Skip to content
Get started

From Zero to $40M: How Knight Insurance Launched a Non-Standard Auto Program with SambaSafety

employer-conducting-annual-mvr-review

Industry

Insurance

Challenge

Entering the non-standard auto market isn’t easy. Knight Insurance needed to launch a rating engine fast, but found that most vendors were too slow, too expensive or too complex. Without instant MVR data, affordable pre-screening and responsive technical support, their product would not make it to the market.

Results

In just three years, their non-standard written premium has grown to approximately $ 40 million annually, and every dollar depends on SambaSafety’s data pipeline. Faster, more confident pricing has enabled Knight Insurance to dictate terms in hard markets, while near-real-time driver insights keep adverse selection in check. All reports flow automatically into Knight Insurance’s core system, giving their customer service representatives (CSRs) and actuaries instant access without manual re-keying, keeping underwriting expenses lean and processing times faster.

Key Product

Driver Risk Assessment

$40M
In added written premiums
$164K
Savings in 9 months
6 wks
implementation time

Speed to respond and speed to integrate were huge value-adds. We’d ask for pricing or specs and have them in a couple of days—something the big bureaus couldn’t match.

Adi Samantha

Risk Manager @ Knight Insurance

image-of-business-partnering-with-sambasafety-1

About Knight Insurance Group

Knight Insurance Group, part of the $20 billion Hankey Group, is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, specializing in personal and commercial non-standard auto insurance. Focused on expanding into regions outside its markets in California and Texas, Knight Insurance has an annual written premium of ~500 million, groupwide.  

The Challenge

Explain the challenge or opportunity in front of the customer before they did business with you. This could be either a reactive reason (i.e. the customer had an issue that needed to be addressed) or a proactive reason (i.e. there was untapped potential that was unleashed by working with your business, product, or service).

The Solution

Working closely with SambaSafety, Knight Insurance implemented a strategy that balanced speed, accuracy and cost efficiency. By integrating directly into their policy administration system, Knight Insurance launched its non-standard auto program in under six weeks, drastically faster than the industry norm. The key is using SambaSafety’s Activity Indicator to screen for violations before committing to a full MVR pull. This allows underwriters to fast- track clean drivers for more efficient processes and avoid unnecessary spending.

“If you’re starting a new program, SambaSafety is the quickest, most complete way to get moving.” 

When a driver is flagged for activity, an MVR order is automatically triggered, delivering a full record on demand. For example, if a quote request comes in and the Activity Indicator shows no violations, the quote proceeds without an MVR. But if the indicator flags a recent violation, the full record is retrieved within seconds for proper underwriting. This approach has produced over $164,000 in savings related to MVR pulls and has accelerated decision-making and improved pricing confidence in new markets. 

The Results

Knight Insurance unlocked $40 million in additional written premium for their non-standard auto book while reducing MVR costs by $164,000 in just nine months. By using Activity Indicator pre-screening to run full MVRs only when risk indicators exist, they achieved material cost savings without sacrificing underwriting accuracy. The solution also enabled them to launch new lines in weeks rather than quarters—critical for capturing first-mover pricing advantages in hard markets.

Ready to get started?

Newsletter