So State Farm has been drizzling a constant stream of insurance policy changes upon me. Reason? Uber and Lyft and all those other “ride sharing” services where a private vehicle insured by State Farm is essentially being used as a taxi for hire. State Farm sold individual private insurance, not commercial insurance. Their insurance assumed you were driving yourself and friends and family, not some stranger. So now they’re re-writing their policies, because Uber etc. force their drivers to file a claim with State Farm when they run into another car on the Uber clock, and State Farm hadn’t explicitly disallowed use of personal cars for hire.
This is one case where I’m 100% behind the big corporate monolith. If you’re going to essentially provide taxi service, it’s your responsibility to provide commercial insurance for your taxis and their drivers and fares while they’re on the clock or going to or from a job. That’s how the world has always worked, and attempting to foist that expense above normal personal use of a car off onto State Farm’s rate-holders/mutual owners (one of whom is me) is just plain wrong. If someone is driving because he’s looking for a fare, he’s on the clock as far as I’m concerned — and the law should say the same, regardless of Uber’s whining about that.
– Badtux the Insured Penguin
Another way of privatising the profits, socialising the externalities. Only, is it legit to call it “socialised” when Uber shifts over the insurexternality onto State Farm? Really, onto you, and millions like you. Your higher premiums make you a social victim of Internet crapitalism.
LikeLike
Today’s America is all about the grift. Not about creating stuff. Not about building stuff. It’s about the grift — what you can pickpocket from other Americans without doing any real work yourself.
We are living in Griftopia.
LikeLike
It’s actually a lot more interesting, if you start reading more about it.
The cab business is a racket for overcharging those without easy access to mass transit or those who are willing to pay the premium to avoid the bus/train. The right to run a cab is generally owned by a person who isn’t willing to drive it themselves, but will “rent” the right to a third party in exchange for fees and a cut. These rights are most often given to well connected individuals in each location, often in exchange for support (monetary and otherwise). The number of cab is alway kept below the demand, so as to ensure profits. To convince the officials throughout a large area to allow the cab service, they have to promise to serve all customers…but very seldom is there a time frame specified.
Lyft, Uber and such cut out the middle men, reducing the costs to the drivers, reducing the payments to the politicos and possibly reducing the costs to the user. However, the ride services tend to only offer rides in the “best” areas, thus cherry picking the best fairs from cab, and can offer variable rates, another profit center. They claim to check their drivers and only retain those who meet standards. But as you’ve pointed out, they have insurance, but tend to claim it only covers during actual fares and even then they try to make their drivers claim with their companies first.
I think it’s more of a response to the crony cab business, rather then pure grafting, but there is a facet of this that reeks.
LikeLike
Yeah, the taxi business is pretty bad. Another thing taxi drivers love to do is claim a fare with their dispatcher when they haven’t even dropped off their previous fare yet. So you end up waiting and waiting for a cab that’s going the opposite direction when there’s a cab right down the street that could have picked you up.
That said, I’m not sure the solution is Uber and Lyft. The drivers of these cars aren’t licensed and bonded like cab drivers in many cities, insurance is problematic, and there’s no semblance of safety inspections on the cars being used to haul paying fares. I think a far better solution would be to remove the cap on taxi placards.
LikeLike
Another aspect of the insurance coverage thingee ….. what about the guy that slaps the magnetic “Papa Gino’s Hut of Pizza” thing on top of his car and uses it for delivery. What happens when he hits someone and the insurance company tells him (and the victim) there’s no coverage because of the commercial usage ??
LikeLike