North Carolina sorts the insurance on a rideshare wreck by what the driver's app showed at the moment of the crash. Article 10A of Chapter 20 does the sorting, and it reaches the rider and the people outside the car through the same periods. The sections below take the coverage table, when a ride starts and stops, the personal policy exclusion, who is covered, the app records, the rides the statute leaves out and the filing periods.
The driver's app status sets the coverage in three periods
G.S. 20-280.4(a) requires a TNC driver or a transportation network company to maintain primary automobile insurance for two periods. The first is the time a driver is logged on to the company's app but is not providing TNC service. The second is the time the driver is engaged in TNC service.
North Carolina's statute does not use the names Uber or Lyft. G.S. 20-280.1(6) defines a transportation network company as any person that uses an online-enabled application or platform to connect passengers with TNC drivers who provide prearranged transportation services. The General Assembly's staff summary of the 2015 bill that wrote these rules named Uber and Lyft among the companies then known to operate in the state.
| App status at the moment of the crash | Statute | Liability minimum | Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage | Whose insurance carries it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| App off | G.S. 20-279.21(b)(2) | $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury or death, plus $50,000 for property of others | Uninsured motorist coverage under G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3) and underinsured motorist coverage under (b)(4) | The owner's policy on the car, which also insures a driver using the car with permission |
| Logged on, no ride accepted | G.S. 20-280.4(a)(2) | $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for bodily injury or death, plus $25,000 for property of others | Combined coverage that complies with G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3) and (b)(4) | The driver's insurance, the company's insurance or a combination of the two |
| Ride accepted, through the last passenger's exit | G.S. 20-280.4(a)(3) | $1,000,000 per accident for death, bodily injury and property of others, in any combination | Combined coverage that complies with G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3) and (b)(4) | The driver's insurance, the company's insurance or a combination of the two |
G.S. 20-280.4(a)(4) lets the driver's insurance, the company's insurance or a combination meet the logged-on and TNC service requirements. Every figure in G.S. 20-280.4(a) is written as at least that amount, so the table gives a floor.
The first fact to pin down after a rideshare wreck is which period the driver's app was in at the moment of the crash. Each period points to a different statute and a different minimum.
When does TNC service begin and end under G.S. 20-280.1(5)?
TNC service under G.S. 20-280.1(5) begins when the TNC driver accepts a ride request on the transportation network company's app. It ends at the later of two times, the time the driver completes the transaction on the app or the time all passengers exit the vehicle and complete unloading.
Where the $1,000,000 period starts
Acceptance of the request starts TNC service. A driver on the way to the pickup is engaged in TNC service, and G.S. 20-280.4(a)(3) sets the minimum for a wreck on that drive.
Where the $1,000,000 period stops
The later of the two end points controls. A trip closed on the app while a passenger is still unloading stays in TNC service until the unloading is complete.
A driver who has finished a trip and has not accepted the next one is back in the logged-on period as long as the app stays on. The minimum then drops to the G.S. 20-280.4(a)(2) amounts.
The exact minute matters more than the evening's story. I would pin down the time the ride was accepted before anything else.
I would pin down the time the ride was accepted before anything else.
The personal policy exclusion and the company's first-dollar duty
G.S. 20-280.4(i) allows an insurer to exclude coverage under a personal vehicle policy for any loss that occurs while the driver is logged on to a transportation network company's app or provides TNC service. The exclusion can reach liability coverage, personal injury protection, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, medical payments coverage and collision and other physical damage coverage.
Under G.S. 20-280.4(j) an insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a claim its policy expressly excludes. An insurer that defends or pays an excluded claim anyway has a right of contribution against other insurers that provide automobile insurance to the same driver.
G.S. 20-280.4(b) puts the company's insurance in from the first dollar
G.S. 20-280.4(b) covers the driver whose own insurance under subsection (a) has lapsed or does not provide the required coverage. In that case the insurance maintained by the transportation network company has to provide the coverage subsection (a) requires beginning with the first dollar of a claim, and it has to provide the defense of the claim.
G.S. 20-280.4(c) adds that the company's coverage is not dependent on a personal automobile insurer denying a claim. A denial letter from the driver's own carrier is not a step the injured person has to collect first.
Exception. The exclusion in G.S. 20-280.4(i) reaches only a loss while the driver is logged on or providing TNC service. A wreck with the app off falls outside both that exclusion and the minimums in G.S. 20-280.4(a)(2) and (a)(3), and the owner's policy under G.S. 20-279.21(b)(2) is where the claim starts.
One coverage period for the rider, the other car and a pedestrian
The coverage period in G.S. 20-280.4 follows the rideshare driver's app and not the injured person's seat. The minimums in G.S. 20-280.4(a)(2)a and (a)(3)a are written for death of or bodily injury to persons in any one accident and for injury to or destruction of property of others.
