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> I should point out that the insurance costs here are surely low — although Uber encourages its uberX drivers to find “standard vehicle insurance” as opposed to livery insurance, the coverages required are nearly impossible to find, especially for someone with poor or no credit working 70 hours a week as a cab driver. Meanwhile, taxi insurance in NYC can run $7,000 – 10,000 per year...

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Also, while those coverages might be difficult-to-find-but-available now, that could change in a hurry. Once most insurance companies catch on to the fact that people are paying for regular insurance and then operating essentially a taxi service, they'll add clauses to their contracts specifically forbidding it, and charge something more in line with commercial taxi insurance. It's a lot like what we see with AirBnB, where as it caught on more and more, landlords started fighting back against tenants who were using it.

"Once most insurance companies catch on to the fact that people are paying for regular insurance and then operating essentially a taxi service, they'll add clauses to their contracts specifically forbidding it..."

My car insurance policy has prohibited using the car for commercial purposes for as long as I can remember. There are also probably state laws requiring commercial drivers to carry commercial insurance, just as it requires them to have a different class of drivers license.

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