The three periods
Everyone in this business talks about periods, and it is worth knowing them because it is where the gap lives.
- Period 0 — app off. Your personal policy, normally.
- Period 1 — app on, waiting for a request. This is the gap. The platform usually provides liability only, at low limits, with no coverage at all for your own car.
- Period 2 — request accepted, on the way. The platform’s coverage steps up substantially.
- Period 3 — passenger or order on board. The platform’s full coverage applies.
What a personal policy actually says
Nearly every personal auto policy contains a livery or public-conveyance exclusion: coverage does not apply while the vehicle is being used to carry people or property for a fee.
That exclusion does not care whether you told anybody. A claim during a delivery on a personal policy is a denied claim, and at that point the carrier also knows what the car has been doing.
What closes the gap
- A rideshare endorsement. Added to the personal policy, usually inexpensive, and it extends your own coverage through period 1. The simplest fix where the carrier offers it.
- A commercial auto policy. Necessary once the driving is a real operation rather than evenings and weekends, and required by some contracts outright.
Not every carrier offers the endorsement, and the ones that do are not always the ones you would expect. This is a short conversation with an agent and a long one without.
The deductible nobody mentions
Even in periods 2 and 3, the platform’s physical damage coverage usually carries a deductible far higher than the one on your own policy — often well into four figures.
A rideshare endorsement frequently brings that down to your own deductible. It is the part of the conversation that pays for itself.
Delivery is not always the same as rideshare
Food delivery, parcel delivery and grocery delivery are rated differently from passenger rideshare, and not every endorsement covers both. Amazon Flex, DoorDash and Uber Eats are not automatically included because you told the carrier you drive for Uber.
Say exactly which apps you use. It is a thirty-second question with a very expensive wrong answer.
- Period 1 — app on, no request — is the gap that ends badly.
- Personal policies exclude driving for a fee, told or untold.
- A rideshare endorsement is usually cheap and usually the right fix.
- Name every app you drive for; they are not rated the same.