Written and reviewed by Josh Kohanim, Esq., California Bar No. 328609 · Reviewed
In this guide
Delivery crash claims
This page is for people hit in Los Angeles by a delivery van, a sprinter, a box truck or a courier vehicle, whether in a car, on foot or on a bicycle. It covers the delivery networks and who employs their drivers, the weight rules, the markings a for-hire van must carry, the records a route creates, and the crash patterns that recur. It does not cover freeway tractor-trailer crashes, which are on our Los Angeles truck accident lawyer page, or claims by the delivery driver against their own employer.
Delivery crashes are one part of a larger group of cases in which the driver was working for a business. Our commercial vehicle accident page covers that group, from vans to dump trucks to city vehicles.
Delivery networks compared
Each delivery network puts a different company behind the driver. Some use their own employees, some hire contractor companies that employ the drivers, and the app platforms treat couriers as independent contractors. The table shows where a claim usually starts for each one in California.
| Network | Who employs the driver | Vehicle | Claim usually starts with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon DSP | The Delivery Service Partner, a separate company | Amazon-branded van | The DSP and its insurer |
| Amazon Flex | No one; Amazon treats the driver as a contractor | Driver's own car | Driver's policy, then Amazon's Flex policy |
| FedEx Express | FedEx, through employee couriers | FedEx vehicle | FedEx |
| FedEx Ground | A contracted service provider | Provider's owned or leased vehicle | The service provider and its insurer |
| UPS | UPS; union employees, including seasonal drivers | Package car or the seasonal driver's car | UPS |
| USPS | The Postal Service, including rural carriers in their own cars | Postal vehicle or carrier's car | A federal claim against the United States |
| OnTrac | An independent regional service provider | Provider's vehicle | The service provider and its insurer |
| DHL eCommerce | USPS carries the final mile | Postal vehicle | A federal claim against the United States |
| App couriers | No one; contractors under Proposition 22 | Courier's own car, bike or scooter | Courier's policy, then the platform's |
The Amazon rows are explained on our page about Amazon delivery van accidents. FedEx merged FedEx Ground into Federal Express on June 1, 2024, and its 2026 annual report says it now uses "both employee couriers and service providers in surface operations using a market-by-market approach," with about 5,300 contracted businesses. FedEx says it is "not an employer or joint employer" of those businesses' drivers. A FedEx van in Los Angeles can be driven by either kind of driver, so the name on the door matters.
UPS drivers are employees. The UPS and Teamsters national agreement makes even seasonal drivers who use their personal vehicles "W-2 employees and Union members" who are "provided insurance coverage for their vehicle while performing work." Postal crashes run through the Federal Tort Claims Act, because 39 U.S.C. 409(c) applies the federal tort claim rules to the Postal Service, and rural carriers driving their own cars are paid a mileage allowance as postal employees under the USPS rural carrier agreement. A DHL eCommerce parcel reaches the door through the Postal Service: DHL eCommerce partners "with USPS to complete the final mile for all deliveries," according to their May 28, 2026 announcement.
OnTrac, which joined LaserShip under shared ownership in a 2021 transaction and adopted the OnTrac name in a March 31, 2023 announcement, uses delivery businesses that are "fully independent companies" and "run their own teams of drivers," according to its driver recruiting page. App couriers are independent contractors under Business and Professions Code section 7451 when the platform meets its conditions, and our delivery app driver accidents guide covers their insurance.
Vehicle weight and the rules
Gross vehicle weight rating, or GVWR, is the loaded weight the manufacturer specifies for the vehicle. It is printed on a plate in the door frame, and it does not change with what is in the back that day. That number, not the size of the van or the name on its side, decides which set of rules governed the driver who hit you.
