Recent Tennessee Legislation Affecting Transportation Network Companies Like Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, Wingz, and Summon, Etc.

The Tennessee General Assembly recently enacted legislation that deals with what is now called a transportation network company ("TNC"). A TNC is a company like Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, Wingz, and Summon.  TNCs have become increasingly popular of late and their popularity shows no signs of waning. As a result, this legislation seemed necessary. The cite to it is as follows: Act of Apr. 22, 2015, ch. 520, 2015 Tenn. Pub. Acts 648 (enacting the Transportation Network Company Services Act, codified at T.C.A. §§ 55-12-141, 56-7-1118 & 65-15-301 to -311), available at http://share.tn.gov/sos/acts/109/pub/pc0520.pdf (last visited Aug. 20, 2015).

This legislation deals with, among other things, priority-of-coverage and amount-of-coverage issues. If you are a lawyer who has an auto tort case in Tennessee involving a TNC driver, this is must-read legislation.