Uber & Lyft Drivers: Using the $1M Policy's UM/UIM Coverage

Driving for Uber or Lyft means your own auto insurance almost certainly will not respond if someone else hits you — the same commercial-use exclusion that creates a liability gap for at-fault crashes also strips out your uninsured and underinsured motorist protection. What replaces it is not automatic, and most drivers only learn how it works after they need it.

Our rideshare driver coverage gaps guide covers what happens when you cause a crash. This one covers the opposite and, for many drivers, more common scenario: someone else hits you, and that driver has no insurance or not enough.

Quick answer: Your personal UM/UIM coverage almost certainly does not apply while you are logged into the app for commercial driving. The rideshare company’s own commercial policy generally includes its own UM/UIM component — but the limit, and which app-status periods it covers, varies by company and state, and is not automatically the full $1 million liability figure.

Why Your Own Policy Steps Aside

Personal auto insurers price a policy based on personal, non-commercial use. The moment you log into a rideshare app to drive for hire, most personal policies treat that as commercial or livery use — an activity they specifically exclude, whether or not a passenger is actually in the car. That exclusion is not limited to liability coverage; it typically reaches every coverage on the policy, including UM/UIM, medical payments and collision.

This is why, unlike an ordinary driver who can rely on their own policy’s UM/UIM after being hit by an uninsured driver, a working rideshare driver generally cannot — and has to look to the rideshare company’s commercial policy instead.

What the Rideshare Company’s Policy Covers

Rideshare companies maintain commercial insurance that typically includes a UM/UIM component alongside the liability coverage discussed in our other rideshare guides. The practical questions that matter for a driver in this position:

• Which app-status periods are covered. Confirm whether UM/UIM protection applies only once a ride is matched or accepted, or also during the lower-coverage period when the app is on but no ride has come in yet.
• What the actual UM/UIM limit is, which is a separate figure from the liability limit and not necessarily the same $1 million headline number.
• Whether the at-fault driver’s own coverage must be exhausted first — standard for underinsured motorist claims, meaning you generally cannot claim UIM benefits until the at-fault driver’s own liability limits have been paid out or otherwise resolved.

California is now the clearest illustration of why the limit has to be checked rather than assumed. Uber and Lyft historically carried $1 million in UM/UIM during the matched-ride periods. California’s SB 371, effective 1 January 2026, cut the required transportation network company UM/UIM floor to $60,000 per person / $300,000 per incident — a reduction of more than 90% against the figure most online guides still quote. A California driver relying on an article written before 2026, or on the widely repeated “$1 million” shorthand, would badly misjudge what is actually available after a crash with an uninsured driver.

That is not a California quirk to note and move past. It is evidence that this figure is set by state legislation that can change, so the only reliable answer is the certificate of insurance in force in your state on the date of your crash.

Proving You Were Covered

The same evidentiary burden that applies to a passenger’s or third party’s claim applies here in reverse — you need your own trip and app-status data for the crash window to establish which coverage period you were in. Request this from the rideshare company promptly; do not assume it will be provided automatically or quickly.

What to Do After the Crash

1. Get the at-fault driver’s insurance information at the scene if possible, and a police report regardless.
2. Report the crash to the rideshare company through its in-app incident reporting, which also helps establish your app status at the time.
3. Determine the at-fault driver’s coverage before assuming you need a UM/UIM claim at all — if they carry adequate liability insurance, that claim proceeds normally against them.
4. File the UM/UIM claim with the rideshare company’s insurer once it’s clear the at-fault driver’s coverage is missing or insufficient, providing your trip data as proof of app status.
5. Track your own damages carefully — medical treatment, lost driving income, and vehicle damage all matter, and lost rideshare income specifically may require your own trip-history records to document.

Sources & Further Reading

• California SB 371 (2025–26 session, effective 1 January 2026) — reducing the required TNC uninsured/underinsured motorist floor to $60,000 per person / $300,000 per incident
• NCOIL Model Act to Regulate Insurance Requirements for Transportation Network Companies and Transportation Network Drivers (adopted 19 July 2015) — the framework most state TNC statutes follow, and the origin of the tiered structure
• NAIC, Transportation Network Company Insurance Principles for Legislators and Regulators
• State TNC insurance statutes codifying these tiers — e.g. Fla. Stat. § 627.748, N.C. Gen. Stat. ch. 20 art. 10A, Okla. Stat. tit. 47 § 1025
• Uber’s and Lyft’s published driver insurance pages, and the state-specific certificate of insurance in force on the date of the crash — the controlling document
• See our rideshare driver coverage gaps guide for the liability side of the same coverage structure, and our Uber & Lyft accident settlements guide for how the $1 million liability figure works for passengers and third parties.