Demand for bicycle insurance is set to soar as consumers look to avoid public transport during the pandemic and digitally savvy insurers should capitalise. Insurtech Urban Jungle stated it saw a 60% uptick in bike insurance enquiries in April, and GlobalData consumer and SME surveys show increasing demand for bicycle insurance is a long-running trend. However, this trend will accelerate sharply as people return to work.  Bicycle insurance is not a particularly common product, so insurers may need to be proactive to reach out to new potential customers, and make policies as simple as possible.

Our UK SME Insurance SME surveys show that SMEs have increased their use of the cycle to work scheme between 2017 and 2019. A total of 24.0% of SMEs offered the scheme to either all employees or management only in 2017, compared to 35.0% in 2019.

bicycle insurance covid-19This shows that interest in the scheme, and cycling as a means of transport was already gathering momentum. However, it also shows that a considerable percentage (64.9%) still didn’t offer the scheme to any employees. People will be very wary about returning to work while the virus is still around, and encouraging, and funding employees cycling to work could be one was to reduce that worry. Employers can look to make offices as safe as possible, but the issue for many people will be busy commutes to and from work, where social distancing is not possible.

Similarly, our UK Insurance Consumer Surveys show that take-up of one-off item insurance for bikes in the UK increased from 5.9% in 2018 to 9.8% in 2019. This also shows a rise on demand, but that there is still a huge opportunity for growth for insurers.

The key for insurers will be to make it as easy as possible, whether it is as an add-on to home contents policies or one-off item insurance. It looks to be a strong area of opportunity for insurers, and digital start-ups like Urban Jungle, are well placed to capitalise.

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