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Your Most Popular Rideshare Insurance Questions: Answered

Rideshare insurance can be a confusing topic for drivers. Depending on where you live, how you drive and even how you purchase other types of insurance, your costs and experience can vary widely. In this article, RSG contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin answers all of your most frequently asked questions about rideshare insurance, including why you need it, how much it costs, and why not having it can cost more than having it.

Insurance: It’s one of those things that you hate paying for, but hate not having even more! When it comes to driving for Uber and Lyft, the companies provide coverage… sort of. Here’s my attempt to fill in some gaps in your knowledge of rideshare insurance.

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Looking for more rideshare driver FAQs? Check out the following articles:

Need a car to drive with Uber? Try FAIR

CA drivers: Fair is the official vehicle partner for Uber and is a great option for drivers in need of an eligible rideshare vehicle. Click here to sign-up! Not a California driver? Fair has options nationwide, and you can sign up here and get $100 off the start-up fee when you use the code 'RSG100'.

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I Tried Lyft Express Drive & Here’s What It’s Like – Review

For a lot of prospective drivers, having a reliable, suitable vehicle for rideshare work can be a big barrier to entry. For others, maybe you’re just tired of all the miles you’re putting on your own car. Whatever the reason, there is  a plethora of rental options and today senior RSG contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin details his experience renting a car from Lyft through its Express Drive program and shares his experience with the program below.

Click here for info and options for renting a car for Uber and Lyft. If you haven’t started driving for Lyft or Uber yet, click here to sign up.

Lyft Express Drive Review

You want the benefits of a flexible schedule and independent workplace that rideshare work gives you, but you don’t want to buy a car or use your own. This is not an unreasonable position (actually, it may be even a pretty smart one).

Uber famously got out of the car-rental and leasing game after it lost money on its XChange leasing arm, but more than enough independent start-ups have filled in the gap. For whatever reason, Lyft decided to pink things up with its own program, Express Drive, and it’s been humming along since 2016. In fact, RSG tried out Lyft Express Drive in 2017, but we came away unimpressed, reporting a net wage of $12 an hour with the program. How has Lyft Express Drive changed in 2019? My experience below.

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Your Guide to Insurance Deductibles

A lot of RSG readers have questions about insurance deductibles, including what are they? How much do I have to pay? When do I pay it? Insurance is never clear, so RSG contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin wades into the swamp to try and pull out some answers.

CRUNCH!

It’s a sickening sound, and if you haven’t heard it already, you’re going to hear it someday. It’s the sound of your car physically interacting with something in a dramatically personal and destructive manner. The odds of you making it through your entire rideshare-driving career without hearing it are slender.

Luckily, you’ve got insurance specifically designed for rideshare drivers (you do have insurance specifically designed for rideshare drivers, right? If not, get it now) and it covers you in instances such as this.

insurance deductible

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How Cancelling More Can Earn you More… Without Risking Deactivation

You may have read Jay Cradeur’s story about how to screen calls to make more money while driving for Uber. You may also be worried that cancelling too much could lead to deactivation. RSG contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin went undercover to find out how Lyft decides which drivers to keep, and which to cancel.

Looking for more strategies to earn money as a driver? Check out our 31 creative strategies Uber drivers use to make more money here.

Any Uber or Lyft driver worth his or her salt has felt the pang of anxiety that comes with a deactivation warning. Details vary, but there’s usually some pabulum about “poor passenger experience” and “violation of terms of service,” with a stern (yet chirpy) warning that continued behavior of this sort could lead to deactivation.

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Here’s What It Was Like to Rent an Electric Car From Maven Gig for Rideshare Driving

One barrier to entry into the gig economy is that you need a car if you want to drive for Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Grubhub or the other services. And not just any car: it must be economical, reliable and meet the platform requirements. If you’re considering renting a car for rideshare, RSG contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin shares his experience using GM’s Maven Gig.

Rideshare driving isn’t for everybody, so I don’t try to recruit every person I meet. But when I do (very occasionally) try to turn a passenger into a driver (with my referral code, of course), they frequently tell me they don’t have a car. I tell them they don’t need one; in fact, as Harry’s recent podcast guest points out, it’s a bad idea to buy a new car for gig work, as most new workers quit in the first six months.

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