WOODBRIDGE, N.J. — A nationwide business insurance group published data that shows the transportation insurance market including that for school bus contractors and charter operators remains soft and that policy rates are decreasing.

The NIP Group survey, Transportation Insurance Pricing Survey (TIPS™), covered the third quarter and was issued to leading transportation insurance brokers, wholesalers and underwriters representing thousands of account placements and is used to benchmark changes in the availability and rates in the transportation insurance market. The survey also measured the school bus contractor and charter or tour bus operator segments.

In addition to a soft market, participants said they believe that there has not been much change in carrier behavior since last quarter. There are still many carriers chasing premium in the transportation market and rates continue to fall across all account sizes in line with the prior quarters’ results.

“TIPS results indicate that rate decreases are in line with last quarter with underwriters in a few segments and lines of business pushing back in an attempt to hold rates flat”, said Richard Augustyn, CEO of NIP Group, Inc. “It remains a buyers market with more than enough underwriting capacity available."

He added that the company will continue to monitor TIPS to see if this trend will continue and how the market reacts to the rollout of the FMCSA's new Comprehensive Safety Analysis, or CSA 2010, initiative that was scheduled to begin nationwide on Nov. 30.