A pizza shop in Clermont runs three delivery drivers on Friday and Saturday nights, all using their own cars and paid a mileage reimbursement on top of tips. One Saturday, a driver running late with four orders rolls through a stop sign and hits a man crossing the street. The driver’s personal auto policy carries the minimum Florida requires and excludes deliveries for pay. The injured man’s attorney does what attorneys do in that situation: he names the pizza shop, because the driver was working for it when the accident happened.
For pizzerias and takeout restaurants, the kitchen is not usually where the largest claim comes from. It is the car. Delivery puts the restaurant’s name on every trip its drivers make, and in Florida the gap between what a driver’s personal policy carries and what a serious accident costs can be enormous.
Why Delivery Is the Biggest Exposure
When an employee causes an accident while doing the business’s work, the business can be held responsible, whether or not it owns the car. For a pizzeria, that means every delivery is a liability exposure for the restaurant. The driver’s personal auto policy is supposed to respond first, but it often does not. Many personal policies exclude delivering food or goods for a fee, and drivers who carry only the minimum often have very little liability coverage to offer.
Florida makes the gap wider than most states. A Florida personal auto policy is required to carry personal injury protection and property damage liability, but bodily injury liability is not required for most drivers. A driver with a minimum policy may have no bodily injury coverage at all, which leaves an injured pedestrian or another driver looking to the restaurant. Our article on commercial auto versus personal auto explains where personal policies stop.
Hired and Non-Owned Auto Is the Core Coverage
Hired and non-owned auto coverage, usually added to a general liability or business owner’s policy, protects the restaurant when employees drive their own cars on business, and when the business rents a vehicle. It is liability coverage for the restaurant, not for the driver or the car. It does not repair the employee’s vehicle and does not pay the driver’s own injuries, but it is what defends and pays when the restaurant is named in an accident its driver caused. For a business with delivery drivers, it is not optional. Our article on hired and non-owned auto insurance in Florida explains how it works.
The limit matters. A delivery accident that injures a pedestrian can easily exceed a modest limit, so many pizzerias carry hired and non-owned auto at the same limit as their general liability and add a commercial umbrella above it. Carriers also look closely at how many drivers you use, how many deliveries they make and how far they go, and some will only write the coverage when drivers meet certain standards.
Hiring and Managing Drivers
What you do before a driver’s first delivery shapes both the claim and the insurance. Check each driver’s motor vehicle record before hiring and periodically after, require a valid license and proof of personal auto insurance, and set a minimum bodily injury limit you expect drivers to carry. Keep copies of their insurance cards and renewals on file. Many franchisors require exactly this, and carriers ask about it.
Delivery practices matter too. Pressure to deliver fast leads to accidents, so avoid promises that push drivers to rush. Limit how many orders a driver carries at once, prohibit phone use while driving and make clear that drivers should not take personal detours during a shift. Reimbursing mileage is good practice, but it does not transfer liability to the driver or make the driver’s personal policy respond.
Vehicles the Business Owns
If the restaurant owns a delivery car, van or scooter, it needs commercial auto coverage for that vehicle, listing every driver who uses it. Hired and non-owned auto does not cover vehicles the business owns. Our article on whether you need commercial auto insurance in Florida covers when a business vehicle needs its own policy. Drivers using mopeds, scooters or e-bikes for deliveries raise their own questions, because many personal policies do not cover them and some carriers treat them differently, so tell your agent if your drivers use them.
Delivery Apps Change Some of the Picture, Not All of It
Many restaurants now use third-party delivery apps instead of, or alongside, their own drivers. When an app’s driver makes the delivery, the app and the driver’s insurance generally handle the auto exposure, which reduces the restaurant’s auto risk. The restaurant still carries the food exposure: an illness, an allergic reaction or a foreign object in the food is a claim against the restaurant no matter who carried the bag. Read the platform agreement as well, because it may require the restaurant to carry certain coverage or to indemnify the platform. Restaurants that use both their own drivers and apps need hired and non-owned auto for their own drivers regardless.
