Do Hastings do Food Delivery Insurance?

Like most other large car insurance companies, Hastings doesn't cover food delivery or courier driving themselves. And they've recently told us their updated policy regarding policyholders buying a supplemental insurance policy to cover their delivery driving. Is it allowed? Here's what you need to know.

Does Hastings cover delivery or courier driving?

No, Hastings does not cover delivery driving on their policies.

Also, Hastings has told us that they do not allow policyholders to buy a top-up Hire & Reward (H&R) insurance policy from a PAYG company like Zego or Inshur to cover their delivery driving.

This is a change; they used to allow top-up H&R cover on a case-by-case basis, but now they do not allow it.

H&R insurance is required by law for anyone earning money for making deliveries. You can learn more about H&R cover in our in-depth guide to delivery driving and food delivery insurance.

We recently communicated with Hastings and here's what they told us about their top-up policy:

"We do not allow top up insurance or Zego on our policies."

A Hastings policyholder confirmed this was their experience, informing us that Hastings wouldn't permit them to have a Zego policy. Here's what they said, "Hi. Please be aware that Hastings DO NOT accept Zego... I have just tried as they are my current provider and [I've] recently signed up to Just Eat..." You can read their full comment, which was left on another page here.

You can learn about some other big insurers who allow top-up cover here.

Can I make deliveries without hire & reward cover?

No, it is critical that you do not make any deliveries until you've secured your top-up H&R cover. Doing so would be illegal, invalidating your underlying 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 Hastings insurance, you will need to buy a different policy altogether and cancel your Hastings policy. Be aware you may incur cancellation charges, which we believe would involve a fee of £45.

Just be sure that going forward you are covered for both your social, domestic and pleasure driving (i.e. your personal driving) as well as your work-related hire & reward driving—either via an all encompassing policy or a combination of SD&P from one provider and top-up H&R from another. For the first option, you'll either need to use a specialist broker or Admiral now offers this cover. For the second option, just be sure that your SD&P provider is ok with you having the top-up cover. (Read more about that here.)

Read more about these 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.

What about the commute?

If you split the cover and buy SD&P insurance from one insurer and your H&R insurance from a top-up provider, be sure one of them covers your commute between home and work. But they shouldn't both cover the commute, as this could lead to confusion regarding who was liable if you have an accident on the way to or from work. If a policy covers you for commuting, this will show up on one of your certificates of motor insurance.

Final thoughts

Getting covered for delivery driving is confusing and it's typically a good idea to call up and confirm with your providers that you are properly covered.

Finally, if you'll be working full-time as a courier or delivery driver, it might be more cost effective to buy an annual combined H&R and SD&P policy from a specialist delivery insurance provider, rather than separate SD&P and top-up H&R. To get an idea of prices for your profile, you can fill out a quote form with our comparison parter QuoteZone below.