Austin Serves As Hurricane Claims Command Center In Response To Devastating 2005 Season
Work Done Here by Progressive Is Critical to Getting Tens of Thousands of Hurricane Victims Back on the Road Again
AUSTIN, Texas — November 22, 2005 — The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, the third largest auto insurance group in the U.S., and fourth largest in Texas, has had offices in Austin since 1976 and currently employs more than 1,000 people in a Call Center on Metro Center Drive who handle claims, customer service and inbound sales calls. But as this year's record-setting hurricane season began to unfold, that number swelled by more than 30 percent as highly trained claims representatives from all 50 states were sent to Austin when the site was designated as the Company's National Hurricane Claims Command Center.
"Progressive has been an important part of Austin for nearly 30 years," said Brewster McCracken, city councilman, City of Austin. "Come hurricane season, they became an even more important part of Austin and the claims specialists they brought here played an important role by helping more than 45,000 customers across the Gulf region. We're thrilled they chose Austin for this very important work."
Beginning August 29, 2005 — the day Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama — Progressive claims representatives began rotating in and out of Austin in three-week shifts, staffing the Command Center 24/7 to handle hurricane claims. When Rita and then Wilma struck, the shifts continued so that the same fast, accurate response was provided to customers in Texas and Florida.
"Because of the massive area affected by Katrina, we knew we'd have claims specialists in Austin for a long time," said Drew Walston, Catastrophe Operations Manager, Progressive. "When Rita and then Wilma hit, we were well positioned to respond because we had already established our operations in Austin. It's been a long hurricane season, but we're committed to helping our customers 24/7 and the response rate proves it."
To date, Progressive has settled about 85 percent of all hurricane-related claims reported.
In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, as many as 300 claims representatives were in the Austin Command Center working on the more than 45,000 hurricane claims incurred. More than 180,000 calls have been answered by Austin-based claims representatives and they have placed more than 530,000 outbound calls to customers to gather details about vehicle damage and to keep them up-to-date on the status of their claims. They used more than 750 airline tickets to get to Austin from all points throughout the U.S. and booked more than 20,000 room nights in area hotels.
Claims representatives in Austin supported the more than 1,000 field claims representatives who were on the ground in the five states, meeting with customers face to face, writing damage estimates and working with body shops. Most importantly, between the Command Center staff and the field claims representatives, Progressive wrote checks totaling nearly $230 million so that customers affected by one or more of the hurricanes could get one part of their life back in order and get back on the road fast.
Walston said: "At critical times like this when so many more important things have been lost, people have other things to worry about than their car, boat or motorcycle. Our job is to focus on settling our customers' claims quickly and fairly so they don't have to think about it."
In the course of settling hurricane claims in the region, Progressive made an unprecedented decision on how to handle flooded vehicles in Louisiana's St. Bernard parish and most of Orleans parish, where cars were sitting in water contaminated with e coli and fuel for up to four weeks before Progressive claims representatives were allowed in to pull the cars out. Environmental officials advised that the cars could be decontaminated by washing with soap and water or a combination of water and bleach. Once decontaminated, those vehicles could have been resold.
Progressive made a decision that vehicles insured by the Company that were sitting in those waters would be scrapped. As a result, more than 5,000 cars have been sent to be crushed and shredded.
Walston said: "The decision was made for two reasons. One, we don't want our claims reps in contact with those cars — it's just not safe. And second, we don't ever want those cars back on the road again."
The crushing process started in New Orleans about a week ago and will continue — at a rate of about 50 cars a day — until all of these vehicles have been destroyed.
And, the work is not over in the Command Center; it's estimated about 200 Progressive claims representatives will staff it through early 2006, making sure that every claim has been settled.
Progressive completed its moved into the 220,000 square foot Call Center at 7301 Metro Center Drive in July 2005. The new space allowed it to consolidate sales, customer service and claims reporting in the Call Center and allow for growth — the Company has doubled in size in Texas since 2000 and has grown at an average of 17 percent countrywide in the same period. And the Company is planning to hire more than 50 representatives in Austin by the end of 2005. To find out more, visit jobs.progressive.com.
The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, in business since 1937, provides drivers with competitive rates and 24/7, in-person and online service. The products and services of the Progressive Direct Group of Insurance Companies are marketed directly to consumers by phone at
1-800-PROGRESSIVE and online at progressivedirect.com through the Progressive DirectSM brand. The Drive Group of Progressive Insurance Companies offers insurance through more than 30,000 independent insurance agencies that market their products and services through the Drive® Insurance from Progressive brand. For more information about Drive Insurance, go to driveinsurance.com. The Common Shares of the Progressive Corporation, the Mayfield Village, Ohio-based holding company, are publicly traded at NYSE:PGR. More information can be found at progressive.com.
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Drew Walston and Scott Snapp of Progressive's National Catastrophe Response Team are available for interviews
