Best Insurance For Delivery Drivers, Rideshares, & Other Gig Drivers

NEXT offers commercial auto insurance for small businesses that includes coverage for delivery drivers. You may need to add what’s called “hired and no-owned auto” coverage if you want to get protection for using a personal vehicle for work.

You cannot use NEXT insurance with rideshare apps, however.

One of my favorite things about NEXT is how easy it is to find pricing information. Many larger insurance companies like to gather all your information and make you wait a bit. NEXT, on the other hand, publishes its average rates while letting you know that your rate may be higher or lower, depending on the usual factors like your location, vehicle type, driving record, and so on.

We know that NEXT’s commercial auto coverage starts at $12.50/month, although a majority of NEXT customers will pay a higher rate. The company says that 20% of its customers pay less than $100/month for commercial auto insurance.

If you decide to add hired and non-owned insurance, basic coverage starts around $7/month.

The Hartford writes commercial auto insurance policies for all kinds of vehicles. If it has wheels and a motor, The Hartford probably will cover it.

However, while The Hartford can write a policy to cover car owners who want to arrange short-term car rentals through a company like Turo, The Hartford does not offer rideshare insurance or coverage options for gig drivers doing deliveries.

Like most insurance companies, The Hartford offers personalized pricing. Contact the company for your free quote.

Your pricing will depend on factors like the type of coverage you’re seeking, your driving record, your location, your claims history, and more.

Progressive offers rideshare insurance coverage that includes protections for drivers who work for rideshare companies and delivery service platforms like Uber Eats or Doordash.

Adding this coverage is simple. Request an online quote and click a box that says “I also use this vehicle for Ridesharing.” Don’t let the name fool you. This coverage includes both traditional rideshare and delivery activities.

Screenshot of Progressive webpage, captured 10/27/2023

You can add this coverage to your standard Progressive auto policy. And when you do, you get extended coverage whether you’re driving for work or just driving yourself.

Progressive tosses in a perk too, in the form of a deductible reimbursement offer. If you make a claim on your rideshare company’s policy, Progressive will pay you the difference between your personal deductible and the rideshare deductible, which is usually higher than your own.

Like most insurers, Progressive offers pricing information by personal quote only. This makes sense, because your pricing will depend on your unique answers to questions about your vehicle, your location, your driving record, and so on.

Progressive makes it easy to ask online for a quote. You’ll need to enter information about your vehicle and how you use it as well as personal information such as your name, age, and address. When I tested the process, the form asked for my Social Security number, saying it would help ensure a more accurate quote. I was able to proceed without providing my SSN.

Progressive also offers a program called Snapshot that it says can lower your rates based on your driving habits using a plug-in device or mobile app. I did not sign up for this program but you might be interested in its savings possibilities. I was also offered the chance to lower my rates by adding home insurance or renters insurance.

After completing the online process, I was given an instant quote that included three options: Basic, for $66.35/month; Choice, for $104.52/month, or Recommended, for $157.54/month for coverage that included me and my spouse driving a late-model car for personal use and ridesharing. A full comparison of the packages was included, allowing me to see the options.

I also saw an AutoQuote Explorer option that offered to send me to a third-party site to compare Progressive rates against competitor rates.

Three types of discounts were offered: Snapshot, Progressive Accident Forgiveness, and Deductible Savings Bank. An immediate payment of the first month’s policy would allow me to start coverage immediately.

USAA’s rideshare coverage encompasses transportation network companies like Lyft as well as app-based delivery services like Uber Eats.

However, USAA does not cover hosts who rent their cars through car share apps like Turo. If you use Turo or another car share app to rent a car, your USAA insurance likely will cover you, though you’d be wise to double-check your policy and its limitations.

To get rideshare coverage through USAA, you will need an active car insurance policy through the company. The USAA website notes that you may need to carry specific liability limits to add rideshare coverage.

While USAA advertises its rideshare coverage starting at $6/month, you’ll have to add a full USAA auto insurance policy first.

USAA provides pricing information by personal quote only, and the fact that this insurance is available only to active servicemembers, veterans, and their immediate families complicates the process. Furthermore, if you’re a family member, your military contact must be a USAA customer before you can qualify.

However, USAA is widely known as an inexpensive insurance option. According to Time Magazine, in 2023 a full-coverage USAA car policy came in at just under $900/year. That made USAA the least expensive insurance in Time’s comparison. (The second least expensive was over $1,000/year.)

If you meet USAA’s eligibility requirements, you can request a quote online.

State Farm’s rideshare coverage is called transportation network company driver coverage (except in DC, where it’s called private vehicle-for-hire Company operator coverage).

It covers all driving activity while working for a Transportation Network Company such as Uber or Amazon Delivery.

State Farm offers pricing by personal quote only, and that makes sense. Your location, vehicle type and age, driving record, and more all make a difference in the price you can expect to pay for insurance.

If you want rideshare insurance from this company, you’ll need to start with State Farm car insurance coverage. Adding rideshare coverage will cost an additional 15%-20%, the company says.

Where State Farm shines is the number of available discounts you can use to reduce your premiums.

The Drive Safe & Save program rewards good drivers with premium discounts of up to 30%. The Steer Clear program rewards young drivers who have clear records with discounts of up to 20%.

Bundle your home and auto coverage with State Farm and you can save more than $1,000/year, according to the company’s figures.

Last but not least, a perk: State Farm’s rideshare coverage allows drivers to receive the same deductions and limits while driving as they do when they’re driving for their TNC. Your State Farm protection undoubtedly would be more generous than the required TNC coverage extended to drivers.

Allstate Ride For Hire insurance covers drivers who want to use their cars to drive for a Transportation Network Company (TNC) like Uber or Lyft.

Unfortunately, Allstate’s coverage does not extend to delivery drivers. So if you’re driving for Instacart, Amazon Flex, or Grubhub, you won’t be able to find coverage with Allstate.

Allstate’s rideshare insurance pricing information is provided by personal quote only. You can start your quote online. I found the Allstate online application process to be both more involved and more frustrating than other insurance companies, so be prepared to put some time in or to pick up the phone and continue working with an agent if you hit your limit.

Allstate does not provide price information. So getting a personal quote is your only path. Fortunately, quotes are free and you should be able to get the answer you need via email, although a phone call is always an option.

Remember that you can add rideshare coverage to an existing Allstate auto policy, or you can purchase standalone coverage. If you want to keep your auto coverage with your current insurer, Allstate could be a great option.