Bike Sense

The End of Bike Theft Anxiety: New insurance solutions for cyclists

• The BC Cycling Coalition • Season 3 • Episode 1

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Nick van Egmond, CEO of Bicycle Broker, introduces 'Sundays' — a comprehensive insurance solution designed specifically for cyclists that covers theft and damage for all types of bikes across Canada. 

Traditional home and tenant insurance typically demands a high deductible and leaves gaps in bicycle coverage. This new product provides 24/7 protection both on and off your property, with much lower deductibles. Nick also offers a few pro tips on new ways to keep your bike safe and recover a stolen bike.

Find out all about Sundays specialist bike insurance at sundaysinsurance.ca. You can also visit bicyclebroker.ca to learn more about bicycle insurance options.  

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The Bike Sense podcast with Peter Ladner is produced by the BC Cycling Coalition – your voice for safer and more accessible cycling and active transportation in British Columbia.

Membership in the BCCC is now FREE! To find out about BCCC's projects and add your voice to the chorus please visit BCCycling.ca


Speaker 1:

Welcome to Bike Sense, the BC Cycling Coalition's podcast, where we talk about all things related to active transportation advocacy in BC. I'm your host, Peter Ladner, Chair of the Board of the BC Cycling Coalition. I hope you enjoy the show. We all know somebody who's bought a new bike and is afraid to ride it, not because of an accident that might happen, but that it might be stolen. When you've spent $3,000 on a bicycle if you buy an e-bike, it may be more than that this is obviously a very warranted concern. We talk a lot about ICBC and accident liability, but this whole other world of insurance and worry from cyclists has until now not been addressed. But now there is an answer, and to give you that answer and explain how it works, we've invited on the broadcast today Nick van Egmond, who's the CEO of Bicycle Brokers, and they have a new product that we think you're going to be pretty interested in. Nick, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, peter, excited to be here. I'm chatting with you in March, right before the snow melts, so this is a good time to kind of talk about the spring cycling season and what's new, what's available to help the bicycle community.

Speaker 1:

We're going to get into what you offer in a moment, but perhaps you could just tell us how you got into this.

Speaker 2:

Well, it kind of started as I was racing bikes and traveling and having some insurance issues a lack of availability for emergency medical, leaving Canada at one point and doing races to then saying you know, that could be a way I wind down my bike career and like a new entrepreneurial venture and something to give back and to help my beloved bike community. Why don't I see what it would look like to build an insurance resource? It seems like enough people have questions or concerns and there's not a central point. So bicycle broker kind of came from that and the first thing I started to talk about was travel insurance, which got me answering a lot of questions with oh, I don't have something to cover your bike. I can cover you If you go to a hospital, you leave Canada, there's an accident, there's an ambulance, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

There was great products if you were the broker and you knew what to offer, but then they're like well, what about my bike? What if it's in transit? What if it's stolen? On this trip I've been planning and saving for for years and it kind of irked me to go there isn't anything great. We can see how this works through home insurance. This is going back a couple of years and, yeah, I've been working on a solution for that since.

Speaker 1:

What is your solution?

Speaker 2:

The solution is a new brand on our platform called Sundays, and it's actually been operating for the better part of 15 years around the world, in other countries, and so our company, bicycle Broker, is now the conduit to bring that to Canada. An easy online click and review within seconds what is out there for your bike and how do I customize a policy for my individual needs, all the bikes in my household and how they're covered, not just while they're in the household, but how they're covered 24-7 and, if needed, worldwide.

Speaker 1:

So, just to be clear, this is not just for racers, it's not just for people traveling, it's for anybody who owns a bike and is concerned about the financial loss from damage or theft of that bike. Is that right?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. This is for all types of bikes. Definitely. E-bikes are a big demographic for us and whether you're a commuter with a couple hundred dollar bike right up to it's replaced your car and you've bought the highest end bicycle that is out there Like, we want to chat with you and show you what's what's available to protect your investment and your beloved bike.

