California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson
California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson
The Right Choice in Car Sharing Accident Attorneys in California
For well over 40 years, California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has been representing the rights of accident victims in California and internationally. Named a Top Lawyer for the past 14 years by Palm Springs Life Magazine and rated a “Superb” Lawyer (their highest rating) by Avvo which rates attorneys all across the U.S., California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has fought for victims of car accidents and obtained millions and millions of dollars, year after year.
Today with the growing popularity of car sharing and ride sharing services, accidents involving car sharing as well as accidents involving drivers for ride sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft continue to grow, California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is the attorney to turn to when you’ve been involved in either a ride sharing or car sharing accident anywhere in California.
If you’ve been seriously injured in a collision with any type of car or vehicle, call the Law Firm of California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson for your car sharing, ride sharing or any other type of vehicle accident. Whether it occurs in Orange County anywhere from Anaheim to Newport Beach, throughout the Palm Springs and Coachella Valley area or on the coast from San Diego to San Francisco, Sebastian Gibson is the right choice and will seek the compensation you deserve.
California’s Car Sharing Law Offers Car Owners Additional Insurance Protection
In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 1871 into law. The law took effect January 1, 2011, and for the first time it allowed Californians to share their cars in car sharing arrangements without invalidating their car insurance policies.
Previously, receiving even a meager amount of money from someone else for the use of your vehicle was treated by insurance companies as a commercial use of the vehicle. Such a practice, even just once, invalidated a person’s individual insurance coverage.
Under the law which went into effect in 2011, the personal sharing of one’s car does not constitute a commercial use of one’s vehicle.
Additionally, and importantly under the 2011 law, the individual car owner is not liable for losses which arise when the vehicle is used in car sharing.
Conditions Contained Within California’s Car Sharing Law
In California, you can indeed share your car in return for money and your insurance can’t consider that to be a commercial use of your vehicle. But there is one substantial catch. You can only allow your car to be shared so long as you don’t make more money sharing it than it costs to own your car.
AB 1871 was transformed into California Insurance Code Section 11580.24 which states that by car sharing, your car shall not be classified as a commercial vehicle so long as these three things apply:
1) the personal vehicle sharing is conducted pursuant to a Personal Vehicle Sharing Program (PVSP) A PVSP is defined as the use of private passenger vehicles by persons other than the vehicle’s owner, which is a legal entity qualified to do business in California and which is engaged in facilitating the sharing of private passenger vehicles for noncommercial use.
2) the annual revenue received by the vehicle owner generated by the car sharing does not exceed the annual expenses of owning and operating the vehicle, including depreciation, interest, lease payments, auto loan payments, insurance, maintenance, parking, fuel, cleaning, repairs, and costs associated with car sharing; and
3) the owner does not knowingly place the vehicle into commercial use.
The vehicle sharing program must provide insurance coverages for the vehicle and operator equal to or greater than the insurance coverages maintained by the vehicle owner and not less than three times the minimum insurance requirements for private passenger vehicles.
So long as these conditions (and others within the insurance code section) are complied with, no policy of insurance shall be cancelled, solely on the basis that the private passenger vehicle as been made available for personal vehicle sharing in a program that is in compliance with California Insurance Code Section 11580.24.
Also on the positive side, the new law also provides that in the event the owner of the vehicle is named as a defendant in a civil action for a loss or injury that occurs during any time the vehicle is under the operation and control of a person, other than the vehicle’s owner, pursuant to a personal vehicle sharing program, or otherwise under the control of a personal vehicle sharing program, the personal vehicle sharing program shall have the duty to defend and indemnify the vehicle’s owner.
Car Sharing Companies Are Expected To Continue to Grow and Expand Exponentially Both Globally and In California
The car sharing business is expected to grow to $6 billion globally by 2020 and by well over $7 billion over the next decade. It was therefore no surprise to see a company like Avis Car Rental buy ZipCar, one of the biggest players in the car sharing field. Zipcar is currently the largest car-sharing company with 1 million members worldwide.
More recently, Getaround, another car sharing service struck a deal with City CarShare which had been renting out about 200 vehicles in the Bay Area of California. City Car Share started in 2001 and was the Bay Area’s first car-sharing enterprise and has about 50,000 members. Getaround currently has about 200,000 members and has been renting out about 2000 vehicles in the Bay Area.
By renting out their vehicles to others through car sharing businesses for as little as $25 to $65 per day, car owners may earn something in the range of $5 to $12 per hour.
Risks of Car Sharing Even With The Protections Afforded Individuals In California
Even with the insurance coverage required in California, there is always the risk that someone driving your car will get into a catastrophic accident with damages that exceed the insurance coverage required of the car sharing company under California law.
