It’s simple math. The more seats, the greater the number of potential injuries. It doesn’t mean every seat gets filled, but a family of seven, with a working parent and one who stays home to run the household, six of the seven seats might go occupied while doing errands. Long family trips mean everyone gets to go.
So? What if the driver becomes distracted or gets broadsided by a truck? Everyone in the van might need medical attention, some more severe than others. Compare that to a two-seated pickup truck with more steel surrounding the passengers. How many potential victims will the insurance company have to pay for if the vehicle gets hit or rolls? Two. See the difference? Unless the driver allowed ten bodies to pile in the back. That’s a bad idea.
A business owner may employ that same seven-passenger van to haul materials or tools around. That’s a different category. Commercial policies will see the use from a different perspective if the driver and an employee occupy the two seats after the rest of the benches have been removed.
Another topic relates to the number of seats. How friendly to securing child safety seats is the automobile? Do the seatbelts quickly adapt to the ports in the child seat, or can hooks connect to the back?
The automobile insurance claim predictive landscape is changing. As the insurance industry gathers data and correlates the cause to the severity of the claim, auto insurance pricing will respond to those changes.