Does Admiral do food delivery insurance?

Admiral now offer delivery and courier hire and reward insurance! Here's how it works, what you need and what to look out for.

Does Admiral cover delivery or courier driving?

Yes! Admiral now does offer cover for delivery driving if your policy includes the 'Carriage of goods for hire and reward' class of use. A 'class of use' determines how you can use your car. For example, here are some classes of use that a private car might be covered for:

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

Please note that delivery and courier driving is NOT covered under Admiral's other classes of use such as 'social, domestic and pleasure' or 'business use'. If you want to engage in paid courier or delivery driving work, hire & reward cover/class of use is required by law.

Overall, we are so pleased that Admiral has added delivery and courier insurance coverage as so many people need it these days, and it can be very hard to find. It's great news, and means that Admiral is the only big car insurance company to offer this.

How do I get courier or delivery insurance from Admiral?

To get courier or delivery driver insurance with Admiral, you'd select 'Carriage of goods for hire and reward' as your class of use when getting a quote—it's one of the options. Or if you already have a policy with them, you can call up and request a change of your class of use.

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Consider this if you want car insurance that covers courier and delivery driving from the UK's largest car insurance company.

Can I make deliveries without hire & reward cover?

No, it is critical that you do not make any deliveries until you've secured your 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.

Can you use top-up H&R cover with Admiral instead?

'Top-up' hire & reward insurance is a supplemental cover that you can buy to insure just your hire & reward driving. It essentially 'tops-up' your underlying social car insurance. 'Top-up' cover would typically be purchased from a different insurer, as in not your social car insurance provider—so you have two different insurance policies, one to cover your social driving and a different one (the top-up cover) to cover your delivery driving.

Short-term, top-up H&R policies (e.g. 30 day or pay-as-you-go) are available from providers like Zego. This type of cover can be useful for those who don't want to sign up for a whole year of hire & reward cover, for example if someone is just testing out delivery work or will only be doing it for a short time. H&R insurance is more expensive, so some drivers might not want to pay for a whole year of it if they don't need it—which is where top-up cover can be useful.

So can an Admiral policyholder get top-up H&R cover from a different insurer, instead of buying their H&R cover from Admiral? We think so—but they need to get clearance to do this from Admiral.

To confirm that Admiral policy holders can get top-up cover, we reached out to Admiral. Here's what they said:

"Admiral ... do allow our customers to use top-up PAYG hire & reward insurance policies alongside their main insurance. They will be covered as normal while using their vehicle for social and commuting. If an accident occurs while delivering, the top-up insurance would step in and deal with this claim."

Admiral is one of the only big UK car insurers to work with top-up H&R cover for delivery people. Most insurers will invalidate your policy if you work as a courier, even if you've bought top-up cover.

But before doing this, keep in mind that it may be a lot simpler to get both your social and H&R cover from one company, like Admiral—not only does this mean having only one premium to pay but if you ever need to claim you don't have to worry about which insurance company will cover it (e.g. your underlying social insurance provider or the top-up H&R provider).

If you already have an Admiral policy and are thinking of adding top-up H&R from another provider, do first enquire with Admiral about switching your class of use to include carriage of goods for hire & reward so all your cover is with them. It might be a lot easier in the long run.

Where to buy top-up hire & reward cover

While there are a few options in the marketplace for top-up H&R cover, we've scoured forums reading what delivery drivers have to say and it seems like Zego is the most popular option. 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 to look out for

If you go for top-up H&R from another provider, then your underlying Admiral policy would cover your social, domestic & pleasure driving; the top-up H&R insurance would cover your food delivery driving—but who covers your commute between home and work? It depends. Either the top-up insurance will cover your commute, or else you'll need to declare commuting on your Admiral policy.

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

When working as a delivery driver or courier, it is critical to inform your insurer that you're doing this type of work and have the right hire & reward cover. Without it, you'd be driving uninsured. Keep in mind that insurance with H&R cover does cost more, so you'll need to budget accordingly. And given the extra cost, it is a good idea to compare prices from different providers if you're buying H&R cover.

If you want to get permission from Admiral to get top-up cover elsewhere, beware that it might not be straightforward as not all of their customer support team seem to know that top-up cover is acceptable—if you get someone who thinks this is unacceptable, perhaps ask the rep to check with the underwriting team, as they have the final say.

If you'll be working full-time as a courier or delivery driver, it might very well be more cost effective to buy annual H&R cover (e.g. from Admiral or from a specialist delivery insurance broker), rather than separate SD&P and top-up H&R. To get an idea of prices for your profile from specialist brokers for all-inclusive courier and delivery driver insurance, you can fill out a quote form with our comparison parter QuoteZone below.