The rider in the rideshare car
A rider hurt during TNC service is a person injured in the accident, so the G.S. 20-280.4(a)(3)a minimum applies to the rider's claim against the driver. G.S. 20-280.4(a)(3)b also requires combined uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage that complies with G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3) and (b)(4).
A driver or passenger in another car
A driver or passenger in the other car is a third party to the rideshare policy, and the same minimums cover that person's injury claim. When the limits of all bodily injury liability policies applicable at the time of the accident are less than that person's total damages, G.S. 20-279.21(b)(4) treats the rideshare car as an underinsured highway vehicle for the injured person's own underinsured motorist coverage.
G.S. 20-279.21(b)(4) deems that coverage to apply once all liability policies covering bodily injury from the underinsured vehicle have been exhausted by payment of judgment or settlement. The same subdivision lets the underinsured motorist insurer pay at its option before exhaustion. The car accident page covers how underinsured motorist coverage works on an ordinary North Carolina policy.
A pedestrian struck by a rideshare car
A pedestrian struck by a rideshare car falls under the same liability wording. G.S. 20-279.21(b)(3) makes the named insured, and the spouse and relatives living in the same household, persons insured for uninsured motorist coverage "while in a motor vehicle or otherwise," wording that does not require the person to be in a vehicle. G.S. 20-279.21(b)(4) applies subdivision (3) to underinsured motorist coverage.
Every person hurt in the wreck looks to the same app period. The period sets the floor for the rider and for everyone outside the car.
Twelve hours of app records under G.S. 20-280.4(m)
G.S. 20-280.4(m) requires the TNC driver, the transportation network company, any insurer potentially providing coverage and other directly involved parties to exchange three sets of information in a claims coverage investigation or accident.
Subsection (f) comes first in time. After an accident, a TNC driver has to provide insurance coverage information on request to interested parties, automobile insurers and investigating police officers, and disclose whether the app was on or off at the time.
Ask the driver under G.S. 20-280.4(f)
The driver's duty to share coverage information and log-on status runs on request from an interested party, an insurer or the investigating officer.
Coverage, exclusions and limits under G.S. 20-280.4(m)(1)
The exchange includes a description of the coverage, exclusions and limits provided under any insurance policy. A personal policy's rideshare exclusion shows up here.
Log-on and log-off times under G.S. 20-280.4(m)(2)
The exchange covers the precise times the driver logged on and off the app in the 12-hour period immediately before the accident and the 12-hour period immediately after it.
TNC service times under G.S. 20-280.4(m)(3)
The exchange also covers the precise times the driver provided TNC service across the same two 12-hour periods.
Those times place the crash in a row of the coverage table from a record and not from memory. I am more interested in those times than in any account of whether the app was on.
The officer's crash report is separate. For a Charlotte wreck, the Charlotte crash report page covers getting a copy.
G.S. 20-280.4(m) names other directly involved parties among the people who exchange the records. The app period does not rest on the driver's word alone.
App-booked rides that fall outside G.S. 20-280.4
G.S. 20-280.4(n) says the financial responsibility section does not apply to brokering transportation network companies. G.S. 20-280.1(2) defines a brokering company as a transportation network company that exclusively dispatches TNC drivers who operate for-hire passenger vehicles regulated under G.S. 160A-304, or for-hire passenger vehicles regulated under G.S. 62-260(f) that are subject to the requirements for security for protection of the public and safety of operation established for regulated motor common carriers.
G.S. 160A-304(a) lets a city by ordinance license and regulate all vehicles operated for hire in the city. A ride through a company that dispatches only those regulated vehicles does not take its minimums from G.S. 20-280.4.
Exception. The word exclusively carries the brokering definition in G.S. 20-280.1(2). A company that dispatches regulated for-hire vehicles and also connects passengers with TNC drivers in personal vehicles does not fit that definition, and G.S. 20-280.4 governs the insurance for its TNC drivers.
Three years to file under G.S. 1-52(16), two after a death
G.S. 1-52(16) sets a three-year period for a personal injury claim, which does not accrue until bodily harm to the claimant becomes apparent or ought reasonably to have become apparent, whichever event first occurs. G.S. 20-280.4 sets no separate filing deadline.
G.S. 1-53(4) sets a two-year period for a wrongful death action, which does not accrue until the date of death. Neither period changes with the app status.
The app period sets the coverage floor. The filing period runs separately under G.S. 1-52(16) or G.S. 1-53(4).
When a rideshare wreck happens far from the rider's home county, the post on an injury in a county you do not live in covers where the report and the lawsuit sit.
Wherever you are in North Carolina, I can come to you. The first conversation is by phone or video, and after that I meet you in person where you are. Whether we work together is decided in that meeting. The visit sequence lays out each step, and the contact page reaches the office in Graham.
