I love Nashville and the fact that my city has been rapidly expanding.
No longer are we the hillbillies with the southern accents that I love and also emulate at times. We are also the melting pot of the west, north, coastal states and everything in between.
With this growth, comes the trends of a growing “big city.” These trends may include some of the vehicles I have seen driving around my town with the pink mustaches waiting to pick up different clients throughout the city via the click of an app on a phone.
Gone are the days of taxis. Welcome to the new taxi service also known as Lyft or Uber, which is considered a “peer to peer” driving concept originating out of San Francisco. The great thing that many of these companies offer is the ability for every day folks, like you or me, to pick up a shift at our own convenience and personal vehicles. It sounds like a win-win situation to earn this money on our own accord. But there are some things to consider!
As an insurance agent, the first thing that needs to be considered is who is covering the liability?
Although Lyft or Uber may offer a liability policy to cover the driver while transporting clients, there is still a gap in coverage.
For example, if you carry “full” coverage on a vehicle through your personal auto policy. Should you wreck your vehicle while performing Lyft services, your car insurance will not cover wrecks related to business use.
What if the car is financed and a wreck occurs while working for Lyft? Unless you carry an actual commercial auto insurance policy, your car will not be repaired.
Lyft policies may only cover liability related to what occurs during driving for them. They may not cover damage related to your car. As I have told many clients, personal auto policies will not cover anything related to business use.
And the Lyft or Uber policies are not as comprehensive as one may think. If you are going to seek employment with Uber or Lyft with your own personal vehicle, the most comprehensive type of coverage that would cover most of the gray areas, would be to seek a commercial auto insurance policy, which I can write!
As an insurance agent, I would hate for any denial of coverage to occur when your insurance company finds out the wreck happened during business hours!