Courier and delivery
Courier Insurance
for vans, cars, bikes and delivery riders
Courier insurance covers a vehicle used to deliver goods for payment. It has two halves that work differently: the motor policy, which must be on a hire and reward class of use, and goods in transit cover for the parcels. Most courier claims that go wrong go wrong on the second half.
- Vans, cars, mopeds and motorbikes
- Parcels, same day and food delivery
- Owner drivers through to fleets
Quick answerCourier insurance is motor cover written for hire and reward, which is what delivering other people’s goods for payment requires, usually alongside goods in transit cover for the load itself. Tell MyMoneyComparison.com about the vehicle and the work once, and specialist UK brokers can come back with quotes to compare.
The basics
What Is Courier Insurance?
Courier insurance is motor insurance for a vehicle used to deliver goods for payment, written on a hire and reward class of use. Most couriers buy it alongside goods in transit cover for the load, because the motor policy protects the vehicle and other road users, not the parcels.
It is worth being clear from the start that these are two separate things that fail in different ways. The motor half goes wrong when the class of use is wrong. The goods half goes wrong when a security condition was not met. Almost everything else on this page follows from that split.
Who needs it
- Self-employed couriers delivering parcels multi-drop
- Owner drivers contracted to a parcel network
- Food and takeaway delivery riders and drivers
- Same day and urgent courier services
- Businesses running a courier fleet of two or more vehicles
- Anyone carrying other people’s goods for a fee, however occasionally
Two halves, not one
What a courier policy contains
- Hire and reward useThe class of use that makes it legal
- Third party liabilityRequired by law before you drive
- The vehicleDamage, fire and theft on comprehensive
- Goods in transitThe parcels, and the part with conditions
- Public liabilityInjury or damage at the doorstep
The class of use
Why Hire and Reward Is the Words That Matter
Delivering other people’s goods for payment needs a hire and reward class of use. An ordinary car or van policy does not include it, and neither does business use. Carrying goods you own yourself is a different thing again and does not need it.
| Class of use | What it allows | Covers delivering for payment |
|---|---|---|
| Social, domestic and pleasure | Your own journeys | No |
| Business use | Driving for your own or your employer’s business | No |
| Carriage of own goods | Moving goods you own, such as your own stock | Not for other people’s goods |
| Hire and reward, sometimes labelled haulage | Carrying other people’s goods for payment | Yes, this is the one |
The labels are not standardised, so match the work rather than the word. There is no statutory definition of hire and reward or of haulage as a class of use. One major insurer names its fourth class “haulage of goods for hire and reward” as a single option and describes van couriers delivering packages and takeaways under it. Another comparison site tells couriers to pick haulage use for exactly that work. Elsewhere in the trade, courier means multi-drop and haulage means single-load long distance. Describe what you actually do and let the broker map it to the right label, because the labels move.
Your own goods are not hire and reward
Carrying stock you own is carriage of own goods, not hire and reward. The Financial Ombudsman Service has upheld a complaint against an insurer that argued a trader buying wholesale stock to resell should have declared hire and reward. He owned the goods, so it was own goods, and the insurer was told to pay.
Getting it wrong is the uninsured scenario
Delivering for payment on a policy without hire and reward means the vehicle is being used outside the permitted use. Purpose of use, unlike area of use, is something a policy may genuinely restrict, which is why this is the real exposure rather than the one usually written about.
The vehicle changes the product, not the principle
Van courier cover, car courier cover and motorbike courier cover are rated differently, but all three need the same class of use before anything else matters.
The sections
What Does Courier Insurance Cover?
A courier policy covers third party liability as a minimum and, on comprehensive, the vehicle itself. Goods in transit for the parcels, public liability, loss of earnings, breakdown, a replacement vehicle, legal expenses and excess protection are added according to the work.
Third party liability
Injury to other people and damage to their property. The legal minimum, and the part you cannot drive without.
The vehicle
Accidental damage, fire and theft on a comprehensive policy. Third party fire and theft and third party only are the cheaper tiers.
Goods in transit
The parcels themselves, usually up to a sum insured per vehicle. This is a separate section with its own conditions, and it is where courier claims most often come unstuck.
