The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.

UberEats Delivery Insurance - what do you need?

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Note: Inexperienced food delivery drivers with 0 years of no claims may have difficulty getting a quote in the current market.


Many new UberEats drivers and riders have questions about what insurances you need to make sure you’re fully protected—this article will answer those and tell you everything you need to know before signing up as an UberEats delivery driver.

You may be wondering what your earning potential is with UberEats as well—we compared hourly income while working for Deliveroo, JustEat and UberEats, so take a look if you're wondering which pays best.

What insurance does UberEats provide for its drivers?

UberEats offers a limited set of insurances in the case of injury or illness, but no long-term income security or any vehicle coverage whatsoever.

While UberEats doesn't provide delivery driver insurance, they do provide some insurances to its drivers and riders while they’re in the process of delivering food to customers. Find below a brief summary of the Uber/UberEats insurance policy:

ClaimTypeValue
Medical Expenses ReimbursementOn-TripUp to £7,500
Accidental Death PaymentOn-Trip£50,000 Lump Sum + up to £6,000 Funeral Costs
Inconvenience Payment for Permanent InjuryOn-TripUp to £50,000
Inconvenience Payment for HospitalisationOn-Trip£1,000
Inconvenience Payment for Temporary Injury during Transportation ServicesOn-Trip£30 per day for up to 30 days.
Severe Sickness & Bodily Injury Payment(leading to more 7+ consecutive days unable to work)Off-Trip£30 per day for up to 15 days.
Maternity / Paternity PaymentOff-Trip£900 lump sum
Jury Service PaymentOff-Trip£500 lump sum

For full details, see the policy wordings available on the Uber site here . On-trip is defined asfrom the moment of accepting a trip or food delivery request, through to completion of the request and for 15 minutes after completion. Off-trip is any time you are not using providing services using the Uber app.

Those working for UberEats are considered ‘delivery partners’, therefore the coverage for injury/sickness is considerably lower than if you were driving passengers for Uber. Uber employs its ‘partners’ as independent contractors, so they don’t provide any protection for your vehicle—and even the injury and sickness coverage is much lower, and for a shorter duration, than you’d expect from a traditional insurance policy.

What UberEats insurances do I need to buy?

As a UberEats delivery driver, it's critical to ensure you have the right vehicle coverages.

Cars, mopeds and scooters are required by law to have both social, domestic and pleasure insurance (this covers personal driving) and hire & reward insurance (to cover delivery driving).

This can be accomplished in one of a few ways.

  • Get a policy that covers both social, domestic and pleasure (SD&P) and hire & reward (H&R). Policies that can do this are commercial in nature and will cover you for both work and personal travel. Your existing SD&P provider might expand your cover to also include H&R, but to get a policy like this you might need to switch insurers.
  • Supplement your existing SD&P personal vehicle insurance with a top-up/PAYG hire and reward policy for delivery driving.

There are benefits and disadvantages to both, explained below. And you can read more about delivery driver cover here.

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Commercial Vehicle (Courier/Delivery Driver) Insurance

If you’re using a motorbike, scooter or car to perform UberEats deliveries, you’ll require food delivery hire & reward insurance on your vehicle that covers this type of driving—specifically, your certificate of motor insurance must cover food delivery or hire and reward not excluding food delivery.

Like personal vehicle insurance, this type of commercial insurance is generally categorised into three categories: Comprehensive, Third-Party, Fire and Theft or Third-Party-Only.

Commercial insurance for hire & reward covers your vehicle for the longer journeys/distances that couriers and delivery drivers typically travel, and is a legal requirement for anyone using their vehicle over long-distances for courier/delivery purposes in the UK.

You’ll be required to submit your insurance papers before completing your signing-up process with UberEats, and you won’t be covered by your existing Social, Domestic & Pleasure personal car policy.

Now, there are some insurance companies that will automatically upload your insurance certificate directly to your Uber account:

  • Zego
  • Inshur
  • Nelson
  • Acorn / Haven
  • Antilo

It's possible to get an annual insurance policy for delivery drivers that covers all of your driving: work and personal. Some UberEats partners, however, choose to utilize a pay-as-you-go, top-up Hire & Reward policy that only covers the delivery driving and essentially sits on top of an existing SD&P insurance policy that only covers personal driving.

There are benefits to doing this—for example, PAYG/top-up H&R insurance companies, many of whom have been created to support the growing food delivery/courier market, have flexible payment options (e.g. pay-as-you-go contracts with no cancellation fee) that can be very useful for delivery drivers, especially for those who view UberEats as a short-term or secondary income source.

