Uber auto insurance bill makes its way through the Florida Senate

Florida Auto Insurance

A new plan has focused on app-based ride sharing transportation services.

An auto insurance plan that concentrates on the coverage requirements for app-based ride sharing transportation services such as Lyft and Uber has now made its way through the Senate and has now stepped into the House in Florida.

In the Senate, the ride share insurance bill, SB 1298 by Senator David Simmons, was passed by a vote of 28 to 12.

The bill requires that these transportation network companies (TNC) that offer ride share programs, will need to obtain higher levels of auto insurance coverage than had been outlined in the plan by Rep. Matt Gaetz. The HB 817 by Gaetz has now been added to the third reading calendar of the House. The insurance coverage requirements have been creating a great deal of controversy in the state, as well as friction between traditional taxi companies and these new TNC services such as Uber. The cab companies feel that Uber should have to follow the same levels of local insurance law.

The Senate bill would require that TNCs have a higher level of auto insurance coverage on several levels.

Florida Auto InsuranceSB 1298 would have TNCs carrying a minimum of $1 million in death and bodily injury insurance. This would be layered on top of a minimum of $50,000 in property damage coverage. Those would be the amounts necessary whenever the drivers were providing someone with transportation. Moreover, when the app is turned on but the driver is not yet actually carrying a passenger or picking one up, they will still need to carry at least $125,000 per person in bodily injury coverage and at least $50,000 in property damage coverage.

Further requirements in coverage will be required to cover the situations in which drivers pick up customers without actually processing them through the application.

While the ride share auto insurance requirements in Gaetz’s bill requires $1 million in death, bodily injury, and property damage, the minimums per person and per incident for bodily injury and for property damage are lower when a passenger is not in the car, but when the app is active on the driver’s device.

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