6 Things Every Courier Should Know About Courier Insurance

Things You Should Know About Car Insurance for Couriers

The Courier insurance market in the UK can be a complicated business, and there’s a lot of confusion regarding what you do and don’t need. Finding quotes can be tricky too, as a lot of the UK’s top providers don’t offer policies.

Our partners QuoteZone work with some of the UK’s leading specialist Courier insurance businesses—fill out a quote form, and they’ll put you in touch with a number of insurers who can make sure you’re fully covered while out and about delivering parcels, food and more.

You may have a number of questions about what coverage you need, where you can find it and what you are or aren’t covered for. Here’s 6 things you should absolutely know before signing up for Courier insurance.

1. “Social, Domestic & Pleasure”, “Commuting” and “Business Use” Vehicle insurance do NOT cover courier driving.

There are a lot of conflicting reports online about the level of coverage you need to be a courier driver. That being said, after speaking with a number of the UK’s largest car insurers, one thing is clear—none of these forms of vehicle insurance will cover you for Courier work. This means if your current vehicle insurance isn’t Commercial level, or doesn't include Hire & Reward, your insurer is unlikely to payout in the event of an incident.

The easiest thing to do if you have concerns about being in this situation is to contact your insurer ahead of time—they’ll be able to advise you of what they do and don’t cover, and give you an idea of the options you might have.

Getting properly covered can be an expensive business, but considering it’s illegal to drive without valid insurance it’s very worthwhile. Keep in mind that on top of fines and driving license points, you may also be liable for any damages you cause in the event of an accident, as your insurer may refuse to payout.

2. You will need Hire & Reward insurance with at least Third Party Only cover for courier driving.

Searching for the right coverage can be complicated, so don’t feel discouraged if you’re not 100% sure what you actually need to get started. At a minimum, you’ll need a Third Party Only (TPO) Hire & Reward policy (although keep in mind Comprehensive can often be cheaper and is better because it’s the only tier of cover that protects against accident damage to your own vehicle).

Looking out for a reference to Third Party Only or Comprehensive can be a good way to know you’re on the right track—it’ll avoid you getting confused with other insurances which can apply to couriers but do not actually cover your vehicle, such as Goods in Transit insurance.

3. There’s more than one type of Commercial insurance

Many insurers that cover couriers also insure people doing similar work, such as hauliers or handymen moving their tools around in a van, so you may see the following referred to by insurers:

Getting the right type is important here—only the final option, Carriage of Goods for Hire and Reward will cover you to deliver things like food and parcels (i.e. using your vehicle to carry other’s goods in return for payment). The easiest way to make sure you’re choosing the right type is to contact your insurer and tell them what you’re going to be doing—they’ll be able to easily direct you to the policy you need.

4. If you’re working as a courier without Hire & Reward, you’re probably on the road illegally.

Not having a valid form of Commercial/Hire & Reward insurance risks your provider voiding your coverage if they discover you’ve been working as a courier. This means that even if an incident occurs when you’re not driving for work purposes they may be within their rights to refuse to payout—potentially leaving you not only with costly damages to cover, but also fines and license points from the DVLA.

Keep in mind that, even if you’ve signed up to a “pay-as-you-go”/”top-up” insurance provider like Zego, your SD&P provider is still unlikely to honour your policy, as your risk profile when signing up to your coverage will be completely different to the one you now have as a courier.

5. Most major UK Car insurance providers do not cover couriers.

NimbleFins contacted the UK’s seven largest car insurance providers, and as of writing not a single one of them offers policies to couriers or delivery drivers. This means if you’re already with one of these providers, and are already working as a courier, you may be driving uninsured.

Insurance Company	Offer quotes to delivery drivers/couriers?	Accept top-up/pay-as-you-go cover as valid?
Admiral
AXA
Aviva
Direct Line
esure
Hastings
LV

You’ll also find that going through traditional aggregators like CompareTheMarket or GoCompare for your Courier insurance is unlikely to yield many results—most of the larger insurers these businesses partner with don’t offer Courier insurance policies, so you might have to hunt a little harder—however our partners at QuoteZone can help out—just fill out a quote form.

6. If you buy pay-as-you-go/top-up Hire & Reward insurance without checking with your SD&P provider first, you may be driving illegally.

While you might think “topping up” your existing SD&P coverage with a separate pay-as-you-go/top-up Hire & Reward policy will keep you covered for both social and professional driving, this is often not the case. Simply put, none of the seven insurers mentioned above would be likely to accept claims from couriers with pay-as-you-go cover if they discovered you’d been working as a delivery driver.

The only way to avoid this risk is to contact your insurer ahead of time—only they’ll be able to advise on what you can and can’t do, and they may be able to give you some advice on the best ways to stay covered at all times.