Friday, March 29, 2024 Mar 29, 2024
62° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Business

Dallas Entrepreneur Chris Gay Has a Better Way To Pay for Car Insurance

The founder and president of MileMeter is miles ahead of the competition.
By Mary Candace Evans |
Image
photography by Nick Prendergast

If you drive fewer than 12,000 miles a year, you should tell your auto-insurance company to take a hike, entrepreneur Chris Gay contends. He’s the founder and president of MileMeter, a Dallas company that last year became the nation’s first to charge drivers for auto insurance by the mile.

Gay’s an Army brat who came to Texas to swim competitively at The University of Texas, then dove into commercial real estate and nearly drowned in the dot-com boom. He eventually joined his father in defense contracting but, in the back of his mind, always believed the auto-insurance industry was ripe for change.

It helped that the Texas Legislature revised insurance laws in 2001 to allow a cents-per-mile alternative to traditional dollars-per-year pricing. With his wife’s blessings, some personal savings, and the backing of venture capitalists—after almost 200 rejections—Gay issued the company’s first by-the-mile insurance policy in October 2008.

Texas is the country’s second-largest auto-insurance market, Gay says, even though 20 percent of the state’s drivers are uninsured. Which they might not be, he says, if they would buy auto insurance like people pre-pay for cellphone service: purchase between 1,000 and 6,000 miles of coverage at a time by credit card, online. The company’s target market: people who don’t drive a lot—those who work from home, use public transportation, live in small towns, own multiple cars, or are college students.

MileMeter recently consolidated its three offices into one in downtown Dallas. The company employs fewer than 100 people, though Gay won’t disclose exactly how many for competitive reasons. “We are extremely financially healthy,” he says. “It’s made the insurance industry take notice.”

Related Articles

Image
Arts & Entertainment

Here’s Who Is Coming to Dallas This Weekend: March 28-31

It's going to be a gorgeous weekend. Pencil in some live music in between those egg hunts and brunches.
Image
Arts & Entertainment

Arlington Museum of Art Debuts Two Must-See Nature-Inspired Additions

The chill of the Arctic Circle and a futuristic digital archive mark the grand opening of the Arlington Museum of Art’s new location.
By Brett Grega
Image
Arts & Entertainment

An Award-Winning SXSW Short Gave a Dallas Filmmaker an Outlet for Her Grief

Sara Nimeh balances humor and poignancy in a coming-of-age drama inspired by her childhood memories.
By Todd Jorgenson
Advertisement