Nearly a year has passed since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and the configuration of the world was changed. The ways in which jobs were done, education was delivered, and the structure of health and sanitary systems were never the same. The world population has had to adapt to rapid and dynamic changes which constantly took place.

The way in which South Africans had to deal with the situation was not different. Both citizens and the South African Government took, at that time, a great number of decisions and important measures were implemented to better care for the population. Following the establishment of lockdown restrictions, which was one of the most popular measures taken by administrations in many countries, a number of consequences people had not imagined arose, one of them being related to insurance companies and their premiums. 

As well as every business, company or manufacturing industry, insurance companies have had to accommodate as a response to the pandemic situation. When citizens found themselves working from home for a less amount of hours, or even temporarily unemployed, they saw the need to reduce their expenditures and revisit the way in which they spent money. At the time, although owning a car insurance should not be considered a luxury but an essential need, many car owners took the decision to stop paying their premiums or to find new options which better fit their new routines. Brokers found ways to reformulate and adapt premiums to users’ needs and that allowed them to keep the number of beneficiaries.

Then, another unexpected consequence ensued, as curfews were set and more and more people worked from home, changing the amount of time they spent driving and commuting, that is they were less time in the streets, the number of claims made to the insurance companies significantly dropped, which meant a substantial benefit to them. There were now less reports of car accidents and thefts.

The way in which the Covid-19 pandemic impacted travel has many sides since the spread of the virus affected travelling across the whole world. As the author Thomas Friedman asserts, we live in a globalized and hyper-connected world in which restrictions in one country affect other countries as well. For instance, when referring to the insurance industry, this has caused agents to need to take care of situations such as delays in the delivery of car parts, which are manufactured all over the globe, to fix damaged vehicles. Therefore, they recognize the need of keeping up with changes and offering a list of the available car insurances which will satisfy the needs and wants of car owners, adapted to the new global context. 

The new normal will perpetuate practices like working from home, which will be a reality for many this coming year and is seemingly likely to stay as a norm. As 2020 went by, individuals learnt to acclimate to a new context, and there are some practices which readily turned out to be convenient and beneficial to all. The lockdown restrictions imposed by the government fluctuate, and with these fluctuations, individuals’ habits also change.

It is the job of insurance companies to keep up and it also takes car owners responsibility to maintain relationships based on trust and confidence. In that way they will both continue to benefit from the situation while being safe and taken care of.