Key Takeaways
- The app decides the coverage. Illinois sets three different minimums for a rideshare crash, and which one applies turns entirely on whether the driver was logged off, logged in and waiting, or already carrying a ride.
- A million dollars applies only after a ride is accepted. From the moment the driver accepts a request until the passenger exits the car, 625 ILCS 57/10(c) requires $1,000,000 in primary liability coverage for death, personal injury and property damage.
- The waiting phase pays far less. A driver logged in but not yet matched with a rider carries only $50,000 per person, $100,000 per crash and $25,000 for property damage under 625 ILCS 57/10(b).
- Passengers carry their own protection. Section 10(c)(2) adds $50,000 in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage from the moment a passenger enters the vehicle until the moment they get out.
- A minimum is a floor, not a valuation. These figures describe the money the law requires to be available, not what any claim is worth, and Section 10(e) says the Act does not limit what a rideshare company can owe above them.
After an Uber or Lyft crash in Illinois, the question that decides almost everything is not who was careless. It is a smaller and stranger question: what was the driver’s phone doing at the moment of impact?
Illinois answers that question in the Transportation Network Providers Act, 625 ILCS 57. Section 10 of that Act splits a rideshare driver’s working day into phases and attaches a different mandatory insurance minimum to each one. The gap between the smallest and the largest is a factor of twenty. This guide walks through the three phases, the exact figures the statute requires, and four rules buried in the same section that often matter more than the numbers themselves.
The three phases that decide how much coverage exists
Phase one: the app is off
When a rideshare driver is not logged in, they are simply a driver. The Transportation Network Providers Act does not apply, and the only policy in play is their personal auto insurance. Illinois requires that policy to carry at least $25,000 for bodily injury to or death of any one person, $50,000 when two or more people are hurt, and $20,000 for property damage, under 625 ILCS 5/7-203.
A driver on the way to start a shift, or driving home after one, sits in this phase. The Uber or Lyft logo on the windshield changes nothing about the coverage.
Phase two: logged in and waiting for a request
The moment a driver logs on to the app and before they accept a ride, Section 10(b) takes over. The required coverage is $50,000 for death and personal injury per person, $100,000 per incident, and $25,000 for property damage.
Two details in this subsection are easy to miss. First, the rideshare company itself must maintain contingent coverage at those same amounts, which pays if the driver’s personal policy excludes rideshare work or carries lower limits. Most ordinary personal auto policies do exclude it. Second, this phase does not only cover the stretch before a first ride. It reopens the moment a ride ends and runs until the driver either accepts another request or logs off, so a driver cruising between fares is back down to these lower numbers.
Phase three: from accepting the ride to the drop-off
Once the driver accepts a request, Section 10(c) requires $1,000,000 in primary automobile liability insurance for death, personal injury and property damage. That coverage runs until the driver completes the transaction in the app or the ride is complete, whichever is later.
The statute lets that million be assembled from the driver’s own policy, from a policy the rideshare company maintains, or from a combination of the two. What matters to an injured person is that the total has to be there.
Section 10(c)(2) then adds a separate layer for passengers: $50,000 in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, running from the moment a passenger enters the vehicle until the moment they exit. That layer exists for the case where someone else causes the crash and turns out to have no insurance, or not enough of it.
The numbers side by side
| App phase | Per person | Per crash | Property damage | UM / UIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| App off (personal policy only) | $25,000 | $50,000 | $20,000 | Policy terms |
| Logged in, no ride accepted | $50,000 | $100,000 | $25,000 | Not required |
| Ride accepted until passenger exits | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $50,000 |
The $1,000,000 in the bottom row is a single combined limit for death, personal injury and property damage, not three separate pots. The uninsured and underinsured motorist figure in that row applies while a passenger is in the vehicle.
Why the waiting phase is the hard one
Most disputed rideshare claims in Illinois are really arguments about phase two. A driver who has just dropped someone off and is drifting toward a busier neighborhood is logged in, working, and covered at $50,000 per person. If that driver runs a light and badly injures someone, the difference between phase two and phase three is $950,000 of available coverage, and the only record of which phase applied lives in the rideshare company’s own data.
That is why the app record matters so much, and why it is worth preserving early. Trip logs, the driver’s status timeline and the timestamp on the ride request are the evidence that decides which subsection of Section 10 governs the claim.
Four rules in the Act that matter more than the numbers
The rideshare policy does not wait for a personal insurer to say no
Section 10(c)(4) is explicit: coverage under the million-dollar requirement “shall not be dependent on a personal automobile insurance policy first denying a claim,” and no personal policy has to deny anything first. This removes a delay tactic that would otherwise add months to a claim.
If the driver’s own policy lapsed, coverage starts at the first dollar
Under Section 10(d), whenever the insurance a driver was relying on has lapsed or ceased to exist, the rideshare company must provide the coverage the Act requires beginning with the first dollar of a claim. An injured person is not left holding the bag because a driver quietly stopped paying a premium.
The insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify
Section 10(c)(3) puts an affirmative duty to defend and indemnify on the insurer providing the million-dollar layer. That is a meaningful obligation, not a courtesy.
The Act does not cap what a company can owe
Section 10(e) states that the Section does not limit a rideshare company’s liability arising out of a crash “in any action for damages against a transportation network company for an amount above the required insurance coverage.” The mandatory minimums are a floor. They are not a ceiling on a serious case.
What counts as a ride in the first place
The Act defines its own terms, and the definition draws the line that the coverage phases follow. Under 625 ILCS 57/5, rideshare services “shall begin when a TNC driver accepts a request for transportation received through the TNC’s digital network,” continue while the driver transports the passenger, and “end when the passenger exits the TNC driver’s vehicle.”
| Question | What Section 10 actually says |
|---|---|
| How much insurance must exist? | A specific minimum for each phase, from $25,000 per person up to $1,000,000. |
| Who has to buy it? | The driver, the rideshare company, or both together. The Act cares that the total is there, not whose name is on it. |
| Does a personal insurer have to deny first? | No. Subsection (c)(4) removes that as a precondition. |
| What if the driver let their policy lapse? | The rideshare company covers it from the first dollar under subsection (d). |
| Is a claim capped at the minimum? | No. Subsection (e) preserves claims above the required coverage. |
| What is a claim worth? | The Act is silent. Minimum coverage and case value are different questions. |
Where the coverage sits alongside everything else
Rideshare coverage is one layer among several. Depending on the crash, an injured person in Illinois may also be looking at their own uninsured motorist coverage, at the coverages every Illinois driver must carry, and at how Illinois fault rules reduce a recovery when blame is shared. If the case resolves, medical liens then determine how much of the settlement actually reaches the injured person, and a policy limit demand is often how a claim against a capped policy gets resolved.
The deadline
Illinois gives an injured person two years from the date the cause of action accrued to file a personal injury lawsuit, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. That clock runs regardless of how cooperative an insurer seems, and it does not pause while a claim is being negotiated. Our guide to Illinois filing deadlines covers the exceptions.
Frequently asked questions
How much insurance does Uber carry in Illinois?
It depends on the phase. Illinois requires $1,000,000 in primary liability coverage from the moment a driver accepts a ride request until the passenger exits the vehicle, and $50,000 per person with $100,000 per incident while the driver is logged in but has not accepted a request. See 625 ILCS 57/10.
What if the Uber driver had the app on but no passenger?
That is the phase two situation. The required minimum drops to $50,000 for death and personal injury per person, $100,000 per incident, and $25,000 for property damage under Section 10(b). The rideshare company must also maintain contingent coverage at those amounts if the driver’s own policy excludes rideshare driving.
I was a passenger in an Uber that got hit by an uninsured driver. Am I covered?
Yes. Section 10(c)(2) requires $50,000 in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage from the moment you enter the vehicle until you exit it, which is designed for exactly that situation.
Does my own car insurance have to deny the claim first?
No. Section 10(c)(4) states that coverage under the million-dollar requirement is not dependent on a personal automobile insurance policy first denying a claim, and no personal policy is required to deny one.
What happens if the rideshare driver let their insurance lapse?
Section 10(d) requires the rideshare company to provide the coverage the Act mandates beginning with the first dollar of the claim whenever the driver’s own coverage has lapsed or ceased to exist.
Can I recover more than the minimum coverage?
The Act does not cap it. Section 10(e) preserves an action for damages against a rideshare company above the required insurance coverage. Whether more is actually recoverable depends on the facts, the injuries and what other coverage exists.
Is the driver an employee of Uber or Lyft?
The Act does not make them one. Under 625 ILCS 57/5, a rideshare company “is not deemed to own, control, operate, or manage the vehicles used by TNC drivers.” The insurance requirements in Section 10 exist independently of that question, which is why they matter so much to an injured person.
How long do I have to file after an Illinois rideshare crash?
Two years from the date the cause of action accrued, under 735 ILCS 5/13-202. Waiting also makes the app data and trip records harder to secure.
Talk to an Illinois rideshare accident lawyer
Which phase applied is not something an injured person can verify on their own, and it is worth several hundred thousand dollars of available coverage. If you were hurt in an Uber or Lyft crash, our Illinois Uber and Lyft accident lawyers and our Chicago rideshare accident team can request the trip records and identify every layer of coverage that applies.
Sources
- 625 ILCS 57/10, Transportation Network Providers Act, insurance requirements by phase
- 625 ILCS 57/5, definitions of TNC, TNC driver and TNC services
- 625 ILCS 57/1, short title of the Transportation Network Providers Act
- 625 ILCS 5/7-203, Illinois minimum automobile liability limits
- 735 ILCS 5/13-202, two-year limitations period for personal injury
This article explains Illinois law as of August 25, 2026 and is general information, not legal advice. Insurance minimums set by statute describe the coverage that must exist, not the value of any particular claim. Reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your own situation, speak with a lawyer.
