driver-and-rider

---
name: driver-and-rider
description: Turns what an owner already knows about who carries their delivery food, a platform's own rider fleet, the owner's employed or self-employed driver, or a family member doing a favour, into a written record of the legal and insurance position: which worker-status case law actually applies to each arrangement, whether hire-and-reward motor insurance is evidenced for every vehicle in use, the National Minimum Wage exposure on any mileage or vehicle deduction, the safety checks in place, a plain statement of what in the Employment Rights Act 2025 is and is not yet in force, and a dated gap list naming every professional check still needed. Use when you are deciding how food leaves the kitchen, when a platform partnership ends and you consider running your own drivers, or after any near miss involving a vehicle carrying your food.
---

# Who is carrying your food today, and what that means in writing before anyone is hurt or uninsured

You give this an honest list of who carries your food on every route it leaves the kitchen, the paperwork behind any driver you engage yourself, whatever insurance documents you hold, and the pay and hours records for any driver on your own payroll. You get back a written record: the case law that actually governs each arrangement, whether hire-and-reward insurance is evidenced vehicle by vehicle, whether any mileage or vehicle deduction risks pulling a driver below National Minimum Wage, the safety checks in place, and a dated file naming what to take to your solicitor, your insurance broker and your accountant. It will not tell you whether your driver is employed, a worker or self-employed, and it will not tell you whether your insurance actually covers you. Those are determinations only a solicitor and an insurer can make, and a false sense of cover is the failure in this pack most likely to end in a police attendance and a total loss.

## What it does

1. **List every route your food leaves the kitchen, and who actually carries it today, without tidying the answer.** For each route: platform rider, your own employed driver, your own self-employed driver, or a family member or friend doing a favour. Record how often it happens, what vehicle is used, and who owns it. Most venues run more than one of these at once, commonly a platform for peak nights and a nephew's car for a regular customer on a quiet Tuesday, and the quiet Tuesday arrangement is the one nobody has ever written down. Write it down first, because every step that follows depends on which arrangement is actually being checked.

2. **Read what Uber BV v Aslam decided, and be precise about who it decided it for.** The Supreme Court's judgment, 19 February 2021, concerned private hire vehicle drivers, found to be workers entitled to National Minimum Wage and paid holiday under the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Working Time Regulations 1998. Lord Leggatt's reasoning turned on control: "the remuneration paid to drivers for the work they do is fixed by Uber and the drivers have no say in it", and on the app's acceptance-rate penalty, "described by Uber in an internal document as a 'penalty'", which the court held placed drivers "in a position of subordination to Uber". The upheld working time test: a driver is working whenever he "(a) had the Uber app switched on, (b) was within the territory in which he was authorised to work, and (c) was able and willing to accept assignments." This is a private hire driver case, useful for the control test a court applies, but not a ruling about food delivery riders. Treating it as one is the single most common mistake made researching this topic.

3. **Read the Deliveroo riders case, and see why it points the other way.** Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain v Central Arbitration Committee, decided by the Supreme Court on 21 November 2023, concerned Deliveroo riders' claim to collective bargaining rights under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court held that "the power conferred on Riders under the new contract to appoint a substitute is virtually unfettered", found that "totally inconsistent with the existence of an obligation to provide personal service which is essential to the existence of an employment relationship", and concluded "the Riders do not fall within the scope of an employment relationship within article 11". This is why food delivery riders currently sit on firmer self-employed footing than Uber's private hire drivers, but the reasoning turned on a substitution right genuinely unfettered and usable, not a clause that merely appeared in a contract. Record this as a fact about that platform's arrangement with its riders, not as a template for your own driver's paperwork.

