Uber Teams With Cover Genius to Insure Brazilian Drivers

Uber has teamed with insurtech Cover Genius to protect its drivers in Brazil.

The partnership, announced Tuesday (Aug. 8), integrates Uber and Cover Genius’ distribution platform XCover to offer drivers embedded protection as well as features like automated payouts and charging based on driving data.

“As the number of rideshare drivers around the world skyrockets, it’s critical for rideshare, delivery and other apps to partner with insurtechs to protect both sides of their marketplace with tech-forward solutions,” said Cover Genius Co-founder and CEO Angus McDonald.

“This key partnership ensures Uber’s drivers can get back on their feet if something goes wrong, and furthers our mission to protect the customers of the world’s largest digital companies.”

According to a Cover Genius news release, drivers who sign up for XCover will receive pay if injured, when driving or otherwise. The companies say the program is open now to drivers in Brazil, one of Uber’s largest markets.

“We are always looking for new options to protect the drivers who choose our platform, and with Cover Genius we are able to offer an efficient form of income protection which is optional and complements the regular insurance that already covers all of our trips,” said Araceli Almeida, senior manager, driver and safety operations of Uber in Brazil.

PYMNTS has also collaborated with Cover Genius on research that showed that embedded insurance offerings meet consumers’ desire for more direct and seamless ways of getting insurance coverage.

For example, 45% of consumers reported that they would be “very” or “extremely” interested in offers from their banks for specific types of coverage based on their bank transaction data, per the report “Embedded Insurance Report: Leveraging Transaction Data to Expand Coverage in a Digital-First Market.”

News of the company’s partnership with Uber comes one week after the delivery/ride-hailing giant released quarterly earnings that showed its cross-platform activity gaining ground as members engaged more often with the platform’s continuum of services.

As PYMNTS reported, members of the company’s premium paid programs are driving a large percentage of bookings — and could represent more than half of bookings in the years to come.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told analysts on a conference call that “for most of our history, profitable wasn’t the first thing that came up when you asked someone about Uber. In fact, many observers over the years fully claimed that we would never make any money.”

However, in the second quarter, as has been widely reported, Uber enjoyed its first-ever GAAP operating profit of $326 million.

The company also recorded what Khosrowshahi said was a new, all-time high of $15.1 billion in total earnings for the platform’s drivers and couriers.

During the question-and-answer session with analysts, the CEO said Uber should be able to expand its audience with a high single-digit to low double-digit percentage rate, saying that the frequency of usage has been on the rise and now comes to 5.6 uses per month.