In an accident while delivering pizza. Should I say that I was working when I make my claim?

In My Humble Opinion
1

First off, I saw a post here similar to my plight. However the big thing to note with my situation is that I was NOT at fault so I am hoping for some advice specific to that fact.

While delivering pizza for Dominos, another driver crossed an intersection from a stop sign while I had the right of way on a through-traffic street. She admitted fault without a fuss, however, my car was totaled in the process… I am fortunate to have escaped any injury.
I am going to have to make a statement to her insurance company when they call me during their investigation. As delivery drivers, we are required to carry our own insurance and I believe that the company (Dominos pizza inc) does not provide any. I am unsure if I should mention that I was working at the time for worry that they will refuse to pay out anything at all, leaving me royally screwed.

In best case, they will determine that my car is only worth $2000 according to its blue book value. This is very bad for me as despite being only valued at $2000, my car was very reliable and had a lot of life left in it. I am worried I will only be able to buy a clunker with $2000 that I need to reinvest thousands of dollars of maintenance into, as I already had with my car before the accident. In a nutshell, even though I am not at fault and a pay-out will be made, I am still losing thousands of dollars and having to settle for a low-quality car and re-perform vital maintenance. It is unlikely I will be able to find a replacement vehicle similar to my own because I live in a small remote town where selection is limited. Currently I am delivering pizzas in a rental vehicle which I can only hope I will be reimbursed for when the investigation is concluded.

Anyway, I was advised not to mention I was delivering when I made my statement as I may potentially lose my rights to a pay-out. Know that the at-fault driver and witness know I was delivering during the accident so they may choose to report it in their statements regardless of what I do. I dont know what I should do, please advise if you have any knowledge on insurance!

This is a very frustrating position to be in. I was performing a menial job just trying to make ends meet and was made a victim because of it. I feel like I am going to end up losing thousands in recent maintenance I paid for on my vehicle and end up with a subpar replacement vehicle- I may even end up being compromised with my job if the replacement vehicle is not reliable for frequent use (pizza delivery absolutely adds miles at an alarmingly fast rate to your vehicle and break downs = shift/income loss).

Is their anything legal I can do to receive a bigger payout? My goal is not to buy a super nice or expensive car. I am not materialistic, I simply want something that is reliable and reasonably similar to what I have now (ie. a honda civic with 150,000 miles is considered a reliable car and acceptable replacement- worried I cant find one for $2000 though). I also dont want to take my employer to the cleaners. The dominos I work at is franchised to a local owner. He is a very nice and honest man and it is not my intention to hurt him financially. I just want my needs to be taken care of, not to get rich off of lawsuits.

2

Any settlement offered by the other driver’s insurance company will be based on the value of your vehicle. Most companies start with the “Book Value” (Kelly’s Blue Book, etc) of your vehicle but that figure is negotiable if you can show your vehicle is worth more. Check sites in your area listing the asking price for similar vehicles and begin the negotiation dance.

To me, mentioning that your were working at the time has no bearing on this matter as it has nothing to do with liability or the value of your car. In addition, should the settlement fall through with the other insurance carrier, your insurance company may deny coverage because your vehicle was involved in a business pursuit and some policies exclude coverage during this type of activity unless you advised them of this business use before you began delivering pizza. If you did, they probably increased your liability premium.

3

Any settlement offered by the other driver’s insurance company will be based on the value of your vehicle. Most companies start with the “Book Value” (Kelly’s Blue Book, etc) of your vehicle but that figure is negotiable if you can show your vehicle is worth more. Check sites in your area listing the asking price for similar vehicles and begin the negotiation dance.

To me, mentioning that your were working at the time has no bearing on this matter as it has nothing to do with liability or the value of your car. In addition, should the settlement fall through with the other insurance carrier, your insurance company may deny coverage because your vehicle was involved in a business pursuit and some policies exclude coverage during this type of activity unless you advised them of this business use before you began delivering pizza. If you did, they probably increased your liability premium.

