We've written before about the evolution of coverage for Uber and Lyft drivers, but of course they're not the only ones active in the so-called 'gig-economy.' With social distancing a (hopefully temporary) way of life, more and more folks are turning to services like InstaCart to traverse the various aisles and endcaps, searching for wild game (or cans of soup and maybe a roll of TP or 6). What a lot of folks (myself included!) probably didn't know is that these folks rely on their own transportation to ferry their customer's merch their doorways.
One of our regular readers emails us me about the disturbing truth:
"I want to do some work for Instacart. They do not offer a master insurance policy the way Uber does, you have to provide your own coverage. I have two vehicles, one is covered by a commercial policy, the other is under a regular auto policy.
For the former, commercial coverage is written to cover one type of work, so I can't operate outside of that, thus I have no coverage for Instacart.
For the latter, my broker told me that many insurance companies covering personal vehicles are extending coverage for gigs such as Instacart, but not mine.
My broker pretty much told me that I would have to buy a new commercial policy if I want to do Instacart. I probably won't. And can you imagine how probably 100% of people doing Instacart don't have proper coverage, if any?"
Thank you!!
One of our regular readers emails us me about the disturbing truth:
"I want to do some work for Instacart. They do not offer a master insurance policy the way Uber does, you have to provide your own coverage. I have two vehicles, one is covered by a commercial policy, the other is under a regular auto policy.
For the former, commercial coverage is written to cover one type of work, so I can't operate outside of that, thus I have no coverage for Instacart.
For the latter, my broker told me that many insurance companies covering personal vehicles are extending coverage for gigs such as Instacart, but not mine.
My broker pretty much told me that I would have to buy a new commercial policy if I want to do Instacart. I probably won't. And can you imagine how probably 100% of people doing Instacart don't have proper coverage, if any?"
Thank you!!