49 CFR 390.5T defines a commercial motor vehicle as one used on a highway in interstate commerce with a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more. The definition also reaches a vehicle designed to carry more than eight passengers for compensation, and any vehicle carrying placarded hazardous materials. A commercial driver's license comes in higher up, at 26,001 pounds, under 49 CFR 383.5.
| Vehicle | Commercial motor vehicle? | Federal logs? | Minimum liability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Van rated under 10,001 lbs | No, under 49 CFR 390.5T | No | $300,000 for a for-hire carrier running only light vehicles; otherwise the auto minimum |
| Box truck rated 10,001 lbs or more | Yes, in interstate commerce | Yes, unless short-haul applies | $750,000 if for-hire interstate; $750,000 for most California permit holders |
| Straight truck rated 26,001 lbs or more | Yes, and a CDL (commercial driver's license) is required | Yes, unless short-haul applies | $750,000 if for-hire interstate; $750,000 for most California permit holders |
The federal $750,000 floor for for-hire interstate carriers of ordinary freight is in 49 CFR 387.9, and 49 CFR 387.303T sets $300,000 for a for-hire carrier whose fleet includes only vehicles under 10,001 pounds. California has its own motor carrier permit. Under Vehicle Code section 34620, a motor carrier of property needs a permit from the DMV, and section 34631.5 sets its insurance: $750,000 for most carriers, and $300,000 for a carrier that "operates only vehicles under 10,000 pounds GVWR" and hauls no hazardous cargo. A van that is not hauling for pay is held only to the ordinary auto minimum.
Markings on a for-hire van
California reaches below the federal weight line. Vehicle Code section 34601(c) treats "any other motor vehicle used to transport property for compensation" as a commercial motor vehicle, whatever its weight. Section 27900 then requires a vehicle that carries the property of others for hire to display, on both sides, "the name or trademark of the person under whose authority the vehicle" is operated. Section 34507.5 adds a carrier identification number on both sides, and a valid USDOT number satisfies that rule.
The lettering must be legible from 50 feet in daylight under section 27901. A rental of 30 days or less may show the rental company's name and number instead, if the rental agreement is in the vehicle. So the name on the door of a delivery van can be the operator, the rental company or the brand, and a photograph of every side is the fastest way to tell which. Our find the company behind the vehicle tool explains what each number leads to.
Box trucks without logs
A truck does not always mean a logbook, and in local delivery it often does not. 49 CFR 395.1(e)(1) excuses a driver who operates within a 150 air-mile radius of the normal work reporting location and returns to it within 14 consecutive hours from keeping records of duty status, the federal driver's log, at all. A route that starts and ends at a warehouse in the San Fernando Valley or the Inland Empire fits that description almost every day.
The exception does not eliminate records. The same paragraph requires the motor carrier, meaning the trucking company, to keep, for six months, accurate time records showing the time the driver reported for duty each day, the total hours on duty each day, and the time the driver was released. Those are requested by name. So are the things the company keeps for its own reasons: route manifests, handheld scanner timestamps, telematics (the vehicle's own tracking data) and GPS breadcrumbs, and the delivery targets the driver was working against.
Route pressure as evidence
Route pressure is provable, and it is usually provable from the company's own systems. A stop count, a scan history and a dispatch clock together show what the day required. That evidence does the work that a falsified logbook does in a long-haul case.
The networks document the pace themselves. Amazon says its technology "designs routes that drivers complete within a specific time period." A 2019 ProPublica investigation reported that "Amazon requires that 999 out of 1,000 deliveries arrive on time, according to work orders obtained from contractors with drivers in eight states." FedEx's annual report describes route technology with "near real-time data" offered to its service providers. Each of those systems leaves a record for the route that ended in your crash.
The phone matters too. Vehicle Code section 23123.5 bars driving while holding and operating a handheld device; a mounted device may be operated only with "a single swipe or tap." A delivery app that asks for a scan or a photo at every stop creates a timestamp for each touch. Our guide to evidence after a commercial vehicle crash lists the records to request and how long each is kept.