Surely, you think to yourself, the driver will be held at fault, not you the car owner. But what if you haven’t regularly serviced your car, the tires are bald or have too much or too little air pressure? What if that sound you ignored was the transmission, the engine or some other problem about to cause the brakes to fail the next time a driver is coming up to a limousine carrying this year’s nominees for an Oscar? And what if you made material misrepresentations about the maintenance of your car to the car sharing company? Despite California Vehicle Code Section 11580.24, could still be in big trouble.
The Major Car Sharing Companies and Locations in California Where Car Sharing Is Available
Not all car sharing companies use cars owned by members and lent to the car sharing company and prefer to use their own fleet of cars such as Car2Go which operates in San Diego.
Many car sharing companies are relatively new to the business and while they may simply be starting out in one or two large cities such as Getaround which presently focuses on San Francisco and the Bay Area or PitzCars which focuses on Los Angeles, most hope to expand if they are not bought out by a larger car sharing company.
ZipCar is the largest car sharing entity and does business throughout much of California. Zipcar also offers vans and trucks and has announced it now has more than a million members. Turo is another large car sharing company and has locations in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco as well as other major cities in the U.S. But before you bet Zipcar or Turo will become the Uber or Lyft of car sharing, here come the car companies themselves.
Worried (this is an understatement) by the popularity of Uber and Lyft’s ride sharing programs, carmakers are struggling to plan for a future in which consumers abandon car ownership by the millions. Companies like GM are hedging their bets by covering all of the bases including car sharing, ride sharing and self driving cars. If it seems as though automakers are now in overdrive to rollout self driving vehicles and their own ride sharing and car sharing programs, you’d be correct.
Part of the thinking of car manufacturers developing car sharing programs is that they will give Americans the chance to drive a vehicle made by the car manufacturer, perhaps an electric car or one they might not have ever considered, and if they enjoy the experience, they may become a purchaser of that car.
BMW has launched ReachNow, with its first launch in Seattle, followed by further launches in Portland and Brooklyn. BMW already operates DriveNow in Europe. While DriveNow had an electric car sharing program in San Francisco, it ended that program when the city prevented car sharing programs from parking vehicles on public streets.
Car2Go is a subsidiary of Daimler AG and offers Smart cars and Mercedes Benz automobiles. GM operates Maven which currently operates in California cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles. GM also has a $500M investment in Lyft and is now partnering with Uber to provide cars to Uber drivers as part of its Maven program under which Uber drivers can rent GM vehicles on a weekly basis.
Maven has three car sharing services; a city-based service that rents GM vehicles by the hour, another directed toward apartment renters and owners, and a peer-to-peer service under the name, Express Drive in conjunction with Lyft.
Ford is testing a car sharing program. Peugeot is even planning an LA car sharing operation. Toyota has invested in Getaround which operates in San Francisco. Tesla is also working on a car sharing service for Tesla owners under the umbrella of a Tesla Network. The anticipated Tesla Network is also part of Tesla’s plans for driverless and ride sharing plans that could also take on Uber.
The exploding popularity of car sharing has caught many by surprise, but not those in the transportation industry. Enterprise expanded into car sharing a decade ago. Hertz has its own car sharing program called Hertz on Demand. UPS has been offering complex logistic programs to its customers for years. ZipCar has long focused on providing hybrid cars to universities. Car2go is reportedly the world leader in one-way car sharing.
Today, cities are also getting into the act of car sharing by providing publicly available hybrid or electric cars to help people in poor neighborhoods to reduce the number of cars on the road thereby improving air quality and reducing traffic congestion and to help people without the necessary resources to purchase, insure and maintain a car. The goal of the Shared Use Mobility Center in Los Angeles is to take 100,000 cars off the road in LA county through ride sharing, car sharing, bike sharing, truck sharing, scooter sharing, shuttles, taxis, limos, and public transit.
In San Diego, ZipCar and the City of San Diego have signed a five-year agreement for expansion of a car-sharing program following an agreement previously reached with car2go. The hope is to expand the program in to areas where low-income residents can take advantage of the availability and benefits to a city and its residents of car sharing.
Just when one would have thought the popularity of car sharing could save the planet, car2go announced in San Diego that it is going back to using cars with internal combustion engines due to the fact that there are currently not enough EV charging stations in San Diego to make its business model work.
While other car manufacturers are simply hoping government or private industry are going to build more EV charging stations to meet the demand of electric car owners, Tesla is the only automaker aggressively building fast car charging stations all across the U.S. for its customers. Europe is another story altogether where many cities have a convenient and more easily accessible EV charging infrastructure.