Public liability
Injury or damage you cause away from the driving, which for a courier usually means at the doorstep, in a loading bay or on a customer’s premises.
Loss of earnings
A contribution while the vehicle is off the road after a claim. A parked van earns nothing, and multi-drop work does not wait.
Breakdown and recovery
Roadside assistance for a vehicle doing high mileage and constant stop-start work, often with onward transport for the load.
Replacement vehicle
A like-for-like van rather than a courtesy hatchback. A car is no use if the round needs a Luton.
Legal expenses and uninsured loss
Recovering your excess and losses from an at-fault third party, and cover for contract disputes with a client.
Excess protection
Refunds the excess after a fault claim. Courier excesses run higher than private van excesses, which is what makes this worth pricing.
Fleet terms
Once there is more than a couple of vehicles a courier fleet policy is usually simpler and often cheaper than separate covers.
Two-wheel delivery
Moped, scooter and delivery rider cover are separate products with their own rating and their own availability.
Short-term and on-demand
Some of this market is sold by the hour, day or month rather than annually, which suits seasonal or part-time rounds.
If you read one part of the policy documents properly, make it the goods in transit section. The motor half of a courier policy is broadly similar wherever you buy it. The goods half varies enormously between insurers, and the next three sections are about exactly how.
The condition that decides theft claims
The Unattended Vehicle Clause
Theft is a covered peril on a goods in transit policy. Theft from an unattended vehicle is hedged with conditions: locked and secured, keys removed, alarm or immobiliser set, sometimes signs of forced entry, sometimes nothing left overnight. If the conditions are not met, the theft claim can be refused even though theft is covered.
Locked, secured, keys removed
The baseline in every wording we looked at. One insurer requires all points of access closed and secured by all locks and other protections and all keys removed. Another adds that windows and other openings must be securely closed.
Alarm and immobiliser set, not just fitted
Several wordings require an approved immobiliser to be put into operation, or an approved alarm to be switched on and operational, whenever the vehicle is left. Fitted is not the test. In operation is the test.
Signs of forced entry
One insurer excludes theft from an unattended vehicle unless there are outward signs of forced entry. A van opened with a relay attack or a cloned key can leave no marks at all.
Overnight windows, and they contradict each other
One insurer excludes theft from an unattended vehicle between 9pm and 6am unless it is garaged in locked premises or watched. Another published summary says 7pm to 8am. A third has no overnight restriction in that section at all. There is no market standard, so never assume one.
Some schedules exclude whole areas
One insurer offers an optional clause excluding theft that occurs within the perimeter of the M25 entirely. It is not standard and not on every schedule, but it exists, and a London courier who has not read for it would never guess.
Theft-attractive goods get tighter terms
Spirits, tobacco, audio visual kit, computer equipment and non-ferrous metals commonly carry their own lower sub-limits and their own overnight parking requirements, separate from the main cover.
Here is the part that surprises people: none of the wordings we examined defines the word “unattended”. The word that decides the claim is left to the general law, and the courts have set a strict test. A vehicle is attended only where someone is keeping it under observation and is positioned to spot anyone interfering with it. The Court of Appeal has applied that test and held that people asleep in a separate part of a building were not attending what was inside it. In an older transit case a driver who left a van for fifteen minutes, unlocked with the keys in, while he went into a shop, found his insurers were not liable. Nipping in with the engine running is not attending the vehicle.
And the burden can sit with you. At least one wording provides expressly that proof of compliance rests with the insured. That turns an abstract point into a practical one: a courier who cannot evidence that the van was locked and the alarm set may lose the claim even if both were true. Dashcams, telematics, alarm logs and a photograph of the locked van at a drop are not paranoia, they are the evidence.
Read the goods section before you buy, not after a theft. More on goods in transit cover for couriers
The protection that mostly is not one
Why the Insurance Act Will Not Save a Stolen Load
The Insurance Act 2015 stopped insurers refusing a claim over a breach that had nothing to do with the loss. That genuinely helps a courier whose alarm was off and whose goods were then destroyed in a crash. It does much less for a courier whose goods were stolen, because the security condition existed to reduce exactly that risk.
