Insurance for driving an Uber/Lyft is much more expensive than regular insurance, because it's considered commercial. In previous years, people could get away with not having it, but today every insurance company asks specifically if this vehicle was ever used in a driving service and will deny claims if it was found to be.

>but today every insurance company asks specifically if this vehicle was ever used in a driving service and will deny claims if it was found to be.

This seems crazy or wrong.

If I buy a vehicle used as an Uber/Lyft vehicle and that's on record somewhere, but I've never been an Uber/Lyft driver, I will get my claims denied?

I think it's maybe worded a bit confusingly.

It's more likely that if you are trying to claim on your insurance, they will ask you "have you driven for a ride-share service at any point since the start of your policy" and deny your claim if you have. And presumably it's fraud if you lie on the claim.

Yes, this. I was involved in an accident a few months back and adjuster for both companies asked if I ever used this car to drive for a ride sharing service. I don't recall it being limited to the duration of the policy though.

No, that's not what was meant. By "was ever used" they mean "if you, the policyholder, ever used this vehicle for ride sharing while insured by the company"

If you buy a vehicle used for Uber/Lyft but you don't drive for Uber/Lyft then there won't be a problem.

Absolutely false, I pay nothing extra to drive for Uber and my personal insurance knows exactly what I'm doing:

https://www.intact.ca/on/en/personal-insurance/vehicle/car/u...

The relevant quote that applies to me: "When Uber drivers are using their vehicle for personal use, Intact Insurance, Novex, Jevco and belairdirect customers are protected as usual under their personal auto insurance policy at no additional cost."

And yes, the policies are the same price or cheaper than the competitors that don't have ridesharing included. They make up the money by attracting customers like me and by getting paid premiums by Uber for the commerical portion of the coverage.

They talk about two distinct policies here, a personal policy (which still has to permit ridesharing, according to the illustration), which applies at any moment the driver is using the car for personal use (i.e. not logged into the Uber app to accept trips), then another policy, provided by Intact, which covers the Uber trips.

This page seems to be more about a kind of interface between the two policies, not that Uber coverage is provided for free.

Yes there are two distinct policies, both offered by Intact or their subsidiaries:

1. A commercial policy paid for by Uber which covers all Uber drivers while online.

2. A personal policy paid for by the driver which covers them while offline and explicitly permits ridesharing at no extra cost. This personal policy is the same price as the competitors without ridesharing, so it is not an added expense.

Oh, I see, thanks.

Is there any insurance company that offers on-demand insurance add-on policies? What would be great is if it could be integrated into Uber/Lyft's app and automatically kick in a per mile insurance rate only while you have a passenger.

My experience in a big metro area has been that almost every Uber driver does this full-time, and their vehicle is for the sole purpose of Uber. I guess it depends on where you are.

They have another car to drive themselves around when they aren’t working for Uber?

In a big metro area, perhaps they don't need a car.

the uber car is leased/rented for the day from uber itself or from a 3rd party who collects prius just for this purpose.

I think the economics of driving marginally for Uber/Lyft (when you already own a car and pay insurance) are much better than driving exclusively for Uber/Lyft (when you have the bear the full cost of the auto purchase and insurance against your Uber/Lyft earnings).

Depending on where you’re from, the insurance premium will change depending on mileage, commercial use of the car, etc

This was my problem with the article. It assumes that people own vehicles for the sole purpose of driving for Uber/Lyft. Costs like maintenance, insurance, and repairs are arguably costs that every car owner has to pay for.

Maintenance and repairs are much more mileage-based than time-based though. If I drive 2X the number of miles in a year because I'm driving for Uber/Lyft, my maintenance/repairs on average are going to be about 2X what they would have been otherwise.

It's hard to tease apart fixed and variable costs in car ownership and it varies based on factors like climate. But, overall, car costs are significantly more about the number of miles than the number of years given relatively typical driving patterns.

Those costs go up with the additional wear and tear of driving for Uber/Lyft.

Tell your insurance you were driving for hire the next time you're in an accident and see how it goes.

Regular insurance doesn't cover Uber driving. You need an additional policy, which costs more.