Amazon delivery van accidents in Los AngelesThe driver usually works for another company.

Amazon van crash claims

This page is for people hurt in Los Angeles by an Amazon van, a Flex driver or a truck hauling for Amazon, and for families of people killed in those crashes. It covers how Amazon's network is built, how to identify the driver's employer, the records a van creates, and what courts and juries have done. It does not cover a delivery driver's claim against their own employer, which runs through workers' compensation.

Three Amazon delivery models

Amazon moves a package to your street in one of three ways, and each puts a different company between you and Amazon. Amazon launched the Delivery Service Partner program in 2018 and describes it this way: "While DSPs as independent businesses hire and manage their own employees, they receive support from Amazon to help them be successful." Amazon Flex uses drivers in their own cars. Through Amazon Relay, Amazon contracts with trucking companies to haul freight.

The Flex figure comes from Amazon's Flex safety page. Amazon does not publish the insurance limits it requires of DSPs, and we do not repeat the figures in broker advertising.

Delivery Service Partners

A DSP is the employer, and Amazon shapes the workday. In a February 9, 2024 letter to Senator Chris Murphy, Amazon wrote: "Amazon is not the employer for DSP employees." The same letter says Amazon's technology "designs suggested routes that can be completed efficiently within a specific time period," that its app "will not initiate a delivery route until the pre-trip inspection is complete," and that every 14 days Amazon assesses each vehicle and "will ground vehicles" that fail.

Amazon told the Senator that a DSP's use of Amazon-branded vehicles "is governed by either a Vehicle Use Agreement or a lease agreement, the latter of which are agreements with fleet management companies," and that those contracts are not public. Each DSP owner must hold its own USDOT and MC numbers. When a DSP uses a vehicle over 10,000 pounds for Amazon, Amazon says the DSP operates it "under Amazon's DOT number." Senators who wrote to Amazon on January 10, 2024 described the program's "use of leased vans and other vehicles under 10,000 pounds."

Finding the delivery company

The largest name on the van is Amazon's, and the company you need is usually smaller. California requires a vehicle that carries other people's property for hire to show, on both sides, "the name or trademark of the person under whose authority the vehicle" is operated, under Vehicle Code section 27900. Section 34507.5 adds a carrier identification number on both sides of "any other motortruck or motor vehicle used to transport property for compensation," and a valid USDOT number satisfies it. A van delivering packages for pay falls within both rules.

We have found no official source showing where DSP names appear on Amazon-branded vans, so photograph all four sides and the rear doors, including small print near the doors and the bumper.

• The insurance card. Marsh, the broker Amazon selected to run the DSP insurance program, tells DSPs on its commercial auto page that after an accident "your drivers should provide the Auto ID card issued for your company's auto policy." That card should name the DSP. A second card for vans leased through Amazon lists "Amazon Logistics" as the owner, which is not a finding that Amazon is responsible for the driver.
• The exchange at the scene. Vehicle Code section 16025 requires every driver in a crash to exchange a name, license number, the registered owner's address, and the insurance company and policy number. Ask the driver which company employs them and write down the answer.
• The police report. Vehicle Code section 20012 requires the police agency to disclose the entire report, including vehicle registration numbers, to the drivers, the people injured and their attorneys.
• The numbers on the van. Our find the company behind the vehicle tool explains what a USDOT or CA number tells you and where each one leads.

Insurance behind an Amazon van

Amazon reports that it carries much of its automobile risk itself, which is called self-insurance. Its annual report for 2025 says Amazon "effectively self-insure[s]" exposure that includes "automobile liability, including liability resulting from third-party transportation service providers." It put total self-insurance liabilities, "which primarily relate to automobile liability," at $10.4 billion on December 31, 2025.

That statement does not say Amazon pays claims from DSP crashes. The DSP's coverage is better documented. Marsh's program flyer says "Amazon has selected Marsh" as the DSP insurance program manager and names Old Republic Insurance Company as the program's carrier. The limits are not published. Our guide to whose insurance pays explains how to find the policy behind any company vehicle.

Data an Amazon van records

Amazon's Camera Technology Notice, last updated July 31, 2023, says the cameras capture "video recordings of the vehicle interior (including occupants of the driver and passenger seats) and external views including to the front, right, left, and the rear." Amazon's September 21, 2026 press release credits "Netradyne's in-vehicle safety cameras" for that system. The Ground Transportation Privacy Notice on the same page lists the other records Amazon's systems collect.

