Does esure do fast food delivery car insurance?

Wondering if Esure covers delivery driving or courier work? Esure policyholders cannot use their cars for paid delivery work. Here's what you'll need to do if you have an Esure policy and want to drive your car to earn money as a courier or food delivery driver.

Does Esure cover delivery or courier driving?

Esure does not cover policyholders using their personal cars for delivery driving. They also don't allow policyholders to buy supplemental, top-up Hire & Reward (H&R) cover from another company to cover their delivery driving. This means Esure policyholders cannot use their cars to earn money for making deliveries under any circumstances.

H&R insurance is a legal requirement for anyone using their vehicle for paid delivery or courier work. H&R insurance is explained in full in our in-depth guide to delivery driving and food delivery insurance, if you'd like to read more about it.

We spoke to Esure's customer service team and also contacted Esure's press team to confirm that the company doesn't cover delivery drivers. Here's what the press team said:

"In line with the majority of the market, currently Esure do not provide cover for customers requiring insurance for courier or delivery work in their personal vehicle. However, we do keep this under review and may look at possible options in the future."

Can I make deliveries without hire & reward cover?

No, you must not work as a delivery driver without H&R cover—it would be illegal. And it could invalidate your underlying social domestic & pleasure (SD&P) policy with AXA, leaving you uninsured for all your driving. Driving uninsured can mean points, fines, seizure of your car, having your licence taken away and possible financial ruin if you have an accident.

What do I do now?

You cannot work as a delivery driver or courier whilst covered by an Esure car insurance policy. If you want to work as a delivery driver or courier, you'll need to cancel this and find cover elsewhere.

Since Esure won't cover delivery driving and they won't allow you to buy top-up H&R cover, you have three options for finding delivery driver insurance:

You can learn more about SD&P providers that allow top-up H&R cover here.

You can learn more about Zego top-up H&R insurance in our full Zego review. But generally speaking, the way top-up cover like Zego works is that a driver has a regular SD&P car insurance policy with one company that covers their personal driving, and then they buy top-up H&R insurance from a company like Zego that covers their paid delivery driving. Remember: this is only an option if the underlying SD&P provider allows policyholders to buy top-up cover.

Watch out for this!

If you split your insurance and buy SD&P from one company and top-up H&R insurance from another company, be sure to inform your SD&P insurer of your delivery work. They must approve this scenario and your work as a delivery driver, even if they're not covering that portion of your driving themselves.

Also, be sure one of the policies covers your commute to and from work. Commuting is a formal 'declaration of use' on a certificate of motor insurance, and without this on your certificate you aren't covered for your commute. However, you won't want both policies to cover your commuting, because this could lead to confusion regarding which company is liable if you have an accident while driving between home and work.

Final thoughts

We always recommend calling your insurer or potential insurers if you want to engage in paid delivery work, in order to confirm that you are covered on all fronts and to formally declare your job (which you are required to do). That said, beware that not all car insurance customer support team members seem to know the rules as well as we'd hope they would—if you get a confusing or conflicted answer, perhaps ask the rep to check with the underwriting team to confirm whether or not you're covered, as the underwriter has the final say in the matter.