Where the Act helps
A breach that had nothing to do with it
The immobiliser was not set, and the load was then destroyed in a road accident, or by fire, or by water. The breach could not have increased the risk of that loss, so the insurer cannot rely on it. This is a real and useful protection and it is what the Act was for.
- Accident damage after a security breach
- Fire or water damage
- Any loss the condition was not about
Where it does not
The goods were actually stolen
To rely on the protection you have to show the breach could not have increased the risk of the loss that actually happened. When the loss is theft from an unattended vehicle and the breached term was a security condition, that is close to unarguable. The Act is structurally the wrong tool for this scenario.
- Theft after a security breach
- The condition existed to reduce theft risk
- The first case to consider it read it narrowly
In the first English case to construe the provision, the Commercial Court held that the question is the effect of compliance with the whole term, not the consequences of the particular breach. That is a harder test for a policyholder than most summaries of the Act suggest. Competitor pages that mention the Insurance Act at all tend to present it as a shield against technical declines. On the facts that matter most to couriers, it largely is not one, and knowing that before you leave a van is worth more than knowing it afterwards.
How much you can actually recover
Goods in Transit Limits and the Average Trap
Goods in transit limits are usually expressed per vehicle, sitting under a policy aggregate, with lower sub-limits for theft-attractive goods. On some bases of cover, carrying more than the sum insured does not simply cap the claim, it reduces it proportionately.
Worked example · illustration only
Why underinsurance bites twice
- Sum insured per vehicleWhat is on the schedule£5,000
- Value actually on boardA busy day, a full van£10,000
- What most people expect to recoverThe limit they paid for£5,000
- What a proportionate clause can payA share, not the limit£2,500
Per vehicle, not per parcel
The dominant form is a sum insured for property on any one vehicle, with an aggregate for any one event across the policy. A consignment is usually defined separately, as everything sent at one time in one load to one destination.
Your client’s terms cap what they can claim from you
Parcel networks do not use the per-tonne caps the haulage industry runs on. They write flat per-consignment limits, and they are low: one major parcel carrier caps liability at £75 per shipment unless extra cover is bought, and one same-day network at £250 where no value was declared and no fee paid.
Haulage works differently
If you also do full-load work, that side of the market runs on trading conditions with a per-tonne cap, and the goods cover is often written by reference to them. HGV and haulage cover is a different conversation from parcel work.
Two numbers are worth knowing before you next load up: the most your policy will pay for goods on one vehicle, and the most your client’s terms let them claim from you. They are set by different people for different reasons and they are rarely the same number.
What the app does and does not do
What the Delivery Platforms Actually Insure
Not the parcels. None of the major UK delivery platforms publishes goods in transit cover for the items you are carrying. What they publish is a mix of personal accident and income protection, some limited public liability, and in one case a daily top-up for third party cover. All of them expect you to hold your own motor policy.
Deliveroo
Requires riders using cars and motorised scooters to hold their own hire and reward cover. Provides free personal injury and income protection, and public liability that covers scooter and car riders while they are walking to collect or drop off, which is not third party motor cover. Deliveroo rider cover
Uber Eats
Requires a certificate covering food delivery, or hire and reward not excluding food delivery. It also references a partner protection scheme, the scope of which is not set out on that page, so treat it as unknown rather than as cover. Uber Eats delivery cover
Just Eat
Lists hire and reward insurance as one of three documents a courier must have, alongside photo identification and a driving licence. No platform-provided insurance was found on its published pages. Just Eat courier cover
Evri
Says self-employed couriers must have the correct level of third party cover while out delivering, and offers a top-up product at a little over a pound a day, charged only on days served. Read what it is: third party cover, not goods in transit. Evri courier cover
Amazon Flex and the parcel networks
Insurance requirements are not published on every platform’s public site, so anything you read about them elsewhere is somebody else’s summary. Ask the network directly and get it in writing. Cover for Amazon Flex drivers
The gap nobody states plainly
None of these platforms publishes cover for the parcels or the food you are carrying. If the load is lost or stolen, it is your goods in transit policy or nothing. Food riders in particular often have no goods cover at all, because the main scooter products cover the bike and the liability rather than the meal.
Contract terms behind an app login are not public, so we cannot tell you what your particular agreement says about liability for a lost parcel. That is the single most useful thing to establish before you take a round, and the only reliable way to establish it is to read your own contract.