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Duplicate post. Please delete

4

I don’t see how mentioning that you were driving for work would cause you not to be compensated. It was your property that was damaged and the other party was at fault, so you get paid for your loss.

You are only entitled to be made whole - that is, the settlement is supposed to compensate you for the value of what you lost. Neither the person who hit you nor that person’s insurance company has to give you more than that, no matter how much you want or need it. You may have a dispute over how much your car was worth, but that’s a different question.

You say that you don’t want to take your employer to the cleaner’s. Why do you think you will get any money from your employer over this? It was your car, and Domino’s required you to carry your own insurance. Your employer doesn’t owe you any compensation. Anything your boss gives you would be out of the goodness of his heart, not out of any legal obligation.

By the way, I hope that when you took this job you informed your insurance company that you would be using your car for work. Their rates are based on how the car is used. If you got into an at-fault accident without telling your insurer that you were using your car to deliver for Domino’s, they could refuse to pay.

5

Sorry for your loss.

Apparently delivery drivers need to tell their ins co. upfront about their job. Personally i nevr had an employer tell me about that requirement, would have been nice to know that upfront.

Now you must not conceal anything about your delivery job. that constitutes fraud, and you may already have committed “fraud” by driving underinsured…

you need sound advice and hopefully an understanding insurance agent?

good luck, you did not cause the accident and suffered a total loss, sincerely hope it all works out for the best.

6

I used to be an insurance adjuster.

It depends on what state you’re in, injuries, your policy, what liability is, and who is paying for your vehicle. Honestly, you should have told your insurance company that you are a delivery driver.

I don’t know your policy, but I think I can safely assume that there’s an exclusion that says you aren’t covered if you’re using your vehicle for business purposes. What that means is that, unless you have that commercial amendment or a policy via your work, while you are driving your car and delivering pizzas you do not have auto insurance. In California that means, if you were hurt, you are only able to recover medical expenses, not pain and suffering.

That’s dealing with your own company. Assuming the other insurance company is accepting liability (I don’t remember reading that they did. The other driver accepting means absolutely nothing) I don’t think they’ll care that you were on the clock. If liable they need to make you whole.

What that means is they’ll pay you what your vehicle is worth (they won’t go off Kelly. Kelly is usually inflated) and pay for reasonable rental.

If they ask you the purpose of trip let them know. Don’t lie to them. That would constitute fraud.
If you have any questions let me know.

7

Take your insurance policy and yourself to a lawyer. You may be able to get a free consultation, which may be all you need here.
If you were carrying insurance that does not cover you while delivering – and unless you purposely purchased insurance for this, that is a strong possibility – you must be very careful here. It’s good that the other driver has admitted fault, but the facts of the situation are what actually determines fault, and the insurance company determines these facts from the evidence at hand. Her insurance company could potentially determine that the accident was not entirely her fault if they come up with any evidence to support this. Next thing you know, you are being held personally liable for her “neck injuries” sustained as a result of her hitting you and it’s up to you to scrounge up the cash to defend yourself. That’s a worst-case scenario, but sadly it does happen.
You are also pretty likely to be driving uninsured now with your rental car. Did you tell them you would be delivering pizzas with it?

8

I dont believe my ins. company knows. I simply did not think to tell them, this was a part time job for me and still is considered a temporary one, but perhaps I ended up doing it for longer than I planned. Thank you for your information.

9

Thank you. My big point of stress here is despite what they determine my car to be valued at. I have put so much work into it recently on major half-life maintenence that I will truly be losing money even when they pay me whole. I dont need a 1500 clunker… I need a car that is reputable for being reliable (such as a japanese model) like the one that I had. This is important since long distance driving and delivering pizzas are a regular part of my life.