For car2go which had been using electric Smart Cars that could only go 65 miles or so on a charge as opposed to conventional Smart Cars which can go 340 miles on a tank of gas, the choice was obvious, at least until there are more EV charging stations. In the meantime, San Diego Gas & Electric has agreed to begin installing 3,500 EV charging stations throughout San Diego County over the next 3 years.
The Major Differences Between Ride Sharing, Car Sharing, Car Rental, and Normal Personal Injury Car Accidents in California
Ride Sharing Accidents in California
In a ride sharing accident in California, a driver must carry a minimum of $50,000 per persona and $100,000 per accident of liability insurance while driving without any passengers (with Uber and Lyft maintaining an additional $200,000 of excess coverage), and once the driver accepts a request or picks up passengers, the driver must have $1 million of liability insurance coverage, $1 million in uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage and contingent collision and comprehensive coverage up to the actual cash value, less a $1,000 deductible.
While this sounds like a substantial amount to the average person, one million dollars can be just a fraction of the total medical bills of someone involved in a catastrophic accident, not to mention their need for future medical treatment and long-term care, their pain and suffering and loss of earnings. And if there are multiple vehicles involved, other catastrophic injuries or even deaths, that million dollars worth of insurance coverage won’t go far at all.
Even with all of that insurance coverage, there are still gaps in insurance in certain situations and insurance companies will still seek to pay as little to an accident victim as they can, especially to anyone attempting to settle their case without an attorney. An experienced ride sharing accident attorney will ensure that a ride sharing company does not take advantage of an unknowledgeable accident victim by delaying tactics, unfair insurance practices or unkept promises made to the victim.
The California Department of Transportation has warned drivers with ride sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft that there are still potential insurance gaps. A Transportation Network Company (TNC) is not required to have medical payments coverage, comprehensive, collision, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage or other optional coverages.
This means that the TNC’s liability policy does not have to provide coverage for 1) bodily injury to the TNC driver; 2) damages to the TNC driver’s car, or 3) bodily injury or physical damage caused by an uninsured or underinsured motorist.
The California Department of Transportation has also warned TNC drivers that insurance companies may deny coverage and that they should consider buying a commercial policy with medical payments, comprehensive, collision and UM/UIM to be certain that coverage exists for damage to the driver, their car and for damage caused by an uninsured or underinsured motorist while driving passengers for payment of more than a share-the-expense car pool fee.
Since that warning was issued, Lyft and Uber announced they expanded their coverage by purchasing UM/UIM and collision coverage.
Car Sharing Accidents in California
Although car sharing service companies have been around since 2000, the car-sharing service model has had some significant changes in recent years. One-way car sharing for instance has become a successful innovation that is now prompting additional companies to offer this service in addition to their local services.
It’s now anticipated that global car sharing revenues of over a billion in 2015 could grow to seven billion or more over the next 10 years. Car sharing is offered on multiple continents, in scores of countries and hundreds of cities in the U.S. and worldwide.
With car sharing, first you pay a monthly amount for membership – usually something in the range of $7/month or an annual fee and application fee in the range from $35 to $70. You join the car sharing company’s app. Then once you’ve been approved, you have access to that company’s vehicles wherever they have locations. You book a car for as little as an hour, and when you’re done, park the car in its reserved spot and lock it up. The rate to drive the car will probably be in the range of $8 to $10/hr with the owner receiving up to 75 percent or so of that.
If you want to rent out your car to others through the car sharing company, you can do that as well and you’re protected by $1 million in insurance coverage. Is that enough? Not always. On the other hand, you won’t be the one driving and $1 million is, for most people, more insurance coverage than they pay for their own insurance.
That $1 million in insurance coverage is personal liability coverage for the renter, third party liability for passengers and other injured parties, and third party property damage. However, the car sharing coverage may only provide $1,000 for medical payments arising from a car accident and may only be a supplement to the driver’s personal health insurance.
One difference between car sharing companies with regards to insurance coverage is when the insurance kicks in. With some companies it kicks in only while the car is being rented, while with at least one company, it kicks in as well while the car is being delivered to a renter (when delivery is part of the car sharing model).
Will your car be insured for physical damage? Generally, it will be, but only for its actual cash value (which means an insurance company still won’t pay you enough to buy anything but the same six year old car with 80,000 miles on it like the one you lent to the car sharing company) and it will be covered for comprehensive losses, such as theft, but possibly not for other causes. Fire? Vandalism? Earthquake? Hail? Bird droppings? Falling trees? It depends on the car sharing company.
There are also limits to the property damage coverage. One car sharing company capped the coverage at under $150,000 while another car sharing company today caps property damage payments at $75,000.
At least one company offers a premium package to car lenders that reimburses a car owner for rental income they lose after their car has been involved in a crash and is being fixed. The company will also provide a replacement vehicle or reimburse the owner for the cost of renting one while their car is in a repair shop.