4. **Settle the insurance position, in writing, for every vehicle named in step 1, before another delivery goes out.** Section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 makes it an offence to use a vehicle without insurance covering that use: "a person must not use a motor vehicle on a road or other public place unless there is in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by that person such a policy of insurance as complies with the requirements of this Part of this Act." Most social and standard business-use policies exclude carrying goods for payment. Admiral's published guidance states it directly: to make deliveries you must "select Carriage of goods for hire and reward as your class of use", and without it, "the vehicle is covered, but any goods, food or merchandise you're carrying aren't." For every vehicle, pull the actual policy schedule and record the class of use shown and whether a hire-and-reward endorsement is named. A platform rider's insurance is that platform's own contractual matter, but any vehicle your business puts on the road is your exposure the moment it carries your food for payment, and a relative's favour is the arrangement most likely running on an ordinary policy that voids itself the instant a delivery bag goes in the boot.

5. **If your own driver carries the food, record the facts that decide their status, without deciding it yourself.** GOV.UK's guidance sets out that a worker generally has "a contract or other arrangement to do work or services personally for a reward", sitting between employee and self-employed contractor. HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool exists for this question: "use the CEST tool to check if you, or a worker on a specific engagement, should be classed as employed or self-employed for tax purposes", and HMRC will "stand by all results given by the tool, as long as the information you give remains accurate." Run it, keep the date and the result, and record beside it what a court actually looks at: whether a substitution right exists in writing and has ever been used or would be allowed if invoked, who sets the hours, who supplies and insures the vehicle, who bears its running cost, and whether the driver can work for a competitor at the same time. This is a record of facts, not a verdict, and the verdict belongs to a solicitor.

6. **Check whether a mileage or vehicle payment is quietly taking a driver below National Minimum Wage.** HMRC's National Minimum Wage manual is direct: a payment from a worker to the employer for transport "will always reduce National Minimum Wage pay if it is a payment for expenditure in connection with the employment (whether or not it is reimbursed)", and where an employer arranges transport and deducts its cost, "any deduction will reduce the worker's National Minimum Wage pay." HMRC has fined and ordered repayment from employers whose vehicle deductions took staff below the minimum. Record the hourly rate, the hours worked, and any mileage payment or vehicle cost moving in either direction, against the National Minimum Wage rate in force on the date paid, since that rate changes every April. Where the figures cannot support a calculation, say so rather than estimating one.

7. **Record the safety checks actually in place, against the guidance that applies to them.** HSE names delivery drivers directly as lone workers, and the duty on employers reaches further than most owners expect: it "applies to anyone contracted to work for you, including self-employed people." On the vehicle, HSE expects "workers carry out and record daily vehicle checks", "planned and preventive maintenance... in accordance with manufacturers' recommendations", and corrects a common assumption: "An MOT certificate only covers basic defects and does not guarantee that a vehicle is safe." Record, for every vehicle and driver, whether these checks happen, how often and who reviews them, including for a self-employed driver, because the HSE duty does not stop at your payroll.

8. **State plainly what today's date does and does not change under the Employment Rights Act 2025.** The Department for Business and Trade's own implementation roadmap sets a phased timetable. Measures already in force or due through 2026 do not touch worker status or gig and platform arrangements directly. The two that do are both listed for 2027, not before: "ending the exploitative use of ZHCs and applying ZHC measures to agency workers", and, separately, "regulation of umbrella companies". Neither is in force today, 23 September 2026, and neither changes the position in steps 2 and 3. A separate claim, that gig economy right-to-work checks are being widened through different immigration legislation, surfaced during research but was not traced to a primary government source, so it is recorded as an unconfirmed lead, and the owner is told to check current GOV.UK guidance before relying on it.

9. **Hand the assembled facts to Codex, because no legal judgement here is Codex's to make.** Every fact above is supplied by the owner or read from a named public source. Run:

   ```
   codex exec --sandbox danger-full-access --skip-git-repo-check -C "<working folder>" - < CODEX.md
   ```

   Claude hands over the route and carrier list, the insurance evidence per vehicle, the CEST outcome and substitution and control facts for any own driver, the pay, hours and deduction figures, and the safety check records. Codex returns the carrier table, the insurance evidence table, the National Minimum Wage flag table, the safety check table, the Employment Rights Act 2025 status note, and a gaps file. Codex never confirms a policy is adequate, never runs CEST itself, and never decides whether a substitution clause is genuine.