The last row comes from eDriving's Mentor app listing, an app "for drivers of Delivery Service Providers engaged by Amazon." A 2021 version note says a speeding event of 15 mph over the limit for more than five seconds "is incorporated within the Amazon scorecard." Pace leaves a record too. A 2019 ProPublica investigation reported that "Amazon requires that 999 out of 1,000 deliveries arrive on time," based on contractors' work orders.

Preservation requests to both companies

A preservation request is a letter asking a company to keep specific evidence for a claim. After an Amazon van crash it goes to the DSP and to Amazon, because Amazon's camera notice gives both a role. Footage is uploaded "If still available, when Amazon or your Transportation Company requests it," and "Transportation Company" is the notice's term for the DSP or other carrier. The notice continues: "Footage that is not uploaded remains encrypted and is automatically overwritten so that there is never more than a limited amount of footage stored on the Camera Technology." Amazon publishes no retention period for that footage.

The two companies hold different records. Route, scan and telematics data run through Amazon's systems, while hiring files, training records and discipline sit with the DSP. The same ProPublica investigation described a Chicago hit-and-run in which an investigator preserved some warehouse video "but not the footage of the vans," and the judge ruled for Amazon because, without the driver's identity, there was "too much uncertainty" for a jury. A request should name the van, the time, the place and the driver. Our guide to evidence after a commercial vehicle crash covers retention for each kind of record.

Amazon's own responsibility

The DSP answers for its employee's driving on an assigned route. Under CACI No. 3720, conduct is within the scope of employment if it is reasonably related to the tasks the employee was hired to do, or reasonably foreseeable in light of the employer's business. That rule is called respondeat superior. The liability it creates is called vicarious liability, meaning one party answers for another's negligence because of their relationship.

Reaching Amazon takes more. We have found no published appellate decision, in California or elsewhere, holding Amazon vicariously liable for a DSP or Flex driver's crash. A claim against Amazon rests on one of three theories, and each turns on evidence. The first is that Amazon had the right to control how the work was done (CACI No. 3704). The second is that Amazon created the impression that the driver was its own and you reasonably relied on it (CACI No. 3709). The third is that Amazon was negligent itself, for example in supervising or retaining a driver it knew or should have known was unsafe (CACI No. 426).

The leading California case on a brand's responsibility for another company's workers is Patterson v. Domino's Pizza (2014). The Supreme Court required a "general right of control over factors such as hiring, direction, supervision, discipline, discharge, and relevant day-to-day aspects of the workplace behavior" of the franchisee's employees, and Domino's won even though its standards were "vigorously enforced." The facts that matter against Amazon are the same: who set the route and pace, who watched the driver through cameras and scorecards, who could ground a van or remove a driver, and what Amazon knew about this driver.

California's ABC test from AB 5 does not decide this question. Labor Code section 2775 applies it "For purposes of this code and the Unemployment Insurance Code, and for the purposes of wage orders," not to responsibility for a crash. Our guide to suing the company behind a driver covers each theory in full.

Verdicts and court rulings

Juries have found Amazon responsible in specific cases, and courts have also ruled for Amazon. None of these results is an appellate decision or binding in California.

In Shaw, a Dorchester County jury found in December 2023 that Amazon was vicariously liable and grossly negligent in hiring, supervising and retaining the driver, ABC News 4 reported. The plaintiff argued that Amazon owned the van, designed the route, assigned the packages and monitored the driver. In Bradfield, an eight-year-old on an electric bike was run over by a van driven for a DSP, and the jury found Amazon controlled the DSP enough to answer for the driver's share of fault, Courtroom View Network reported. The plaintiff's lawyer later told the ABA Journal (reprint) that the case settled under a confidential high-low agreement.

Deragon was tried on damages only. "Five days before trial, Amazon reversed course and stipulated to liability for its Delivery Service Partner and driver," The Daily Record reported, and the July 2026 verdict was $56 million. A stipulation is a decision by a party, not a court ruling on agency.

