What is food delivery insurance?

Many people have assumed in the past that their car, scooter or moped insurance covered them for just about anything. When Covid struck in 2020 food delivery drivers found that this is not the case.

Delivering food was becoming a good, part time job for many people, particularly young ones. When local restaurants had customers who wanted food delivered to their door (especially fast food, such as pizzas, burgers, kebabs etc) they would motor over to the shop, pick the food up, and deliver it. Easy peasy.

Or at least it seemed it until the police started stopping them regularly, and charging them with driving without insurance.

It has always been the case that delivering food meant extra insurance, specifically designed for food delivery people. Indeed the bigger delivery companies like Deliveroo and Just Eat insisted on their drivers getting dedicated insurance for food delivery drivers before they could apply for a job. The problem was that smaller businesses were not so careful and a lot if drivers were under-insured.

Things came to a head during the Covid lockdowns. Families that were used to having a regular takeout meal found that they couldn't get out to buy one, and the shops could only deliver them, not sell them straight off the premises. The number of delivery drivers escalated; and the police, aided by a much lower level of traffic, were quick to respond and started stopping these people riding their scooters and mopeds (much easier to handle in heavy traffic) and checking their insurance details. Quite a few lost their driving licences - and, with them, their jobs - as a result.

The insurance industry went into overdrive selling policies that covered hot food delivery drivers but they weren't cheap - young motorists dashing to get as many deliveries done as possible, and earning the maximum number of tips, were far more likely to have accidents, particularly when they were concentrating more on the app which told them where to go than on traffic!

The fast food delivery market is now booming even after Covid has subsided - hopefully the delivery companies who are making so much money will spend some of it on teaching their staff how to stay safe on the roads.

Bicycle deliveries

A number of delivery staff switched to working by bicycle. The advantages of bikes are partly economic, but cycling is excellent exercise too; and a bicycle can often be ridden right up to the customer's door. E-bikes in particular were popular; they needed no compulsory insurance road tax or petrol! Cycling for long periods could be tiring however and the bikes were often the target for thieves. Insuring a cycle isn't obligatory yet but bicycle insurance is becoming a very popular insurance product amongst cyclist delivery people.

Important Lodge Regalia

Here is a brief list of the lodge regalia and a short description of their symbolism:

  • 'Sacred Texts', these will be books of belief such as the Bible, the Quran, Talmud and others that their members may believe in. This represents one of the highest ideals of Freemasons; the belief in a Supreme Being.
  • 'The Master's Gavel', this is held by the Master of the Lodge as both a symbol of their leadership and authority over the Lodge and their ability to make decisions during meetings.
  • 'The Masonic Hoodwink', this is a blindfold used for initiates. The symbolism of this is that the initiate isn't yet ready to gaze on the knowledge possessed by those already members of the Lodge. It is also related to Saint John's Gospel I,5
  • 'The Tiler's Sword', which is the implement and emblem of the Tiler's office. In Medieval times, before entering the lodge, Masons would have to leave their swords with the Tiler as a symbol of leaving all violence outside. In modern times it holds the symbolism of this history, and that of chivalry, as well as duality of both violence and defense.
  • Masonic Lodge Jewels, Officer Aprons and Candidate's Clothing, these are usually items held by the lodge itself to donate rank and standing within the organisation.
Each piece of the ranked clothing and accessories hold their own symbolism too, and the deeper you look into this symbolism, the more information you find. In fact, one of the initiation requirements is to learn all of this symbolism, which can take many months, so we won't go much deeper than this in this article! Either way, this piece has given you some knowledge of the Freemasons and what they believe in and taken away some of their mystery!