About Car Insurance Day

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Traveler's Insurance issued the first auto insurance policy in 1897 to Gilbert J. Loomis, who built a one-cylinder car.

Why does this day fall on February 1, and most online sources list the year as 1898? A phone call clears up the lack of fact-checking in the internet echo chamber. February 1 is when the second policy went into effect.

Who was first?

According to the historian at Traveler's Insurance, the company believed that the policy issued to Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, New York, on February 1, 1898, was its first auto policy for over sixty years.

Then one day in 1956, eighty-plus-year-old Gilbert J. Loomis notified Traveler's the date of the first policy needed to be revised. Rather than New York and Mr. Martin, Ohio granted the first auto coverage to him. His policy with Travelers, dated 1897, which he brought to the headquarters, made Loomis the first to have auto insurance. The actual date is likely in October or November, not February, as once believed.

Unfortunately, the date Travelers enacted his policy in 1897 is still being determined, and nobody made a copy of the historical document when the record was amended in 1956.

When did mandatory car insurance begin?

That started across the pond. The United Kingdom is responsible for compulsory car insurance for licensed drivers and owners of vehicles. The British Parliament passed the Road Traffic Act in 1930 after a heated debate in the House of Lords held in January of that year.

Now you know where that annoying monthly bill comes from and the misclassification of its origin. The moral of the story? Always double-check what the insurance company tells you!