The rulings cut both ways. In Whaley, an Amazon Relay tractor-trailer case, a federal judge held in February 2024 that the plaintiff had pleaded facts suggesting Amazon "may have exerted sufficient control over" the driver to make him its agent. That was a ruling on the pleadings, not a finding. In Hoffee, a 2019 case about a box truck hired through a broker, the court dismissed the claims against Amazon because "the primary negligent act is three steps away from Amazon." Neither case involved a DSP van.

Amazon Flex drivers

An Amazon Flex driver delivers in a personal car, and Amazon treats the driver as an independent contractor. Amazon's Flex safety page says a driver who keeps personal auto insurance is "protected under the Amazon Commercial Auto Insurance Policy while you're actively driving and delivering," with "auto liability coverage of $1,000,000," in every state but New York. Amazon's Flex FAQ adds that the policy "applies only to Amazon Flex delivery partners who are actively delivering during the delivery block."

Amazon says California Flex drivers receive Proposition 22 benefits, and its California PADSA page defines engaged time. For a scheduled block, it runs from check-in at the delivery station until the last delivery or the return of undeliverable packages. For an instant offer, it starts at acceptance. Drivers can download engaged-time receipts. That record matters because Business and Professions Code section 7455(f)(1) requires a delivery network company to carry at least $1,000,000 per occurrence for crashes during engaged time, where the car is not otherwise covered by a complying policy.

Proposition 22 also says, in section 7451, that a qualifying app-based driver "is an independent contractor and not an employee or agent" of the network company. Whether that language blocks vicarious liability for a crash is undecided. Castellanos v. State of California (2024) upheld section 7451 against a workers' compensation challenge and did not address crash liability. Our guide to delivery app driver accidents covers other apps.

Amazon trailers and big rigs

A tractor-trailer hauling Amazon freight is a different case. Federal motor carrier rules reach a vehicle rated at 10,001 pounds or more in interstate commerce under 49 CFR 390.5T, and the driver typically works for the trucking company that contracted with Amazon, as in Whaley. Amazon can still be sued as the company that chose the carrier. On May 14, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that federal law does not preempt a claim that one company negligently hired another to transport goods. The negligence still has to be proved. Our guide to who is liable in a truck accident covers those cases.

Amazon delivery in Los Angeles

The Southern California Association of Governments' 2024 goods movement report counts Amazon delivery centers in the region "growing from its first in 2012 to 46 as of 2022," with 78 percent opened since 2020. It traces one order from a port container to a fulfillment or sortation center in Ontario or Chino, then to a delivery center in Burbank or Los Angeles, then by last-mile van to the door. Each leg can involve a different company.

A federal labor case about Amazon's control over a DSP arose in Los Angeles County. On September 30, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board's Region 31 issued a complaint alleging that Amazon and Battle Tested Strategies, a DSP at Amazon's DAX8 facility in Palmdale, "have been joint employers" of the DSP's workers. In May 2026 an administrative law judge approved a settlement that, as FreightWaves reported, "includes a nonadmission clause specifically disclaiming Amazon's joint employer status," and the Teamsters asked for review. A labor case decides bargaining rights, not who pays for a crash, but evidence about routes, scorecards and discipline matters in both.

Situations outside this page

• You drive for a DSP and were hurt at work. A claim against your own employer runs through workers' compensation, and a claim against another at-fault driver runs beside it.
• The Flex driver was not delivering. Amazon's Flex policy applies while the driver is "actively driving and delivering." Outside that time, the claim starts with the driver's personal policy.
• The vehicle was a postal truck. A crash with a USPS vehicle is a claim against the United States with its own deadlines, covered in our guide to government and postal vehicle accidents.
• The van belonged to a different network. FedEx, UPS, OnTrac and app couriers use different models, compared in our guide to delivery truck and last mile accidents.

Next steps after an Amazon crash

After an Amazon van crash, the answer is usually two companies: the DSP that employed the driver, and Amazon, whose role depends on the facts. Identify the DSP, then send written preservation requests to both. The deadline to file is two years from the injury under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, and we track it.

If you were hurt, Wise Personal Injury & Accident Law, APC handles that work: we identify the DSP and its insurer, send the preservation letters, and deal with the adjusters while you get treatment. Head injuries are covered on our brain injury page and deaths on our wrongful death page. Every company-vehicle guide is listed on our commercial vehicle accident page. There is no fee unless we recover.