Insurance and ridesharing

Before looking into tips about the proper ridesharing insurance, let's first establish what is carpooling and ridesharing.

Companies like Uber and Lyft brought confusion in the mind of everyone because of their incorrect use of the word ridesharing to define their services. In reality, those are simply taxi-like services with a good technology, but it surely has nothing to do with ridesharing.

What is exactly ridesharing and carpooling?

This type of transport is defined by two simple rules. The first one is that the driver offers a ride that he intends to do for a personal purpose. Whether it is for a daily commute to work or for a long distance trip to visit family in another city, the driver wants to go from A to B. Second, ridesharing and carpooling is not about making money, but sharing the cost of the ride (fuel, insurance, fixed fees related to the car, etc).

Liability insurance

The first thing to look up is your liability coverage. Increasing the number of regular passengers in your vehicle can increase the likelihood of an injury and liability claim in the event of a collision. For this reason it can be a good idea to go for higher liability coverage to protect yourself and your passengers.

In some Canadian provinces, the government provides a public automobile insurance plan. In Quebec for example the Quebec's public automobile insurance plan protects all Quebecers in the event of injury or death as a result of a traffic accident.

In doubt, give a call to your insurance broker to discuss this aspect of your coverage.