We recently encountered an insurance situation that may impact many of the millions of drivers for Doordash, Grubhub, and similar delivery platforms. If you are one of these couriers that are making a living or making extra money delivering food or products in your own automobile, please beware of what happened to our client.
She was hit by a driver who was delivering pizza for Pizza Hut. He was an independent contractor, not an employee. The driver was responsible for causing the accident. He turned the claim into his insurance carrier after he was served with our lawsuit. His insurance company declined to represent him, stating that because he was delivering for Pizza Hut he was not covered by his insurance policy.
The defendant driver then had to represent himself.
Now, it’s well known that if you are driving for a rideshare company (Uber or Lyft), you must carry a special rider on your personal automobile insurance to be covered for an accident occurring while you are actively driving a passenger or on the way to pick one up.
Because the insurance company for the defendant driver would not give us the language excluding a driver delivering pizza, we don’t know if the policy actually excluded the driver. Our automobile policy with State Farm has no such exclusion of coverage.
Just a cautionary note to all drivers delivering food or product: You should confirm with your insurance company or agent that there is no such exclusionary language in your policy. If one insurance company incorporates an exclusionary provision in its policy, other companies might do so also.
That’s how it started with homeowners’ insurance carriers excluding covering injuries caused by certain dog breeds, such as, Akitas, Alaskan Malamutes, any wolf breed, Chow Chows, Doberman Pinschers, German Shepherds, Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Siberian Huskies, Shar Pei, and Staffordshire Terriers. If you have one of these breeds, you should check with the carrier for your homeowner’s insurance or renter’s insurance to make sure your dog is covered. If not, check for coverage with other carriers.