re: Is A Class Action Lawsuit Possible In Order To Stop BS Fee Charges?

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There’s a such thing as “non-owned” commercial auto insurance for this very type of situation when employees are using their personal vehicles for company business.

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I found this. Not sure how reliable it is, but it pretty much says that if you use your personal vehicle for jobs like pizza delivery, pharmacy delivery, etc, if you get into a wreck, you are pretty much screwed because auto insurance does not cover a vehicle if it is being used commercially. Because people who are using it commercially will be on the road a lot more, your policy doesn't cover this.

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You’ve just obtained what seems like an easy after-school and weekend job where you get paid to cruise around town and meet local residents: a job doing pizza delivery. One late night near the end of your shift, you’re starting to get sleepy and accidentally rear-end the car in front of you at a red light. Thankfully, no one was injured, but both the front end of your vehicle and the back end of the other vehicle are a bit banged up. Though you were definitely at fault, you have collision coverage on your vehicle, so you know the cost of repairs to both your and the other car will be covered -- or so you think. When you call your family insurance agent to file an auto insurance claim, she says she’s sorry -- but because you were using your car for business purposes, you’re not covered by your policy. Home pizza delivery has become as American as, well, pizza. And while "pizza delivery guy" is never going to be a professional career title, it can certainly provide some much-needed income for a person between regular gigs or a student in search of a little part-time work after class. One thing we all know is that most pizza delivery men and women make those deliveries in their own vehicles. And unless you've done it yourself, you've probably never considered what might happen if you were to get into an accident while working your delivery job. Let me break it down for you so you can make sure you are covered properly.

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Am I covered by my personal insurance policy? Most likely not, although it depends on the specific language of your policy. Though you may not think of it that way, pizza delivery is a risky business: The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics found that delivery and other sales jobs involving driving is the 5th most dangerous job in the country. A personal auto insurance policy is meant to be just that: coverage for one's personal driving needs, and delivering pizzas for which you are being paid is not considered "personal use" by most insurers. This applies not only to pizza delivery, by the way, but other types of delivery as well, such as drug store deliveries and even transporting people. Pretty much any enterprise where one uses his or her personal vehicle for a commercial purpose. The reason is simple: insurers know that drivers operating their vehicles for commercial purposes spend significantly more time on the road, which means a substantially higher risk of being involved in an accident. And that, in turn, means additional costs for the insurer.

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LINK

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I'd be interested in hearing from any former delivery drivers on whether they get a cut of that.

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In college, I delivered for one of the big chains when they implemented the fee. Driver compensation did not change. The hourly rate and mileage remained exactly the same.

The fee is partially to offset the cost of offering delivery service, which is clearly more than ordering carryout (yes, liability is one of the reasons).

Additionally, it was around the same time that the cheap carryout specials (say, $6 for a large two topping pizza) began being heavily advertised as places like Little Ceaser's regained popularity. There is very little margin on those if someone orders a single pizza, so it also offset those price reductions.