Takeout and delivery options aren’t going away in 2022! Businesses should review their current insurance coverage to ensure that they are covered for “hired non-owned auto policies” if planning to conduct deliveries with their own staff, as opposed to using a third-party delivery service.
The Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI) took action to protect Colorado insurance consumers and reduce insurance delays for restaurants and workers during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Our partners at Crest Restaurant Insurance explain: The State changed two pertinent coverage exclusions for delivery drivers:
- The regulation removes the “commercial use” exclusion in a personal automobile policy. This essentially requires that personal automobile policies cannot exclude claims arising from commercial use of the vehicle.
- The regulation removes the “unnamed driver” exclusion in a commercial automobile policy. This essentially makes any driver covered on a hired/non-owned policy.
This regulation expands coverage for individuals and restaurants who are adequately insured and acting in the course of employment/business operations.
- Please note these expanded conditions ONLY apply for employees whose job description did not include food delivery prior to March 17, 2020.
- The commercial use (PL) and excluded driver (CL) exclusions would still be applicable if a driver was employed as a driver prior to March 17, 2020.
- Restaurants still need hired/non-owned liability coverage if they are directly (or through a third party) delivering food. The State minimum for auto liability for licensed drivers is $25,000/$50,000. We still believe that business operators would be named in a bodily injury/property damage occurrence. Their H/NO policy is where they would be afforded defense coverage.
Please reach out to us at info@corestaurant.org if you have any questions.