Another question I have is if I am eligible for compensation because I am now rendered unable to work (cant deliver pizzas without a car!). I have the rental for now but I dont know how long they will choose to riemburse me for that. Yes in time I will move into a different job, but for now I am forced to take the relatively lucrative job pf pizza delivery due to financial need. I just returned from a trip across seas which I budgeted for, but I have been left in a vulnerable position and having this happen to me right upon my return was the last thing that I needed. Pizza delivery is what is enabling me to catch back up on rent and utilities for now.

10

When you talk to them let them know that you’ve put a lot of work into your vehicle. Be prepared to provide receipts/documentation. This may help you get more. Honesty, I’d mentally prepare for taking a hit.

Yes, you definitely may be able to submit documentation for loss of income due to the damages you’ve sustained. I know I’ve had to pay out to taxi drivers/buses and such. If I were the adjuster I’d ask you to provide evidence of missed work and the last, let’s say, month or so of payment stubs and I’d do an average.

edit: I am not a lawyer, ymmv, advice is worth what you pay, yada, yada, yada.

11

Would you also be entitled to workers comp, since you were injured “on the job”?

12

I agree you need to prepare yourself for taking a “hit”. We’ll not really a “hit”, but you’ll probably see it as one.

They are going to need to compensate you and make you whole. This means giving you a rental for the time it takes to repair your vehicle or buy a replacement. Not sure what a reasonable time would be considered for buying a replacement, but I’m guessing it won’t be more than a week.

What you have put into the car is irrelevant (well partially). What matters is what the car is worth at the time of the accident. If someone else was selling a car similar to yours for $2,000 - and you put in $1,500 recently into your car - it might seem unfair that your car would be worth only $2,000 - but that is what it’s worth. Your ideas that the car had lots of life left in it is simply a guess.

Of course having put money into it recently should show it was well maintained - and probably allow you to get closer to the high range of whatever book value they go by, but I doubt you will get much more than that.

Also agree with the others I don’t get why you think your employer will pay you anything. If you are an independent contractor - driving your own car - the reason it was set up that way was so that the DONT have to take care of you in situations like this.

Try finding a car that (from a third party point of view) is the same quality as yours. This should be done on stuff that is factual like make, model, year, mileage and stuff like that. If you can find four or five ads for cars that HONESTLY are of like kind and quality to yours - and have these handy - you’ll be in a better position.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the work thing as it shouldn’t matter in this case (although you probably needed to tell your insurance company this - you aren’t going after them). If the other people tell and it gets back to your insurer - well you can’t change the past - and there isn’t much you can do to prevent that.

On the plus side - the value of your car is low - so it isn’t going to be a whole lot of skin off the other insurance company. If you sound confident (and reasonable) on the phone - and have figures to back you up - the adjuster might give you more than he/she intended simply to move on.

I would simply frame it as:

  1. My car was a well maintained year XYZ
  2. I’ve found x similar vehicles with amounts ranging from -
  3. I’d be willing to take (whatever they offer you) but there are no cars in that price range that match the quality of my car (and I’d use consumer reports to back that up).

I’d leave out stuff like “it had a lot of life left in it”

Good luck - sounds pretty stressful

13

Hello!

California Worker’s Comp insurance adjuster here (up until 2 years ago, but it hasn’t changed much in that time.)

Worker’s Comp would almost definitely pay out for this - if you were injured. That’s regardless of fault on the accident. However, worker’s comp doesn’t care one whit about your car.

So if you were unable to continue delivering because of injury related to the accident, and a doctor verified this, WC would pay you 2/3 of your average salary (including tips!) while you were medically unable to work. (Note: If you didn’t report all your tips to your employer/IRS, it could get hairy trying to prove how much you made. It depends on how stubborn your employer wanted to be on the issue.)

However, if you were unable to continue delivering because your car was out of commission? There it goes to the auto insurance people, and WC isn’t even in play.

