Over the past few years, food delivery services have transformed how Americans order restaurant meals. Companies such as DoorDash, Grubhub, Postmates, and Uber Eats experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, when delivery provided families with a safe option for takeout and offered restaurants a financial lifeline.
Even after the pandemic reached its peak, demand did not slow. Industry reports indicate that in 2024, food delivery revenue in the U.S. surpassed $35–40 billion, and the number of active delivery drivers has increased by more than 25 percent over the past three years. With so many gig-economy drivers on the road at all hours, the number of motor vehicle collisions involving delivery drivers has also risen. This creates complicated legal questions—particularly when an innocent victim is injured and needs to know who is financially responsible for their losses.
If you have been injured in a car accident, contact Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp to speak with one of our Virginia Beach injury attorneys to find out what legal options you may have. Delivery-driver collisions often involve overlapping insurance policies, unclear liability rules, and companies that routinely deny responsibility for their drivers’ actions. The following overview explains how these accidents are handled and what victims should be aware of.
Most delivery services classify their drivers as independent contractors. This classification is financially beneficial to the companies because it allows them to avoid providing benefits, workers’ compensation, and—most importantly—liability coverage in many situations. Under Virginia law, an independent contractor is not considered an employee, meaning the company may argue it cannot be held liable for a crash caused by that driver. For injured victims, this means the driver’s personal auto insurance is often the first place to seek coverage.
However, personal auto insurance policies often contain exclusions for “commercial use” or “business use.” Many drivers do not purchase the necessary commercial-use endorsement because they are unaware of the requirement or want to save money. When a claim is submitted after a crash, the personal insurer may deny coverage entirely if the driver was actively working for a delivery service. This is where the situation becomes especially complicated: the company denies responsibility because the driver is an independent contractor, and the personal insurer denies responsibility because the driver was working at the time. This leaves victims in a difficult and unfair position — one that requires legal intervention.
To address these problems, some delivery platforms now offer limited liability policies, but these policies only apply during very specific time windows, and even then, coverage may be secondary or “contingent,” meaning it only applies after the driver’s personal policy denies the claim. Coverage gaps are extremely common, and every company handles insurance differently.
Uber Eats provides the most extensive insurance coverage among major food delivery platforms. When a driver is actively picking up or delivering an order, Uber typically provides up to $1 million in third-party liability coverage, which includes both bodily injury and property damage. This can be extremely helpful in serious crashes. However, when the driver is online and available but has not yet accepted an order, coverage drops significantly — typically to lower liability limits, such as $50,000 per person or $100,000 per incident. These lower limits may be insufficient for victims with serious injuries, and because the coverage is contingent, Uber may still require the driver’s personal insurer to be billed first. Uber’s policy also may not apply to the driver’s own vehicle unless they carry collision coverage personally.
Postmates — now fully integrated with Uber — offers liability coverage from the moment a driver accepts an order until the moment it is delivered. Like Uber Eats, Postmates does not provide any coverage when a driver is simply online waiting for requests. This gap is significant because many accidents occur while a driver is repositioning their vehicle, circling near restaurants, or navigating traffic while waiting for an order. Even though the driver is “working,” the company’s policy may not apply. Victims may be forced to make claims through the driver’s personal insurer, only to face denials based on commercial-use exclusions.
DoorDash provides coverage only after the driver has physically picked up the food and both the driver and the food are inside the vehicle. If the driver is en route to the restaurant or is merely waiting online to receive an order, DoorDash’s insurance does not apply. Like the other platforms, DoorDash offers up to $1 million in liability coverage, but it is contingent and secondary. DoorDash also does not provide collision coverage for the driver’s own vehicle unless the driver already carries this coverage on their personal policy. Because DoorDash is one of the largest delivery platforms in the country, with millions of active drivers, victims frequently encounter these coverage gaps.
Among the major delivery platforms, Grubhub offers no insurance coverage whatsoever, regardless of whether the driver is waiting online, en route to pick up a meal, or actively delivering a customer’s order. Victims can only seek compensation from the driver’s personal insurance policy. This can be extremely problematic if the driver’s policy excludes commercial activity, is at minimum limits, or has lapsed. In many Grubhub-related crashes, victims are left with unpaid medical bills, lost wages, and property damage unless they file claims under their own uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage or pursue litigation.
So to sum up the above, if you are in a car accident caused by a delivery driver, you will be covered by the company’s insurance policy if the driver was driving to the restaurant to pick up the food or delivering the food if the driver was working for Uber Eats, Postmates, or DoorDash. If the driver was online waiting to take an order from a customer when the crash occurs, then only Uber Eats or Postmates’ insurance policy will cover you. If the driver is working for Grubhub, there is no company insurance coverage under any circumstances.
Keep in mind, however, that just because a company claims no liability, that does not mean that a Virginia car accident attorney cannot help. If a driver is not covered under the company’s policy when the accident occurs and if their policy is only a personal policy that excludes crashes that occur if the driver is working at the time, what options do victims have? Under the law, just because a company calls its driver an independent contractor, that doesn’t mean that classification is always the correct one. Your attorney can determine if there is a legal basis for the company to use this as a defense. Some of the factors the attorney will investigate include:
If you have been injured in an accident caused by a delivery driver, contact a Virginia car accident attorney to find out what legal options you may have. At Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp, we are committed to helping injured clients secure the compensation they deserve for their medical expenses, lost wages, and other losses resulting from their injuries. Call our office for a free case evaluation.
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