Were meeting the challenge.

A message from Thom Thompson,
president and chief executive officer,
insurance Corporation of British Columbia.

For ICBC, and for BC drivers, 1998 was
a year of encouraging progress.

We are now into our fourth year without a
general Autopian rate increase. We calculated
in 1996 that an aggressive focus on road
safety would reduce accident claims enough
to make a rate freeze economically possible.
So far, so good — we have realized a significant
reduction in claims, which in turn has allowed us to
invest even more money into new or expanded safety
initiatives and to return money to our customers in the
form of a road safety dividend.

These safety initiatives continue to have a positive

ICBC iN 1998;

Our investment in safer
roads is paying off.

ICBC's mission is to help British Columbians take
the risk out of read transportation. To that end, we
spent $95 mitlion on road safety programs in 1998.
Our efforts to. combat drinking-driving and speeding,
to take unsafe vehicies off the road, to combat car theft
and insurance fraud ~ all of these are investments
which provide a significant payback in both financial and
human terms.

The payback? There were 10,000 fewer accident
claims in 1998. Traffic fatalities and injuries were down.
That meant fewer British Columbians had to go through
the pain and trauma of a car crash.

With claims costa down, we were able to continue

our rate freeze for a fourth straight year. More than that,

we retumed $47 million to policyholders as a Road Safety
Dividend - un top of increased discounts for our RoadStar
: claimfree drivers.

We're moving closer to the community.

Nv : 5 . : / v :
Gordon Parsons Lidl Holter ohn Hancock
. Our merger with the Motor Vehicle Branch means
- we offer a wider range of services than ever. Now
_we're changing the way we do business, to improve our
‘ customer service.
We've moved decision-making closer to the “front .
lines; where we interact with customers. To drive the

-.. ghange, we appointed six regicnal Assistant Vice

Presidents (AVPs) to be accountable for loca! service
delivery.
‘ Each AVP’s responsibility !s to ensure a high levei of
service to our customers in that region, across all five of
iCBC's lines of business: Driver Services, insurance
Services, Road Safety Services, Commercial Vehicle
Services, and Claim Services. .

_ In the Lower Maintand region, the Fraser Valley
“(including Surrey, Delta and ‘Vhite Rock) is the
responsibility of new AVP Gordon Parsons, a 25-year
ICBC veteran who started at the Kingsway Claim
Centre. Since then he has managed several! claim
centres end has been manager of claims operations
for the last eight years.

Greater Vancouver East (including Richmond and the
“eastern suburbs) is led by AVP Lidl Holler, who has
worked in the insurance industry for 27 years, the last
40 with ICBC. Lidi has served in a number of capacities,
from bodily injury adjuster to manager of field operations,
public affairs and road safety. Most recently she was
manager of operations for the Northern Interior.

John Hancock is AVP for Greater Vancouver West,
which includes Vancouver, the North Shore, up to
Pemberton and the Sunshine Coast. John joined ICBC in
1978 and has been involved in several key projects

Thom Thompson

impact. Death and injury claims declined in
the past year, as did auto crime

and insurance fraud. We found a lower
proportion of people driving while
impaired, or speeding. The bottom-line
result was that we experienced 10,000
fewer claims in 1998 compared to 1997.

Can we continue to keep premiums
down? We can — but only if BC drivers
continue to respond to our efforts to help
reduce risks on the road. Reducing the
number of crashes is what keeps premiums
down for ail of us.

ICBC employees, our Autoplan broker partners and
our customers have shown over the past iwo years
that they are equal to the task. With their continued
commitment, we wiil succeed in meeting the challenge.

during his career, including designing the origina!
Telephone Claims concept. As manager of Autopian
field operations, he heiped put together a strategic
accord with our broker partners.

Were making gains against
auto crime and fraud.

Far too much money is being bled from the system .
by car thieves and fraud artists, costing each honest
policyholder hundreds of dollars a year. ICBC is getting
tougher on auto crime, and in 1998 faunched criminal
charges and civil actions in several high-profile cases
of alleged insurance fraud.

The continuing fight against auto theft was aided
by the new Dedicated Auto Theft Task Force launched
by the Attorney Generai, and an expansion of the
community-based Stolen Auto Recovery Program. We also
encouraged the use of anti-theft devices by offering
customers a premium discount when they purchase an
approved device.

Auto crime was down 12% from 1997, thanks in part
to these Initiatives.

Police and ICBC crack down
on aggressive drivers.

Speed kills. That's why ICBC, in partnership with the
8C Attorney General, is funding a stepped-up police
presence to curb aggressive driving in high-risk traffic
corridors. in 1998 we targeted 28 locations, with police
handing out nearly 90,000 tickets and 31,000 warnings.
This year’s campaign will expand further, involving 37
locations around BC.

Photo radar is a key tactic aimed at prompting BC
drivers to slow down. in September 1996, shortly after
phote radar came in, 47 per cent of all vehicles passing
the radar cameras were exceeding the posted speed limit.
By the end of 1998 that figure was down to 25 per cent.

Red tight cameras, field tested in 1998 for
implementation in 1999, are expected to have a similar
impact on intersection safety.

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Sunday, June 6, 1999 - North Shore News - 29

ICBC research
leads to safer roads.

We need to develop new strategies in road safety
and recovery management. That's why ICBC in 1998
launched SMART (Strategic Monitoring and Assessment
of Research in Transportation), a two-year research
program in coltaboration with BC’s post-secondary
institutions and private research bodies. Its aim is to
identify and assess emerging trends, issues and
practices in crash prevention and injury rehabilitation.
Our two-year investment of $1.3 million will include
$500,000 in grants to fund an estimated 15 to 20
individual research projects.

We're helping British Columbians
recover from crashes.

{CBC works closely with health care specialists,
disabled persons advocacy groups and ather partners
in the rehabilitation field, with the goal of helping people
who have suffered disabling injuries to rebuild productive
lives. In 1998 we signed a two-year agreement with the
National Institute of Disability Management and Research
to support the Institute's disability management
training program based in Port Alberni. Eariy in 1999,
we co-sponsored a major world conference in Vancouver
on the treatment of whiplash injuries, and announced
a $100,000 contribution to support medical research
in this important area.

CounterAttack is getting impaired
drivers off the road.

Police roadchecks targeting drinking drivers were
up substantially in 1998. The program now runs from
late May to early January in every city or large town in ~
BC. This is made possible through increased police
participation, directly funded by ICBC.

The campaign showed the benefits of highly visible
enforcement. Last year a record 5.17 million motorists
passed through an ICBC-funded roadcheck — almost
two million more than in 1997. Yet the percentage who
warranted criminal charges or 24-hour roadside
suspensions was the lowest yet. BC drivers appear to
be getting the message: don’t drink and drive. .

We're improving our
customer service. .

ICBC continually looks for ways to make it easier for
our customers to make a ciaim. In 1998 we extended our —
teléphone claims service to every part of the province.
In early 1999, we launched “24/7* ciaims service, making:
us accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from
anywhere in BC.

Our driver licensing operations also improved
its service. A 25-day waiting tist for road tests was cut
to zero at all driver services centres. Driver knowledge
testing procedures were upgraded, using automated
technology to ensure fairness and consistency, with
the capability to do the test in langusges other _
than English.

240, 151 West Esplanade, North Vancouve nc vm a ;
2 SNe aT OES, steer ett te =

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