Hire and Reward Insurance

Not on the UK wordings we read. Business use covers driving in connection with your own job. Carrying somebody else’s goods for payment is a separate class, and an ombudsman upheld an insurer’s refusal where a business use policy was used for fast food delivery. Check the limitations as to use on your own certificate.

Any payment for carrying the goods. A per-drop rate, a delivery block booked through an app or a fee from a local shop all count. UK government guidance on carrying passengers describes reward as payment in cash or kind, while goods vehicle licensing law does not define the phrase.

Usually not. Delivering goods that you or your employer own is normally carriage of own goods, a different class. In one ombudsman decision, a driver delivering stock he had bought himself was found to be correctly insured on carriage of own goods. Tell the insurer exactly what you carry and whose it is.

You were uninsured for that journey. An injured third party is usually still compensated through the insurer that covers the vehicle, under Motor Insurers’ Bureau arrangements, and the law and your policy terms let that money be recovered from you. Damage to your own vehicle is normally not paid, and the policy may be cancelled if the work was misrepresented.

In Great Britain police can issue a £300 fixed penalty and 6 points, and in England and Wales a court can impose an unlimited fine with 6 to 8 points or disqualify you. In Northern Ireland the fixed penalty is £200, and a court can fine up to £5,000, imprison for up to six months, or both. The vehicle can be seized.

The duty to be insured is the same in substance, but it comes from the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 and the penalties differ: a £200 fixed penalty rather than £300, and a court can impose imprisonment, which it cannot for this offence in Great Britain. Operator licensing in Northern Ireland is run by the Department for Infrastructure.

Not for the vehicle. Both provide accident and income protection for couriers during a delivery, and Deliveroo adds public liability while car and scooter riders are on foot. Neither is motor insurance. Deliveroo asks car and scooter riders for personal and hire and reward cover, and Uber Eats asks for a certificate that covers food delivery.

On the pay-as-you-go wording we read, cover starts when you accept a delivery order, not when you open the app, and ends when you stop delivering and finish your commute home. Waiting for the next order counts once the first has been accepted. Check your own wording, because the trigger is what decides a claim.

Yes, on the top-up wording we read, which makes a policy covering social, domestic and pleasure use a condition of cover. That is the insurer’s condition rather than a legal rule. Check your personal insurer allows a top-up alongside it: one UK car insurer states its policies cannot be used that way.

Usually not. The motor wordings we read largely leave the load out, so loss of or damage to the goods sits on goods in transit cover. Some courier products bundle goods in transit, and when they do the limit and the unattended vehicle conditions are what to read.

Some providers say yes, for mopeds and scooters up to 125cc, within their own age limits. Others set a higher minimum age for all their delivery cover. Lock requirements on two-wheelers are often policy conditions rather than recommendations, so read them before your first shift.

Not as motor insurance. Just Eat states bicycle and e-bike couriers do not need hire and reward cover. Platforms may still provide accident or liability cover for cyclists, and an e-bike that goes beyond the legal limits for an electrically assisted pedal cycle is treated as a motor vehicle.

No. Some wordings treat food and parcels separately. One UK insurer excludes fast food delivery by name, another sells a product for Amazon deliveries only, and Uber asks for a certificate that covers food delivery or hire and reward not excluding it. Declare exactly what you deliver.

It depends on who is using the word. One insurance provider’s quote question labels all paid goods carriage as haulage. Some specialist courier brokers keep haulage for long single or double drops, often in vehicles over 3.5 tonnes. Read the definition beside whichever label your quote uses.

Not for a van plated at up to 3.5 tonnes working only within the UK, unless a trailer takes the combined weight over that. Goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes need an operator’s licence, and since 21 May 2022 vans over 2.5 tonnes carrying goods for payment on international journeys need a standard international licence. Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland counts as international.

The policy on the vehicle. The UK fleet wordings we read cover anyone the policyholder permits to drive, but only for the uses the certificate allows, so paid delivery has to be on the company’s certificate. Employing drivers also brings a duty to hold employers’ liability insurance.

Not on a courier product. The phrase covers passengers as well as goods, but carrying people for payment needs a taxi or private hire licence and a policy written for that work. Sharing running costs for a lift, agreed in advance in a car with no more than eight passenger seats, is treated differently.

Not automatically, but undeclared work is a risk. Ombudsman decisions look at what the vehicle was being used for when the incident happened: in one, a fast food exclusion did not apply because the car was parked during its driver’s restaurant shift. Separately, if the insurer should have been told about the work and was not, it may cancel the policy or reduce a claim.