Unpaid ride-alongs for driver applicants: working interview rules, insurance, and rider privacy

Having a driver applicant ride along or drive for a day with no pay is usually a legal risk. If the applicant does any work, or learns the job on your time and you expect to hire them, federal wage law can treat the time as employment, and state law can be stricter. A ride-along also puts a person who is not credentialed in a van that carries members. That raises questions about who is covered if something goes wrong, what the broker allows, and who may see a rider’s information. This page takes each in turn. The wider hiring sequence is in the guide to hiring NEMT drivers.

Is an unpaid working interview legal?

An unpaid working interview is legal only if the applicant is not an employee, and an applicant who works is an employee. The Fair Labor Standards Act defines “employ” to include “to suffer or permit to work” (29 U.S.C. 203(g)). It does not matter that nobody called it a job.

The Labor Department has enforced this against working interviews. A December 2018 news release described a Tennessee dental practice that was ordered to pay $50,000 in back wages and liquidated damages to 10 employees. Among the violations, investigators found that it required candidates for hire to perform a “working interview” to conclude their application and did not pay them for those hours (Department of Labor). The practice was not a ride company, but the rule is the same one that applies to yours.

States add their own statements.

• Washington. The Department of Labor and Industries’ Administrative Policy ES.A.1, revised December 19, 2024, says volunteers are not allowed in a for-profit business, and that a for-profit employer must pay wages to any individual it permits to perform any work.
• California. The Labor Commissioner’s enforcement manual says that in California no state statute or regulation expressly exempts persons in an internship from wage and hour laws (section 46.6.4, July 2017 text).

When does a ride-along count as work?

A ride-along counts as work when the applicant does anything useful for the company, and it may count even when the applicant only learns, since the training is for the job you plan to give. Three situations show the range:

1. Doing the job. The applicant helps load a wheelchair, secures a chair, collects a signature, calls dispatch or drives. This is productive work and it is paid.
2. Learning the job. The applicant sits beside an experienced driver for a shift and asks questions. Nobody is helped today, but the applicant is trained for the role.
3. Watching a trip. The applicant rides in a rear seat to see what the work looks like, and takes no part.

The Labor Department’s test for unpaid trainees at for-profit employers is the primary beneficiary test in Fact Sheet 71, updated January 2018. It weighs seven factors, and no single one decides the case:

• Both sides understand that no pay is expected, and a promise of pay, express or implied, points toward employee status.
• The training resembles what an educational setting would give.
• The experience is tied to formal education through coursework or credit.
• The schedule fits the academic calendar.
• The length is limited to the period when the person gets real learning benefits.
• The work complements paid staff and does not replace them.
• Both sides understand that the arrangement carries no guarantee of a paid job afterward.

The fact sheet was written for interns and students, so it is the nearest guidance, not a rule written for driver applicants. Applied here, a driver applicant has no coursework, no school calendar, and a ride-along that usually ends in an offer. Most factors lean toward pay. For a person who is already your employee, the same logic shows up in 29 CFR 785.27 to 785.29: training your employer requires and that is directly related to the job is hours worked. Only the third situation above gets close to unpaid, and it still faces those seven factors and brings its own problems with privacy and the broker.

What happens if you pay for the trial?

Paying for a trial shift settles the wage question and starts the paperwork of a hire. The person is owed at least the minimum wage for every hour. The Labor Department says that federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and that “some state laws provide greater employee protections; employers must comply with both” (Labor Department).

A paid trial also means:

• An I-9. USCIS says the employee must complete Section 1 no later than the first day of employment, and the employer completes Section 2 within three business days of the hire. Do not give Section 1 to anyone who has not accepted an offer.
• A timecard. Record the hours worked.
• Workers’ compensation. An employee’s injury belongs to workers’ compensation, which is the next section’s point.
• The same checks as any driver. The background check, driving record and drug test questions in starting before the background check clears all apply.

Who is covered if an applicant is hurt in the van?

