Do I need courier insurance?
Yes, if you are paid to carry goods. The moment money changes hands for a delivery, you are carrying goods for hire and reward, and every standard private motor policy in the UK excludes that. There is no grace period and no threshold — it applies to your first paid drop as much as your thousandth.
What makes this dangerous is that nothing tells you. Your policy does not lapse, your certificate does not change, and you can drive for months without incident. The problem only surfaces at a claim, when the insurer asks what you were doing at the time. Drive without valid cover and you are also committing a criminal offence, with the fixed penalty and licence points that come with it.
Can I use my own car for deliveries?
You can use your own car, but not on your own private policy. The vehicle is rarely the issue — plenty of courier work is done in ordinary hatchbacks and estates. What has to change is the class of use recorded on the policy.
This is where nearly everyone goes wrong. Adding "business use" sounds like it should cover commercial driving, and it does not cover this. Business use lets you drive to places for your work. Hire and reward lets you be paid for the driving itself. They are different things, and only one of them covers a courier.
What is the difference between business use, carriage of own goods, and hire and reward?
These three sit on a ladder, and knowing which rung you are on is the single most useful thing in this article. Each one covers strictly more than the last.
- Social, domestic and pleasure (SDP) — personal driving only. No work use of any kind.
- SDP plus commuting — adds your journey to one regular place of work.
- Business use — driving between sites, to client meetings, to the bank. You are travelling for work, but nobody is paying you to move anything.
- Carriage of own goods — carrying your own tools, stock or equipment. This is the plumber's van and the market trader's estate. The goods belong to you.
- Hire and reward — carrying other people's goods, or their passengers, in exchange for payment. This is the courier rung, and it is the only one that covers delivery work.
The trap sits between the last two, and it catches tradespeople more than anyone. A van already insured for carriage of own goods feels like a commercial policy, because it is one. But the day you take a paid delivery for someone else in that van, you have moved a rung up the ladder and your policy has not moved with you. Cover for courier and van hire and reward is a different product, not an endorsement on the one you have.
Do I need a special licence to be a courier?
For parcel and multi-drop work in a car or a van under 3.5 tonnes, a full UK driving licence is normally all that is required. There is no courier equivalent of a private hire licence, and no council plate to apply for.
Above 3.5 tonnes it changes. Goods vehicles over that weight used commercially generally need a goods vehicle operator's licence, and the rules on drivers' hours and tachographs come into play. If you are anywhere near that line, check the current position with the DVSA before you buy a vehicle — the requirements are set by legislation, not by your insurer, and getting it wrong is expensive in a way insurance will not fix.
Individual delivery networks then add their own conditions on top: vehicle age, van size, background checks, and very often a minimum level of goods in transit cover. Those are contractual, not legal, but they are just as binding if you want the work.
Do I also need goods in transit insurance?
Almost certainly, though not because the law says so. Your courier policy covers the vehicle and your liability to other people. It does not cover the parcels in the back. Goods in transit insurance is the separate policy that does.
Picture the loss that actually happens: a van broken into overnight, emptied of a full round's parcels. The motor policy pays for the damaged lock and nothing else. Everything that was in the back is a claim against you, from whoever owned it.
That is why clients insist on it. Delivery networks and commercial customers commonly write a minimum goods in transit limit into the contract before they will let you carry, and that figure — not your own estimate — is usually what sets the cover you need. Read the contract before you buy the policy.
What about public liability?
Public liability is a third policy again, and it covers something neither of the others touches: injury or damage you cause to a member of the public in the course of your business that has nothing to do with driving. Reversing a trolley into a shopfront, or a parcel left where somebody trips over it.
It is not compulsory for a self-employed courier. Commercial clients and some sites will ask to see it before they let you deliver, so in practice it often becomes necessary through contracts rather than through law. Liability cover is arranged separately from the motor policy.
How much does courier insurance cost?
More than private motor cover on the same vehicle, and the reasons are structural rather than arbitrary. You do far higher mileage. You are on the road at the busiest hours. The vehicle is loaded, unloaded, parked and left repeatedly through the day, which is when things get hit and things get stolen.
Beyond that, the figure depends on your circumstances rather than on any published rate. Underwriters look at the vehicle and its value, what you carry and whether any of it is high-risk, your radius of operation, annual mileage, your age and licence history, any claims or convictions, how long you have held hire and reward cover, and where the vehicle sits overnight.
We do not publish prices, because a broker who quotes an average is quoting somebody else's risk. What we can say is that courier premiums vary widely between insurers for the same driver, far more than private car premiums do, which is precisely why it is worth having the market searched rather than taking the first number you see.
Which mistakes actually invalidate courier cover?
Four come up repeatedly, and all four are avoidable.
- Relying on business use. Covered above, and comfortably the most common. Business use is not hire and reward.
- Buying the wrong kind of delivery policy. Fast food delivery and parcel courier work are rated differently and are frequently written as separate products. A policy sold for one may not respond to the other, so check the work described on your schedule matches the work you actually do.
- Leaving the vehicle unattended. Goods in transit wordings usually restrict theft from an unattended vehicle unless it was locked and secured, often only within stated hours or in a secure overnight location. This clause declines more courier claims than any other.
- Insuring the average load rather than the maximum. A multi-drop driver at seven in the morning is carrying the entire round. By mid-afternoon they are carrying almost nothing. The sum insured has to cover the worst moment of the day, not the typical one.
What should I sort out before the first job?
In order: confirm what class of use your work needs, get the motor cover in place on a hire and reward basis, read your client or network contract for the goods in transit limit it requires, and arrange that limit against the maximum value you will be carrying. If a client or site asks for public liability, add it. Then check that the description of your work on the schedule matches what you will actually be doing, because that sentence is what the insurer will read at claim time.
None of this is difficult, but it is all easier to do before the work starts than after a loss. If you would rather talk it through than work it out from a website, get in touch and we will tell you what applies to your situation — including, honestly, if it is not something we can place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is courier insurance the same as hire and reward insurance?
Courier insurance is a type of hire and reward insurance. Hire and reward is the broader class of use covering anyone paid to carry goods or passengers; courier insurance is the version written for goods delivery specifically. A taxi policy is hire and reward too, but it is not a courier policy.
Can I do courier work on my existing van insurance?
Only if it is already written on a hire and reward basis. A van policy for carriage of own goods covers your own tools and stock, not paid deliveries for other people. Check the class of use on your certificate rather than assuming a commercial policy is enough.
Do I need courier insurance for Amazon Flex, Evri or DPD?
Yes. Delivering for any parcel network is carrying goods for hire and reward. Most networks also set contractual requirements of their own, commonly including a minimum goods in transit limit, so check what your contract specifies before arranging cover.
Is goods in transit insurance a legal requirement?
No. Unlike motor insurance it is not required by law. It is very often required by contract, which is why most working couriers end up needing it.
Can I get courier insurance as a new driver?
It is harder and some insurers decline it, but it is not impossible. Underwriters look at licence length, any previous hire and reward experience, and claims history. Cases are considered individually, so it is worth asking rather than assuming the answer.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. Cover is subject to underwriting, insurer terms, conditions, and acceptance. My Taxi Insurance is a trading style of Captios Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 717691).
