TransUnion, the credit and risk management serviceprovider, and Drivers History, a provider and aggregatorof traffic and criminal court data, partnered to provide a servicethat allows auto insurance carriers to identify drivers withratable activity through the use of motor vehicle reports(MVRs).

Insurers can integrate TransUnion Driver Risk into their existingunderwriting and rating models, TransUnion says, and create apredictor of loss. It can be used across the policy lifecycle fromcustomer onboarding to renewal, as well as in claims and specialinvestigations.

The partnership comes at an apt time, as states have beenincreasing MVR fees as a source of revenue. "The insurance industryspends in excess of $1.2 billion annually on DMV-issued and othermotor vehicle records to verify the driving history of theirapplicants and policyholders," Mark McElroy, executive vicepresident of TransUnion's insurance business unit, says in astatement. "Our partnership with Drivers History will benefitinsurance carriers by helping them to manage this cost while at thesame time gaining access to more robust information at multiplepoints."