Rideshare insurance in Texas — what Uber and Lyft cover, and what your own policy doesn't

Turning on the app changes your insurance. Not in a vague way — in a way Texas wrote into statute, with different dollar figures attached to different moments of your evening.

Most drivers find this out backwards: after a collision, in a phone call where someone asks whether they were logged on at the time. It is a much better question to answer before you drive than after.

Two documents govern the whole subject in Texas. The first is the Texas Department of Insurance's consumer guidance, which starts with a sentence every rideshare driver should read twice: "Most personal auto policies do not include coverage when you are using your car for ride sharing." The second is Chapter 1954 of the Texas Insurance Code — Insurance for Transportation Network Company Drivers — which sets out exactly what has to be in place, phase by phase, and exactly what your own insurer is allowed to refuse.

This page walks through both: why your personal policy steps back, what the law requires instead, the one thing the statute doesn't cover, and what to do about it. Coverage varies by policy and by company, so what any individual policy does depends on its own terms.

Why your personal policy steps back

This isn't a loophole or an insurer being difficult. It is written into the law.

Texas Insurance Code §1954.151 expressly authorizes an insurer to "exclude from coverage under a personal automobile insurance policy issued to an owner or operator of a personal vehicle any loss or injury that occurs while a transportation network company driver using the personal vehicle: (1) is logged on to a transportation network company's digital network; or (2) is engaged in a prearranged ride."

The statute then spells out how far that exclusion can reach. It applies to "any coverage included in a personal automobile insurance policy, including":

• liability coverage for bodily injury and property damage
• personal injury protection (PIP)
• uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage
• medical payment coverage
• comprehensive physical damage coverage
• collision physical damage coverage

That is the entire policy. Not just the liability side — the coverage that repairs your own car, too.

Section 1954.153 completes the picture: an insurer whose policy contains that exclusion "does not have a duty to defend or indemnify a claim arising from an event subject to the exclusion." And §1954.152(a) confirms the chapter "does not require a personal automobile insurance policy to cover a transportation network company driver" while logged on, on a prearranged ride, or otherwise carrying passengers for compensation.

TDI's plain-English version of the same point appears in its auto insurance guide, which lists among the things most policies don't cover: "Accidents that happen while you're driving for a ride-hailing service or delivering food or other items for a fee."

Whether your specific policy contains the exclusion is a question for your policy and your agent. The law permits it; most personal policies use it.

The three phases, and the exact limits

Texas insurance for rideshare driving is not one thing. It changes state with the app, and the statute defines the switch precisely.

A prearranged ride, per §1954.001(3), is transportation that begins "at the time a driver accepts a ride requested by a rider through a digital network" and ends "at the time the last requesting rider departs from the driver's personal vehicle." Note both ends of that definition: it starts when you accept, not when the passenger gets in, and it doesn't end until the last passenger is out of the car.

Everything else follows from where you sit relative to that window.

App off. You are an ordinary Texas driver on an ordinary Texas policy. TDI's guide sets the state minimum for personal auto liability: "at least $30,000 of coverage for injuries per person, up to a total of $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 of coverage for property damage. This is called 30/60/25 coverage."

Logged on, waiting for a request. This is the phase people underestimate — you're driving around available, no passenger, no accepted ride. Section 1954.052 requires the policy to provide:

• $50,000 for bodily injury to or death for each person in an incident
• $100,000 for bodily injury to or death of a person per incident
• $25,000 for damage to or destruction of property of others in an incident
• uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage where required by §1952.101
• personal injury protection coverage where required by §1952.152

On a prearranged ride — from accepting the request until the last rider is out. Section 1954.053 requires, at a minimum:

• coverage with a total aggregate limit of liability of $1 million for death, bodily injury, and property damage for each incident
• uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage where required by §1952.101
• personal injury protection coverage where required by §1952.152

The jump from the waiting phase to the ride phase is the single most important fact about rideshare insurance in Texas. Same car, same driver, same street — twenty times the liability limit, decided by whether you had tapped accept.

Who has to carry it

Section 1954.051 puts the obligation on "a transportation network company driver or transportation network company on the driver's behalf," and says the requirement can be met by "automobile insurance maintained by the transportation network company driver," by "automobile insurance maintained by the transportation network company," or by "a combination" of the two. In practice, the platform's policy is doing most of this work.

Three provisions make that backstop stronger than drivers often assume:

• If your own coverage fails, the company's picks it up from dollar one. Section 1954.054: if the driver's policy "has lapsed or does not provide the coverage required by this subchapter, the transportation network company shall provide the coverage required by this subchapter beginning with the first dollar of a claim against the driver."
• The company's insurer can't wait for your insurer to say no first. Section 1954.055: coverage under the TNC's policy "is not contingent on a transportation network company driver's personal automobile insurer initially denying a claim."
• The company has to tell you what it covers, in writing, before you take a fare. Section 1954.101 requires disclosure of "the insurance policy, including the types of coverage and the limits for the policy," and — explicitly — "that the driver's personal automobile insurance policy may not provide coverage."

