Our city leaders may want to investigate how much liability insurance and medical pay should be carried by a potential UBER driver.
Personal auto insurance will not cover anyone if the vehicle is used commercially. If you are in an UBER vehicle, and that driver causes an accident, and he only carries the state minimum liability requirements of 25/50, your medical bills wont be paid by his insurance company.
UBER could be a good thing for our city, but oversight and regulation by an insurance specialist should be required.
Billy Hopkins
Chattanooga
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Maybe Mr. Hopkins should have done some research before publically addressing his concerns. I went to UBER’s website and found this on their website under the heading of safety: “From the moment you get into any Uber product (e.g. uberX, UberBLACK) to the moment you’re dropped off, your ride is covered by commercial liability insurance. That goes for every trip in every city around the world. In the U.S. specifically, ridesharing has become a popular choice — and Uber is the first company to ensure true end-to-end insurance coverage for ridesharing, with drivers on uberX protected by liability coverage even between trips.”
This has been an issue in the past but has been addressed in multiple articles. If you would like to read one, I suggest the Wired article with a simple Google search.
Greg Petty
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Greg,
The problem may not be in the liability of the UBER driver, but the damage to the UBER driver’s car if it is in an accident. Most personal auto insurance policies specifically ask on the application if the vehicle is to be used for hire. A vehicle used to make money is considered a commercial vehicle therefore many of the coverage afforded in a personal auto policy would be voided if the UBER driver had a claim while working as a taxi. Uber may cover the liability based on the driver’s driving record but each auto’s value would cause a different rate in premium if coverage for damages to the auto is needed.
With that said, I would assume it would be a logistic nightmare for UBER to provide “full” coverage for damages to the UBER driver’s auto. So my advice is all UBER drivers need a commercial policy or drive junkers.
Bob Standifer