The question of the adequacy of insurance policies for rideshare
drivers was one of the big debating points in the long process of
California becoming the first state to promulgate statewide
regulations covering ride services you summon via smartphone
apps.
They are now called “Transportation Network Companies” in
California–a category covering services like UberX, Lyft, and
Sidecar. A feature story by me about how that happened and the
regulatory tussles over such services across the nation will be in
a soon-forthcoming issue of Reason (subscribe now!)
See
this detailed KQED story from January for some interesting
stories and conundrums involving insuring rideshare drivers, who
generally find that their personal policies won’t cover them if
they are known to be getting paid for driving.
While Uber has for a long time offered a blanket
supplemental insurance liability policy to cover its drivers while
they are actually ferrying fares summoned via Uber app, today Uber
has announced a new insurance plan to cover its drivers on all
levels.
….there has been much written about an “insurance gap”
during the time that ridesharing drivers are not providing
transportation services for hire, but have the Uber app open and
are available to receive a trip request.….the novelty of this growing and innovative form of
transportation has resulted in complex questions regarding
insurance and there may be language in some policies in some states
where ambiguity remains about whether personal insurance will cover
the time between trips.The bottom line is that the drivers who use our app and the
riders and communities we serve should have the confidence that any
potential “insurance gap” is covered with a safety net as
governments and insurance companies work out the details of
ridesharing in their cities and states.So, in order to fully address any ambiguity or uncertainty
around insurance coverage for ridesharing services, Uber is
becoming the first and only company to have a policy in place that
expands the insurance of ridesharing drivers to cover any potential
“insurance gap” for accidents that occur while drivers are not
providing transportation service for hire but are logged onto
the Uber network and available to accept a ride.Starting today, if a driver’s personal insurance policy is found
not to cover an accident during this period, this new policy will
provide contingent coverage for a driver’s liability at the highest
requirement of any state in the U.S: $50,000/individual/incident
for bodily injury, $100,000 total/incident for bodily injury and
$25,000/incident for property damage.Uber is taking this step to eliminate any ambiguity while the
insurance industry and state governments update policies and
regulations for the new world of ridesharing transportation.
On the heels of us announcing that effective today, we are
providing this coverage in every state, we learned that Lyft,
another ridesharing service, is following our lead and will
roll out this coverage over time state by state.
In a press conference call this morning, Uber’s colorful
co-founder Travis Kalanick continued to sound pugnacious about
fighting off taxi protectionism across the nation, condeming city
councilpeople who are “in the pocket of the taxi industry, straight
up” and seemed hopeful that easing people’s mind on this insurance
issue would help toward that cause.
Uber’s adversaries in the CPUC’s regulatory process raised
lots of questions about the quality and efficacy of the insurance
policies that California’s regulations require UberX to have. While
CPUC reviewed the policies, their specifics have not been made
public by Uber. Uber also stresses they had such policies even
before being ordered to by CPUC. But Kalanick assumed me today when
I asked “whether our insurance works, it just does. There are a lot
of eyes on Uber and we are going above and beyond in making sure”
that the “drivers we are working with feel they are protected and
covered, and the public at large” as well.
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