It's common for the turns to last a week and may be done on a rotating basis. These people frequently live in the same area and work in the same office or plant, taking turns driving or regularly riding in one car and paying the owner a reasonable fee to help pay for gasoline, maintenance and wear and tear. The practice of a parent taking a group of children on an outing, to a Little League baseball game, and the like is commonplace. This concern is valid as many auto policies have restrictions. There is slight variation in language among policies issued by various insurers, but the intent is the same, to exclude the use of a personal auto for transporting people or property for income.
Coverage is unaffected because the driving exposure is essentially the same.
In other words, such use calls for more careful underwriting, different or special coverages and, more important, a higher commercial premium. However, group-driving arrangements are not significantly different than the routine personal use of a car since personal auto premiums contemplate using the car for commuting, vacations, personal errands, etc. Car owners may worry if their insurance is affected if another member of a car pool is driving their car. The answer is that any person using the vehicle with the car owner's permission is covered along with the car owner. Obviously, a car pool relief driver has the named insured's permission, so coverage would still apply.