The car sharing company may also have a damage fee of $750 to $1,000 in the event of any loss or damage to the car, or any personal property or bodily injury claim that results from the car sharing rental, regardless of fault, occurring as a result of a collision, rollover, wind or fire, or as the result of an act of God. And the damage fee may even rise to as much as $2,500 for the sharing of an exotic or classic car. In the event a renter violates the car sharing company’s terms of service, the limits of the damage fee may not apply and the renter may be held responsible for the full amount of damages.
Anyone either renting or lending their car to a car sharing company needs to check the fine print of the membership and application to learn exactly what the insurance coverage provided by the car sharing company will cover and whether there are gaps in coverage for which the car sharing company offers additional coverage at a fee, for example a damage waiver that covers you for any damage fee or damage deductible they would otherwise charge you as either the renter or lender.
Personal belongings left in the car are generally not insured. The car sharing company also will not insure for or reimburse the car owner for normal wear and tear, but may cover excessive wear and tear by a renter. How one would prevail in a claim that wear and tear on a car you own was excessive rather than normal, may be covered in the car sharing company’s wear and tear guidelines, if any. However, as the car sharing company will warn consumers, they are guidelines only and each case will be assessed on a case-by-case only.
Under the terms of service of the car sharing company, the cars may only be operated by the renter of the car and not by permissive drivers. In the event the renter has someone else drive the car, insurance coverage may not apply. Cars rented for commercial purposes, organized racing or stunts may also not be covered under the insurance. Incidents must generally be reported within 48 hours of the end of the rental for insurance to apply.
Car owners lending their car to car sharing companies should check with their own insurance company to learn if their own insurance coverage will make up the difference if their car is involved in a crash resulting in liability costs above the $1 million limit of insurance coverage offered by car sharing companies.
Just as with ride sharing accident victims, persons injured in car sharing accidents should also consult with an experienced car sharing accident attorney who is knowledgeable about car sharing insurance requirements and with the tactics utilized by car insurance company adjusters who love to see unrepresented victims eager to accept a paltry nuisance value settlement before they even know the extent of their injuries or how much medical treatment they’ll need before they return to health.
Car Rental Accidents in California
Pick up the car at a car rental company’s office during their office hours, pay by the day and return the car there, or in some cases, get a ride from a car rental employee from your home or business to rent the car.
However, you will be charged by the day and if you don’t purchase any additional insurance coverage from the car rental company, the coverage limits on your own policy of insurance apply and those may be as little as $15,000 per person and $30,000 per person in an accident, with no medical payments coverage, no uninsured motorist coverage and no collision coverage. If you have greater amounts and additional types of coverage, those higher limits will apply, but so will your deductibles.
If you cause a serious accident while driving a car rental and you haven’t purchased additional coverage from the car rental company, which can significantly increase the cost of the car rental, you may even be held responsible for the car rental company’s loss of profits while the car is off the road and being repaired after an accident.
However, unless you purchase additional coverage from a car rental company at a cost which can be as much as $38/day and you are in a sand storm, hit a box on the freeway or otherwise get that rental car scratched in a parking lot, you will be responsible for the rental car company’s loss of profits and at the very least the amount of your collision deductible (usually $500 or $1,000).
Car Accidents in Your Own Car in California
Strange as it seems to be discussing this last, in a decade or two or three, this may be the least likely way you will have an accident in a car. For now though, it remains the most common situation and in the event of an accident that’s your fault, the insurance coverage you purchased on the policy covering your car while it’s being driven by you.
If you grant permission to drive it, though not a person through a car sharing company or a person who may be excluded from coverage such as a family member living with you, the insurance coverage you purchased from your own insurance agent is what will apply. That may be as little in California as $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident liability coverage and $5,000 for property damage. Everything else is optional. If you didn’t pay for uninsured motorist coverage for instance, you don’t have it.
Call California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson
With law degrees in both California and Great Britain and well over 40 years of experience, California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is the attorney to turn to when you’ve been involved in a car sharing accident or ride sharing collision.
California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has written hundreds of articles on the internet as well as articles for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal and is the author of a book published in 2012. He regularly writes articles for legal websites in order to provide free and comprehensive information to accident victims they would otherwise have difficulty finding on the web.
If you’ve been injured in a car sharing accident or a ride sharing collision in California, turn to California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson. With offices in Palm Desert and Newport Beach, Sebastian Gibson offers his knowledge and experience to accident victims throughout California, from San Diego to Palm Springs, from the Coachella Valley to Orange County and up the coast from Los Angles to San Francisco.
California Car Sharing Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has been named a 2024 Top Lawyer for the 14th year in a row by the prestigious Palm Springs Life Magazine.
