Are You a Ride-Sharing Service Driver? What Happens If You’re Injured While on the Job?
So, you’ve heard everyone talking about how easy it is to make money driving for a ride-sharing service such as Uber or Lyft. You’ve decided that making a few extra bucks would be great, so you begin preparations. If you’re like most prospective drivers, your to-do list will look like this:
- Tune up and clean your car.
- Contact the ride-sharing company.
- Plan a schedule and start transporting people.
Unfortunately, too many ride-sharing service drivers don’t think about insurance. Specifically, what insurance coverage will be available should you be involved in an accident while you are driving for a ride-sharing service?
As the ride-sharing driver, there are a variety of factors you need to think about with regards to insurance in case you ever are injured while behind the wheel of your personal vehicle.
Understanding Livery Conveyance
Before you can understand the potential problems that driving for a ride-sharing service creates in a typical personal auto insurance policy, you first must know the meaning of an essential term often used in that policy – “livery conveyance.” According to the International Risk Management Institute, this term means “the transporting of people and/or goods for hire, such as by a taxi service, motor carrier or a delivery service.”
Livery conveyance is an exposure that is almost always excluded in personal auto insurance policies.
Medical Payments
Many personal auto insurance policies include an insurance coverage called “medical payments.” This coverage will pay reasonable medical expenses up to a set limit (it may be as low as $1,000) should you be injured in an accident. Unfortunately, most personal auto policies may not pay this coverage if the accident occurs in the course of employment or if it occurs while the car is being using as a livery conveyance.
Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist (UM/UIM)
This important insurance coverage is often included in a personal auto insurance policy and is designed to compensate you should you be injured in an accident with an at-fault driver who has no insurance (UM) or not enough insurance to compensate your full damages (UIM).
This coverage can differ significantly from policy to policy, but it’s likely that your own personal auto policy will also exclude this coverage while your car is being used as a livery conveyance.