Bikes, mopeds and takeaways
Cover for Delivery Riders
Delivering food on a moped, scooter or motorbike for payment needs hire and reward cover in the same way a van does. The products, the rating and the availability are different, and pay-as-you-go and monthly policies are far more common on two wheels than on four.
Mopeds and scooters
The volume end of food delivery. Moped courier cover and scooter courier cover are written for short-hop urban work with high stop frequency, which rates differently from any private bike policy.
Motorbike couriers
Same-day document and parcel work over longer distances. Motorbike courier cover usually comes with a goods in transit section, which most food-focused products do not.
Licence and age
A compulsory basic training certificate is enough to ride a moped on the right licence category, but insurers set their own minimum age and experience terms on top of that, and those are often stricter than the licensing rules.
The food itself is usually uninsured
Most scooter and moped delivery products cover the bike and the liability rather than the order being carried. If you want the food covered, ask specifically, because it is usually not there by default.
Pay as you go and monthly
Cover sold by the hour, day or month is common on two wheels. It suits riders who work evenings and weekends, and it avoids paying for a full year of hire and reward that you only use twice a week.
Car-based food delivery
Delivering takeaways by car is still hire and reward. Takeaway driver cover and fast food delivery cover are the products written for it, and an ordinary car policy is not.
Exclusions
What Is Not Covered?
Courier policies exclude use outside the permitted class, theft from an unattended vehicle where the security conditions were not met, defective packing, delay and the losses that flow from it, wear and tear, and certain categories of goods unless they are specifically added.
Working on the wrong class of use
The motor half of the problem. Delivering for payment on a policy without hire and reward puts the vehicle outside its permitted use.
Theft from an unattended vehicle outside the conditions
The goods half. Covered in full above, and the reason to read the security conditions before you need them.
Defective or inadequate packing
A recurring exclusion. If the item was not packed properly for transit, the damage is usually outside the cover.
Delay, and loss that flows only from delay
Late is not an insured peril. Nor, on most wordings, is the financial loss a customer suffers because a delivery was late or misdelivered.
Wear, tear and inherent vice
Gradual deterioration and anything inherent in the goods themselves. Insurance responds to sudden accidental events.
Living creatures and some categories outright
Livestock, and in many wordings commercial or domestic removals unless specifically added. Money, valuables and dangerous goods usually need their own arrangement.
Worth knowing now
What Is Changing for Couriers
From 1 October 2026 right to work checking duties extend to gig economy and platform workers, which brings delivery platforms squarely into scope. If you courier through an app or a parcel network, expect to be asked to prove your right to work.
Right to work checks, from 1 October 2026
The duty to carry out right to work checks is being extended beyond employees to cover gig economy and platform working. Delivery platforms are within scope. In practice that means document checks before or when you start, and it applies to self-employed couriers as well as employed ones.
Have your documents ready
A passport or share code, and proof of your right to work, are worth having to hand rather than scrambling for. Losing access to a platform over paperwork costs more than any premium saving.
It does not change your insurance
This is an immigration and employment compliance change, not an insurance one. It is on this page because it is imminent and because it affects whether you can work, which matters more to a courier than most policy detail.
Pricing
What Affects the Cost of Courier Insurance?
Courier insurance has no standard price. Insurers weigh your age, licence and claims history, how long you have been trading, the vehicle and its security, the radius and hours of the work, the value and type of goods carried, and the cover level and goods limit chosen.
You
- Age and licence heldYears on a full licence, and years of courier experience.
- Claims and convictionsRecent motor claims and endorsements both count.
- How long tradingA new courier business rates harder than an established one.
The vehicle
- Type and valueVan, car, moped or motorbike, and what it costs to replace.
- Age and securityAlarm, immobiliser and tracker, and whether they are approved.
- Where it is keptOvernight location, which the goods conditions also care about.
The work
- Radius and mileageLocal multi-drop and national same-day are different exposures.
- What you carryValue per load, and whether goods are theft-attractive.
- Who you deliver forParcel network, food platform, own clients, or a mix.
- Hours workedNight work and city centre work rate differently.
The policy
- Cover levelComprehensive, third party fire and theft, or third party only.