Speaker 1:

I've always operated. I have house insurance. I don't know how people who rent have house insurance, If that's also something they have. I know you can get insurance for your furniture and so on, but I always thought that would sort of cover it. Am I wrong if my bike was stolen from my home?

Speaker 2:

No, not wrong. I mean, that's been the best available option in Canada for decades, right, if you have that conversation with your home insurance broker and you kind of treat your bike the same way you would a piece of jewelry, some fine art hey, I bought something expensive. If it goes missing from my house, um, you know what's, how does your home insurance respond? And so a very similar, whether you rent or own a home, a very similar piece, right, it's it's kind of boxed in where it's just treated the same as your television set, or so if your home burns down or if there's a burglary and your bike is vandalized, if your bike is stolen off of the property, that's kind of all we had. And so the thing for us is, well, that doesn't really cover the full spectrum of how you use your bike. Your exposure is back to 24 7. You know what happens if the bike is stolen while it's at my office, while I'm at the coffee shop. And then, to take it a step further, what about damage to the bike?

Speaker 2:

With the rise of the values of bikes we have e-bikes, as you mentioned in the intro three, five, five. I mean we're helping customers who are buying $20,000. Beautiful bicycles. So the damage that could happen in a crash that doesn't fall under warranty can be detrimental financially. So how do we offer an all-encompassing coverage?

Speaker 2:

Every single quote you would look at on Sundays has damage and theft across canada automatically in the base policy, and then from there you're making some custom tweaks which go back to that question of is it just for racers?

Speaker 2:

No, you have to actually like click a button and pay a little bit more to cover yourself in races and big events like grand fondos. Um, and the same thing with the basic policy will cover you across canada, because not everybody, especially with an e-bike right now, we're really not set up to fly with them. You know you got to probably leave your battery at home and then see about trying to either purchase or rent one when you travel. So we're not there yet. Um, so you can click a button to kind of take your policy worldwide and there's just a couple more buttons Like I. I'd say, go through the website is a good way to educate yourself with what are these different functions and you need to compare it more like car insurance on your bike than than what you did previously, which was like a home insurance dynamic of just your personal property.

Speaker 1:

Could you give us an example of the gap you're trying to fill between what ICBC will cover, say, you have an accident, your bike is banged or destroyed by a car or truck on one side, and what the house insurance will cover for theft on the other side? What's missing and how are you helping out on that?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think in that dynamic we want to and this flows through to how you need to look at this new type of bicycle insurance is it doesn't have anything to do with your house insurance and isolating that can give you a lower deductible. So if you have to make a claim out of pocket on your home insurance, you could have a $1,500 bike and a $1,000 deductible. And if the only thing that happens is, yeah, during some type of commuting accident, your bike is damaged, and then you have that mathematical scenario you end up not making a claim, your bike is damaged and you just have to absorb that cost, whereas with our new program, yeah, your deductible is between $150 and a maximum of $350. So it's good in that respect, the fact that it's separate from your home insurance and you're not calling them is a positive. And then there are a lot of dynamics to where, yeah, icbc is not going to respond to the damages to a bicycle right.

Speaker 2:

In a no-fault system, those are oftentimes part of the claim that gets left out. It's more about pain and suffering than it is about the loss of a piece of property. It would fall back on that individual who's riding the bike to have some other type of insurance, and so it fills that gap. You don't have to have ICBC. You don't have to have ICBC. You don't have to have home insurance If the most important thing to you is your bike. You just have to have a Sunday's policy and then that takes primary spot. You deal with us and we walk you through the claim process.

Speaker 1:

Can you give us a rough idea of how much a cyclist might be paying to get the necessary minimum of insurance coverage for this gap you've just described?

Speaker 2:

I can. I think it comes up on the site within seconds and it is based on the purchase price of the bike. So, said a different way, I mean we're definitely helping people that are paying less than $10 a month on an entry-level bicycle to to have that extra level of peace of mind and go and ride more, um. But on the opposite end, like yeah, we, we work with families that have a collection of bicycles and e-bikes um, you know that could have $50,000 of value in their garage, just a bicycles, right? So it's full spectrum with us.

