Clean Mobility Options Grantee HACLA-09 is providing written
public comment to urge the CARB Board to approve critical funding
to support its grantees through rising costs for insurance and
vehicles. Since our notification of funding as part of the
first cohort, HACLA and its partners UCLA and Green Commuter have
been working in good faith to provide and maintain the appropriate
insurance coverages, but it has proved very difficult for our
mobility partner/operator Green Commuter to obtain Excess Auto
coverage for the limits imposed by CARB. There are very few
carriers that will even write up a policy to meet the CMO grant
requirements and the supportive cost to obtain this coverage is
astronomical at over $110,000 per year for this single
policy. It should be noted, this total is just to
cover half the total cars we have listed
in our original grant proposal -- which our team has to reconsider
from both from insurance cost and rising cost of obtaining electric
cars for the car share fleet.
We believe
EV infrastructure and education regarding usage of the cars is a
critical component towards ensuring the most disadvantaged in our
communities are not left behind and can be made ready to transition
from gas powered transportation in time for the imposed deadline
via recent CA legislation. Grantee HACLA-09 and its partners are dedicated to being
creative and continuing to work to kick off of this grant for
benefit of the disadvantaged households we aim to serve via our car
share pilot.
If CARB is
not willing to offer this supportive funding, it MUST otherwise
allow waivers for coverages required or proposals like ours may
have no choice but to rescind our ability to continue as a grantee
within this wonderful opportunity. We hope this will not be a
necessity and urge the Board to offer this funding to further
support grantees with rising costs or otherwise allow waivers of
the required insurance coverages particularly for Excess
Auto.
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