In an oversaturated auto insurance market, standing out takes more than pricing – it takes precision. That’s the message from Fred Blumer, CEO of Mile Auto, whose career spans decades both inside and well outside the insurance mainstream. In conversation, Blumer offered a blunt critique of how traditional carriers think – and how they’ll need to evolve if they want to stay relevant.
“Insurance companies need to focus on their customers and target them by tailoring products,” Blumer said. He described the old playbook – build a product, push it out, and wait for the customer – as obsolete. “Very little effort was given to understanding what customers are looking for... and developing products that can be conformed to customer demand.”
Mile Auto’s collaboration with Porsche offers a clear contrast. Rather than repackaging an off-the-shelf policy, the firm co-developed a niche offering for drivers who barely use their luxury vehicles. “Porsche drivers... they have a 911 that sits in the garage and is pulled out on beautiful weekends,” Blumer said. “Those cars just don’t have many miles.”
That low mileage made them ideal for pay-per-mile coverage – but the value wasn’t just in pricing. “We worked with Porsche Financial Services to tailor a product... agreed value policies, Porsche-certified shops, OEM parts, concierge claims services,” he said. “It wasn’t cut and paste.”
Not all partnerships succeed. Blumer cited an ill-fated example involving a pay-per-mile provider trying to partner with Uber. “Uber drivers, a good Uber driver, wants to drive as many miles as possible,” he said. “It absolutely did not work.”
That mismatch highlights a key flaw in many carrier strategies: brand chasing without strategic fit. “Insurance carriers... need to focus on doing the business of insurance first,” he said, “and not chasing after a particular affinity brand.”
Blumer has long been vocal about the risks of telematics when consumer trust is overlooked. “A fundamental issue is full transparency and full disclosure... what data is being collected and why,” he said.
He recounted troubling cases where insurers, after securing data from automakers, used that information in ways never disclosed to consumers – including legal proceedings. “Sometimes our data was used to put people in jail,” he said. That was a turning point: “Insurance companies just don’t need all of that data.”
Mile Auto takes a minimalist approach. “We don’t plug hardware into cars. We don’t track consumers with mobile apps,” Blumer said. His stance isn’t anti-tech – it’s pro-consent. “I’m not against usage-based insurance... it’s just a matter of making sure the consuming public understands what they’re sharing and why.”
As inflation and cost-of-living pressures grow, Blumer sees pay-per-mile insurance as a solution hiding in plain sight. The problem? Awareness. “There are so many people that I talk to... and they had never heard of pay-per-mile insurance,” he said.
He recalled a conversation with a doctor who owned a car parked unused at a vacation home. “They were astounded,” Blumer said. “They said we didn’t know anything like this existed.”
Larger carriers helped shift that. “One of the things that greatly benefited us was when Nationwide and Allstate launched their pay-per-mile programs,” he said. “Suddenly the product was legitimized.”
For traditional insurers looking to break from the pack, Blumer’s message is clear: don’t chase scale – chase specificity. “Help them understand what’s out there,” he said. “The opportunity isn’t in the crowd. It’s at the edges where no one else is looking.”
