Ridesharing Insurance: What is it and Do I Need it?
Ridesharing applications, such as UBER and Lyft, have been on the rise as they offer a great entrepreneurial opportunity to make money on your own schedule while using your own vehicle. Especially given the recent COVID-19 pandemic effect on many employers, these ridesharing apps offer a great opportunity for generating income quickly as it’s very easy to register and get started quickly. Many of these ridesharing apps now even offer the option of using a rental vehicle with partnering rental companies to complete ride fares if you do not own a vehicle of your own. While all of this seems very straight forward and convenient, many people are unaware of the auto insurance coverages that would apply if they were involved in an auto accident while logged into the ridesharing application to complete ride fares. Many personal auto insurance policies do not provide any type of coverage if their insured is involved in an auto accident while using a ridesharing application. Purchasing both Rideshare Insurance along with your personal auto insurance policy, will help to ensure that you are covered on the road even while using a ridesharing application.
Many personal auto insurance policies will not extend any coverage for any accidents that occur during your use of the ridesharing application. Additionally, many personal auto insurance policies have provisions that excludes their insured from using the vehicle on the policy for any ridesharing applications. These provisions allow the personal insurance company to deny any current coverages on the personal auto policy, such as medical payments coverage or collision coverage, that would usually apply if you were involved in an auto accident.
Ultimately, your auto insurance carrier may also cancel your policy and release you from coverage if they are made aware of your use of any ridesharing applications. To prevent the possibility of your personal auto insurance canceling your coverage, you should check with your personal auto insurance carrier to see if your policy covers ridesharing. If not, ridesharing insurance should be purchased along with your personal auto insurance policy to ensure that you are fully covered while out on the road.
Many companies, like Root Insurance Company, now offer ridesharing auto insurance policies that would provide coverage for your vehicle if you were involved in an auto accident while using the ridesharing application. These auto insurance policies are specific to ridesharing and provide different coverages during the entire cycle of completing a rideshare fare., i.e. accepting the ride, in route to picking up the person, or fare completed. Many of these policies now even carry medical payments coverage and collision coverage, just like many personal auto insurance policies. Purchasing these ridesharing policies and stacking them with your current personal auto insurance policy will help to ensure that you are fully covered on the road, even while using the ridesharing application.
