Progressive Corporation

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Progressive Corporation
Type Public (NYSE: PGR)
Founded 1937
Headquarters Mayfield Village, Ohio, U.S.
Key people Glenn Renwick, CEO
Peter Lewis, Chairman of the Board (Non-Executive)
Industry Vehicle Insurance
Revenue $14.7 Billion USD (2007)
Employees 26,851 (2007)
Website www.progressive.com

The Progressive Corporation (NYSE: PGR), known as the Progressive Casualty Insurance Company through its subsidiaries, provides personal automobile insurance, and other specialty property-casualty insurance and related services in the United States.

The company was co-founded in 1937 by Jack Green and Joe Lewis and is headquartered in Mayfield Village, Ohio.[1]

Contents

[edit] Segments

The company operates in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Auto, and Other-indemnity. The Personal Lines segment writes insurance for private passenger automobiles, motorcycles, boats, and recreational vehicles through both an independent agency channel and a direct channel. The Commercial Auto segment writes primary liability and physical damage insurance for automobiles and trucks owned by businesses primarily through the independent agency channel. The Other-indemnity segment provides professional liability insurance to community banks, principally directors, and officers liability insurance. It also provides insurance-related services, primarily providing policy issuance and claims adjusting services in 25 states for Commercial Auto Insurance Procedures/Plans. In 2009, the company was ranked 209 in the Fortune 500.

[edit] Industry information

Progressive is one of the largest auto insurers in the United States, with over 11 million policies in force[2], along with State Farm, Allstate, GEICO, Farmers Insurance Group, and USAA. Progressive primarily offers its services through the Internet or by phone and through independent insurance agents. Progressive's Agency business sells insurance through more than 30,000 independent insurance agencies and progressiveagent.com where customers can quote their own policies and then contact an agent to complete the sale.

[edit] Marketing and operations

Progressive's marketing campaign is known for offering quotes of its competitors along with its own quote. It was the first major insurer to offer auto policies through the phone and through its web site. In September 2007 Progressive began to offer Pet Injury coverage, which provides coverage for dogs and cats that are injured in a crash and is included at no additional cost with Collision coverage.[3]

Immediate Response Vehicles (IRVs) used by Progressive are specially modified Ford Explorers and Ford Escapes.[4] Every major metropolitan area has a claim office while remote areas are serviced by field adjusters.

Progressive was one of the first to effectively use its website to provide basic customer support, such as access to policies and quotes for changes in coverages. Phrenzie, in a post, A Website That Doesn't Get It, compared the use of Web 2.0 by Progressive, with another insurance company that did not.

[edit] Advertising

Progressive's television advertisements depict an insurance superstore (presumably a physical representation of the Progressive website) with an overly enthusiastic cashier, Flo, who explains the benefits of Progressive Insurance.

Other campaigns show the Progressive Immediate Response Vehicles (IRVs) that are used by claims adjusters.

[edit] Claims Service Options

Progressive offers "Concierge Level of Claims Service" that states that Progressive will work with local body shops and car dealerships to repair an insured's vehicle, or a vehicle damaged by an insured, at one of its more than 50 service centers.[5] This is a free service for any Progressive insured or claimant who lives close enough to one of the facilities. A damaged vehicle can be taken to the service center - the day following a claim being reported for an insured or after liability has been accepted for a claimant - based on schedule availability and convenience of the vehicle owner. There a rental vehicle can be obtained and Progressive will handle the entire repair process from that point forward.

[edit] Corporate sponsorship

In January 2008, Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the Cleveland Indians, was renamed Progressive Field. Progressive signed a 16-year contract for the naming rights, as well as sponsorship rights to become the Official Auto Insurer of the Cleveland Indians. The agreement costs around $3.6 million per year.[6] (Mayfield Village, Ohio, where the company is based, is a suburb of Cleveland.)

In March 2008, Progressive announced its title sponsorship of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE and their funding of the $10 million prize purse. The Progressive Automotive X PRIZE is an international competition designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles. The competition is open to teams from around the world that can design, build and bring to market 100 MPGe (miles per gallon energy equivalent) vehicles.[7]

[edit] Controversies

In 2009, the company was sued for allegedly deceiving policyholders by employing illegally-operated, unlicensed body shops to make repairs on vehicles for their clients in order to save monetarily. The class action lawsuit of Blue Ash Auto Body Inc. v. Progressive Insurance is pending in Ohio.[8]

In 2007, the company was forced to apologize after it was revealed they hired private investigators to infiltrate a church group and pose as congregation members to collect information on litigants seeking redress from the company. Another lawsuit was filed by the litigants over the affair against the company for invasion of privacy and fraud.[9]