- Goods in transit limitThe per vehicle sum insured, and any sub-limits.
- ExcessA higher voluntary excess lowers the premium.
- TermAnnual, monthly or pay as you go, which is common on two wheels.
We do not publish example courier premiums, and we will not rank these factors either. No UK body publishes courier premium data. The Association of British Insurers’ motor tracker covers privately owned cars, not commercial or courier vehicles, so any average quoted for courier cover is an assertion rather than a measurement. A quote costs nothing and reflects your actual round.
Before you buy or renew
What You Need for a Courier Quote
To get a courier insurance quote you need the vehicle details and its security, the type of delivery work and who you do it for, your licence and claims history, how long you have traded, and the goods in transit limit you need.
The vehicle
- Registration, make, model and year
- Value and any modifications
- Alarm, immobiliser and tracker, and whether approved
- Where it is kept overnight
The work
- Parcels, food, same day or own goods
- Platforms or networks you deliver for
- Radius and estimated annual mileage
- Hours and days typically worked
- Highest value likely on board at once
You
- Licence type and date passed
- Years of courier experience
- Points, convictions and claims
- How long the business has traded
Goods cover
- Goods in transit limit wanted
- Types of goods carried
- Whether any are theft-attractive
- Your clients’ liability terms
Three questions to ask every broker, in this order. Does the certificate say hire and reward? What is the goods in transit limit per vehicle, and is the basis proportionate? And what exactly are the unattended vehicle conditions, including any overnight hours and any excluded areas? Those three answers separate two quotes far more than the price does. More on what courier insurance is.
Why MyMoneyComparison.com
Comparing Specialist Courier Cover
MyMoneyComparison.com is an FCA-authorised UK comparison service that introduces couriers to specialist brokers. We do not sell insurance and do not give advice: the broker you choose arranges the policy. Comparing is free and there is no obligation.
Form for the whole round
Describe the vehicle, the work and the goods once instead of repeating yourself to each broker.
Halves of the policy
The motor cover and the goods cover fail in different ways. We explain both.
Authorised and regulated
MyMoneyComparison.com Ltd appears on the FCA register under FRN 916241.
Comparing since
A UK company since 2013, working with specialist brokers across the country.
FAQs
Courier Insurance FAQs
Direct answers on class of use, goods in transit, unattended vehicles and what the platforms cover.
What is courier insurance?
Courier insurance is motor insurance for a vehicle used to deliver goods for payment, written on a hire and reward class of use. It normally sits alongside goods in transit cover for the parcels themselves. The motor section covers the vehicle and other road users; the goods section covers the load, and has its own conditions.
Can I use my normal van insurance for courier work?
No. An ordinary van policy covers social, domestic and pleasure use and often business use, none of which allows carrying other people’s goods for payment. Delivering on one means the vehicle is used outside its permitted class, which is the genuine uninsured scenario in this market and a criminal offence.
What does hire and reward mean?
It is the class of use that permits carrying goods or passengers for payment. For couriers it is the words that make the policy work. Insurers label it inconsistently, and some name the class haulage of goods for hire and reward as a single option, so describe the work you do rather than shopping on the label.
Do I need hire and reward to carry my own goods?
No. Carrying stock or equipment you own yourself is carriage of own goods, which is a different class. The Financial Ombudsman Service has upheld a complaint against an insurer that argued a trader buying wholesale stock to resell should have declared hire and reward, on the basis that he owned the goods.
What is goods in transit insurance?
It covers the items you are carrying against loss or damage in transit, normally up to a sum insured for property on any one vehicle. It is separate from the motor cover and carries its own conditions, particularly around theft from an unattended vehicle. Most courier claims that fail, fail in this section.
What counts as leaving a vehicle unattended?
The policy wordings we examined do not define it, so the general law applies. The courts have held a vehicle is attended only where someone is keeping it under observation and is positioned to spot anyone interfering with it. Popping into a shop with the van outside is not attending it, even briefly.
Will my theft claim be paid if the van was locked?
It depends on what else the policy requires. Locking is the baseline. Wordings commonly add that keys must be removed, an approved alarm or immobiliser must be set rather than merely fitted, and in some cases there must be outward signs of forced entry. Check all of the conditions, not just the obvious one.