Speaker 1:

So if I were to shift from my house insurance to your product, would I get a deduction in my house insurance? Would it cost me less?

Speaker 2:

Great question. I would absolutely think that everyone should have that dialogue of if Sundays make sense and you purchase one of those on one or all of your bicycles, you would want to contact your home or your renter's insurance, because if you're paying extra to cover your bicycles on the home policy and then you've got extra coverage with Sundays, you want to eliminate what's on your home policy and try and negotiate a lower price. Absolutely Like don't double insure yourself.

Speaker 1:

So you mentioned to me that you don't just insure the bike but you could also insure the I don't know a helmet that got broken or some parts of the bike that were damaged, or if somebody was carrying something on a bike. Is that covered by insurance? Just get into a little bit of the range of what would be covered that a cyclist might be worried about.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, certainly, because this is an insurance designed by cyclists to make it as comprehensive and useful as possible. It thinks about what we all do with our bikes. Some of us put it on an airplane so the policy can respond to while it's in transit. Some of us buy pretty fancy accessories a helmet, nice cycling kit. We deal with a lot of head.

Speaker 1:

Sorry if my Garmin computer got wrecked, fell over and it smashed. Is that the kind of thing that would be covered?

Speaker 2:

As long as it's triggered by damage or theft to the whole bicycle, and that is a part of the claim. Absolutely Right. So you've, your bike, is in transit in your car and unfortunately it gets stolen. Someone steals a nice helmet, a pair of shoes and and a garment and you've added accessories onto your policy. You're going to get covered for the bike and those accessories. So it's a very quick, easy website and dynamic. To just add that and then I can expand on a little bit more. Like I said, it really thinks about cyclists on on. You know an entry level right up to.

Speaker 2:

If you're listening to this and you've got that collection of bikes and you've been riding for a long time, you know a lot of us sometimes have a second set of wheels.

Speaker 2:

You might have this pair that's really fancy and you only use it on big rides, or you might have one that's got fast wheels to get you to work and then some bigger fat tires for the weekend so you can go play in the dirt and you can click and add a set of wheels. Bicycle Broker works a lot with bike retailers. Most of our business is the business insurance side of the cycling industry and one thing we work together on is how do we make this an easy process to put in front of people on new bike day and one of the ways we incentivize that is, if you have one of these policies on a bike within the first 60 days of purchase, you're able to click a button on our website and eliminate depreciation. So, as long as you have a Sunday's policy, if you put it on there when the bike is new, that's just another functionality of it to kind of incentivize people to look at one of these policies seriously, because depreciation can happen very quickly on a bicycle.

Speaker 1:

Could you describe your company's relationship with Project 529 and tell people what that is?

Speaker 2:

company's relationship with Project 529 and tell people what that is. Yeah, most definitely so. We're in a position to. We're kind of at the end right. I'm covering through insurance, worst case scenario Bike is very damaged, stolen, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

But we work as closely as we can with anybody who's proactive with bike theft, and so registry of a bike is super key to that Part of our process.

Speaker 2:

Even if you buy one of these policies, the second you complete the sale, your document sent to you via email, if you haven't already done it, register it on the Project 529 platform.

Speaker 2:

So if it does get stolen, 529 is I treat it like a VIN number on a car and if that bike is recovered after a theft, most likely by a police station, they're able to log into a 529 platform which is shared between every owner of the bike who's registered their bike and police stations and police officers across all of North America to then track that recovered bike back to its original owner. That's huge to reduce the financial effects of a bike theft and to reunite the bike with its owner. It's a beautiful, beautiful program that we fully support. It's integrated into our process, not mandatory, but really, um, really pushed by by our team, in the same way that we're starting to to work a lot with and promote bicycle trackers. Um, just today in the UK they're looking at legislation to bring bicycle trackers more to the forefront because bike theft there is like, yes, it's absolutely a problem in Canada, but the UK is seeing numbers that are astronomical just with the volume of bike thefts.

Speaker 1:

And how does a bike tracker work?

Speaker 2:

just with the volume of bike thefts.

Speaker 2:

And how does a bike tracker work?

