Law · N.J.S.A. 39:5H-12 The Personal Auto Rideshare Exclusion, Explained

What N.J.S.A. 39:5H-12 Says

The rideshare exclusion lives in one section of the Transportation Network Company Safety and Regulatory Act, the 2017 law that governs Uber and Lyft in New Jersey. (New Jersey law calls them transportation network companies, or TNCs.) It gives personal auto insurers permission to exclude coverage for any loss or injury "while the personal vehicle is being used by a transportation network company driver and the driver is logged on to a transportation network company's digital network or is providing a prearranged ride."

The section then names six coverages the exclusion may reach: liability for bodily injury and property damage, personal injury protection, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, medical payments, comprehensive and collision. That's every major part of a personal auto policy.

Sources: N.J.S.A. 39:5H-12(a) · N.J.S.A. 39:5H-1 (P.L.2017, c.26).

The rest of the section matters almost as much as the exclusion itself:

What "May Exclude" Means for Your Policy

"May" is permission. The statute doesn't exclude anything by itself. It lets each insurance company decide, and the company's own policy form is where the decision shows up. Two drivers on the same street can get different answers, and the only way to know yours is to read the form.

The trigger is wider than most drivers expect. The exclusion can apply when you're logged on or providing a prearranged ride, and New Jersey says a prearranged ride begins "when a driver accepts a ride." So it can reach you sitting in a parking lot with the app open, and on the drive to a pickup, not only when someone is in the back seat.

Sources: N.J.S.A. 39:5H-12 · N.J.S.A. 39:5H-2.

The apps have to warn you. Before you can accept a ride, the app company must tell you in writing that your own policy "may or may not provide any coverage" while you're logged on or on a ride. Lyft says it more bluntly on its insurance page: "most personal auto policies will not cover you while you're driving with Lyft."

Sources: N.J.S.A. 39:5H-11 · Lyft, driver insurance page, retrieved November 2026.

Your insurer has no matching duty in this section. Nothing in 39:5H-12 requires it to point the exclusion out to you, which is why asking your agent to show you the wording is worth five minutes.

Where It Shows Up in Your Policy: ISO Exclusion A.5

Many insurers build their personal auto policies on standard forms written by ISO, an insurance industry organization. Each company files its own forms or adopts ISO's, so read what follows as what the standard form says, with the understanding that many insurers use similar wording.

In ISO's personal auto form PP 00 01 09 18, exclusion A.5 in the liability section removes coverage while a vehicle is used as a public or livery conveyance. That includes any time the vehicle is "logged into a 'transportation network platform' as a driver, whether or not a passenger is 'occupying' the vehicle." The only exceptions are a share-the-expense car pool and volunteer or charitable use.

Source: ISO PP 00 01 09 18 specimen form (hosted by the Virginia State Corporation Commission).

The same exclusion repeats through the form, so your liability isn't the only thing at stake:

ISO folded the logged-in language into its base personal auto form in 2018. Before that it came as a separate endorsement, and the 2005 edition's livery exclusion said nothing about apps at all, only "public or livery conveyance" with a car-pool exception.

Sources: Verisk (ISO's parent company), September 17, 2018 · ISO PP 00 01 01 05.

Delivery is a separate question. The 2018 form defines a transportation network platform as one "used to connect passengers with drivers." For delivery apps, ISO announced a separate delivery-network exclusion and an optional delivery buy-back for forms effective January 1, 2023. Whether your policy uses either is, again, in its own wording. The rideshare statute itself is about passenger rides, as a New Jersey appeals court explained in Malzberg v. Josey.

Sources: ISO PP 00 01 09 18 · Verisk, January 26, 2022.

What 39:5H-12 Means for You

Put the statute and the form together and the practical picture is simple. Treat the moment you open the app as the line where your personal policy may stop: for your liability, your medical coverage and your car.

If your insurer does exclude a crash, it owes you no defense. That's easy to miss. On an excluded claim, your own insurance company won't hire a lawyer for you if the other driver sues.

Keeping the app quiet rarely works either. In a claims investigation, the app company must hand over your log-on and log-off times for the 12 hours around the crash when the parties directly involved or your insurer ask. You must tell insurers and investigating officers, if they ask, whether you were logged on or on a ride. And New Jersey requires TNC markers on your windshield and rear window whenever you're logged on.

Sources: N.J.S.A. 39:5H-12 · N.J.S.A. 39:5H-10 · N.J.S.A. 39:5H-23.

Coverage depends on the policy's actual forms and endorsements, so the form is the thing to ask for, not a summary of it.

Rideshare isn't the only side income that tests a personal auto policy: plowing driveways for pay with your own pickup raises a similar question, and our sister site explains snow plow insurance on a personal truck.

Do I Need to Tell My Insurer I Drive for Uber

Yes. The plain reason: if your insurer learns about the driving after a claim, it can refuse the claim under its exclusion and decline to renew your policy. Telling it up front is also the only way to get a rideshare endorsement quoted.

Mid-term cancellation is a narrower tool. New Jersey allows it only for reasons listed in its rules, among them nonpayment, a suspended license or registration, knowingly giving materially false or misleading information on an application, renewal or claim, and failing the insurer's acceptance criteria within 60 days of the policy being issued.

In a market conduct exam adopted October 20, 2026, the Department of Banking and Insurance found that one insurer had improperly cancelled policies mid-term because the car was used for ridesharing, which the rule doesn't list as a reason, and it also faulted mid-term cancellations for food or goods delivery. The insurer said the ridesharing cancellations should have been processed as nonrenewals.

Source: NJ Department of Banking and Insurance, Order No. E26-103, adopted October 20, 2026, quoting N.J.A.C. 11:3-8.10(a).

So the realistic cost of keeping quiet isn't a cancellation letter next week. It's a claim your policy may refuse, followed by a nonrenewal, and knowingly giving false information on an application or claim can be grounds to cancel.

Questions to Ask About Your Exclusion

• Does my policy have a rideshare, TNC or public-or-livery-conveyance exclusion? Ask to see the wording itself
• Which coverages does it reach: liability, medical, uninsured motorist, my car?
• Does my New Jersey PIP endorsement carry its own exclusion?
• Do you offer a rideshare endorsement, and which periods does it cover?
• Does any exclusion or endorsement on my policy mention delivery apps?
• If I tell you I drive for an app, what changes on my policy and my price?

This page explains what the statute and the standard form say. It isn't legal advice, and if a claim has been denied, talk to your own attorney about your situation. For the full statute, period by period, see New Jersey rideshare insurance law.