NimbleFins has updated its previous study showing that most of the UK’s large car insurance companies would not offer insurance cover to couriers and delivery drivers who use their cars for work, due to the additional risks of delivery driving.

They found that one key car insurance company in the UK is now covering cars used for courier driving.

Key Findings of the Update

Back in 2020, NimbleFins queried the UK’s largest 10 car insurance companies and found that none would cover paid courier or food delivery driving.  

This could mean that someone driving for a company like Deliveroo, JustEat, UberEats or Amazon involved in an accident could find their insurer voiding their policies entirely and refusing to pay out, leaving the driver in a potentially devastating financial situation. It also means they might be driving illegally.

In 2022, NimbleFins updated its list of the largest car insurance companies and noted one notable change to Admiral's product offering for the year: the launch of delivery driver insurance.

This makes Admiral Group, the largest UK car insurance company, the only major UK car insurance provider to now offer courier insurance directly to customers through their Admiral brand. A courier or delivery driver needs to choose their ‘carriage of goods for hire and reward' class of use, which covers anyone using their car or van to deliver third-party goods. Extra protection would be required to cover the goods or merchandise the courier is carrying.

Other Admiral Group brands such as Bell and Diamond offer courier cover for cars as well. The group's Gladiator brand will provide courier cover for vans, but they are unable to quote for cars.

Other large retail car insurance providers do not provide cover for vehicles used for courier driving. Any policyholder using their car for undisclosed courier or delivery driver work could have their policy voided, leaving them uninsured.

Some of the other large insurance companies, however, may allow policyholders to buy supplemental, top-up hire & reward insurance to cover just their courier driving.

New insurtech brands like Zego and Inshur specialise in courier policies, but cover for courier work hadn't gone mainstream until Admiral's new hire & reward offering. NimbleFins hopes that other large motor insurers will follow in Admiral's footsteps and start covering courier work, or at least allowing policyholders to buy top-up hire & reward cover.

Why don’t the big insurers cover delivery driving?

“Car insurance companies are generally nervous about insuring delivery drivers,” explains the CEO of market research company NimbleFins, Erin Yurday. “Delivery drivers are often on tight time frames, potentially rushing to meet an agreed delivery slot. Plus, they regularly venture down unfamiliar roads guided, and sometimes distracted, by an app on their device. They also frequently stop on busy roadsides to collect and deliver food and parcels,” adds Yurday. The risks are high, which means higher odds of accidents and insurance pay-outs.

Growing numbers of workers left at risk

With the accelerating shift towards online deliveries during the Covid-19 pandemic, a growing number of workers will be affected by the lack of insurance on the market. All delivery drivers and couriers who are using their personal car for making deliveries must have a special type of commercial insurance called hire & reward (H&R), which the insurers typically view as specialist cover. Drivers also need to inform their car insurer of their delivery or courier job. Not doing so leaves a driver in breach of their car insurance contract. However, getting properly insured will not be easy, as there’s a severe lack of straightforward insurance options for delivery drivers on the market.