24 May 2025

Reducing Total Cost of Ownership: Insurance Strategies for Mobility Providers

“Rising costs” is a phrase no business operator wants to hear.Whether you’re a new car OEM, a used car marketplace, a fleet operator, or an urban mobility platform, managing total cost of ownership (TCO) is critical. Yet fuel, maintenance, labor, and insurance are all squeezing margins. While many companies are streamlining their vehicle acquisition costs and event maintenance cycles, mobility insurance solutions are typically overlooked – yet they are a significant lever that can be used to improve operational expenses.

After all, most traditional insurance models were designed for a different, earlier transportation era. This leads to severe misalignment with the dynamic nature of modern mobility services, creating higher costs, interrupting smooth operations, and missing opportunities for both providers and their customers. It’s time to move away from usage-based insurance solutions as a mere compliance, and see them as the competitive advantage they can be. Insurance solutions for rideshare platforms and similar services should be agile, adaptive, and modern – and they can be, with the right approach and a partner like bolt.

The Challenges of TCO as an Imperative

Simply put, total cost of ownership mobility, or TCO, covers all expenses incurred in operating a vehicle or fleet over its lifetime. It includes a host of factors, like acquisition, depreciation, maintenance, fuel, and, of course, insurance. TCO directly impacts aspects like service pricing, market competitiveness, and ultimately, profitability.

Insurance is a substantial part of these costs, typically accounting for 10%-20% of operational costs, so smart fleet insurance strategies are critical. Yet it’s so often seen as an unavoidable fixed expense, instead of seeking mobility insurance solutions that can be optimized.

The Misalignment in Traditional Insurance Models

Conventional insurance models offer several key problems for mobility operators, namely:

Static annual policies that don’t reflect actual usage patterns or risk profiles.
One-size-fits-all coverage that ignores the unique needs of mobility services.
Fragmented customer experiences, with insurance wholly disconnected from the rest of the fleet services.
Limited data integration that prevents intelligent risk assessment and pricing.
Slow claims processing that extends vehicle downtime and affects availability.

However, that’s not the most concerning aspect. In 2024, commercial auto insurance saw a $5 billion loss, building on a worrying trend we’ve seen in the post-pandemic era.

That amounts to a 108.5 combined ratio, a key sign of non-profitability. This inevitably means higher premiums for mobility providers and fleets, putting immense strain on that fragile total cost of ownership mobility.

EVs now cost 28% more to insure than gas-powered vehicles, traditional fleet loss ratios are unsustainable, and onboarding inefficiencies are costing platforms millions. Insurance isn’t a back-office item anymore—it’s a lever for growth, retention, and profitability. The time to rethink insurance is now.

Luckily, however, there are better fleet insurance strategies available to reduce vehicle ownership costs for mobility providers, which we will examine below.

Reimagining Mobility Insurance Solutions

Forward-thinking mobility insurance solutions are already available to help address these challenges, including the agility of usage-based insurance and embedded auto insurance. Let’s take a look at three key approaches.

Strategy 1: Usage-Based Insurance

Usage-based insurance models better align insurance costs with actual risk exposure, using real-time data to determine the premium paid. The usage-based insurance market is predicted to reach $66.8 billion by 2026, and there’s a good reason why. This model has several benefits, including:

Premiums that scale with utilization and thus revenue.
Pricing incentives that reward safer driving and risk mitigation.
Reduced costs during low-utilization periods.
Greater transparency in understanding insurance cost drivers.

The usage-based insurance model shifts insurance from a fixed overhead to a variable expense. Often, this makes it a better reflection of a fleet’s operational realities. Usage-based insurance can deliver around 10% in premium reductions without affecting coverage.

