An internal sales-training document from Geico suggests an answer to the question of whether policyholders can give paid rides through Uber and Lyft while maintaining their personal coverage: Nope.

"If a customer advises of ridesharing (UBER, Lyft, etc) as part of their usage please Group Reject the policy using "Vehicle Use- Unusual Exposure" reads the document, which was obtained by the Chronicle. "If a customer advises of ridesharing (UBER, Lyft, etc) as part of their usage please refer the policy number through Outlook to R* Fraud Unit.," it continues.

There's also information on how to handle a call with a customer inquiring about coverage for ridesharing: The canned response is "Geico offers a personal auto policy and does not offer coverage for any kind of livery including taxis or limousines and this would fall in that category." It also sounds like if any of your cars are used for ridesharing, then your whole policy could be in jeopardy. In this case, you'd have to prove you no longer drive for "UBER, LYFT etc" to maintain your policy.

Geico ranks as the nation’s second-largest auto insurer (by volume of premiums). Others, such as State Farm and Allstate have similar rules, and as we learned over the summer, all these insurance companies are bing pushed by the California legislature to craft "hybrid policies" that could adequately cover drivers both when they're carrying a rideshare customer, and when they're using their car for personal use. Such policies are going to be necessary nationwide in order to keep UberX and Lyft drivers from remaining in a legal limbo when they get into an accident.

Discussion of cancellations from personal perspectives are all over uberpeople.net, a network for driver information and water cooler conversations, with the following a representative example:

Fortunately, it's a supportive community, and UberRey came to the rescue:

It doesn't sounds like UberRey is a lawyer, but he's certainly a team player.