Common delivery crash patterns
Delivery crashes repeat a few shapes: the left turn across a crosswalk, the van backing out of a driveway, and the van that stops or turns across a bike lane. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported in March 2022 that the odds a fatal crash with a crossing pedestrian involved a left turn were "nearly 3 times as high for vans and minivans" as for cars, and that vans and minivans were 45 percent more likely than cars to hit someone walking along the road. ProPublica found that in five of the ten fatal crashes it tied to Amazon delivery contractors, the drivers were making left turns.
Backing crashes turn on what the driver could see. Under federal safety standard 49 CFR 571.111, every truck rated 10,000 pounds or less and built on or after May 1, 2018 must display a rearview image, so a delivery van built since then should have a backup camera. The UPS national agreement requires UPS to keep "camera monitor backing system devices in all package cars." Whether the camera worked, and whether the driver used it, is a question of fact. Cyclists hit by a turning van should also read our guide to bike lane and right hook accidents, and pedestrians hit in a driveway our guide to parking lot and driveway accidents.
The driver's employer
Last mile delivery is commonly built in tiers. A national retailer or shipping network contracts with a local delivery company, that company hires and pays the drivers, and the vans are often leased or rented rather than owned. The van may carry a brand's colors while the driver's paycheck comes from a business with a dozen employees and a single commercial auto policy.
The first claim is the simpler one. If the driver was an employee acting within the scope of employment, that local company answers for the crash. CACI No. 3720, the jury instruction on that point, treats conduct as within the scope when it is reasonably related to the assigned work, or reasonably foreseeable in light of the employer's business. Delivering packages on an assigned route is not a close question.
Reaching the company above it takes a different theory. CACI No. 3704 asks whether that company had the right to control how the work was performed, not only the result. The jury also weighs who supplied the equipment, whether the work was part of the regular business, and how the worker was paid. CACI No. 3709 covers apparent agency, where a defendant carelessly or intentionally created the impression that the worker was its own and the injured person reasonably relied on it. Negligent selection of the contractor is a third route.
Drivers using their own vehicle
Some deliveries run in personal vehicles, and then the claim behaves like a car crash. Under Vehicle Code section 16056, a California policy issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025 has to carry at least $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 for two or more, and $15,000 in property damage. One ambulance ride and one MRI can pass $30,000.
If the vehicle belonged to someone other than the driver, Vehicle Code section 17151 caps that owner's imputed liability, meaning liability passed to the owner for the driver's negligence, at $15,000 for one person and $30,000 for more than one. When those numbers run out, the next layer is your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage under Insurance Code section 11580.2. It sits on your policy whether or not you were in your car when you were hit.
Delivery claims outside truck law
- A food or grocery app driver in a personal car. That is governed by the app's coverage and Proposition 22, explained in our guide to delivery app driver accidents and on our Los Angeles Uber accident lawyer page.
- You were the delivery driver. Workers compensation comes first, and a claim against the other driver or a property owner runs beside it rather than in place of it.
- A postal or other federal vehicle. A claim against the United States must be presented in writing to the agency within two years under 28 U.S.C. 2401(b), and our guide to government and postal vehicle accidents covers that track and the six-month claim for city and county vehicles.
- A damaged package and nothing else. Loss or damage to goods in transit is a cargo claim under a different body of law, and nothing on this page applies to it.
Insurance after a delivery van crash
The company that employed the driver pays first, and the company that controlled the work above it may pay too. The documents that settle the order are the vehicle registration, the lease or rental agreement, the contract between the local company and the brand, and the payroll and dispatch records that show who set the route and the pace.
Those documents are held by companies with their own insurers and adjusters. Short-haul time records carry a six-month retention rule, and camera and telematics data carry no retention rule at all, so we ask for them by name at the start. There is no fee unless we recover. If the vehicle that hit you was a tractor-trailer, read who is liable in a truck accident. If it was a container truck out of the harbor, read port and drayage truck accidents.