TDI's guidance says the same thing from the consumer side: "Texas law requires ride-sharing companies, such as Uber or Lyft, to have insurance that covers people or property the driver injures if the driver does not have insurance… Be sure to read the policy or review it with your own insurance agent."

The gap the statute doesn't fill: your own car

Go back and read the two lists of required limits. Every figure in §1954.052 and §1954.053 is liability for harm to other people and their property, plus uninsured/underinsured motorist and PIP coverage for injuries.

Nothing in Chapter 1954 requires anyone — you or the platform — to carry comprehensive or collision coverage on your own vehicle while you drive for a rideshare service.

That is the gap, and it is the expensive one, because your own car is the asset you're putting on the road to earn with. Meanwhile §1954.151 permits your personal insurer to exclude the very coverages that would have repaired it: comprehensive physical damage and collision physical damage are both named in the statute's list.

TDI's wording on this is careful and worth reading exactly as written. On what the platforms provide: "Some companies also cover damage to your car." And on driver policies: "Some policies cover only damage to other people and their property, but not damage to you, your family members, or your car."

Some. Not all, and not by operation of law. Whether physical damage to your vehicle is covered while the app is on is a specific question with a specific answer, and the only way to get it is to ask — of the platform, in the disclosure it is required to give you under §1954.101, and of your own insurer.

The fix: a rideshare endorsement

The same chapter that lets insurers exclude rideshare driving also leaves the door open to insure it. Section 1954.152(b): "This section does not prevent an insurer from providing coverage that may be excluded under this section if the insurer elects to provide the coverage in the policy or by endorsement."

That is the statutory basis for what the market calls a rideshare endorsement — an add-on to a personal auto policy that extends coverage into some or all of the phases the base policy excludes.

TDI describes what's available, and includes the caution that matters most: "Some insurance companies now offer policies for ride-sharing drivers. These policies may cover only part of the time you are driving, such as the time before you pick up a passenger. Some policies cover only damage to other people and their property, but not damage to you, your family members, or your car. Ask your insurance company or agent to be sure you have the coverage you need."

So these products are not interchangeable. Two endorsements with the same name can cover different phases and different things. The questions to put to an agent are concrete:

1. Which phases does it cover — logged-on-and-waiting only, or the prearranged ride as well?
2. Does it include physical damage to my car (comprehensive and collision), or liability only?
3. What's the deductible while the app is on, and is it the same as my normal one?
4. How does it sit alongside the platform's coverage — which pays first, and for what?
5. Does my policy currently contain the §1954.151 exclusion at all?

Answering question 5 first saves the other four. And an endorsement is worth pricing against the alternative of a policy written for the job: TDI notes that some insurers offer policies for rideshare drivers, not just add-ons.

Delivery driving is a different question

If you deliver food or packages rather than carrying passengers, don't assume the statutory floor above applies to you. Chapter 1954 is built around the prearranged ride — a driver transporting a rider. Deliveries aren't rides, so the $50,000/$100,000/$25,000 and $1 million minimums in §1954.052 and §1954.053 aren't the governing rules for them.

What doesn't change is the exposure on your side. TDI's auto guide lumps both activities into the same not-covered line: "Accidents that happen while you're driving for a ride-hailing service or delivering food or other items for a fee."

Delivery drivers are therefore relying on whatever the platform provides plus whatever their own insurer agrees to cover — with no statutory minimum standing behind it. That makes the conversation with your agent more important, not less.

What to do at the scene of a collision

Chapter 1954 gives rideshare drivers specific duties, and one of them decides which insurance applies.

Section 1954.056(b): a driver "shall carry proof of insurance that satisfies Sections 1954.052 and 1954.053 with the driver when the driver uses a vehicle in connection with a transportation network company's digital network." After a collision, the driver must provide that proof "to a directly interested person, automobile insurer, and investigating peace officer on request" — and must also disclose whether, at the time, the driver was "logged on to the company's digital network" or "engaged in a prearranged ride."

That disclosure is the switch. It determines which of the two limit sets applies, so accuracy matters.

The record-keeping doesn't rest on your memory, either. Section 1954.154 requires the transportation network company and its insurer to assist the claim investigation by providing "the precise times that a driver logged on and off of the transportation network company's digital network in the 12-hour period immediately preceding and the 12-hour period immediately following the accident," together with "a clear description of the coverage, exclusions, and limits" of the policy maintained under Subchapter B.

