Peers Launches Home Liability And Car-Replacement Insurance For Airbnb, Uber, Lyft Workers

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When a Lyft or Uber driver gets in an accident or an Airbnb host’s house becomes damaged and unrentable, it can be a one-two financial punch: they have to fix the damage, and their income stream is suddenly shut off.

Now, if those workers are willing to pay a monthly fee, they can ward off some of the risk of supporting themselves on marketplace startups like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, VRBO and others. Peers, an organization that gathers and advocates for these workers, introduced two insurance programs for workers on Thursday: home liability insurance for those who rent out their homes and car-replacement insurance for those who drive around people or deliveries for money.

Home liability insurance, which Peers is selling for $36 a month, would protect homeowners from liability claims if a guest was injured during the stay — by falling down the stairs, for example. Airbnb already covers up to $1 million in damages to the home, and it introducedits own liability insurance two weeks ago, which is included at no additional cost to renters.

Peers’ home liability insurance, however, applies to more than just Airbnb, so if hosts are renting out on multiple platforms, it might be easier to get independent liability insurance. And more importantly, Peers’ product offers income protection. It will cover up to three months or $5,000 of lost income resulting from a damaged home that can’t be rented out.

The second insurance product allows drivers to get a replacement car to work with if their primary car is damaged in an accident. If Uber, Lyft or Sidecar drivers are in a serious crash, they can be stuck dealing with a complicated insurance claims process and deductibles as high as $2,500 — and not be able to work to pay any of it off. The companies don’t allow drivers to work using cars that aren’t registered to their name, so drivers whose cars are damaged can’t borrow from a friend or rent a car from a traditional company.

“The income from ridesharing is unstable. It’s vulnerable,” said Shelby Clark, Peers’ executive director. “It can be taken away in an instant in an accident.”

To make the car-replacement insurance, Peers partnered with Breeze, a company that provides flexible car leases and registers cars in drivers’ names for people who want to drive for Uber or Lyft. Drivers who pay $20 a month for the insurance would be able to rent a Breeze car for no additional cost for up to a month while their primary car is being repaired.

The car-replacement insurance, which is called “Keep Driving,” is only available in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Clark said he’s excited that Peers is able to offer a kind of insurance that never existed before. It speaks to the market power of gig economy workers, who many companies are beginning to view as potential customers for tailored financial products. Peers hopes to be a place where these workers gather so companies can sell them new products — and in this case, so Peers can sell to them, too.

Car-replacement insurance “is something I’m particularly excited about,” Clark said. “It’s an entirely new product. There’s no traditional economy counterpart. It’s exciting to think about new solutions for new problems.”