Car Insurance to Deliver Food: Everything You Need to Know About Insurance For Delivering Food

Delivering food for companies like Door Dash, Uber Eats, and Grub Hub is an excellent way to make money while having flexibility over your schedule. However, if you’ve recently begun a food delivery job, you’ll need to let your insurance company know. Having the right insurance coverage is essential to having access to the funds you need if an accident occurs.

Read on to learn everything you need to know about car insurance to deliver food. Then contact our Encore Insurance team today to add the necessary coverage to your auto insurance policy. 

Types of Car Insurance for Delivery Drivers

When you begin working for a delivery service, you’ll need to adjust your car insurance policy. Right now, you probably have a personal policy, which covers damage while driving your car for personal reasons.

However, when you begin using your car for business purposes, your personal insurance coverage may not extend to all situations you may encounter. While some personal auto insurance policies cover accidents or damage from business use, most do not. Instead, you’ll need to obtain one of the following coverage types:

• Commercial auto insurance: This policy type provides coverage for property damage and medical expenses resulting from car accidents while on the job.
• Business-use policy: This policy provides coverage when you use your car to deliver food, haul equipment, transport people (such as in an Uber driver job), and travel to distant worksites. You can sometimes add business use as an add-on to personal insurance policies.
• Delivery driver insurance: Some companies offer specific delivery or rideshare coverage. If your company offers this policy, you can feel confident it will provide the precise coverage you need. But if not, you can use one of the above policies instead to achieve the same coverage.

How To Know If You Need Business Insurance

If you deliver food as a full-time or part-time job, you’ll need to update your car insurance to reflect these business ventures. However, some people only deliver food occasionally or use their vehicles for activities that aren’t directly business-related. In these cases, it may be challenging to determine whether their personal policy will cover their actions.

Here are a few instances in which you may not need business insurance as a food delivery driver:

• You drive a company vehicle: If you work for a restaurant and drive one of the restaurant’s cars to deliver food, your business owner will probably have liability insurance in place. This coverage should extend to you whenever you use the company’s vehicle.
• Your personal insurance covers delivery driver claims: Most personal insurance policies do not cover delivery drivers. However, if you talk to your insurance and they state that you are covered under your personal policy, you won’t need to begin a business policy as well.
• You deliver food fewer than three times per month: If delivering food is just an occasional side hustle for you and you do it fewer than three times per month, you may not need business auto insurance.
• You deliver food for free: Let’s say you work in an office and pick up food for your coworkers a few times a week. Because you are not explicitly receiving payment to deliver food — and delivering food is not a requirement of your job — you won’t need business auto insurance.

However, all of the above conditions depend on your insurance company’s policies. As a result, we always recommend talking to your insurer to determine what coverage you need as a delivery driver.

Why Is Insurance More Expensive For Delivery Drivers?

Business auto policies are generally pricier than personal car insurance policies. Insurance companies typically base their rates on their customers’ risks of being involved in accidents or other scenarios that could damage their vehicles. As a delivery driver, you have an elevated risk of being involved in an accident, making your insurance premium more expensive.

Being a delivery driver elevates your risk of needing to file an insurance claim for a few reasons:

• You will probably spend more time driving each day than the average person.
• You may be more distracted while driving than the average person, as you’ll need to search for the correct address and view orders on your phone.
• You’ll probably want to complete delivery jobs as quickly as possible, which could lead you to drive over the speed limit or make unsafe decisions.

Tips to Save Money On Insurance as a Delivery Driver

If you deliver food as a job, you probably do not want your increased insurance rates to dig too far into your profits. Here are a few tips to save money on your delivery driver insurance premium:

Maintain a Good Driving Record

Insurance companies consider your driving habits when calculating your insurance premium. If you have multiple tickets and accidents in your driving history, your insurer will see you as a higher risk to insure, increasing your costs.

As a result, you should take every step you can to maintain a good driving record as a delivery driver. Avoid speeding, double-check intersections before turning, and keep your car distraction-free. Typically, the longer you maintain an accident-free, ticket-free record, the lower your premium will be.

Drive a Smaller or Less Expensive Vehicle

The cost to replace your vehicle contributes to your premiums. If you drive an expensive SUV, your insurance premium will probably be on the higher side. Switching to a smaller, older, or otherwise cheaper vehicle can save you on insurance costs and provide other cost benefits.

Deduct Your Insurance From Your Taxes

If you are a self-employed delivery driver, you may be able to deduct a portion of your insurance premium from your federal taxes. While this isn’t a direct way to save on your insurance, it can indirectly save you money as a delivery driver.

Altogether, if you deliver food for a job, you’ll need to make sure your insurance policy includes the proper coverage. Contact our Encore Insurance team today at 248-466-0200 to request your free quote for a business-use insurance policy.