Auto insurance policy from Uber outlined at hearing

auto insurance ride share

The ride share service has spoken before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission with coverage details.

A spokespersion representing Uber – the popular ride sharing service – has now testified with regards to the auto insurance policies held by the company, before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

This provided details with respect to the coverage that extends to the drivers and vehicles used for the ride sharing platform.

That said, despites the coverage details that were outlined, a representative of the Pennsylvania Insurance Federation spoke out against the provided protection. That rep said that Uber’s auto insurance is currently inadequate when compared to the size of the risk faced by passengers and drivers. At the moment, Uber, as well as its primary rival in the ride sharing category, Lyft, have been operating within Allegheny County under a temporary authority after having previously started operations in the Pittsburgh area, earlier in 2014.

The auto insurance issue being debated has to do with drivers operating personal vehicles in a taxi-like service.

auto insurance ride shareBoth of the companies offering these ride sharing services within the state are seeking to obtain permanent experimental authority in order to continue to operate within Allegheny County as well as to be able to expand into other parts of the state.

The risk management chief at Uber, Henry Gustav Fuldner, spoke last week at the hearing and explained that the company doesn’t intend to make it a requirement that the drivers inform their own personal car insurance companies that they are driving for this purpose. Fuldner explained that “We are not party to that agreement,” and added that “such notification would be unduly burdensome.”

Equally, that level of notification is not considered to be “customary” when it comes to the traditional uses of personal vehicles when being used for certain business purposes, such as in the case of fast food delivery drivers and home health care workers.

Lyft underwent a similar hearing, last week, and in that case, as well as in Uber’s hearing, the focus was on three different “stages” of auto insurance coverage provided by the company: when the driver is logged into the app before having a passenger; when the driver is on the way to pick up a passenger; and when the driver is actually providing the ride.

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