Got a brand new car - Page 2

On April 20 2015 14:52 TheTenthDoc wrote:
If you're going to drive for Uber, it's probably worth doing some quick digging into the local politics and news around it. I know that in Boston there's starting to be anti-Uber blowback after one of their drivers was accused of rape in December and the taxi companies are capitalizing on it pretty hard. + Show Spoiler + There's rumblings of more regulation which will probably mean less dosh for drivers.

One way Uber has fewer costs than the taxi companies is that its drivers use their personal insurance policies as their primary coverage. Uber assures drivers that their personal insurance policies are sufficient, but many big insurance companies have been very clear that they disagree.

"Private passenger auto policy isn't intended to cover livery services," Nicole Mahrt Ganley, a spokeswoman for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of Amer­ica, told the San Francisco Chronicle in November. "There is little question that engaging in livery services is a material change in the nature of the risk being insured, and most states would allow companies to cancel coverage."

Uber reassures drivers that they've got them covered, but their vaunted $1 million policy is secondary for collision — that is, drivers must try to get their own insurance companies to pay the claims first. If the claim is rejected because the insurer figures out it's Uber-related, then Uber's policy kicks in — but the driver's almost certainly going to have his personal insurance policy cancelled, and in some cases be investigated for fraud.

On top of that, there's periods where it's unclear if anyone's insuring the driver.

"Technically, Uber's insurance covers you from the time you pick your passenger up until the time you drop them off," says Jason Fidishun of Yardley-based Fidishun Insurance, an independent agency representing Progressive, which he says offers the only hybrid personal-commercial policy available in Pennsylvania developed with Uber and Lyft drivers in mind. The driver's personal insurance, according to Uber, covers him when he doesn't have a passenger in the car. "The problem is some insurance companies are saying, 'As soon as you log on with your app, you're using your car commercially'" — that is, if you're hurrying to pick someone up but don't have a passenger yet, there's a possibility that the driver will be covered by neither policy in an accident.