VEHICLE-SHARING: WHEN YOUR PERSONAL AUTO INSUREDS TAKE ON HERTZ By Kevin C. Amrhein, CIC, CBIA Happy New Year! My hope is that by the end of this year everyone will recall 2022 as the year we all felt safe enough to finally get the #%^* out of the house and see the world. As the travel economy continues to rebound, companies that not long ago were about to tap out are experiencing a lucrative renaissance. One industry that relies almost solely on a booming travel economy is vehicle-sharing. The concept is simple: you travel to a city and need some wheels. Hertz and the like have supply shortages and/or rising rental costs (in what world does “Economy” equal $169/day?!). You decide to 4
check out a vehicle-sharing app like Turo and voila! Page after page of personally owned vehicles listed for your renting pleasure. It’s the sharing-economy model: convenience for the renter, income for the owner. But any sharing exposure is not without risk, and when it comes to vehicle-sharing, the risk to the owner is substantial. If you decide to put your wheels to work for you and become a host on a vehicle-sharing platform like Turo, it’s important to consider what your personal auto insurance has to say about it. JANUARY 2022
IT SAYS … IN A WORD … YUCK It’s no surprise that a personal auto insurer takes umbrage when a vehicle underwritten for personal use becomes an income stream for an insured. The ISO Personal Auto Policy (PAP) was never intended to cover an insured’s rental car enterprise and is adequately fortified against this exposure. Some believe the long-standing language commonly referred to as the “Public or Livery Conveyance” exclusion is far-reaching enough to eliminate coverage in all sections of the vehicle owner’s PAP. To remove any doubt, the 2018 version of the
