A product launch and a regulatory ruling, issued two days apart, have together sharpened a coverage question that Australian brokers have had limited commercial incentive to confront: how many personal motor clients are also driving for rideshare platforms – and does anyone in the advice chain know?
On August 11, the Fair Work Commission issued Australia’s first legally enforceable minimum standards for gig delivery workers. The order, which takes effect August 17, 2026, covers employee-like workers engaged through digital labour platforms to perform on-demand delivery work and establishes minimum standards covering hourly pay, insurance, vehicle-related expenses, record-keeping, consultation, and dispute resolution. Companies are required to provide “a reasonable minimum level of cover” for personal accident insurance during work hours, and the order is expected to benefit approximately 250,000 workers, according to Reuters. The Fair Work Commission has also been granted power to set equivalent minimum standards for rideshare workers, covering insurance and safety requirements, with further orders under consideration.
Two days later, on August 13, Uber Australia, Suncorp-owned insurer Vero, and embedded insurance infrastructure provider Cover Genius announced what they describe as Australia’s first rideshare-dedicated, pay-per-kilometre comprehensive motor insurance product for Uber driver-partners, available entirely through the Uber Driver app. Together, they mark a regulatory and commercial inflection point for a workforce segment the personal lines broker market has not systematically served.
Rideshare insurance in Australia is not a distinct product category; it is a standard car policy configured to cover commercial use when carrying paying passengers for app-based platforms. Standard private use cover commonly excludes this, and failure to disclose rideshare activity can result in a declined claim. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has published a dedicated approach to motor vehicle insurance disclosure and ridesharing, covering disputes involving undisclosed rideshare use both during a policy and when applying for or renewing cover. AFCA considers factors including whether the vehicle was being used for ridesharing at the time of the incident, whether the policy contains a relevant exclusion, whether the policyholder knew they were required to disclose the change in use, and how clearly the insurer communicated that requirement. Where non-disclosure is alleged, AFCA considers whether the insurer has established the relevant elements under the Insurance Contracts Act, with the outcome depending on the circumstances of the case and the insurer's underwriting position.
A March 2025 AFCA determination illustrates the complexities that can arise when a motor policyholder begins rideshare driving. In the case involving Auto & General Services, the complainant disclosed during the claims process that he had been driving for Uber. The insurer denied the claim, arguing it would have declined the risk had the vehicle's use been disclosed as rideshare rather than private. AFCA, however, found the insurer had not established that the complainant was using the vehicle for Uber when he took out the policy in August 2024. It also found the rideshare exclusion did not apply because the complainant was not carrying a passenger for payment when the accident occurred. AFCA directed the insurer to accept the claim and pay $1,500 in compensation for non-financial loss.
The renewal dimension adds a further layer. AFCA’s approach covers both changes in vehicle use during the policy term and failures to disclose rideshare use when applying for or renewing cover. In the March 2025 determination, AFCA found that the policyholder had an obligation to notify the insurer of a change in vehicle use as soon as practicable, although it ultimately found he had not failed to do so in the circumstances. For brokers managing annual motor renewals, the case highlights the importance of establishing whether a client’s vehicle use has changed since the policy was taken out, rather than relying solely on the original disclosure.
From July 10, 2025, that framework became more explicit. New Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) informed consent obligations require brokers providing personal advice to retail clients to obtain informed consent before receiving a commission or placing cover. A personal motor placement made for a client who also drives for a rideshare platform – without documented disclosure discussion – sits directly within the risk those obligations were designed to address.
Broker-placed rideshare motor cover already exists in the Australian market. GT Insurance, backed by Allianz Australia, offers a rideshare motor insurance package for drivers on platforms including Uber, DiDi, and GoCatch, distributed exclusively through insurance brokers. What the Vero product reveals is that demand is not consistently reaching that channel. The product combines private use comprehensive cover with pay-per-kilometre rideshare coverage in a single policy embedded in the Uber app, with monthly premiums adjusting to actual kilometres driven on the platform. Rideshare-specific comprehensive policies carry a premium loading above standard personal motor cover, reflecting the additional commercial use risk – a fixed annual cost structure that the per-kilometre model is designed to undercut for irregular or part-time drivers.
Vero head of platform business Laura Broughton said the variable structure responds to how rideshare drivers actually work. “Rideshare drivers don’t all work the same hours from week-to-week or month-to-month, so traditional insurance models don’t always reflect how they use their vehicle. This product gives drivers a more flexible way to access cover that matches their driving patterns and helps reduce the risk of gaps in protection,” she said.
Daniel Lopez, head of driver operations at Uber Australia and New Zealand, described the per-kilometre mechanism as giving drivers direct cost control. “If a driver decides to purchase this optional ridesharing insurance through the Uber app, a pay-per-kilometre mechanism means they’re paying exactly for what they need,” he said. The product does not replace Uber’s existing partner support insurance policy, provided at no charge to driver-partners for on-trip accidents.
Cover Genius chief business officer Barney Pierce said the launch reflects a broader shift in how consumers expect protection to be delivered. “Companies such as Uber and Vero are leading the way with a flexible mindset and a clear recognition that the way we work, budget, and live has changed,” he said. Cover Genius reports protecting more than 73 million customers globally across 240 million policies, with US$3.2 billion in gross written sales.
Uber Australia has previously stated that more than 150,000 workers earn through the Uber and Uber Eats apps in Australia – a figure the company last made public in 2023, covering one platform only. The rideshare market in Australia spans multiple platforms, and any driver using their personally insured vehicle for commercial passenger transport – regardless of which app they use – faces the same disclosure obligation under a standard motor policy. The population of drivers across all platforms holding personal motor policies that do not disclose commercial use is not publicly quantified, but the AFCA disclosure framework, the insurer exclusion landscape, and the new regulatory minimum standards together confirm that the structural conditions for widespread undisclosed risk exposure are well-established.
The broker question is now precise: at each annual motor renewal, is commercial vehicle use – including rideshare – being asked, documented, and acted on? The combination of AFCA’s published rideshare disclosure approach, new ASIC consent obligations, escalating Fair Work Commission insurance minimums, and an app-native embedded product distributed directly to drivers makes that question measurably harder to defer.