Are there overnight restrictions on goods in transit cover?
Sometimes, and the hours vary. One insurer excludes theft from an unattended vehicle between 9pm and 6am unless it is garaged in locked premises or guarded. Another published summary gives 7pm to 8am. A third has no overnight restriction in that section at all. There is no market standard, so read yours.
Does the Insurance Act 2015 protect me if I breach a security condition?
Less than you would hope. The Act stops an insurer relying on a breach that could not have increased the risk of the loss that actually happened. If the alarm was off and the goods were destroyed in a crash, that helps. If the goods were stolen, it usually does not, because the condition existed to reduce theft risk.
How much goods in transit cover do I need?
Enough to cover the highest value likely to be on the vehicle at one time, not the average. Some bases of cover apply a proportionate reduction if the value on board exceeds the sum insured, so being underinsured can cut the claim rather than simply capping it at the limit you bought.
Do Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat insure me?
Not for the goods. Deliveroo provides personal injury and income protection and some limited public liability. Uber Eats references a partner protection scheme whose scope is not published. Just Eat lists hire and reward insurance as a document you must supply. All of them expect you to hold your own motor policy.
Does Evri provide insurance?
Evri says self-employed couriers must have the correct level of third party cover while delivering, and offers a top-up product charged at a little over a pound a day, only on days you serve. Read what that is: third party cover rather than goods in transit. It does not cover the parcels you are carrying.
Is the food or parcel I am carrying insured by the platform?
No major UK delivery platform publishes goods in transit cover for the items you carry. If the load is lost or stolen it is your own goods policy or nothing. Food riders are particularly exposed, because most scooter and moped products cover the bike and the liability rather than the order itself.
Do I need courier insurance for food delivery on a moped?
Yes. Delivering food for payment is hire and reward whatever the vehicle. Moped and scooter delivery products are written for it and rated for short-hop urban work. Pay as you go and monthly cover is common on two wheels, which suits riders working evenings and weekends rather than full time.
Do I need an operator licence as a courier?
Generally not. The goods vehicle operator licensing regime starts above 3.5 tonnes gross plated weight for domestic work, and most courier vehicles are below it. International hire or reward work with combinations over 2.5 tonnes is a separate case and does need one.
What is the difference between courier and haulage insurance?
In trade usage courier means multi-drop or urgent point-to-point work and haulage means single-load long distance. In insurance labelling the two words are frequently combined into one class of use. The practical difference is that haulage cover is usually written by reference to trading conditions with a per-tonne liability cap.
Can I get courier insurance with no courier experience?
Usually yes, though it costs more and fewer insurers will quote. Time held on a full licence, any claims and convictions, and how long the business has traded all matter. Some insurers set a minimum age or a minimum period since passing your test regardless of the class of use.
How much does courier insurance cost?
There is no standard price and we do not publish example premiums. No UK body publishes courier premium data, and the Association of British Insurers’ motor tracker covers privately owned cars rather than commercial vehicles, so any average quoted elsewhere is an assertion rather than a measurement.
Ready when you are
Compare Courier Insurance Quotes
Tell us about the vehicle, the work and the goods you carry, and specialist UK brokers can come back with quotes. Free to use, with no obligation to buy.
- Vans, cars, mopeds and bikes
- Parcels, same day and food
- FCA authorised and regulated
Free to use · No obligation · UK brokers
About this page
We publish this page to help couriers and delivery riders understand the two halves of their cover, which conditions decide a theft claim, and what the delivery platforms actually insure. It is general information rather than advice. Policy wordings vary a great deal in this market, so read your own documents before relying on anything here.
How we researched this page
- Published goods in transit policy wordings from four UK insurers, read clause by clause
- Court of Appeal authority on what “unattended” means, and the first case to construe section 11 of the Insurance Act 2015
- Financial Ombudsman Service decisions on unattended vehicle clauses and class of use
- The published courier requirements of Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat and Evri
- Parcel and same-day carriers’ own conditions of carriage
Where no reliable source exists we say so. There is no published UK data on courier premiums and none on why courier claims are declined, so this page carries no example prices and no ranking of decline reasons. We also do not describe what any platform scheme covers where the platform has not published its scope.