determines your interest rate, your loss runs determine your premium. How to Get Them Your current insurance carrier is required to provide loss runs upon request. Most carriers will produce them within 5–10 business days. You need loss runs from every carrier you've been insured with during the past 5 years. Request them at least 60 days before your renewal. If you're shopping for coverage, no agent can get you a serious quote without them. How to Read Them Each line on a loss run represents one claim. The key columns are: Date of loss — when the incident occurred. Claimant — who made the claim. Type — auto liability, physical damage, cargo, workers' comp, etc. Paid — what the carrier has actually paid out. Reserved — what the carrier estimates it will pay in the future on open claims. Incurred — paid + reserved (this is the number underwriters focus on). Status — open or closed. Why Reserves Matter More Than Payments Here's what most fleet owners miss: underwriters price your policy based on incurred losses, not just paid losses. A claim with $50,000 paid and $200,000 reserved counts as a $250,000 loss in their models. Reserves are the carrier's estimate of future payments. They're often conservative (high), and they can be negotiated. If you have an open claim with an inflated reserve, ask your carrier to review it. Getting a reserve reduced before your renewal can directly lower your premium. The Loss Ratio Your loss ratio is your total incurred losses divided by your total premium paid. If you paid $100,000 in premium and had $60,000 in incurred losses, your loss ratio is 60%. Most carriers want to see a loss ratio below 60% to offer competitive pricing. Above 75%, you're likely to see a rate increase or non-renewal. Above 100%, you're unprofitable for the carrier and may need to move to the excess & surplus market. How to Use Loss Runs Strategically 1. Request them early. Don't wait until 30 days before renewal. 2. Review reserves on open claims. Challenge any that seem inflated. 3. Close old claims. If a claim has been open for years with no activity, ask your carrier to close it. 4. Identify patterns. If you have three rear-end collisions in two years, fix the problem before underwriters see the pattern. 5. Provide context. When submitting loss runs to a new carrier, include a narrative explaining large losses and what you've done to prevent recurrence. What Trux Does With Your Loss Runs When we market your account, we don't just forward your loss runs to carriers. We prepare a loss summary with context — explaining circumstances, corrective actions, and trends. A well-presented submission with clean loss runs and a clear narrative gets better pricing than raw data dropped on an underwriter's desk.