I have mixed feelings about this and am interested in thinking his out loud. I applaud hertz for coming up with creative ways of getting maximum use of their fleet and giving some job opportunities to people. I have no idea how they price the rental to the driver or how the driver gets insurance for the vehicle ( guess its what rental car companies try to sell people at their rental counters). So if the driver has an accident the driver isn’t liable? The only downside is these may not be regular drivers so may not be as familiar with the crazy roads here, and, “it’s a rental”. Hope they take good enough care when driving. Thoughts?
From a quick read, it appears Hertz only provides DAMAGE coverage and NO liability coverage. That’s not great for driver nor passenger. The link is below.
https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/misc/index.jsp?targetPage=lyft_landing_page.jsp#losangeles
Its an interesting way to get better utilization of your rental fleet. It might have more risks than expected.
Having said that, my worry on the roads (or in a car for hire) doesn’t arise from the cars rented from Hertz. Its all of the likely illegal drivers around, who are highly unlikely to have even the minimum insurance coverage, and are judgement proof themselves.
Add to that the fact that the legally required minimum coverages are a joke (far too low to provide real protection), and its safe to say that if you’ve been sleeping ok at night already, this is no reason for that to change.
When I was at Hertz today there were 2 women sitting there with laptops who were Lyft employees registering people. I wish I knew what the drivers had to provide to them.
This rental was also a bit of a beater. One door doesn’t open, one seatbelt in the rear is missing (clear safety violation) and it had Over 30k miles on it.
Wow, this makes me disinterested in renting from Hertz as a customer who has no intention of driving other passengers! That’s really poor maintenance of their vehicles!
I"m not sure why Lyft driver would be any worse from a car maintenance standpoint than anoyone else. Heck, I just rented a van to drive a bunch of young teens on a church trip. Those 14YO boys probably made every bit as much of a mess in the van as most Lyft passengers.
I don’t understand @jym626 how are they insured? I can’t imagine the normal auto policy would cover a commercial accident? This puzzles me. Same with air bnb.
In response to the concern about insurance mentioned by @HImom, from the Lyft website:
“Our $1M liability will apply as primary to a driver’s personal automobile insurance policy when matched with a passenger.”
A true concern would be a vehicle without proper inspections and maintenance. I know Hertz has some policy on how long one of their cars can be used in their own fleet, after which they will no longer rent it to the public, but place it up for sale or auction.
The vehicle jym received leaves one to wonder about how diligent Hertz may be regarding vehicle maintenance and adherence to the above-referenced protocol, though.
When I’ve rented cars, Hertz has tended to be on the expensive side so I have rarely (if ever) rented from them. But I’ve always gotten cars with doors that open!
This was in fact the replacement car for the first one they gave us, which did not have any working power plugs
In my state, the legislature has prohibited municipalities from regulating ride-sharing companies. So, for example, whil the capital city requires cab drivers to be at least 25 years old, it can’t require that of ride-sharing companies, so they can have drivers as young as 18. I assume that the insurance requirements are similarly less stringent for ride-sharing companies than for cab companies.
Assuming you have adequate health/life/disability insurance, is it important how much liability other drivers carry?
Liability insurance is very important–it’s how the driver would pay for his liability if he is involved in or causes an accident which could injure/maim/paralyze and/or kill people. $1mm may sound like a lot but really is not for auto accidents, especially if there are multiple vehicles involved.
I always have underinsurance coverage as well as uninsured coverage since so many folks drive without any insurance and others with inadequate coverage.
The last time we rented a car in Denver in 5/2016, we were surprised and unhappy to learn that there were NO cars that we could substitute our car with a slow leak in the tire for anywhere in the Denver area. We were finally informed we could go to “Big O” where the rental company had an account and have the leak repaired at the rental company’s expense while we cooled our heels for several hours. I know that it’s better for the rental car company to have its cars all rented, but not great for customers when they have a problem with a vehicle and need to swap. It also makes you really wonder about when there is ANY time for maintenance. (Originally we were told we had to repair or replace the tire at our own expense.)
I guess its only in the sense that people should bear the costs of their own behaviour. Medical billings are so high these days that a broken arm repair in a hospital can trigger a 25K bill. If you look up minimum coverage requirements in most states, they aren’t adequate to cover anything other than non-injury fender benders.
It raises the question of what the difference in premiums is for the max coverage vs the minimum. We carry the max, but I don’t know what the savings would be for the minimum level.
Are you saying you carry more than $1 million in UM/UIM?
No–but the umbrella policy I have will kick in as needed since I have the coverages required. A company in the business of providing transportation needs to have sufficient liability coverage. Paralysis is VERY costly for patients, especially when they are young when injured.
So you’ve got a rider to your umbrella that provides excess UM/UIM? Interesting.
No, don’t have any special riders.