May 2026 was a one-line market: commercial auto. Every region’s front page led with it, the five largest filings by reach nationwide are all auto, and not one region produced a qualifying workers-comp rate increase. The pricing pressure that sat in property and comp two years ago has migrated decisively to the vehicle.

Two forces are compounding. First, the 2024 ISO commercial-auto loss-cost adoption is still washing through approved rates — this month an ISO North Dakota advisory reset increased-limit factors nearly 30%, a floor every adopting carrier inherits. Second, social-inflation severity keeps liability indications running far above what regulators let carriers take at once, which is why Progressive’s California book shows ~8% taken against a 36% need.

So the market is repricing two ways at once — through rate, and through structure. Carriers are exiting for-hire trucking outright, banning whole vehicle classes (Great American’s EV/hybrid-truck exclusion), and bolting third-party scoring — credit, telematics, vehicle history — onto nearly every filing. The policy is getting smaller and more finely priced as the premium climbs.

Market Exits

For-hire trucking dominated May’s exits. Shelter pulled its entire Truckmen program across five states (~4,327 motor carriers); Triangle and Harco followed in agribusiness and California. When a motor-carrier policy non-renews the federal MCS-90 endorsement cancels with it — these insureds must replace coverage immediately, and they are shopping now.