Inshur: How Mobile-First Design Changed The Commercial Car Insurance Industry in NYC

How we changed the face of the commercial car insurance industry in New York with Inshur.com.

When Inshur came to us with a vision of modernising the New York ride-share insurance experience, we quickly realised we had a perfect client on our hands.

They were a forward-thinking startup that were nurturing a unique business idea, one that could streamline an existing process that was much too complex in our mobile-first world, and they had identified a marketplace for it. We were intrigued.

Inshur wanted to become the first mobile insurance platform for commercial and ride-share drivers, owners, and fleets, offering the market convenience and reliability at the touch of a button.

The rise of app-based taxi services, like Uber and Lyft, has meant that taxi drivers are now, in effect, mobile-first operators that rely on apps to connect to their next job. This made taxi drivers a target market for the Inshur app, as they were particularly mobile receptive. Furthermore, they were also a market that would benefit greatly from a shake-up of the car insurance industry, where a legacy of manual, paper and spreadsheet-based operations slowed down the process. This was a fantastic opportunity.

After gathering the business requirements, and learning lots about the exciting ins-and-outs of how insurance works,  we started a design iteration and quickly transitioned into the development of an MVP.  New York taxi regulations had inadvertently set us a deadline to meet, so it was a race against the clock.

The result was an app that helps drivers to get insured within minutes, as opposed to a lengthy process involving masses of paperwork and, heaven forbid, talking face-to-face with an actual human!

Customers were now able to move through the process of requesting a quote, reviewing and then purchasing it, in record timing – the record, we believe, was 171 seconds! A huge improvement.  

The resulting app is a true testament to how mobile-first thinking can transform not only a business but an entire industry. Not only is the customer delighted with the ease-of-use, but the business gets all of the things that come along with mobile as standard, such as customer insights. And it’s not just us who thinks this is the way to go with car insurance – a recent driver survey has proven that the app and mobile-first approach is becoming increasingly popular with drivers.

We loved this project. It complemented the forward-thinking values behind our business and Inshur is a great example of how we can support apps beyond MVP.

Today, we’re entering a 3rd phase of development, and there are many exciting features just over the horizon. Watch this space!