When the Job Involves Driving: Your AB 60 License, Your Employer, and Whose Insurance Pays

Plenty of jobs put you behind a wheel: delivering parts, driving a crew to a site, running errands for a restaurant. Two separate questions come with that. One is what your employer is allowed to ask and do about your license. The other is whose insurance stands behind you while you drive for work. The statute answers the first; your policies answer the second.

What the statute says about employers

Section 12801.9(g)(2) makes it a violation of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act for an employer or other covered entity:

• To discriminate against a person because they hold or present a license issued under the section.
• To require a person to present a driver's license at all, unless having one is required by law, or is required by the employer and that requirement is otherwise permitted by law.

The statute also says it does not change an employer's obligations under federal employment-verification law. A job that genuinely involves driving can require a license; a job that does not cannot use "show me your license" as a screening tool.

How your employer must treat your license information

Subdivision (h): driver's license information an employer obtains must be treated as private and confidential, is exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act, may not be disclosed to any unauthorized person, and may be used only to establish identity and authorization to drive.

Whose insurance covers you: three situations

For a company vehicle, the owner's responsibility is written into law: under Vehicle Code section 17150, an owner is liable for injury or damage caused by the negligent driving of anyone using the vehicle with permission, "in the business of the owner or otherwise."

What you'll be asked for

By the employer: commonly a copy of your license, sometimes your driving record, and — if you will drive your own car — proof of your personal insurance. By your insurer: how the car is used and how many miles it covers in a year. Type of use is one of the rating factors California allows, so a commute-only rating on a car that makes deliveries is a mismatch worth fixing before a claim.

What varies

• How your personal policy defines business use, and what it excludes.
• Whether your employer carries coverage for employees' own cars on company business. If it does, that coverage commonly protects the employer and may not repair your car.
• A mileage reimbursement is money for gas and wear. It is not insurance.

If you crash on the job

The legal steps are the same as any collision: stop, exchange the required information, and file your own SR 1 with the DMV within 10 days when the law requires it — that duty is yours as the driver, not your employer's. Then report it to your employer and to whichever insurer covers the vehicle you were driving.

If your car now does some work, get a quote that reflects it before the next shift.