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Insurance industry officials warn that Uber drivers don't [always] have the proper accident coverage and are putting themselves and the public at risk when they get behind the wheel. That stark message, and a call for the city to regulate Uber drivers, came during what a pair of insurance officials and Councillor Jim Karygiannis called a "technical briefing" at Toronto City Hall Thursday.
They said many drivers for the controversial ride-sharing service are hiding their activity from insurers. By law, drivers must declare to their insurance company if they're driving passengers for hire so the insurer can provide the proper policy and accident coverage.
[...]
But Philomena Comerford, CEO of Baird MacGregor Insurance Brokers, said in many cases this isn't happening with Uber drivers. That means Ontario's motorists could be hit with higher premiums because of "significant and unexpected" injury claims.
"This problem comes at time when the insurance industry is working hard with the Ontario government to reduce personal consumer automobile insurance rates which do not contemplate this commercial activity," she said.
MacGregor said Uber's $5-million supplementary policy covers the company, but not the drivers themselves.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Friday July 31 2015, @11:07PM
Yes, but surely nobody's subsidizing collision centers when an uninsured driver gets in a wreck and smashes up their car in a way that doesn't total it!
Surely—if I will for a moment take on your views of illegal aliens—, drivers with non-commercial insurance and operator licenses are no more or less safe than drivers with merely a chauffeur license and commercial insurance! (CDL-B or especially CDL-A drivers being safer, I might believe that. Does anybody have research? If my gut is wrong and drivers with chauffeur licenses are safer than drivers with operator licenses, Ethanol here may be on to something!)
Ok, ok, I get it. You're trolling about illegals and found a way to make it on-topic! In that case, well done. (Also bonus for reverse car analogy.)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday July 31 2015, @11:28PM
To expand on one of my points - Services like Uber have hiring and employment standards as many professional driving services do, so it seems logical that there is some degree of safety greater than catching a ride from some random joe schmuck with a car. In Uber's example, to be employed drivers must:
- Be at least 21 years old
- Have access to a 4-door car that is year 2005 or newer in most cities (but not all, one can have a year 2000 or newer car to drive in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco; 2011 or newer to drive in New York; or 2001 or newer to drive in Chicago)
- Must have in-state auto insurance with the driver's name on the policy
- Must have an in-state driver license, licensed for at least one year
- Must have In-state plates with current registration (commercial plates are acceptable as well)
- And most importantly, drivers must pass a background check and a driving record check
My personal experience with using both Uber and Lyft is that drivers are mid '20s or older, extremely safe and careful drivers who keep small talk to a minimum, with very new and good-smelling vehicles which are well-above minimum standards of roadworthiness. Aditionally, and this is most important to me, both services get a driver to me within 15 minutes wherever I am in San Diego. Taxis take hours, if they show up at all, and here in San Diego there are way few taxis considering the demand for them here. Once I even walked up to an on-duty taxi in a parking lot to discuss a ride home, but it took some convincing on my part because he and his other Somali buddies were having too much fun bullshitting and shooting dice to be bothered by annoying customers.
Seeing all the hate for these services really bums me the fuck out, because they are some of the greatest godsends to have resulted from modern technology, and already the fearmongering bullshit machine is going after them. And why the fuck does anybody give a shit about what the Taxi lobby thinks? It's not like they're anywhere near Godman-Sachs or Lockheed-Martin.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Saturday August 01 2015, @12:24AM
Not so fast. That is a blind assumption:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/speed-factor-bob-simon-livery-cab-crash-cops-article-1.2112327 [nydailynews.com]
Im sure this is an isolated incident, right? It's not. Search for "new york fatal taxi accident" and "dangerous taxi driver new york"
There are many reckless drivers in cabs of all types including yellow medallion, green borough and the private car (livery or limo) service drivers. I witnessed a livery driver snorting his own spit, a sure sign of a coke user. I even knew who he was because he lived in my neighborhood and his brother was sent to jail for peddling coke in local dive bars. Friends of mine were in a yellow cab when the driver lit and then dropped his cigarette and jammed on the brakes to retrieve it in the middle of traffic. They then noticed he smelled of alcohol and was intoxicated. They demanded he pull over and let them out, he refused and they called 911 from the back seat of the cab. The cabbie pulled over, they got out and he sped off into traffic. They noted the taxi number and reported him to police. Who knows what happened to him.
Point is you can't trust anyone. No matter what a business tells you in order to appear legit, they are likely lying or their employees are lying. Shit I've worked for places that claimed they drug tested their employees and ran background checks when they had in their employ: a guy locked up for armed robbery, pot heads and another dude who was busted in a sting buying crack from a dealer in a school parking lot. All those claims are bullshit.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Saturday August 01 2015, @01:55AM
And why the fuck does anybody give a shit about what the Taxi lobby thinks? It's not like they're anywhere near Godman-Sachs or Lockheed-Martin.
You're thinking of the wrong level of government. G-S and L-M are very influential at the Federal level, yes, and yes, the taxi lobby probably has no power there at all. However local levels are entirely different. It's just like the auto dealers having a cow about Tesla selling direct to the public. The auto dealers have no power at the Federal level, but they're very powerful and well-connected in their localities and states, so that's where all the anti-Tesla legislation is happening.
And I have to agree entirely about Uber; I've used them (and Lyft) in northern NJ, and they're so much better than the local taxi companies there it isn't funny. Instead of some shitty old smelly car and a $20 fare to go to the next town (maybe about 5 miles), it's $8 to ride in a fairly new Mercedes with a driver who speaks perfect English and is a very careful driver. (Maybe the fact that they're driving their own personal $30k+ vehicle has something to do with their driving style.) And I only had to wait 5 minutes to get a ride, instead of 60 minutes.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday August 01 2015, @02:23AM
I'd agree with most of your points except one. You mentioned you once had an issue getting a taxi to take you somewhere. I reckon that's about 1 in 3 times for me, regardless of the country.
By comparison I haven't had a single problem with the 30 plus uber trips I've taken in the last 3 weeks, and in the last 100+ this year I've had one trip where the car sounded like the exhaust had come loose, the rest have been perfect.