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How to Get Insured for Delivery Work

16 June 2026 | Author Avatar Graeme Stoker

Picking up delivery shifts is becoming increasingly popular. With high demand for courier drivers, it can be a great way to make some money if you can get behind the wheel. Whether you’re a student home for the holidays, picking up parcel shifts or someone looking to make the most of the summer food delivery rush, getting on the road is exciting. But before you grab those car keys or jump into a van, you need to make sure your insurance has you covered for delivery work.

Knowing what insurance you need for delivery work can be confusing, but we’ve made it easy. We understand that you want to start earning without getting bogged down in endless paperwork. That’s why we’ve designed flexible options to cover you for courier work, so you can get insurance whenever you’re working. You can easily sort out temporary car courier insurance or temporary van hire and reward insurance and be on the road in minutes, so you don’t miss out on those peak-hour earnings.

Do Delivery Drivers Need Special Insurance?

In the UK, you must be insured whenever behind the wheel of a vehicle, and that includes delivery drivers. But standard social, domestic, and commuting insurance isn’t enough if you’re using your wheels to make money. You can’t make deliveries with standard insurance; you need a policy that specifically covers hire-and-reward use.

Even if you have business use on your policy, it doesn’t tend to cover delivery work. Business insurance is designed for driving to different meetings or offices, not for making multi-drop deliveries.

If you don’t have the right policy, you could face serious consequences. Using a standard policy for commercial deliveries could lead your insurer to cancel your cover and not pay out in the event of an accident.

From Fast Food to Parcels: Insurance for Every Job

Not all delivery gigs are the same, but they all require proper cover. Because our temporary options can be selected with hire-and-reward coverage, they’re the perfect, flexible fit for the UK’s most popular delivery apps and networks.

Hot Food and Grocery Delivery

If you’re delivering takeaway orders or picking up supermarket delivery slots, you’ll be working with platforms like Deliveroo, Just Eat, or Uber Eats. These shifts are fast-paced and heavily concentrated around specific times, such as the Friday night dinner rush or weekend lunch hours.

Paying for an expensive annual commercial policy doesn’t make sense if you only deliver for a few hours a week. With temporary food delivery cover, you can buy insurance that matches your shifts, letting you work on your own terms.

Parcel and Courier Delivery

If you prefer delivering parcels, you’ll likely be taking on shifts for household courier brands like Amazon Flex, Evri, DPD, or DHL. This work involves structured multi-drop routes, often delivering high volumes of packages to homes and businesses.

Companies like Amazon Flex require proof of hire and reward insurance before you can even accept a delivery block. Temporary courier insurance lets you get covered for the exact days you have shifts booked, meaning you don’t pay for delivery cover when your vehicle is parked up on your days off.

How to Get The Right Delivery Insurance

The exact cover you need depends on what you’re transporting and how you’re transporting it.

  • For car drivers: If you’re using a car for delivery work, our temporary car courier insurance provides comprehensive cover for short-term shifts, whether you’re delivering food or parcels.
  • For van drivers: If you need a larger commercial vehicle for your deliveries, hire-and-reward insurance will allow you to carry out courier shifts in a van.

To get a quote from us, you’ll just need to enter the vehicle’s registration plate and select the type of delivery work you’ll be doing when asked about usage. Tell us your licence details, and you can have a quote in under two minutes, easy.

If you’re borrowing a vehicle from a friend or family member for your shifts, you might be wondering how to get insured on someone else’s car. Temporary insurance makes it easy and doesn’t affect the owner’s annual policy or risk their hard-earned no-claims bonus.

Tap Into Seasonal Gigs and Peak Delivery Demand

The courier and gig-economy sectors are booming, making short-term delivery work one of the most popular ways to earn extra cash in the UK. Industry data reveals that the UK courier, express, and parcel market has grown to £13.62 billion, driven heavily by online shopping trends and crowdsourced logistics networks. At the same time, the UK food delivery market is valued at £14.3 billion, keeping thousands of active delivery partners busy on the roads.

Because customer demand shifts constantly, delivery networks experience highly concentrated peaks. The summer months bring a major spike in on-demand services, ranging from last-minute parcel deliveries of holiday outfits to surges in fast-food orders during warm weekends, outdoor events, and major football tournaments. This seasonality creates an immediate need for flexible driver pools, making it a brilliant earner for university students back home for the summer or part-time drivers looking to capitalise on the rush.

This is where pay-as-you-go temporary cover fits in perfectly. If you only plan to pick up shifts for a few weeks over the holidays, committing to a costly annual courier policy doesn’t make financial sense. With temporary insurance, you can buy cover by the hour, day, or week, giving you the freedom to choose your own shifts without high overheads. Plus, it runs completely separately from your main personal insurance, protecting your hard-earned personal no-claims discount if you ever need to make a claim during a shift.

Why Temporary Insurance Works So Well for Delivery Drivers

With our delivery insurance options, you can pay as you go. Get covered from just 1 hour up to 28 days at a time – ideal if you’re working on a short-term contract or picking up seasonal shifts. Rather than paying for courier insurance all year round with an annual policy, you can simply layer it on top of your regular insurance whenever you’re going to be working.

This doesn’t just save you from being over-insured when you’re not working. It also means that if you get into an accident whilst working, you’d claim under your temporary policy. Protecting your no-claims discount on any other policies you have.

Our delivery insurance options mean you can:

  • Get insured in minutes – there are no long forms to fill out or phone calls.
  • Choose your own hours – with hourly, daily and monthly cover available.
  • Avoid affecting your annual no-claims bonus – because our policies run separately from existing annual insurance policies.
  • Only pay for the cover you need – perfect for ad hoc shift patterns.

If you’re using your van or car to deliver for businesses like Amazon, Just Eat, or Deliveroo, we can help you stay covered without having to commit to a year-long policy.

The Best Way to Get Insured for Delivery Work Fast

When a lucrative shift becomes available, you don’t want to spend hours waiting on the phone for an insurance quote. You need a fast, simple solution so you can accept the job and get moving.

We’ve made finding the best insurance for delivery drivers as straightforward as possible. You can get a competitive quote online in less than two minutes. Even better, you can manage your cover on the go using the GoShorty temporary insurance app.

Our application process is quick, clear, and designed to get you on the road with comprehensive protection. Ready to get started? Get a quote today and see how easy it is to stay safe and road-legal whilst making deliveries.

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