Drivers’ Own Injuries and Workers’ Comp
Delivery drivers get hurt in accidents, slip on wet steps and are sometimes robbed. When a driver is an employee, those injuries belong to workers’ compensation, not to the driver’s personal auto policy or the restaurant’s liability policy. Florida requires workers’ compensation for non-construction businesses with four or more employees, counting part-time staff, and a pizzeria with a few cooks, counter staff and weekend drivers usually crosses that line. Some restaurants pay drivers as independent contractors, but Florida looks at the actual working relationship, and drivers who work the restaurant’s shifts and wear its uniform are usually employees; our article on 1099 workers and independent contractors explains the test. With constant driver turnover, our article on pay-as-you-go workers’ comp explains how to keep the audit from producing a large bill.
Robbery and Late Nights
Drivers carrying cash late at night are targets, and so are counters that stay open until midnight or later. Limiting how much cash drivers carry, encouraging card and app payments, lighting the parking lot and using cameras protect people first. Many general liability policies exclude or limit assault and battery, which matters when a robbery or a confrontation leads to an injury; our article on assault and battery coverage explains the versions you will see. Crime coverage addresses cash, robbery losses and employee theft.
The Kitchen Still Matters
Pizza ovens run hot for long hours. Deck and conveyor ovens, fryers for wings and wood-fired or coal ovens all carry fire exposure, and carriers expect a commercial hood with fire suppression where cooking produces grease-laden vapor, along with regular cleaning and inspection. Wood-fired and coal ovens narrow the market and need their own maintenance records. Our article on how your cooking method affects restaurant insurance explains where the lines fall. Walk-in coolers and prep refrigeration also need equipment breakdown and spoilage coverage, and food safety and allergen practices matter for every order that leaves the building. Our article on what happens when a customer claims food poisoning walks through those claims.
Your Lease, Franchise Agreement and the Rest of the Program
Takeout restaurants usually lease space in shopping centers, and the lease will set liability limits, require the landlord as additional insured and ask for a waiver of subrogation. Franchise agreements often go further, setting minimum limits for hired and non-owned auto, umbrella coverage and workers’ compensation and requiring the franchisor as additional insured. Read both before the policy is bound. The usual Florida questions apply too: the windstorm deductible is a percentage of the property limit, and flood is never covered by the property policy. For the rest of the restaurant program, see our guide to restaurant insurance in Florida.
What Pizzeria and Takeout Owners Should Confirm
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Do you have hired and non-owned auto coverage, at a limit that matches your general liability?
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Do you carry a commercial umbrella above it?
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Do you check every driver’s motor vehicle record and keep proof of their personal auto insurance on file?
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Do your drivers’ personal policies exclude delivery for pay?
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Do you own any delivery vehicles, scooters or e-bikes, and are they on a commercial auto policy?
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If you use delivery apps, have you read what the platform agreement requires of you?
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Are your drivers covered by workers’ compensation as employees?
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Does your general liability exclude assault and battery?
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Is your oven and hood system inspected and cleaned on schedule?
Pizzeria and Takeout Restaurant Insurance With Prestige
Prestige Insurance Group insures pizzerias, takeout and delivery restaurants, wing shops and franchise locations throughout Florida, from Miami-Dade and Broward to Orlando and Tampa. We work with over 100 MGAs and specialty markets, including carriers that write hired and non-owned auto for restaurants with active delivery programs. Send us your current declarations page, the number of drivers you use and your franchise agreement’s insurance section, and we will show you where the gaps are. Call the office nearest you. Se habla español.
Miami: 305-969-8776 Orlando: 407-993-2331
General information only, not legal advice. Florida auto insurance requirements, policy forms, delivery exclusions and carrier appetite vary and change over time. Refer to your actual policies, franchise agreement and lease for the terms that apply to your business.