Strategy 2: Embedded Insurance

Embedded insurance is another key fleet insurance strategy to know. Here, coverage is integrated directly with the mobility service or vehicle acquisition process. Both operators and customers enjoy a seamless end-to-end experience. This helps:

Eliminate separate insurance transactions and paperwork.
Enhance customer experience by offering built-in protection during the service journey.
Smoother claims processes, again integrated into operations.
New revenue opportunities and branded insurance experiences to build customer loyalty.

Embedded insurance at the point of service lets mobility companies enjoy more cohesive offerings, and take full control over the insurance side of their total cost of ownership mobility.

Strategy 3: Dynamic Risk Segmentation

Here, insurance comes together with AI-powered advanced data analytics and other telemetric data. This allows a much more sophisticated risk assessment and segmentation. In other words:

Precise pricing based on actual operation patterns, not broad categories and averages.
Identification of specific risk factors that can be changed and managed.
Reduced over-insurance for lower-risk scenarios.
Continuous refinement of risk models based on evolving, often real-time, data.

This approach removes a lot of the “one-size-fits-all” approach to total cost of ownership mobility. Instead, it becomes a precision approach. Dynamic risk segmentation can help reduce premiums without impacting coverage, and helps optimize insurance and reduce over-insurance.

By employing these three strategies, operators and customers alike benefit from tighter, more data-informed insurance solutions that work with, not against, their bottom lines. Especially when working with the right embedded insurance partner.

bolt: Enabling Insurance Evolution

The future of mobility has changed. It’s time for the total cost of ownership mobility and fleet insurance strategies to change with it. Fleet owners and mobility providers need mobility insurance solutions that are flexible and data-driven, aligning with their business models. bolt empowers these companies to optimize their total cost of ownership mobility through strategic insurance integration. Beyond individual solutions, bolt is building the connective rails — integrating insurance seamlessly into dealer systems, fleet platforms, and mobility apps to create the first true embedded insurance exchange for mobility.

bolt’s platform offers simple, effective embedded insurance through API integration that can be used hassle-free by vehicle finance lenders, OEMs, and fleet platforms. This gives you immediate access to a broad network of insurers. Additionally, you benefit from fully customizable policy options, including tailored mobility insurance solutions. Users also enjoy:

Digital workflows that support efficiency and reduce administrative overhead
Real-time pricing models that reflect actual risk profiles and usage patterns

Turn your mobility insurance solutions into a strategic advantage, not a cost burden, and amplify your efficiency and customer experience. bolt is ready to partner with you to find embedded auto insurance that fits your needs, in an accessible and easy-to-deploy platform that helps you escape the traditional insurance trap.

Optimizing Fleet Insurance Strategies: Key Takeaways

If you’re looking to make mobility insurance solutions an effective part of your fleet insurance strategy, take these simple steps.

Integrate insurance into your core offering: Eliminate friction by embedding insurance directly into your sales or service journey rather than treating it as a separate component.
Leverage data for customization: Implement telematics and operational data analysis to customize insurance pricing based on actual usage and behavior patterns.
Choose flexible partners: Select embedded auto insurance providers and platforms like bolt that deliver flexibility, scalability, and embedded experiences aligned with your business model.
Analyze your current insurance costs: Conduct an audit of your current insurance expenses to identify opportunities for optimization through alternative models.
Think beyond compliance: View fleet insurance strategies as an opportunity to improve your customer experience and operational efficiency, not just as a box-ticking regulatory need.

With the right mobility insurance solution, you can gain the competitive advantage you need to keep costs tight while maintaining the right coverage level.

Manage Total Cost of Ownership Mobility with bolt

The future of mobility needs smart insurance to back it – and the technology to achieve it is already here. Let bolt help you make the most of your fleet insurance strategy with usage-based insurance, embedded auto insurance, and other full-suite mobility insurance solutions.

Smart, embedded insurance strategies are no longer optional. They are the key to affordability, profitability, and loyalty. Are you looking to reduce ownership costs and unlock new revenue through smarter insurance? Let’s talk! Schedule a call with the bolt team, and see where mobility insurance solutions can take you today.