Ride-hailing services like Uber have grown rapidly and signed up thousands of drivers. These new businesses make it possible for individuals to work flexible schedules and to enter the transportation business without a big initial investment.
If you’re one of those thinking about driving for a ride-hailing company, auto insurance is one of the most important issues to understand, since you will want to make sure that you – and your passengers – are protected in case of an accident.
That’s a complicated topic because of these factors:
- Vehicles are used for both personal and business use.
- Companies do not consider the drivers to be their employees.
- Vehicles are owned by the drivers, not the companies.
This leaves drivers in a gray area between personal car insurance policies that exclude coverage for business use of a vehicle, on the one hand, and (much more expensive) commercial insurance policies that assume the vehicle is used exclusively for business purposes on the other.
An additional complicating factor has been the ride-hailing companies’ initial reluctance to take responsibility for insurance liability. That said, the companies now do provide a certain level of insurance to their drivers, and insurance companies are creating insurance products to specifically serve this market.
Read the full article here: https://wallethub.com/edu/ridesharing-insurance/13884/