Which policy responds depends on whether the person is an employee, so an unpaid applicant creates a gap you cannot see until a claim. The standard ISO business auto form, edition 10 13, treats “anyone else while using with your permission a covered auto you own, hire or borrow” as an insured, with listed exceptions. It also excludes bodily injury to an employee of the insured arising out of employment, and any obligation under a workers’ compensation law (exclusions 3 and 4), plus injury to a fellow employee (exclusion 5).

So an applicant who is hurt as a passenger may have a claim under the auto liability coverage if the person is not an employee, and a workers’ compensation claim if a state agency or court finds the person was working. Forms written for NEMT fleets can differ from the standard one. Ask your agent in writing whether the policy covers a non-employee passenger and a non-employee driver, and keep the answer.

Driving adds a third question. A permissive user is an insured under the standard form, but your insurer’s driver rules still apply, and a named driver exclusion removes coverage when that person drives. Insurance approval for drivers covers what insurers ask, and negligent entrustment explains the liability if you hand keys to someone the insurer did not approve.

What broker contracts say about extra people and unapproved drivers

Brokers decide who may ride and who may drive on their trips, and an applicant is neither. MTM’s Pennsylvania agreement has the provider transport the member and one escort or attendant as requested, and it requires MTM’s prior approval for multiple escorts or attendants. That agreement also keeps any driver or attendant from working until credentialing is complete, and MTM does not pay for a trip an uncredentialed driver runs. A ride-along applicant is not a member, an escort or a credentialed driver, so get the broker’s written approval before an applicant rides on one of its trips.

CareOregon’s manual points to a better path for the driving test. It asks for a vehicle orientation and a road test in the kind of van the driver will actually use, and it puts both ahead of “transporting members and other passengers.” So the road test comes before any member is aboard, and an empty van in your yard meets that. The road test form gives a scored version.

Rider privacy: HIPAA treats trainees as workforce

An applicant who rides along sees a member’s name, address and destination, and HIPAA treats a person doing work for you as part of your workforce whether or not you pay them. The regulation defines workforce as “employees, volunteers, trainees, and other persons whose conduct, in the performance of work for a covered entity or business associate, is under the direct control of such covered entity or business associate, whether or not they are paid by the covered entity or business associate” (45 CFR 160.103). MTM’s agreement also requires driver training programs to include HIPAA, so privacy training is part of becoming a driver.

Broker manuals add to this. MTM’s Virginia handbook, approved in August 2026, tells providers not to display or discuss member information with unauthorized parties during transportation. CareOregon’s manual tells drivers to avoid viewing member information on paper or screens where other passengers can see it. Both lines treat other people in the van as an exposure risk, so bring the applicant inside your privacy rules first. Before any ride with a member aboard, have the applicant sign a confidentiality agreement and finish privacy training, and keep the manifest out of sight. The HIPAA guide for drivers covers the training.

A safer way to let an applicant try the job

Test the applicant’s driving in your yard, hire on conditions, and put the first real ride after training.

1. Run the road test with an empty van. Use your yard or a quiet route, a trainer in the passenger seat, and no member aboard. Score it on a form.
2. Make the offer conditional. List the background, driving record, drug test, insurer and broker approvals the job depends on.
3. Pay for orientation. Classroom time and a paid shadow shift both go on a timecard.
4. Finish privacy training first. The applicant signs the confidentiality agreement before hearing any member’s details.
5. Ride along after approvals. The first shift with a member aboard comes after the insurer and the broker have accepted the driver, with the trainer driving.

The driver training guide lists the courses that belong in orientation.

Recording paid trial and orientation hours

Hours for a paid orientation shift are hours worked, and they belong on the same record as every other shift. HealthRide records driver hours from real clock-ins, and the drivers report and timecards show them person by person. A new driver’s credential dates, such as the license and the CPR certification, go into fleet management, where HealthRide sends a reminder before they expire and flags an expired one if a dispatcher tries to assign that driver.