And if your car is financed, §1954.155 governs where the repair money goes: where a lien exists and the TNC's insurer covers a claim from an incident during a prearranged ride, the insurer must pay "directly to the person who is repairing the vehicle" or "jointly to the owner of the personal vehicle and the primary lienholder."

One recent change: automated vehicles

Chapter 1954 was written in 2015 for human drivers with phones. In 2025 the Legislature extended it. Section 1954.003, added by Acts 2025, 89th Legislature (S.B. 2807) and effective September 1, 2025, provides that "an automated motor vehicle, as defined by Section 545.451, Transportation Code, is considered a transportation network company driver for purposes of Subchapter B, and the coverage requirements of that subchapter apply to the automated motor vehicle."

In other words, the same phase-based limits now follow driverless vehicles operating on these networks in Texas.

If you're the passenger

TDI's guidance for riders is short and answers the question people actually have:

• "Ask your insurance agent or company if your personal auto policy will cover you when you are a passenger in a ride-sharing vehicle."
• "Ask if the ride-sharing driver has insurance that covers your ride."
• "Check the ride-sharing company's website for information on insurance coverage."

Worth knowing as context: while you're in the car on a prearranged ride, §1954.053's $1 million aggregate limit is the floor that applies to that trip, and §1954.052 and §1954.053 both require uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage where §1952.101 requires it — which matters if the other driver is the one at fault and uninsured.

Key facts

• Your personal policy probably steps back when the app goes on. TDI: "Most personal auto policies do not include coverage when you are using your car for ride sharing."
• The law expressly allows the exclusion, and it reaches everything. Tex. Ins. Code §1954.151 lists liability, PIP, UM/UIM, medical payments, comprehensive, and collision.
• A "prearranged ride" starts when you accept. §1954.001(3): it begins when the driver accepts the request and ends when the last rider leaves the vehicle.
• Logged on but not on a ride: §1954.052 requires $50,000 per person / $100,000 per incident for bodily injury and $25,000 for property damage, plus UM/UIM and PIP where required.
• On a prearranged ride: §1954.053 requires a total aggregate liability limit of $1 million per incident, plus UM/UIM and PIP where required.
• For comparison, TDI puts the Texas personal auto minimum at 30/60/25.
• The platform is the backstop. §1954.054: if the driver's policy has lapsed or falls short, the company must cover "beginning with the first dollar," and §1954.055 says that coverage isn't contingent on the personal insurer denying the claim first.
• Nothing in Chapter 1954 requires physical damage coverage on your own car. TDI: "Some companies also cover damage to your car."
• Endorsements exist but differ. §1954.152(b) allows insurers to cover what they could exclude; TDI warns such policies "may cover only part of the time you are driving."
• Delivery isn't covered by these minimums — Chapter 1954 governs prearranged rides — but TDI lists delivering "food or other items for a fee" alongside ride-hailing as something most personal policies don't cover.
• You must carry proof and disclose your status after a collision, per §1954.056(b); the company must supply log-on/log-off times for the 12 hours either side, per §1954.154.
• Since September 1, 2025, §1954.003 applies Subchapter B's coverage requirements to automated motor vehicles.

Sources: Texas Insurance Code — Chapter 1954, Insurance for Transportation Network Company Drivers (§§1954.001, 1954.003, 1954.051–1954.056, 1954.101, 1954.151–1954.155). Texas Department of Insurance — Ride sharing: 3 questions to ask, Auto insurance guide (cb020). Statutory limits are minimums; what any individual policy or endorsement covers depends on its own terms, limits, and exclusions, and coverage varies by company. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Take the next step

The law here is unusually clear, which is what makes the common mistake so avoidable. Texas tells you exactly what must be in place while you're waiting for a request and exactly what must be in place once you've accepted one. It also tells your own insurer it may switch off every coverage you have for both of those windows — including the two that would have repaired your car.

So the checklist is short. Read the disclosure your platform is required to give you. Ask your agent whether your policy carries the rideshare exclusion. And if the car you drive for a living is the one thing nobody in that chain has agreed to repair, price the endorsement before the next shift rather than after the next collision.

If you're sorting out your auto cover more broadly, how to choose home insurance in Texas covers the same declarations-page habits on the property side, and independent agency vs direct for Texas insurance explains the difference between shopping one carrier and shopping several.

Credify is a licensed insurance agency in Texas (License #: 3309669). If you drive for a rideshare or delivery platform and want to know what your current policy does while the app is on, we compare quotes from multiple licensed Texas carriers in one short form, with no obligation; each insurer has sole responsibility for its own products. 📞 Talk to Credify 24/7.