Uber and Lyft New Insurance Policies Covers Drivers

Uber and Lyft New Insurance Policies Covers Drivers

This posts will cover the insurance policies for both passengers and drivers and summarize over what they cover. Both have updated their insurance policy to clearly cover the driver when you are in the middle of a trip. Before, it used to be a gray area whether or not they covered the driver and his/her vehicle.

For Passengers:

You are covered by both Lyft and Uber by their $1 million commercial insurance policy in case you are injured. If you are hurt or injured, Lyft and Uber will take care of you.

• There are some rather extreme cases in which Uber may try to deny responsibility, like when an Uber driver attacked one of the passengers with a hammer: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Uber-hammer-attack-may-clarify-firm-s-5810352.php

Lyft Insurance Protection Plan:

Here is the policy. To summarize, there are two separate policies, one to cover you when you accept a ride request until you drop off the passenger that covers the car and the passengers, and another to cover you anytime you are in driver mode. Your normal auto insurance will cover if you get into an accident when you have the app on but no ride request.

[Update 7-10-14] Lyft’s insurance will be your primary insurance if you get into an accident after you accept a ride request until you drop off the passenger. In the past, Lyft’s insurance only served as secondary insurance, which means that you would have to report it to your personal auto insurance first and whatever your personal insurance doesn’t cover, Lyft will cover.

• Not Logged on: Personal Auto Insurance
• Logged on but no trip: Personal Auto and Liability Insurance
• During Trip:
  • Liability: Lyft Insurance as Primary Insurance
  • Collision: Lyft Insurance as Secondary

Now when you get into an accident in the middle of a Lyft, Lyft will be your primary insurance for liability. However, you will need to report it to your insurance company if you want to get your own car fixed under collision coverage.

Uber Ridesharing Insurance Coverage

A few weeks after Lyft released their new insurance policy [seen above], Uber updated theirs to match what Lyft has. This only applies to uberX as regular Uber cars (Black, SUV) have their own livery insurance which will cover you specifically for the purposes of transporting passengers.

It works very similarly to Lyft, but Uber’s insurance only works as a secondary insurance policy. That means that you will need to submit the accident claim to your personal insurance before being able to submitting it to Uber’s insurance policy. In some cases, the insurance company will deny your claim once they find out if the accident occurred when logged into the Uber system.

[Update 7-22-14] Uber’s insurance will be your primary insurance if you get into an accident after you accept a ride request until you drop off the passenger. In the past, Uber’s insurance only served as secondary insurance, which means that you would have to report it to your personal auto insurance first and whatever your personal insurance doesn’t cover, Uber will now cover.

• Not Logged on: Personal Auto Insurance
• Logged on but no trip: Personal Auto and Liability Insurance
• During Trip:
  • Liability: Uber Insurance as Primary Insurance
  • Collision: Uber Insurance as Primary Insurance

From the time a driver accepts a trip request through our app until the completion of the ride, our partners have $1 million of coverage for driver liability. We were also the first ridesharing request service to include $1 million of coverage for uninsured/underinsured motorists, meaning that passengers and drivers are also covered for injuries when another party is at fault and lacks sufficient insurance. This $1 million coverage from trip acceptance to drop-off is consistent across cities. This coverage kicks in regardless of whether the driver’s personal insurance applies to the trip. We have also added contingent comprehensive and collision insurance during trips, up to $50,000/incident with a $1,000 deductible.

Our coverage is consistent across all our U.S. cities whereas coverage provided by taxis is literally all over the map and can be considerably lower:

Maximum Coverage for Taxis by City

• Atlanta:  $50K
• Baltimore:  $60K
• Boston:  $40K
• Chicago: $350K
• San Francisco:  $1000K
• Washington DC:  $50K

So what happens when a ridesharing partner who is not on an uber trip, nor picking up a rider, gets into an accident?

Since the tragic accident in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve, 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.

As a practical matter, the vast majority of personal insurance policies cover this period either by the plain terms of the insurance policy, or due to the insurance requirements set by state. In the New Year’s Eve case, for instance, the driver’s insurance company has offered up the limits of the driver’s personal auto policy.

However, 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.

 

Have more questions about Uber or Lyft? Head on over to our Rideshare Driver Training Course! Driver Promotions

• New Uber Drivers will get up to a $800 bonus after signing up: Sign up for Uber.
• New Lyft Drivers will get up to $800 if you sign up here using this link.

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