10. **Write the decision sheet, name who checks what, and date it.** One page: for each route, which carrier type is in use, whether insurance is evidenced, and any National Minimum Wage flag. Name the three professional checks by role: to the solicitor, whether any own driver's status and substitution arrangement holds up; to the insurance broker, whether hire-and-reward cover is genuinely in force; to the accountant, any National Minimum Wage calculation and its payroll treatment. Put the build date and the date every piece of evidence was supplied in the footer. An undated version of this file is the one pulled out eighteen months later, after the driver has changed and the policy has lapsed.

## Then it checks

1. Every route carries exactly one of the four carrier types, and no route is left blank.
2. Every vehicle has a recorded insurance evidence status of evidenced, not evidenced or not supplied, naming a document and a date where evidenced.
3. Where a substitution clause is recorded as existing, the file separately states whether it has ever actually been exercised.
4. Every own driver's National Minimum Wage check names the hourly rate, hours recorded and any deduction, and reaches a flag of yes, no or not calculable, never a silent gap.
5. Every vehicle carries a recorded MOT and service check date, or is recorded as not checked.
6. The file states in one line whether the Employment Rights Act 2025 measures touching zero hours contracts and umbrella companies are in force today, naming the government's roadmap as the source.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- This skill does not determine anyone's employment status, worker status, or the adequacy of any insurance arrangement. It records the facts a solicitor, an insurance broker or an accountant needs to reach that determination, and names which professional check applies to which fact.
- Never treat Uber BV v Aslam as authority for a food delivery rider's status. It decided private hire driver status under a different working time test, and the case that actually concerns riders, the Deliveroo judgment, reached the opposite conclusion for a fact-specific reason that cannot simply be copied onto a different driver's paperwork.
- Never treat a substitution clause on paper as proof of self-employed status by itself. Only a genuinely unfettered right, actually usable, carried weight in the Deliveroo judgment, and a clause the owner would in practice refuse to honour is worse than no clause at all, because it can read as evidence the written contract does not describe the real relationship.
- Never invent a benchmark such as a typical proportion of independents running their own drivers or a typical rider payment per drop. No published figure exists for a single independent UK business, and a borrowed figure tells an owner nothing about their own arrangement.
- Never confirm that a motor insurance policy covers delivery use. Recording that a document names a hire-and-reward class of use is not confirming that policy is in force and applies to the exact vehicle and driver in question, and only the insurer or broker who issued it can confirm that.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner's own solicitor to check any driver's employment or worker status and the genuineness of any substitution clause, their insurance broker to confirm hire-and-reward cover is actually held, and their accountant to check any National Minimum Wage calculation. It applies published case law and guidance to the facts supplied. It is not legal advice, it is not an insurance confirmation, and it is not a determination that any driver is employed, a worker or self-employed.

