Philip Goguen
The concept of a taxi has been present in human civilization since the beginning of time. When we watch movies that are set back in the Victorian age, we will see that carriages were pretty common on the streets of London, Birmingham, and a plethora of other cities. Plus, cities in the orient also had their sort of taxi. Today, we can see that there are a lot of different ways of transportation.
Nevertheless, taxis are all around us, in every city in the world. In the last couple of years, we can see that the concept of Uber has changed the way we perceive taxis. Since Uber was launched back in 2009, we can see that its growth was a pretty impressive one, mainly because of the accessibility people have towards it. You can just enter the app on your mobile device and you can order a vehicle.
In 2014, the company expanded internationally, and we can see that it has a high number of drivers in North America and Europe. It is not uncommon to see a question, how this concept differs from traditional ones? For instance, do Uber drivers have some sort of insurance? We would like to discuss this topic in this article of ours. Now, let’s take a look at the information we were able to gather.
Uber Basics
As we’ve said, Uber is a company that completely changed the industry. Never before its appearance people had a chance to call for a ride so easily. The only thing you need before you can do that is to download an app on your mobile device, and an internet connection. After that, you are good to go. Uber’s popularity has exploded for a variety of reasons.
However, one of the most significant ones is that its rates are much lower than those we can see with traditional taxis. There are a couple of categories of vehicles customers can opt for. We are talking about basic vehicles, electric vehicles, and luxury ones.
Sure, the prices for all the levels will be different. For you to have a ride in a luxury limousine, you will need to pay a higher price. When it comes to luxury cars, people who drive them will need to have car insurance in a couple of states, among other documents. In case you would like to learn about this type of insurance, be sure to take a look at quoteradar.co.uk.
Who Needs It?
The first thing people need to understand is that the vehicles are not owned by the company, they are owned by the drivers. Therefore, Uber doesn’t have any obligations towards these vehicles, in any way. According to the word of law, when the company is not the owner of the cars, the insurance, among all other documentation needs to be gathered by the owner, in this case, the drivers.
That doesn’t mean that the company will not provide any assistance in the time of need. It’s just that they don’t have an obligation to it according to law. When describing the drivers, we can see that they are private taxi drivers more than anything. Therefore, you can see that they are responsible for finding insurance for their vehicles. Naturally, there are some other things that they need to be aware of.
What do You Need to Know?
When you are thinking about choosing the best policy for yourself, choose the one that will provide you with a chance to have a cover for all the accidents, damage, and injuries that can occur while you are on a duty. The estimation on whether the claim is proper will be based on the app, and when it was used. According to some insurers, we can see that three different situations can occur.
- The app is open, and the driver is just riding around the city to find a client. We can see that this is called a grey area because determining the actual situation can be quite problematic in case of some accident happening.
- The app is open, and the driver is going towards the client to pick him up at a certain location.
- The app is open and the client is in the vehicle. Without any doubt, this is the clearest case.
Where Can You Obtain It?
It needs to be said that there are a lot of different taxi insurance providers. But choosing the best one requires you to conduct thorough research. Therefore, you will need to compare a couple of offers and see which one meets your needs and preferences. Furthermore, take a look at the price. Since there are so many of them, you will see that there are many who don’t offer their services for reasonable prices.
Finding the Best Solution
Since there are a lot of sorts of insurance you will need to choose from, finding the best possible solution can be quite hard sometimes. From our experience, the most fitting solution is definitely to opt for private hire vehicle insurance. Without any doubt, you should opt for those who can provide you with some reward and hire coverage. Plus, it is of the utmost importance to include some other aspects.
We are talking about the coverage for a wide array of different injuries and losses that can be experienced either by the driver or passenger. When we’re talking about the company itself, it needs to be said that it has some type of policy that will help its drivers cover their losses. However, this is something they can count on only if the accident, and when the current insurance is not obliged to cover it.
The Bottom Line
If you know that the Uber driver’s status is somewhat different from traditional taxis, you can understand why some of the documentation needs to be slightly different. Here, you can take a look at some of the most significant things you need to know about this concept, how you can obtain a policy, and what you should look for. Without any doubt, you will find this information useful.