However, do be cautious, as many traditional insurance providers do not allow drivers or riders to use separate top-up/short-term insurances, and will void your policy if they discover you’ve been working under a top-up H&R policy without informing or checking with them. The reasons for this are covered in detail in the FAQs.

We've contacted the UK's largest car insurers to see whether or not they'll accept "top-up/PAYG" Hire & Reward as valid—you can read all of their answers here.

Goods-in-transit cover

As deliveries made by UberEats are typically low in value, you are not currently required to hold any form of Goods in Transit insurance. If you are going to be undertaking other courier work, and delivering more expensive goods, it may be worth considering.

Public Liability Insurance

Many delivery driver policies will include a form of public liability within the policy. Double check with providers, to be sure. This type of cover can protect against accidental injury or damage that can occur to third parties during the delivery process. The vehicle insurance would cover injury or damage to a third party when behind the wheel, but a public liability policy can protect at other times (e.g. when walking from a vehicle to a property).

If you’re looking to get your own public liability policy (e.g. if the vehicle policy doesn't cover this or you want a larger coverage value) then policies start as low as £58 per year or less, so it’s definitely worth considering if you have any concerns.

Injury/Accident Insurance

As mentioned above, UberEats does offer some coverage if you’re injured, involved in an accident or become unwell while working with them. The policies are not that extensive, and for cyclists/riders would only cover them for £900 over 30 days in the case of temporary injury or £450 over 15 days in the case of severe sickness or injury.

Given the risks of being on the road in the busy cities that UberEats operates within, additional coverage may also be desired. A 30-year-old non-smoker could expect to pay around £35 per year for protection, and policies typically cover you for 55-70% of pre-tax earnings for a duration of 6 months to 1 year.

How much will it cost me to get insured to deliver for UberEats?

The cost of getting insured depends on which route you go down: an all-in, delivery driver policy (an annual policy that covers all driving) or a PAYG/top-up policy (that covers only the delivery driving and is bought in addition to SD&P cover).

Annual delivery driver policies often start from between £1,900 and £2,300 per year for UberEats car insurance. This is quite a bit more than traditional SD&P coverage, and is designed to cover delivery drivers for the additional risks (longer mileage, unfamiliar roads) they expose themselves to while delivering food and goods.

Scooter estimates started from £995 per year for a TPO policy (going up to £1,350 for a comprehensive policy), but are much more expensive when compared to the value of the vehicle insured (a 2017 Honda PCX125, a popular choice for many food delivery riders) due to the higher levels of risk you have on the road as a delivery rider—a 2007 survey found that nearly 60% of courier riders had been involved in an accident in the 3 years prior, compared to just over 35% for non-courier scooter and motorcycle riders.

How can I save money on my Uber driver insurance?

Ways to save money on your UberEats insurance will be familiar to those who have previously insured their personal vehicle and looked for ways to save:

  • Install a blackbox/vehicle metric measuring device, and drive safely
  • Select popular, less powerful vehicle models that are traditionally cheap to insure
  • Compare quotes from different providers and insurance policies
  • Pay annually for a discount
  • Have a long history of no claims built up on your personal vehicle

FAQ’s

Firstly, most providers will write in their T&C’s that you accept the risk of them voiding the policy if you change the purpose of your vehicle (from personal usage to delivery work) without informing them before doing so.

The reasoning for this is fairly simple, the price you agreed with them for your insurance was based on the mileage expectations of somebody using their vehicle for personal reasons, like drives to the shop or dropping the kids off at school. The extensive miles delivery drivers log on their vehicle leads to additional wear and tear and risk of damage, increasing the chances you’ll need to make a claim—chances that the insurance provider won’t have been able to factor into their original quote for your price.

Commercial vehicle and public liability quotes were gathered based from a 30-year-old driver, with 5+ years of personal no claims bonus, based in North-West London, driving a 2015 1.8L Toyota Prius, one of the most popular cars for Uber drivers.

Scooter estimates were gathered using a 30 year old rider, with 5+ years of personal no claims bonus, based in North-West London, riding a 2017 Honda PCX125.

The price of your policy will vary with the variables mentioned above, and others.

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The guidance on this site is based on our own analysis and is meant to help you identify options and narrow down your choices. We do not advise or tell you which product to buy; undertake your own due diligence before entering into any agreement. Read our full disclosure here.