Does Aviva do fast food delivery car insurance?

Aviva policyholders are NOT covered for using their cars for food delivery or other paid delivery or courier work. Here's what you'll need to do if you have Aviva and want to work as a courier or food delivery driver.

Does Aviva cover delivery or courier driving?

No, Aviva does not cover delivery driving. They also don't permit policyholders to buy a supplemental policy—aka top-up Hire & Reward (H&R)—to cover their delivery driving. H&R insurance covers delivery driving and is required by law for anyone earning money for making deliveries. (If you're interested in learning more, check out our in-depth guide to delivery driving and food delivery insurance.)

This means Aviva policyholders cannot use their cars to make deliveries. Plain and simple.

To confirm this, we recently reached out to Aviva to confirm whether or not they'll cover delivery driving. Here's what they said:

"We don’t accept top-up cover to Aviva car insurance policies in order to avoid any confusion for the customer that could come from having dual motor insurance (where two insurers are providing cover for the same vehicle). A common issue that might arise in this situation is a dispute over how a vehicle was being used at the time of an accident, which can create uncertainty as to which insurer would be liable for the claim.

More widely, we consider insurance for hire and reward, including couriers and delivery drivers, as specialist cover; customers looking for that type of insurance would be best served by contacting their insurance broker."

There are a few UK car insurers who work with top-up H&R cover for delivery people, but Aviva car insurance is not one of them.

Can I make deliveries without hire & reward cover?

No, it is critical that you do not make any deliveries until you've secured H&R cover. Doing so would be illegal, invalidating your underlying social domestic & pleasure (SD&P) policy—and if you have an accident or are caught it could result in points, fines, seizure of your car, having your licence taken away and possible financial ruin! Best avoided.

What do I do now?

If you want to work as a delivery driver or courier and you currently have Aviva insurance, you'll need to cancel this and find cover elsewhere. You have two options for finding delivery driver insurance:

You can read our full Zego review to learn more about the company and the product. The way Zego top-up cover works is that a driver has a regular car insurance policy (say, with Admiral) that covers their personal driving, and then they buy Zego PAYG top-up H&R insurance which covers their delivery driving. Also, if you want to stay with a mainstream insurance company, Admiral now offers hire & reward insurance. Read more here.

What to look out for

If you go with the top-up H&R insurance option and SD&P from another company, be sure to inform your SD&P insurer of your delivery work.

Also, make sure one or the other covers the commute between work and home—this is a formal declaration of use on a certificate of motor insurance, and without it you won't be covered during that portion of your journeys.

Commuting should show up on one of your certificates of motor insurance (but not both, as this could lead to confusion regarding who was liable if you have an accident on the way to or from work).

Final thoughts

It is always critical to call up your insurer or potential insurers and confirm that you are covered on all fronts. That said, beware that not all car insurance customer support team members seem to know the rules as well as we'd hope—if you get a confusing or conflicted answer, perhaps ask the rep to check with the underwriting team, as they have the final say.