Using your car for deliveries or lifts: are you covered?
A private car insurance policy covers private use. The moment you carry goods or passengers for payment, most policies stop applying, and the wording that does it is short, standard and easy to miss. This matters more every year, because the number of South Africans earning something on the side with their own car keeps going up, and almost none of them have told their insurer.
Pocket Nerd editorial · Checked 28 September 2026 · 6 min read
The word on your policy is private
Private use means driving for your own purposes. Carrying goods or people for payment is not that, and most policies say so explicitly.
A standard private motor policy covers social, domestic and pleasure use, and usually commuting to a single place of work. Somewhere in the wording there is a line excluding the carriage of goods or passengers for hire or reward.
That line is short, it is standard, and it is easy to read past. It is also the line that decides whether you are covered on the evening you were dropping off an order.
The exclusion does not care whether you do it full time. A few deliveries at month end to cover a shortfall is still carrying goods for payment.
Where the line actually falls
Not every use of your car for work is excluded, and the distinction is worth understanding before you assume either way.
Usually fine on a private policy
- Driving yourself to and from your own place of work.
- Carrying your own tools or stock to your own job.
- Giving a colleague a lift and splitting the petrol, where you are not making anything on it.
- Occasional business travel, though many insurers want this declared, so ask rather than assume.
Usually excluded
- Food, parcel or grocery delivery for a platform.
- E-hailing, or any paid lift arrangement.
- Running a paid lift club or a school run for payment.
- Carrying somebody else’s goods for a fee, even occasionally.
What actually happens at claim stage
Insurers do not check what you do for a living when you take the policy out. They check it when you claim.
A claim involving a collision produces questions about where you were going and why. An assessor may look at the circumstances, what was in the car, and in some cases at platform records.
If the vehicle was being used for something the policy excludes, the claim can be declined outright, and a declined claim is only the first problem. You may also be exposed to the other party’s damages personally, which on a serious collision is a far larger number than your car.
It can also affect the policy going forward, since a declined claim and a non-disclosure sit on your record when you next apply for cover anywhere.
How to fix it
This is a solvable problem, and it is much cheaper to solve before a claim than after one.
- 1
Read the use clause
Find the section of your wording describing permitted use. It will name social, domestic and pleasure, and it will exclude hire or reward. Now you know where you stand.
- 2
Tell your insurer what you actually do
In writing, plainly, including occasional work. Insurers price risk; they are not looking for a reason to refuse you. What they will refuse is a claim on a use they were never told about.
- 3
Ask what cover fits
Business use, commercial cover, or a dedicated e-hailing or delivery product. Some insurers offer one and some will decline the risk, which is itself useful to know before you rely on them.
- 4
Check what the platform provides
Some delivery and e-hailing platforms carry cover while you are on an active trip. Read what it covers and, more importantly, what it does not, because the gaps between trips are usually yours.
Declaring it will usually cost more per month. That is the correct outcome rather than a penalty: you are using the car more, at busier times, in heavier traffic. Paying the right premium for the right cover is the entire point, and it is cheaper than one declined claim. What else catches people out on a car policy.
Questions people ask
- Does my car insurance cover me for food delivery?
- Usually not on a private policy. Standard private motor wording excludes carrying goods or passengers for hire or reward, and delivery work is exactly that. It applies even if you only do it occasionally. You need business use, commercial cover, or a product built for delivery work.
- Am I covered for e-hailing on a normal car insurance policy?
- Generally no. Carrying passengers for payment is excluded by the same clause that excludes delivery work. Some platforms provide cover during an active trip, so read what that covers and what it leaves out, particularly the periods between trips.
- What happens if I claim and did not declare business use?
- The claim can be declined. Worse, you may be personally exposed to the other party's damages, which on a serious collision is far more than your own car is worth. A declined claim and a non-disclosure also sit on your record when you next apply for cover anywhere.
- Is giving a colleague a lift for petrol money a problem?
- Generally not, where you are genuinely sharing costs rather than profiting. The exclusion is aimed at carrying people or goods for reward. If you are running something closer to a paid lift service, that is a different matter and should be declared.
Now go and check what you are paying
Knowing how the cover works is most of it. The rest is not overpaying for it. You choose which insurers get your details, and nobody else does.
Where this comes from
No published figures are used on this page. How many people earn money with their own car is not reliably published in South Africa, and the numbers in circulation come from the platforms themselves.
The exclusion described here is standard wording on private motor policies. Your own policy wording is the authority on your cover, and the use it permits is stated in it. Ask your insurer in writing if you are not certain what yours says.