The moment you tell a carrier you deliver, most of them stop quoting.
Cover for restaurants that run their own delivery — where employees drive their own cars, general liability will not carry the auto exposure, and the account has to be placed with one of the few markets that writes it.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
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What delivery restaurant businesses actually need.
Hired and non-owned auto
Liability when an employee crashes their own car on a delivery run — the business gets sued, not just the driver.
Without it — The single coverage that makes delivery hard to place at all, and the one most standard carriers will not attach once you disclose it.
General liability
The dining room, the counter, the sidewalk and foodborne illness claims.
Without it — The base policy — but on a delivery account it usually will not carry the auto exposure with it.
Workers compensation
Drivers injured on the road, and kitchen staff burned or cut — different class codes, often on one payroll.
Without it — A driver hurt on a run is a work injury wherever the accident happened, and delivery class codes rate well above kitchen ones.
Employer’s non-ownership liability
The endorsement wording that decides whether your policy responds when the car is the employee’s and the trip was yours.
Without it — A personal auto policy commonly excludes delivery for compensation, which means the driver’s insurer denies and yours is the only one left.
Umbrella
Excess above the auto and general liability limits, which is where a serious road claim actually lands.
Without it — A primary auto limit is exhausted by one injury accident, and delivery accidents involve other people’s cars and other people’s bodies.
Business cyber
Online ordering, stored cards and the customer database that delivery necessarily builds.
Without it — Taking orders online means holding addresses and payment data for everyone who ever ordered.
Crime and social engineering
Theft by staff, and the scam where an employee is talked into handing over the takings.
Without it — A till handed over on a convincing phone call is not burglary, so property does not answer it — social engineering is a named sublimit you have to ask for.
Group health and benefits
Cover for the staff you would rather not retrain every quarter.
Without it — Turnover is the largest hidden cost in an hourly workforce, and this is the benefit that decides between two jobs paying the same.
An independent restaurant with four delivery drivers was non-renewed after its carrier reclassified the account on discovering deliveries. Two brokers came back declined, and the shop was days from operating with the auto exposure uninsured.
We placed general liability, property and hired and non-owned auto together in a market that writes delivery deliberately, at a $1M limit with an umbrella above it. The submission went out with a written driver safety program and a signed driver standards handbook for each driver, which is what moved it from a marginal risk to an accepted one. The coverage was bound before the old policy expired.
What delivery restaurant operators ask us.
Why will hardly anyone quote us once we say we deliver?
Because delivery converts a premises risk into a road risk, and road risk is where severity lives. A slip in the dining room is a five-figure claim; a driver running a light in their own car with your logo on the roof is a seven-figure one, with your business named because the trip was for your benefit. Most standard restaurant programs are priced for premises and simply decline to carry the auto exposure, so once you disclose delivery you are outside their appetite rather than merely rated higher. That is not a reason to hide it — an undisclosed delivery operation is a coverage denial waiting for the worst possible day. It is a reason to be placed with the markets that write it deliberately, which is a much shorter list and the reason accounts like this come to us.
Our drivers use their own cars and have their own insurance. Isn’t that enough?
No, and this is the assumption that causes the uninsured claims. A personal auto policy almost always excludes using the vehicle to carry goods or people for compensation, so the moment your driver is delivering, their own insurer has grounds to deny — leaving your business as the only solvent party in the suit. Even where their policy does pay, it pays their limit, which is usually a state minimum, and the plaintiff comes to you for the rest. And your driver can sue you for not carrying the coverage the business was supposed to have. Their insurance is a layer, not a substitute.
What do you actually give us beyond a policy?
The program the underwriter wants to see, because on a delivery account that is what decides both acceptance and price. We provide our insureds with underwriting-approved sample cell phone and distracted driving policies, a written driver safety program, and driver standards handbooks your employees can sign at hire. Those documents do two jobs: they are evidence to an underwriter that the risk is being managed rather than hoped about, and they are evidence in a lawsuit that you set a standard and enforced it. A delivery restaurant with a signed handbook on file and one without are not the same submission, and they are not the same defense.
Should we be pulling MVRs on drivers?
Yes, on every driver at hire, and we recommend it strongly enough that it is part of how we present these accounts. Two reasons. The obvious one is that it stops you handing a company errand to somebody with a suspended license or a recent DUI, which is the fact that turns an accident into a negligent hiring claim against you. The less obvious one is pricing: driver records are among the biggest levers on what this coverage costs, and a submission that can show a clean MVR schedule and a policy of pulling them prices materially better than one that says "we ask them". It is a small recurring cost that pays for itself in premium before you count the claims it prevents.
We use DoorDash and Uber Eats. Does that change it?
It reduces the exposure but it does not remove it, and the mistake is assuming it does. On a third-party marketplace order collected by their courier, the driver is not yours and the auto exposure largely is not either. But almost every restaurant that uses the platforms also runs its own drivers for direct orders, staff still run to the bank and the supplier, and a manager taking a catering order out in their own car is exactly the trip this coverage exists for. Disclose the mix honestly — what proportion is marketplace, what is your own drivers — because it is a rating factor rather than a disqualifier, and being accurate about it is what makes the quote hold up.
What limit do we need?
Start at $1M and expect to be asked for more, and treat that number as a floor rather than a target. Auto claims are the most severe thing a restaurant does — a single injury accident regularly exceeds a $1M primary — so most delivery accounts sit better with an umbrella above it. Where a franchise agreement, a landlord or a catering client names a limit, theirs decides it: brand requirements in this trade run well above $1M and are non-negotiable. Tell us what your agreement says and we will build to that number rather than to the cheapest compliant one.
Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.