By Core 4 Insurance Team · Licensed Florida Insurance Agency · Miramar, FL
Five companies write about 78% of Florida’s auto market — and for 2026 they filed an average rate change of about −8%, with one cutting as deep as 16.5%. Here is who actually writes coverage here, where each tends to be competitive, and exactly how we built this comparison.
Almost every Florida rideshare driver believes the same two things: that Uber and Lyft insure them while they are working, and that their own policy is there as a backup. Both beliefs are half true, and the half that is false is where people lose their cars.
Florida wrote a specific statute for this in 2017. It does two things at once — it requires the platforms to carry real coverage, and it explicitly permits your personal insurer to walk away entirely while you are logged on.
Understanding which of those applies at which moment is the whole game.
What are the three rideshare insurance periods in Florida?
The short answer: Period 1 is app off — your personal policy. Period 2 is logged on and waiting — 50/100/25 plus PIP and UM. Period 3 is en route or carrying a passenger — $1 million in liability. The coverage triples between periods 2 and 3.
Fla. Stat. § 627.748 draws the lines by what you are doing, not by whether the car is moving.
| Period | What you are doing | Liability required | Who provides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Period 1 | App off, driving personally | Florida minimum: $10,000 PDL and $10,000 PIP | Your personal auto policy |
| Period 2 | Logged on, waiting for a request | $50,000 per person / $100,000 per incident / $25,000 property damage, plus PIP and UM | You, the platform, or a combination |
| Period 3 | Ride accepted, through last passenger exit | $1 million for death, bodily injury and property damage | You, the platform, or a combination |
Statutory limits verified against Fla. Stat. § 627.748(7), 2025 Florida Statutes. Platforms may carry more than the statutory floor; confirm current terms in your driver app.
Period 3 begins the instant you tap accept — not when the passenger gets in. Under the statute, a prearranged ride starts when the driver accepts the request and ends when the last rider exits and is no longer in the vehicle.
Will my personal auto policy cover me while the app is on?
The short answer: Probably not, and Florida law expressly allows that. Section 627.748(8)(b) permits an insurer to exclude any and all coverage while you are logged on — including PIP, which is otherwise mandatory in Florida.
This is the single most important paragraph in the statute, and almost nobody reads it.
Florida law lets your personal auto insurer exclude, while you are logged on or on a prearranged ride, every one of the following: bodily injury and property damage liability, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, medical payments, comprehensive, collision, and personal injury protection.
The statute also says the insurer does not need to use any particular wording or cite the section to make that exclusion stick.
There is one piece of good news in the same subsection: these exclusions do not reduce coverage for permissive drivers or resident relatives who are not in the vehicle at the time of loss. Your spouse driving the other car is unaffected.
If you want the baseline on what Florida requires of every driver before any of this applies, start with what car insurance is required in Florida.
Does this cover DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart drivers?
The short answer: No — and this is the biggest blind spot in Florida delivery work. Section 627.748 governs transportation network companies that arrange rides for riders. Food and package delivery does not fit that definition, so the statutory coverage floors do not apply.
Read the statute's definitions and the gap is obvious. A prearranged ride means transporting a rider, beginning when the driver accepts and ending when the last rider exits the vehicle.
A burrito is not a rider. Neither is a grocery order or an Amazon package.
That means the $50,000/$100,000/$25,000 floor in period 2 and the $1 million in period 3 are not statutory guarantees for delivery drivers the way they are for Uber and Lyft drivers. Whatever protection exists comes from the platform's own contract, which the platform can change.
If you deliver in Broward or Miami-Dade and have never told your insurer, that is worth a ten-minute call today. Ours is (954) 420-1501 — todo nuestro equipo habla español.
What do Uber and Lyft actually provide in Florida?
The short answer: Real liability coverage that protects other people, and much thinner protection for your own car. The $1 million figure is third-party liability — it is not a promise to repair your vehicle.
The distinction people miss is between coverage that protects others from you and coverage that protects you from your own bad day.
- Liability during a ride. At least $1 million under the statute, for death, bodily injury and property damage to others.
- PIP during a ride. Must meet the minimum amounts required of a limousine, not the standard passenger-car minimum.
- Uninsured and underinsured motorist. Required as provided in Fla. Stat. § 627.727 — meaningful in a state with a high uninsured rate.
- Your own vehicle damage. The weak spot. Platform physical damage coverage typically applies only if you carry comprehensive and collision on your personal policy, and usually with a substantial deductible.
- Repair payment routing. If a platform insurer pays a comprehensive or collision claim, the statute requires payment directly to the repair shop or jointly to you and your lienholder.
What is a rideshare endorsement and do you need one?
The short answer: It is an add-on that extends your personal policy into the periods the platform does not fully cover. For most Florida drivers it costs far less than the exposure it removes, and it is the standard fix.
The endorsement exists precisely because § 627.748 created the gap. Insurers wrote a product to fill it.
What it typically does is keep your own coverages — including comprehensive and collision on your vehicle — alive during period 2, and coordinate cleanly with the platform's policy in period 3.
The statute expressly preserves this option: nothing in it prevents an insurer from providing primary or excess coverage for the driver's vehicle by contract or endorsement.
Some drivers need a genuine commercial auto policy rather than an endorsement — typically those driving heavily, using a vehicle titled to a business, or running multiple platforms as a primary income. That is a different conversation and a different product.
