Rideshare and App-Based Delivery Drivers

The law requires network companies to carry:

It applies while you are “online with a network company’s online-enabled application or platform.”

And a network company may not operate in California beyond 90 days without it.

No permanent disabilityPD Permanent Disability. Compensation for lasting impairment. A different and much lower weekly rate — 2026 maximum $290/week. award. This is the largest gap. California workers’ compensation pays for permanent impairment — a rating, a percentage, and money for a body that does not work the way it used to. Occupational accident insurance replaces income for up to 104 weeks and then stops.

No lifetime medical. Comp keeps medical open for the industrial injury unless you settle it away. Occupational accident coverage has a policy limit.

No job displacement voucher.

No life pensionLife pension Payable at 70%–99% after the PD award is exhausted. § 4659(a): 1.5% of average weekly earnings per point above 60 — with earnings capped at $515.38 since 2006. and no permanent total disabilityPTD Permanent Total Disability. 100%. Paid at the temporary disability rate for life.. A catastrophically injured employee can receive payments for life. A catastrophically injured app-based driver receives 66% of earnings for 104 weeks.

No § 132a, no § 4553, no § 5814 penalties, and no Appeals Board. Disputes go through the insurance policy, not through a workers’ compensation judgeWCJ Workers’ Compensation Judge. Decides your case. There is no jury..

The practical consequence: in a minor injury the difference is small. In a catastrophic one it is enormous.

This is the part nobody tells drivers, and it is frequently the largest part.

A civil claim against whoever hurt you. If another driver hit you, you have a full personal injury case — pain and suffering, lost earning capacity, everything. Your classification as an independent contractor does not reduce it. If anything, it removes the workers’ compensation lien that would otherwise attach.

Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and in some circumstances the platform’s UM/UIM coverage during engaged time. Check both policies. Many drivers do not realize the platform’s coverage may respond.

Premises liability. Injured on a customer’s property, at a restaurant loading area, in an apartment stairwell, in a parking structure — that is a claim against the property owner.

Dog bites. California imposes strict liability on dog owners in most circumstances. This is a very common delivery injury and it is a straightforward claim.

Assault and robbery — with a claim against the property owner where inadequate security contributed.

And misclassification is still contestable outside Prop 22’s scope. Prop 22 covers “app-based drivers” for “network companies” performing rideshare and delivery services. Work that falls outside that definition is governed by ordinary California law — where § 3357 presumes employee status and AB 5’s ABC test applies. If you were doing something other than app-based rideshare or delivery, do not assume Prop 22 answers your question.

How third-party claims work.

Report it in the app immediately and screenshot the report and the confirmation.

Screenshot everything before it is gone — the trip, the timestamps, your online status, your earnings history for the prior weeks. Your online status — and whether you were on a trip for this app or another one — decides whether the coverage applies, and the platform controls that data.

Get medical care and say it happened while working.

Report the crash to the police and get a report number.

Photograph the scene, the vehicles, and any hazard.

Notify your own auto insurer, and check whether you carry UM/UIM.

And get the civil case evaluated. It is very often the larger claim, and it has its own deadlines — two years for most personal injury claims, and six months to present a claim against a government entity.