By Jon Brooks, KQED News Fix
In the past two weeks, a lot has happened on the increasingly volatile ride-service front. The California Public Utilities Commission will revisit the issue of insurance coverage for drivers who use their cars to carry paying passengers through companies like Lyft and UberX. As a result, these two firms are opposing the changes the commission is proposing.
On April 10, the commission granted a rehearing on the insurance requirements it issued last year. At that time, as part of a decision that laid out rules and regulations for what the commission formally calls transportation network companies, the commission required the companies to provide at least $1 million in commercial liability insurance.
Now the commission is considering extending the time period during a driver’s shift for which transportation network company coverage must be valid. A significant gap in this regard came to light on New Year’s Eve, after a fatal accident involving an UberX driver in San Francisco. Although the driver’s Uber app was open as he waited for another call to come in, Uber said he was excluded from its $1 million policy because he was not carrying a passenger or on the way to pick one up. That left the driver and the victim’s family reliant on his much more minimal personal policy, which almost surely won’t come near to paying the eventual liability costs. (The family has filed a lawsuit against the driver and Uber.)
Read the complete story at KQED News Fix.