## Built from
- UK Supreme Court, Uber BV and others v Aslam and others [2021] UKSC 5, https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/uksc/2021/5, judgment handed down 19 February 2021, read 23 September 2026: the control and subordination reasoning and the working time definition in step 2.
- UK Supreme Court, Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain v Central Arbitration Committee and another [2023] UKSC 43, https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/uksc/2023/43, judgment handed down 21 November 2023, read 23 September 2026: the virtually unfettered substitution finding at paragraph 69 and the Article 11 conclusion at paragraph 73, in step 3.
- Road Traffic Act 1988, section 143, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/section/143, read 23 September 2026: the statutory requirement for insurance covering the use made of the vehicle, in step 4.
- Admiral, "Delivery insurance for car drivers", https://www.admiral.com/car-insurance/delivery-insurance, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the hire-and-reward class of use and the exclusion of goods carried without it, in step 4.
- Health and Safety Executive, "Employers, driving and riding safely for work, maintain vehicles", https://www.hse.gov.uk/roadsafety/employer/maintain-vehicles.htm, updated 21 February 2025, read 23 September 2026: the daily check, maintenance and MOT limitation guidance in step 7.
- Health and Safety Executive, "Lone workers", https://www.hse.gov.uk/lone-working/employer/index.htm, updated 25 February 2025, read 23 September 2026: the naming of delivery drivers as lone workers and the duty extending to self-employed people, in step 7.
- HM Revenue and Customs, National Minimum Wage Manual, NMWM11200 "Deductions and payments from workers: transport payments and deductions", https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/national-minimum-wage-manual/nmwm11200, updated 7 April 2026, read 23 September 2026: the transport deduction rule in step 6.
- GOV.UK, "Check Employment Status for Tax", https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-employment-status-for-tax, updated 30 April 2025, read 23 September 2026: the description and standing of the CEST tool in step 5.
- GOV.UK, "Employment status: Worker", https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker, no publication date shown on the page, read 23 September 2026: the definition of worker status in step 5.
- Department for Business and Trade, "Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: our roadmap for delivering change", published July 2025, read 23 September 2026: the 2027 commencement listing for zero hours contract measures and umbrella company regulation in step 8.

# driver-and-rider

## You are given
For one UK hospitality business, a list of every route its delivery food leaves the kitchen, each already classified by the owner as one of four carrier types, platform rider, employed driver, self-employed driver, or family or friend, with the frequency, the vehicle and the vehicle's owner recorded against each route. For every vehicle used to carry food, whatever insurance evidence the owner holds, naming the policyholder, the insurer, the class of use shown on the policy schedule, and whether a hire-and-reward or courier or food delivery endorsement is named, each with the document it came from and its date. For any own driver, the outcome of HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool if it was run and the date it was run, whether a right of substitution exists in their written agreement, whether that right has ever actually been exercised or refused, who sets their working hours, who supplies the vehicle they use, who bears its running cost, and whether they are free to work for others at the same time. The hourly rate paid to each own driver, the hours recorded for them over the period supplied, and any mileage payment or vehicle cost either reimbursed to them or deducted from their pay, with its basis. The vehicle safety records held, being the last MOT date and status, the last service date, the frequency of driver-run daily checks, and whether a lone-working risk assessment exists for anyone who carries food alone. All judgement calls, including which carrier type applies to each route, whether any substitution clause is genuine, and whether any recorded gap is acceptable to the business, have already been made or deliberately left open by the owner and are supplied to you as facts, never as conclusions for you to reach.