Speaker 2:

So a bike tracker would be whether you're using, if you think about the Apple, airtag, or a lot of them now have a proprietary piece of hardware and software.

Speaker 2:

So when we talked earlier about bike registry, you're kind of doing the same thing. You're registering your tracker, which is a little piece of hardware that can be hidden on the bicycle, and then if it is stolen, imagine it has a gps air tag, if you will, and that proprietary software is how you can connect and contact police, track the bike and aid the recovery. You know it's not to go vigilante and chase down bike thieves and you know do that yourself, but it is to aid the recovery of your stolen bike. And then again you would kind of take one of those trackers and definitely utilize 529 to kind of complete that piece, not without the other piece of this which we have to touch on. And as we evolve our program, the more expensive your bike, the more we would want to see a better lock used. So we are developing a kind of Canada-wide approved lock system just for the promotion of better quality locks and how to lock and speak about that through our blogs and our communication and training.

Speaker 1:

So would you require your customers to have one of your approved locks and or a tracking chip in their bike and or registration with Project 529?

Speaker 2:

Um locks are required in certain scenarios to prevent your claim being declined, which is let's use the example that a lot of us know would be I ride my bike to a coffee shop. You need to lock it outside. You know, we we do have, like, there's pretty intense wording around the likelihood of getting your full claim paid if you're not even locking up your bike while it's outside. Um, so that one is, yes, it is a prerequisite. The bike trackers and registries no, they're. I mean, I don't know if you've personally, or the listeners out there, have gone through a bike theft. It is mentally it really tough, and so just how nice would it be to get your bike back.

Speaker 1:

So we have to promote that, we have to talk about it, but it's not mandatory, no, Speaking of getting your bike back in Project 529, what can you tell us about their success in retrieving stolen bikes? I know I've registered. I can't even remember if I paid. I don't think I did, but I'm never sure if that's going to make a difference if my bike disappears and it would have to be found by the police who look on the registry of 529. Is that how it works?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, correct. I mean, in the case of any theft right over a certain amount, you're going to call the police and have that police report. And if you can add to the police report, my bike is already registered on five to nine and a lot of people do it a little reactively of I just had a bike stolen and then they post it on social media and talk to their friends. I watch those posts all the time and one of every two comments is if you haven't already done it, register it on 529. So that is kind of common knowledge amongst cyclists. But go ahead.

Speaker 1:

You can register after the theft.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, you can do that reactively.

Speaker 2:

This isn't like insurance where you need to have the policy active before the theft or the damage. For anybody listening here who might very recently or in their network, be involved in a bike theft, if you have your proof of purchase, serial numbers, some descriptions, maybe a recent photo, you're able to upload all of those on 529 and aid the recovery of your bike. Absolutely Right, because, like the scenarios that are out there are, you know, let's use downtown Vancouver as an example. That's where the bike theft begins, but it's generally moved as quick as possible to another town, to another province, or it starts a worldwide tour. It could get recovered in another country and 529 is a now global safety net for recovered bikes that can slowly get that back to you, right? I mean a bike could end up in Mexico from Vancouver very easily. I mean the stats on the 529 site are pretty alarming. Two million North Americans per year are involved in bike theft. You know that's including the big population of the United States, two million cyclists we're talking about victims, not thieves.

Speaker 1:

Correct, okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it might be tough to count the amount of thieves, but, yeah, two million victims of bike theft and the market itself for the black market of bicycles is half a billion dollars annually. That's staggering numbers, right? So that's why we talk so much about these proactive measures.

Speaker 1:

I thought that when bikes get stolen, they get taken apart and the parts get sold. Is that not the case?

Speaker 2:

I mean, that's a question for a criminal. No, that is the case. I mean the way we look at it is, if the bike is recovered, great, there's still most likely going to be a claim on your insurance because the bike could be spray painted or some of these nice parts could have been taken off and swapped with lesser parts, devaluing your bike or treat it as vandalism. And so every bike that is recovered, we push our policyholders to please go into your trusted local bike shop, have your mechanic do an assessment so that we know for sure that you know is there a claim? How do we make you whole again, right? How do we get that bike back to the same condition it was at before it was taken?

