What Is a Transportation Network Company (TNC)?
What Is a Transportation Network Company (TNC)?
A transportation network company, commonly abbreviated TNC, is a platform that uses a digital application to connect passengers with drivers who provide prearranged rides for compensation. Uber and Lyft are the two largest TNCs operating in the United States. The TNC designation carries legal significance because it triggers specific insurance and regulatory requirements that do not apply to other types of gig work.
What qualifies as a transportation network company?
A TNC arranges transportation of passengers in personal vehicles through a digital platform. The core elements are: passenger transportation (not goods delivery), prearranged via an app, using non-commercial vehicles owned or operated by independent contractors. These elements distinguish TNCs from taxis (regulated as common carriers under municipal law), from ride-sharing carpools (no compensation), and from delivery services (goods, not passengers).
Georgia defines a TNC in O.C.G.A. § 33-1-24, which establishes the state’s TNC insurance requirements. The definition in that statute covers prearranged rides for passengers and sets the minimum liability, UM/UIM, and physical damage requirements that Uber and Lyft must maintain during each coverage period.
Why does the TNC designation matter for insurance coverage?
State TNC statutes create a mandatory insurance floor that platform operators must carry regardless of what their platform contracts say. They also expressly authorize personal auto insurers to exclude TNC activity from personal policies, which is the legal basis for the livery exclusion that applies when a driver logs into the Uber or Lyft app.
Platforms that do not qualify as TNCs – such as DoorDash, Instacart, Amazon Flex, and Gopuff – fall outside TNC statute coverage. Delivery drivers for those platforms have no state-mandated minimum coverage floor and are covered only by whatever each platform voluntarily provides under its own commercial insurance program.
How is the TNC label commonly misused in the gig economy?
Delivery apps, food courier platforms, and other gig platforms are sometimes described informally as rideshare companies, but they are not TNCs under most state insurance statutes. The distinction is consequential: a DoorDash driver in Georgia who has an accident while delivering food has no coverage floor under Georgia’s TNC statute, while an Uber driver in the same scenario has access to statutory minimum coverage.
Rideshare insurance for Georgia Uber and Lyft drivers
Delivery driver insurance in Georgia
Rideshare coverage periods
The livery exclusion explained