Ride-service companies UberX and Lyft have announced they are expanding their insurance to cover drivers who are between passengers but logged onto their apps awaiting a call.
In a blog post this morning Uber said its new policy ...
"... 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.
Those coverage amounts are much less than the $1 million in liability insurance the company offers -- and is required to by California -- for drivers who are actually on a call.
Lyft also announced a similar expansion of its liability policy to drivers who are between calls. In a statement, the company said:
While we do expect personal carriers to cover the time period prior to carrying a passenger, in order to erase any uncertainty, Lyft will now provide additional protection. This new protection will provide backstop coverage to drivers when they are in match mode and are not providing rides. We will be rolling this out state-by-state in the days to come.
The limitations of UberX and Lyft insurance policies became widely known after a fatal accident involving an UberX driver in San Francisco on New Year's Eve. The driver was between passengers -- logged onto the UberX platform but yet to accept a call. UberX said its $1 million insurance policy did not apply because it only covered drivers who were actually carrying passengers or were on their way to pick them up.