## Produce
Write into a `./driver-and-rider-output/` folder:

1. `carriers.csv` with columns: `route_ref`, `route_description`, `carrier_type`, `carrier_name_or_platform`, `frequency_per_week`, `vehicle_ref`, `vehicle_owner`. `carrier_type` is exactly one of `platform_rider`, `employed_driver`, `self_employed_driver`, `family_or_friend`, `other`. One row per route.
2. `insurance-position.csv` with columns: `vehicle_ref`, `route_ref`, `policyholder_name`, `insurer_name`, `class_of_use_on_schedule`, `hire_and_reward_endorsement_evidenced`, `evidence_document_name`, `evidence_date`, `source`. `hire_and_reward_endorsement_evidenced` is exactly one of `yes`, `no`, `not supplied`. Every row that is `no` or `not supplied` is listed in `gaps.md` as an insurance gap.
3. `driver-status-inputs.csv` with columns: `driver_ref`, `carrier_type`, `cest_outcome_supplied`, `cest_run_date`, `substitution_clause_exists`, `substitution_ever_exercised`, `hours_set_by`, `vehicle_supplied_by`, `vehicle_running_cost_borne_by`, `can_work_for_others`. `cest_outcome_supplied` is exactly one of `employed`, `worker`, `self-employed`, `undetermined`, `not run`. `substitution_clause_exists`, `substitution_ever_exercised` and `can_work_for_others` are each exactly one of `yes`, `no`, `not stated`.
4. `nmw-mileage-check.csv` with columns: `driver_ref`, `hourly_rate_gbp`, `hours_recorded_period`, `mileage_or_vehicle_amount_gbp`, `deduction_basis`, `effective_hourly_after_adjustment_gbp`, `nmw_rate_used_gbp`, `nmw_rate_effective_date`, `below_nmw_flag`. `deduction_basis` is exactly one of `owner reimburses driver`, `driver pays owner`, `driver pays third party`, `not stated`. `below_nmw_flag` is exactly one of `yes`, `no`, `not calculable`. Any row missing the hourly rate, the hours or the amount has an empty `effective_hourly_after_adjustment_gbp` cell, a `below_nmw_flag` of `not calculable`, and a line in `gaps.md`.
5. `safety-checks.csv` with columns: `vehicle_ref`, `route_ref`, `last_mot_date`, `mot_status`, `last_service_date`, `daily_check_frequency`, `lone_working_assessment_exists`, `last_reviewed_date`. `mot_status` is exactly one of `valid`, `expired`, `not supplied`. `lone_working_assessment_exists` is exactly one of `yes`, `no`, `not stated`.
6. `era-2025-status-check.md` recording, on separate lines and nothing else: today's date as supplied; the Employment Rights Act 2025 provision checked, being ending the exploitative use of zero hours contracts and applying those measures to agency workers; the government's stated implementation group for that provision; whether it is in force today; and the source and its date. A second identical block records the same for the regulation of umbrella companies. A third block does the same for any further provision the owner names, following the identical format, and where the owner names a provision with no supplied source, the block records `not stated` against the source line rather than a guessed status.
7. `gaps.md` a numbered list of: every vehicle with no insurance evidence supplied; every route with no carrier type recorded; every own driver whose substitution clause is recorded as existing but not recorded as exercised or not; every own driver with a `below_nmw_flag` of `yes` or `not calculable`; every vehicle with no MOT date or service date supplied; every driver with no lone-working assessment recorded; and any figure or document the owner supplied without a date.

## Rules
- Codex records, sorts and flags. It never decides anyone's employment status, never confirms an insurance policy is adequate or in force, never runs the CEST tool itself, and never decides whether a substitution clause is genuine. Those were supplied, or were deliberately left open by the owner as a gap.
- Never mark `hire_and_reward_endorsement_evidenced` as `yes` without a named document and a date behind it. Everything else is `no` or `not supplied`.
- Never calculate a `below_nmw_flag` from an incomplete row. Where the hourly rate, the hours or the deduction amount is missing, the flag is `not calculable` and the row is listed in `gaps.md`.
- Never write a typical rider payment per drop, a typical insurance premium, or a typical proportion of independents using their own drivers into any file. No such figure exists for a single independent UK business and none is to be recorded.
- Never carry an insurance record, a CEST outcome or a safety check forward from an earlier version of this file into a new one. Each run uses only the documents supplied for that run; an older result may be recorded in a separate column for comparison and never used in a calculation.
- Use British English, GBP written as `GBP` or the pound sign, and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write, and any supplied text containing one is recorded verbatim and flagged in `gaps.md`.
- Every driver name, insurer name, policy reference and document name is copied exactly as supplied, including its punctuation and capitalisation.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner's own solicitor to check any driver's employment or worker status and the genuineness of any substitution clause, their insurance broker to confirm hire-and-reward cover is actually held, and their accountant to check any National Minimum Wage calculation. It applies supplied facts to a draft record and is not legal advice, not an insurance confirmation and not a determination of anyone's employment status.

## Return
The absolute path of every file written, the row count of each CSV, the count of routes by carrier type, the count of vehicles with insurance evidenced against the count not supplied and which `vehicle_ref` values those are, the count of own drivers with a `below_nmw_flag` of `yes` or `not calculable` and their `driver_ref` values, the count of substitution clauses recorded as existing but not recorded as exercised or not, the two conclusions recorded in `era-2025-status-check.md` stated in full with their sources, and the `gaps.md` item count.