In 2002, the company settled with the State of Georgia in a class action lawsuit over diminished value claims brought by policyholders.[10]

[edit] Political influence

In 2009, the company was accused of ordering their advertisements off the air during the show broadcast of Glenn Beck on the FOX News Channel over unsatisfactory comments made about U.S. President Barack Obama.[11] Progressive stated that they never authorized their ads to be aired during the Beck's program, and they aired in that timeslot due to Fox's error.[12]

Chairman Peter Lewis has contributed to political action committees such as MoveOn.Org and political parties such as the United States Democratic Party. He has donated at least $500,001 to the William J. Clinton Foundation.[13] In 2009, he contributed $4800 to the Ohio U.S. Senate campaign of Lee Fisher.[14]

Lewis has donated at least $7 million to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a non-profit organization that lobbies for drug legalization and funds drug-related research and activites.[15] In 2005, a study they funded won FDA-approval to test MDMA on returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to treat PTSD.[16][17] The organization has also funded MDMA studies on monkeys where the drug was implanted beneath the skin, resulting in shrunken nerve cells, loss of nerve fibers, and neurotoxicity.[18] The organization and studies have resulted in condemnation from animal rights group, such as Primate Freedom Project who accuse the group of animal cruelty.[19]

Lewis has also contributed $8 million to the ACLU.[20]

[edit] Index memberships

S&P 500
S&P 1500 Super Comp

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Suzanne Rivard; Benoit Aubert, Michel Patry, Guy Paré, Heather Smith (2004). Information Technology and Organizational Transformation: Solving the Management Puzzle. Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 142. ISBN 978-0750662024. 
  2. ^ http://investors.progressive.com/pdf/mreport-0109.pdf
  3. ^ Jack W. Plunkett (2008). The Almanac of American Employers 2009: Market Research, Statistics & Trends Pertaining to the Leading Corporate Employers in America. Plunkett Research, Ltd. ISBN 978-1593921439. 
  4. ^ Jack W. Plunkett (2005). Plunkett's Insurance Industry Almanac 2006: The Only Complete Reference To The Insurance And Risk Management Industry. Plunkett Research Ltd. ISBN 978-1593920388. 
  5. ^ "No Time? No Problem, with Progressive's Concierge Claims Service". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS103564+15-Sep-2008+BW20080915. Retrieved 2009-02-05. 
  6. ^ Paul Hoynes (2008). "Cleveland Indians formally announce naming rights sold to Progressive Insurance". Cleveland Plain Dealer. http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2008/01/cleveland_indians_formally_ann.html. Retrieved 2008-01-11. 
  7. ^ Alan Boyle (2007). "Auto X Prize Revs Up". MSNBC. http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/03/30/107615.aspx. Retrieved 2008-09-16. 
  8. ^ "Civil Conspiracy Added to List of Charges Against Progressive Insurance", Collision Week. September 4, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  9. ^ "Progressive CEO sorry for spying on church goers", Reuters. August 23, 2007. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  10. ^ "Progressive settles Georgia diminished value lawsuit", Insure.com. February 20, 2002. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  11. ^ "Advertisers dump Glenn Beck", Media Matters. August 6, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  12. ^ "Progressive Statement Regarding Advertising on The Glenn Beck Show", Progressive Insurance, Aug. 24, 2009. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  13. ^ "Bill Clinton's Foundation Discloses Diverse List of Donors", Center for Responsive Politics. December 18, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  14. ^ Donor Database Research, Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  15. ^ "Had a nice trip. Wish you could, too", Herald Tribune. August 14, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  16. ^ "ECSTASY TRIALS FOR COMBAT STRESS", Media Awareness Project. February 17, 2005. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  17. ^ "DEA APPROVES TRIAL USE OF ECSTASY IN TRAUMA CASES", March 2, 2004. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  18. ^ "Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Selectively Damages Central Serotonergic Neurons in Nonhuman Primates," American Medical Association. George A. Ricaurte, MD. Lysia S. Forno, MD. Mary A. Wilson. Louis E. DeLanney. Ian Irwin. Mark E. Molliver, MD. J. William Langston, MD. July 1, 1988.
  19. ^ "Stop UCLA/MAPS' Ecstasy Experiments", The Petition Site. Retrieved November 26, 2009.
  20. ^ "$8 Million Gift Will Boost ACLU Campaign to Fight Bush Administration's Assault on Civil Liberties", American Civil Liberties Union. January 15, 2003. Retrieved November 26, 2009.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Corporation"