Edit: I didn’t consider the Independent Contractor issue. You almost definitely are not an Independent Contractor, even if your employer says you are, even if you’ve signed something saying you are. The laws for what makes you an IC are very precise and IME 99% of the “IC’s” out there are not actually IC’s.

I’d recommend checking out an attorney who handles both auto accident and Worker’s Comp issues and explaining the situation - they can tell you how best to proceed, whether that’s going for the auto insurance or WC or both.

14

Answer questions truthfully. Do not volunteer information they don’t ask you. I don’t know anyone who’s been in an accident who’s been asked “Why were you on the road at the time of the accident?”

15

Seconding RandMcnally. We actually had this happen to us. Our car had close to 200,000 miles, when it overheated (DH was driving; I wasn’t there, just so you know), and we replaced the engine for $1,200. It had high miles, but was relatively new, and also had a clutch that was just a couple of years old. We had the body inspected, and determined that with a new engine, we could fully expect to put another 100,000 miles on it before things started happening like the steering failing, the transmission failing, the wheel bearings or differential (it was AWD) failing, etc. So, $1,200 was way cheaper than a new car.

Three weeks after the engine work, we got rear-ended by a jacked-up pick-up the totally demolished the whole rear half of the vehicle.

The car booked at something like $4,500. Since we had the receipt for the new engine, and the work, we got $5,700 for the car. We could have gotten something 10 years old for that, but as it happened, we were talking about buying a new car anyway, and we lucked into a one-year-old car that had been returned halfway through a 2-year lease. It had been on the lot a while, because it had a manual transmission, so it had been reduced from the original price.

Not that you need those details, but anyway, we had to get a new carseat for our son, because any time the car is in an accident, you need to replace the car seat (the boychik was thankfully, not in the car), and we had documentation for that, so we got money to replace the carseat. We also had some particular things our car needed-- room in the back for a carseat, and a hatch, because we lived in the county, and hauled our own trash. That meant our car search took a little longer than it might for a single person. We made sure that was all clear, and documented, and so we had the rental for a couple of weeks, which was maybe a little longer than is typical.

I know someone else who got rear-ended when he had his bicycle on a read rack on his car, and it was destroyed. It was a fairly expensive bike, and he got it replaced as well, because he documented, and was persistent.

I don’t know what you did to your car-- if it was things like brakes that wear out, you may be out of luck, but if you had something like the transmission or differential replaced, you can get compensated for that. It will need to be pretty recent, though, and you will need receipts.

If you have to look for another job because you can’t find a reliable car, I would definitely look into unemployment. The worst they can do is say no, right?

16

Times may have changed, but when I delivered pizza in the late 80’s-early 90’s, it was a dirty little secret that none of the drivers told their insurance company they used their car for deliveries. I naively did tell one broker, and they said no way would they cover me and they didn’t know of any insurers that would. They said I should try to get insurance through my employer, who didn’t offer it.

Predictably, insurers ended up with a curiously high number of pizza cooks, waiters and managers requesting liability insurance, and somehow almost no delivery drivers - or people just lied about where they worked. Fraud? Absolutely. It was the only option, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear it’s still rampant to this day, or nobody would be getting pizza at home.

So whenever you see a car with a lighted car topper on it, you may want to give it wide berth.

17

Ever since Uber and Lyft popped up, companies are getting really hard on this.

18

Why on earth would the other person’s insurance company care what the “purpose” of your trip was, and why would you have to disclose that information?

Either the driver of the other car is liable or he isn’t, and Going to Grandma’s vs delivering pizza has absolutely no bearing on that.

19

Assuming no injuries involved, they don’t care. Only his does.

20

Around here they do. My wife had a minor accident (<$1500 damage). They asked my wife where she was going, did she have children in the car, and whether she had an animal (dog) in the car at the time as well as all the other typical questions. They also offered to replace the car seats (for kids) if she felt they were damaged in any way.
ETA. remember, you’ll probably be asked to talk to both insurance companies, and give your story to both independently. They will ask.