The gig economy is growing. Delivery driving and ride-sharing are among the most popular types of gig work with nearly 3.2 million delivery and ride-share drivers in the US today. As a result, businesses can easily take advantage of the increasing demand for gig work by driving growth without hiring full-time employees.
Despite the opportunities the gig industry affords, hiring gig workers brings a new set of risks, particularly when hiring delivery drivers and ride-share drivers. Not only is auto insurance a requirement for any gig employee driving on behalf of your business, but the process of verifying that gig workers carry the appropriate coverage can be time-consuming and costly for businesses. Luckily, there is a solution: using consumer-permissioned data (CPD) to automate auto insurance verification.
Risk management and insurance
There is always associated risk when hiring gig workers—or any worker for that matter. When hiring delivery and ride-share drivers, employees not typically covered by traditional benefits (such as health insurance or workers' compensation), businesses face the risk that the drivers’ insurance coverage for accidents may not be up to a business's standard requirements. This puts both the driver and the business at financial and liable risk in the event of an accident.
To combat this risk and protect their interests, businesses need to verify that their workers have adequate auto insurance coverage. Insurance verification should be completed not only at the hiring stage of the driver but also on a regular basis to ensure coverage is sufficient throughout the driver’s tenure with the company (since insurance coverage can change if a driver changes policies, providers, etc. to get a better price or value for their coverage).
The cost of manual auto insurance verification
Verifying insurance can be a time-consuming and costly process, especially for businesses that rely on a large number of gig workers. The process typically involves contacting the insurance company directly or requesting proof of insurance from the policyholder, and confirming that the policy is active, the coverage is adequate, and the policyholder is authorized to drive the vehicle. This process may require reviewing documents such as insurance cards, declarations pages, and policy documents just to ensure the coverage is sufficient for the business’s insurance needs. Pulling insurance policies from individuals and physically verifying the policy coverage information is intensely manual, taking excessive time, energy, and money to verify even a single driver’s insurance. The process is burdensome for the drivers, too, who are responsible for pulling the required documentation. Waiting for manual verification can delay the onboarding process, pushing their start date further back, adding financial and personal stress.
Automation can simplify this process and improve the verification process for businesses and gig workers. But how does it work for auto insurance?
Automating insurance verification using consumer-permissioned data
Automating insurance verification is simply leveraging technology to instantly pull the required coverage data from a driver’s insurance policy. The easiest way to take advantage of automated insurance verification is by using consumer-permissioned data (CPD), which allows the business to instantly ensure the collected coverage data is sufficient for their requirements. It also provides the new driver with a better user experience that seamlessly connects their insurance data as part of the onboarding process in a few simple steps.
CPD uses credentialed data to gain access to the necessary consumer information. For businesses that hire gig working drivers, this means that gig workers would be required to access their online insurance account in order to submit their insurance policy information directly from the source for businesses to verify. CPD platforms, like MeasureOne, use APIs to pull the requested information and provide it directly to the requesting party.
For businesses who hire gig workers as drivers, the process can easily be added to the driver sign-up flow via API integration. It’s simple:
- The prospective gig worker begins the signup process to become a driver
- As part of the onboarding flow, the user lands on a screen to connect their insurance details for verification
- On the backend, the CPD platform transmits that consented data back to the business instantly, enabling a completely seamless onboarding experience for the gig worker
When businesses rely on consumer-permissioned data versus manual means of collecting and verifying insurance information, they are able to instantly verify real-time auto insurance coverage to reduce risk for their company. It also enables businesses to:
Streamline the verification processes: By using CPD for instant data collection, there is no need to manually pull coverage policies and scour paper (or even .PDF) documentation for the right information. Businesses can reduce the time and resources simply by using CPD to ensure that gig workers have adequate coverage. Plus, with MeasureOne, even if a driver submits an image, PDF, or other type of file with their coverage, the file is instantly processed with 100% accuracy. MeasureOne’s proprietary, automated, deterministic document processing then delivers the data directly to the business.
Monitor insurance using recurring data requests: Because auto insurance coverage can change on a regular basis, using consumer-permissioned data allows businesses to monitor insurance coverage on a regular basis—MeasureOne makes recurring data requests easy so businesses can stay up-to-date with gig workers' insurance coverage.
Reduce admin costs: When you combine streamlined processes and instant accurate data, using CPD to verify auto insurance ultimately helps businesses to reduce administrative costs. By streamlining the verification process and using CPD to automatically check insurance coverage, businesses can reduce the time and resources required to ensure that gig workers are properly insured.
Use MeasureOne as your partner for automating insurance verification
While the growth of the gig economy presents new risks for businesses that rely on gig workers for services, using the right tools to automate the process of verifying auto insurance can reduce the risk, streamline outdated processes, and save costs. MeasureOne can help accomplish this.
With MeasureOne, your business can verify auto insurance policies instantly and gain instant access to a consumer's insurance policy to ensure their coverage follows your requirements to eliminate risk. Using consumer-permissioned data, MeasureOne provides automated access to insurance data directly from primary sources, ensuring the most up-to-date auto insurance information from your gig workers.
MeasureOne offers a variety of integration options:
- Hosted portal: With no development involved, MeasureOne provides hosted web experiences to access and share consumer-permissioned data
- API: Integrate the consumer experience natively into your application. Results will automatically populate your platform
- Third-party platform: MeasureOne integrates with third party platforms allowing for easier integration and deployment using your existing operational workflow
Interested in more? Try MeasureOne’s platform risk-free for 14 days to see how CPD can make risk management easier for you and your business.