Insurance For Delivery Drivers: What do you Need?

Nov 15

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If you offer delivery at your restaurant, you need to make sure you have insurance for delivery drivers. This is true no matter who handles your deliveries.

Coverage for Food Mishaps

The first thing a restaurant has to worry about is if anything happens to your food. Potential food poisoning or other illnesses is always a concern. This grows when it's hard to keep food at the right temperature during the delivery process. You also don't know how long your customer will leave your food out before eating it and then blaming you if it went bad and they got sick.In rare cases, you may even have a delivery driver tamper with the food. The driver would probably be ultimately responsible, but the customer could still likely file a lawsuit against you and leave you to try to collect from the driver.Any issues with your food would probably fall under your general business liability coverage. However, you should always check your specific policy to be sure. For example, "cheap" insurance policies will exclude necessary coverage, like food spoilage, or limit coverage -- so instead of having the $1 million of liability coverage you think you are buying, you would only have $50,000 to deal with a food-based illness claim.

Coverage for Accidents

Auto insurance has long been an issue in the restaurant business. Some restaurants carry their own policies, while others require their drivers to carry their own policies. The rise of app-based delivery services means that many deliveries are now handled by entirely separate businesses that should be independently insured.There are two things you should be aware of regarding your responsibility for accidents. First, while someone is working for you, you could actually be held liable for their negligence connected with their work since you ordered the work. Second, even if you aren't actually liable for a delivery driver causing an accident, this doesn't mean that you can't be sued, can't have legal costs, and can't have a court render a judgment against you that you'd have to recoup from the driver.In addition, if you ask your drivers to carry their own insurance, they may rely on their personal car insurance policies when those exclude commercial activity like delivery driving. That could hurt your ability to collect from that driver if they got you sued.