Driving for Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart in Spokane? Your Personal Auto Policy Has a Gap

Reviewed by Tom Moore, Agency Partner, CA Agency Insurance License 6003355
Last reviewed: 10/02/2026

Key takeaway: If you drive for Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart in Spokane, your personal auto policy almost certainly stops covering you once you're on the clock. Washington law requires Uber to carry commercial coverage the moment you log into the app. DoorDash and Instacart aren't held to that same standard, and Instacart provides no auto coverage for shoppers at all. This applies to any Spokane driver using a personal vehicle for rideshare or delivery work, full-time or just on weekends. The fix is almost always a rideshare or delivery endorsement, and it costs far less than most drivers assume.

Picture this: you finish an Instacart batch, pull out of the Safeway lot on the South Hill, and a driver blows the stop sign and hits you. Nobody's hurt, but your bumper is done, and so is theirs. You call your insurance company expecting them to just handle it, the way they always have. Instead, the adjuster asks one question that changes everything: were you working at the time of the accident?

That single question is the whole ballgame. Answer honestly, and there's a real chance your own insurer tells you this loss isn't covered, because your car was being used for business. Not because your agent missed something. Not because you bought the wrong policy. It's built into how personal auto insurance works everywhere in Washington, and it treats Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart very differently from each other.

Why Your Personal Auto Policy Won't Cover Gig Driving in Washington

Here's the plain answer: your personal auto policy is built and priced for personal use only, and Washington regulators say so directly. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner states that most personal auto and homeowner policies sold in this state don't cover losses during shared economy activities such as driving for Uber or delivering for DoorDash. This isn't a fine-print trick your carrier is hiding. The Insurance Information Institute explains that personal auto policies are underwritten around an average of 12,000 miles a year of private driving, with no money changing hands, so nearly every standard policy carries a livery services exclusion built into the base contract. The moment you accept payment to move a person or a package, you've stepped outside what that policy was ever designed to pay for. That's true whether you're driving a Honda Civic or a brand-new Tahoe, and it's true whether you drive four hours a week or forty.

How Uber's Coverage Actually Works in Washington (and Where the Gap Sits)

Washington is one of the stricter states here, and Uber has to follow specific rules once you're logged in. State law requires a rideshare company to carry primary commercial coverage from the moment you turn the app on. Before you accept a ride, that coverage sits at $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for injuries, plus $30,000 for property damage. Accept a ride, and it jumps to a $1 million combined liability limit through drop-off. The catch is what those numbers don't include. Uber's own driver materials note that repairing your car during a trip is contingent on you already carrying comprehensive and collision on your personal policy, a detail the National Association of Insurance Commissioners flags too. Drop that coverage to save money, and a cracked windshield pulling out of the Gonzaga area on a Friday night comes out of your pocket either way.

DoorDash Doesn't Carry the Same Legal Backing as Uber's Rides

Here's the detail most articles miss: Washington's rideshare insurance law covers prearranged rides for passengers, not deliveries of food or groceries. That means DoorDash isn't required to follow the same $50,000-to-$1-million structure Uber has to follow for rides. Whatever protection you get comes from DoorDash's own contract, not state law. DoorDash's own materials say its third-party liability insurance may cover bodily injury or property damage you cause to others during an active delivery, from accepting the order until it's marked delivered. It does not cover damage to your own car, ever, at any point. And DoorDash says plainly that a rideshare endorsement may not carry over to delivery work the same way, since it can cover the drive before you accept an order but not while you're actively delivering it. Log into the app and wait for an order near North Division, and you're relying on your personal policy alone, the same one that likely excludes commercial use in the first place.

Instacart Shoppers Carry the Least Protection of the Three

Of the three apps in the headline, Instacart leaves you the most exposed. Instacart doesn't provide any auto liability coverage for its shoppers, full stop. What it does offer is Shopping Injury Protection, an occupational accident benefit that pays out if you're hurt while shopping or delivering. That's coverage for you, not for the other driver's car, not for a pedestrian near the Costco in the Valley, and not for the fender you clip backing out of a loading zone downtown. Instacart's own independent contractor agreement puts the responsibility for auto insurance entirely on the shopper, and it's explicit that the company isn't providing it. If your personal policy has a business-use exclusion, and most do, an at-fault accident during a batch can leave you paying every dollar yourself, from the other driver's medical bills to your own car repair. Between the three apps in this post, this is the one where a rideshare or delivery endorsement matters most, not least.

What a Rideshare or Delivery Endorsement Actually Covers (and Costs)

A rideshare or delivery endorsement is an add-on to your existing personal auto policy, not a whole new policy, and for most part-time drivers it's the right-sized fix. It's built specifically to cover the gap while you're logged in and waiting, the window your personal policy excludes and the app's own coverage barely touches. Depending on your driving record, vehicle, and carrier, expect somewhere around $10 to $30 a month, noticeably less than a full commercial policy, which usually starts closer to $150 a month and makes more sense once you're driving 25 or more hours a week. One thing to check carefully: not every endorsement treats Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart the same way, and some only extend to certain platforms or certain phases of a delivery. If you drive for more than one app, or you mix rides with deliveries, say so explicitly when you buy it. This is exactly the kind of gap that shows up only after the tow truck's already there.

What Happens If You're At Fault Without the Right Coverage

This is the scenario that actually plays out in claims, not a hypothetical. You're at fault, you weren't carrying the right endorsement, and the app's coverage either doesn't apply to that moment or doesn't apply to your car. Your personal insurer can deny the claim outright, citing the business-use exclusion that's been in the policy since day one. You're now on the hook for the other driver's medical bills and vehicle repair, plus your own, out of pocket. If your insurer later discovers you'd been driving for a gig app without disclosing it, some will non-renew or cancel the policy for misrepresentation. I've seen this conversation happen after the fact more times than I'd like. It's almost always the same setup: a client mentions, almost as an aside during a renewal call, that they've been doing DoorDash on weekends, assuming the sign-up screen's mention of insurance included meant they were covered like any other trip to the store. It doesn't work that way.

How to Actually Get Covered If You Drive for More Than One App

Start with one phone call to your agent, and be specific about which apps you use and how often. Don't assume a single rideshare endorsement automatically covers Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart the same way, because it often doesn't. A few things worth asking directly: does this endorsement cover me during active deliveries, not just while I'm waiting for a request? Does it cover physical damage to my own car, or only liability to others? If I drive for more than one app, do I need to list all of them? If you're logging serious hours, call it 25 or more a week, or if delivery is your main income, a full commercial auto policy is worth pricing out too, even though it costs more than an endorsement. For most Spokane drivers picking up shifts around a day job, though, the endorsement is enough, and it's a small monthly cost against the alternative of paying for someone else's bumper on I-90 out of pocket.

If you're driving for any of these apps and haven't had this exact conversation with your agent, have it before you need it, not after. Tell us which platforms you drive for and how many hours a week, and we'll tell you plainly whether an endorsement covers it or whether you need something more. Get a quote online here at All Lines Insurance, or call us directly at (509) 327-1658. Either way, you'll know exactly what you're covered for before the next delivery, not after it.

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