Speaker 1:

Nick, you mentioned that this is a common type of insurance in other countries in the world. Why has it taken so long to come to Canada and how prevalent is it and how popular is it in other countries?

Speaker 2:

I mean, I look to the UK as my North Star. It tends to be the home of insurance. You know, people know, maybe like Lloyd's of London or it's where there's new products are made, and so if we look at this type of specialist bike insurance, the standalone kind of coverage that we're doing through Sundays in Canada if we were on this podcast in the UK we would have more than a dozen options for cyclists to look at, to go. I want to compare this bike insurance company versus that one. Who's got better rates? Who's got better coverage? Am I a part of a club or does my local retailer have some type of deal and discount? It's a big infrastructure. Or another way to look at it is you're a cyclist in the UK and the insurance on your bicycle comes from a special insurance policy for bicycles. They're a decade past thinking about my bike is insured under my home. Those days are gone. There's been a polar shift. Right, the bike insurance rules. It's that, or people just risk it and they pay out of pocket if something happens.

Speaker 1:

Well, it sounds pretty exciting and I'm excited for you because I know this is a whole new chapter in your life and this product is now available and we're going to put all the links up on our show notes. Is there anything else you think people need to know about the gaps that this fills or the products that you offer that we haven't already talked about?

Speaker 2:

I think the best thing for the public is to, yeah, visit our websites, because it does link to a live team of Canadian brokers. We all ride bikes and we're here to answer those questions. There's a toll-free number set up, live chat email. We're actually looking for feedback from the public, right? This is a brand new type of insurance and that's not always easy for people to get, so we're here to answer questions. If you're challenged with how it works, give us a call.

Speaker 1:

Does it apply equally to all places in BC? What if I'm in some smaller community? Will I get the same service?

Speaker 2:

We are currently operating and offering this coverage, which is identical to all residents of british columbia, alberta, ontario. Later this spring we will open manitoba and nova scotia. Going into next year the hope is to be across all of canada. But yeah, it's the same. There's just difference of taxation in. Yeah, it's the same. There's just difference of taxation in your province. That's it. Otherwise, same product. So this podcast could go nationwide. I hope it does.

Speaker 1:

And you're sitting there in the Sunshine Coast masterminding all this. Do you have a network of brokers around? Let's just talk about BC. Does it matter where they're located?

Speaker 2:

Well, our brokers are all located relatively close to Vancouver and they're all licensed to work with any resident of British Columbia, so it doesn't really matter. We promote back to transportation even within the company. It's a work from home, digital right, so you're not going to a bicycle broker office to buy an insurance policy. You're dealing with over the phone, um or or through our website communications.

Speaker 1:

If I remember of a biking club, would there be an opportunity for the whole club to get some kind of a discount deal with you?

Speaker 2:

That's where I want people to connect directly with myself through the website. We are, this summer, starting to release partnership programs for larger organizations, clubs and a retailer program. Most definitely, yeah, so that's all coming soon. You can use our website. There's a contact at bicyclebrokerca email address and just subject line partnerships.

Speaker 1:

Well, nick. Thank you so much for filling us in on this. It's a pretty exciting new development which I hope will make life easier for cyclists and make more people more inclined to not just buy a bike but actually ride it and not be so terrified of having it stolen or damaged. We really appreciate your participation and we will put all the necessary links up on the show notes.

Speaker 2:

No, thank you so much to the BC Cycling Coalition all of your listeners. It's a pleasure interacting with you. I'll be at your trade shows and look forward to the feedback. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

You've been listening to Bike Sense, an original podcast from the BC Cycling Coalition. An original podcast from the BC Cycling Coalition. If you like the podcast, we'd be grateful if you could leave us a rating. On whatever platform you use, you can also subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. If you have comments or suggestions for future episodes, email me at peterladner at bccyclingca. Email me at peterladner at bccyclingca. You can help us amplify BC Cycling Coalition's voice by simply becoming a free member at bccyclingca. Thank you.