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There is a difference between a regular car insurance (which indeed everybody is required to have) and a commercial car insurance. The former excludes damages w

There is a difference between a regular car insurance (which indeed everybody is required to have) and a commercial car insurance. The former excludes damages while transporting passengers for profit which is fine according to law and will not pay if an Uber driver has an accident. I do not need to fear that nobody is going to pay my healthcare after an accident. However, that is paid by the public at large instead of the one responsible (so Uber shifts liability away from them to society). Additionally, nobody is going to reimburse my other damages, such as loss of earnings if the driver can't pay.

ThomPete 11y ago
You will have same issue when driving with a friend of your no. Or are you saying they aren't covered in the UK then? That seems to be easily fixable. Again sure you can blow it up to be a big problem but it's easily fixable and doesn't in itself take anything away from the original point which started this weird insurance thread.
- germanier 11y ago
  Usually my friends don't pay me to drive them (or if they do it is to cover cost and not make profit).
- roel_v 11y ago
  No, those are insured. Personal passengers != business passengers.
- nommm-nommm 11y ago
  There's a big difference between your buddy paying you $20 to take him to the airport couple times a year and regularly giving strangers rides where you expect to make a profit. Even if you picked up a hitchhiker and they gave you $20 for your troubles that hitchhiker is not your customer and you don't regularly drive around looking for hitchhikers to make a profit. It's actually pretty straightforward. That's why the term "sharing economy" is so disingenuous; nothing but doublespeak.
briandear 11y ago
Insure yourself. Why would you not have disability insurance or protection against lost wages? That's foolish. What if you fell down the stairs? Are you going to shift that burden onto society because you failed to insure yourself?
- germanier 11y ago
  That's not the point. Of course I can insure myself. But the price of my insurance and everybody else's is calculated with the knowledge that in case of a traffic accident they don't need to pay. As traffic accidents are the most common this significantly reduces the premiums. If more and more drivers are not appropriately insured they need to recalculate that. This is shifting the burden to society, in the name of unnecessary high premiums for those who insured themselves.

ThomPete 11y ago

You will have same issue when driving with a friend of your no. Or are you saying they aren't covered in the UK then? That seems to be easily fixable. Again sure you can blow it up to be a big problem but it's easily fixable and doesn't in itself take anything away from the original point which started this weird insurance thread.

germanier 11y ago
Usually my friends don't pay me to drive them (or if they do it is to cover cost and not make profit).
roel_v 11y ago
No, those are insured. Personal passengers != business passengers.
nommm-nommm 11y ago
There's a big difference between your buddy paying you $20 to take him to the airport couple times a year and regularly giving strangers rides where you expect to make a profit. Even if you picked up a hitchhiker and they gave you $20 for your troubles that hitchhiker is not your customer and you don't regularly drive around looking for hitchhikers to make a profit. It's actually pretty straightforward. That's why the term "sharing economy" is so disingenuous; nothing but doublespeak.

briandear 11y ago

Insure yourself. Why would you not have disability insurance or protection against lost wages? That's foolish. What if you fell down the stairs? Are you going to shift that burden onto society because you failed to insure yourself?

germanier 11y ago
That's not the point. Of course I can insure myself. But the price of my insurance and everybody else's is calculated with the knowledge that in case of a traffic accident they don't need to pay. As traffic accidents are the most common this significantly reduces the premiums. If more and more drivers are not appropriately insured they need to recalculate that. This is shifting the burden to society, in the name of unnecessary high premiums for those who insured themselves.