What should you do after a crash while driving for a platform?
The short answer: Document which period you were in, immediately. Florida law requires you to disclose your app status at the scene, and the platform must produce your log-on and log-off times on request.
Which period you were in decides which policy pays. That fact is established at the scene, and it is very hard to reconstruct later.
- Screenshot the app before you close it. Ride status, timestamp, trip ID. Do this before anything else.
- Tell the officer your app status. Section 627.748(7)(h) requires a driver to disclose whether they were logged on or on a prearranged ride to anyone directly involved, their representatives, insurers and investigating officers.
- Carry proof of the platform coverage. The statute requires you to have it at all times while using the vehicle on the network. Digital proof through a phone app is acceptable under Fla. Stat. § 316.646.
- Report to the platform and to your own insurer. Both. Reporting to your carrier is not an admission that they owe the claim.
- Know the platform must produce the timing. On request, the company has to provide the precise log-on and log-off times for the 12 hours before and after the accident.
- Get the 14-day medical clock right. Where PIP applies, Florida requires initial services within 14 days of the crash. Waiting can forfeit the benefit entirely.
If you are hit by someone with no insurance while working, uninsured motorist coverage becomes the whole ballgame. We cover why in do I need uninsured motorist coverage in Florida.
Does driving for Uber raise your Florida car insurance?
The short answer: Adding a rideshare endorsement is a modest increase for most drivers. Concealing the activity is the expensive option, because the consequence is a denied claim rather than a higher premium.
Drivers routinely stay silent because they assume disclosure means a huge surcharge. In practice the endorsement is usually a small fraction of the policy.
The alternative is worse than a rate increase. If your insurer discovers at claim time that you were working, the exclusion the statute permits is the one that applies — and you are left with a damaged car, a liability claim, and no coverage.
Timing helps you right now. In March 2026 the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported that the state's five largest auto groups — roughly 78% of the market — indicated an average rate change of about −8% for the year.
Adding coverage into a falling market is a materially better trade than it was two years ago.
Which Florida drivers need which setup?
The short answer: Occasional rideshare drivers need an endorsement. Heavy full-time drivers and anyone using a business-titled vehicle usually need commercial auto. Delivery-only drivers need to confirm delivery is named in the policy.
Weekend Uber or Lyft
The standard answer. Keeps your own physical damage coverage alive in period 2 and coordinates with the platform in period 3.
Food delivery only
Confirm delivery is named. A rideshare endorsement does not automatically extend to carrying property for compensation.
Rideshare and delivery both
The most commonly mis-covered driver in South Florida. Ask about each activity by name rather than as "gig work."
Full-time, high mileage
Once the car is genuinely a business asset, personal-policy endorsements stop being the right instrument.
Vehicle titled to an LLC
A personal auto policy is generally the wrong contract for a business-owned vehicle regardless of how it is used.
Financed vehicle
Your lender requires comprehensive and collision. The endorsement is what keeps them functioning while you work.
Reflects how these products are generally structured in Florida as of August 2026. Availability and terms vary by carrier — confirm before relying on any of it.
The bottom line on rideshare insurance in Florida
Florida did not leave rideshare drivers unprotected. It built a three-period structure with real dollar floors and put a $1 million requirement behind every ride you accept.
What it also did was give your personal insurer explicit permission to walk away the moment you log on — including from PIP. Those two facts live in the same statute, and drivers who only know the first one are exposed.
If you drive for a platform in Florida, three things need to be true. Your insurer knows. Your endorsement names the activity you actually do, including delivery. And you know how to establish which period you were in before you close the app.
We can check all three in one call at (954) 420-1501, or compare the market for you across 120+ carriers. Disponible en español.
Car insurance by city
Rideshare demand and traffic density are intensely local. These guides cover the markets we write in most:
- Best car insurance in Miramar, FL — Broward County
- Best car insurance in Pembroke Pines, FL — Broward County
- Best car insurance in Hollywood, FL — Broward County
- Best car insurance in Fort Lauderdale, FL — Broward County
- Best car insurance in Miami, FL — Miami-Dade County
More Florida insurance guides
Recently published from the Core 4 team:
- Motorcycle insurance in Florida — why PIP never covers riders and what the helmet rule really means
- Miramar, FL insurance guide — auto, home, flood and renters for 33023–33029
- Pembroke Pines insurance guide — condo, HO-6 loss assessment and 55+ coverage
- Hollywood, FL insurance guide — coastal flood, wind mitigation and older housing stock
About this guide
Who wrote it. Written and reviewed by the Core 4 Insurance team — licensed Florida insurance producers based in Miramar, Broward County. Core 4 is an independent agency, so we compare rideshare and delivery endorsements across many carriers rather than quoting a single brand.
Where we work. Statewide across Florida, with our office and deepest local experience in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
How we source it. Every coverage requirement above traces to Fla. Stat. § 627.748 in the 2025 Florida Statutes, read in full rather than summarized from secondary sources. Rate filing figures come from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Figures are dated inline and reviewed quarterly.
Regulator. Core 4 Insurance is licensed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
Last reviewed by the Core 4 Insurance Team on August 25, 2026. Platform coverage terms and endorsement availability change frequently — we re-verify this guide quarterly. For the broader Florida auto insurance picture, see our flagship Florida Driver's Insurance Guide.