When a delivery vehicle like a UPS or Amazon truck is involved in an accident, the legal aftermath can be more complex than people realize. Because several parties might be involved—and none of them are likely willing to admit responsibility—a lawsuit against one or more of them may quickly become overwhelming for the unprepared. So, how does a delivery vehicle accident lawsuit work in Texas?

Answer: Accidents involving delivery trucks introduce complexities that don't exist in other types of commercial vehicle accidents, particularly when it comes to correctly identifying the party or parties to hold accountable.

In this article we'll talk further about those parties, but first it seems best to talk about how a typical 18-wheeler accident works so the contrast with delivery truck accidents is clearer.

How Does a Typical Truck Accident Work?

A typical truck accident might result from driver error, equipment failure, or hazardous road conditions, to name a few common factors. When a crash happens, the sheer size and weight of the truck may cause severe damage, including serious injuries or fatalities.

If damages are significant and need medical attention, the accident victim may decide to seek compensation from the negligent truck driver and the company who put him on the road. In those cases, a thorough in-depth investigation of the crash scene, the truck, and the driver is critical to understanding how and why the accident occurred. The evidence uncovered by investigators is used to build a case on the victim's behalf; the stronger that case is, the more likely the trucking company and/or its insurer will come to their senses and make things right. Absent that, this investigation yields the evidence needed to hold the wrongdoer accountable in front of a jury.

Every step of the above process is quite a bit more complex than that summary makes it sound, but that's the gist of how a commercial truck accident plays out from the moment of collision to the settlement of a lawsuit. Delivery truck accidents are similar in many ways, but they also have some key differences.

What Makes Delivery Truck Accidents Different?

While large commercial truck accidents and delivery truck accidents may seem similar at first glance, they're actually distinct in several important ways. These differences affect how the accidents occur, who may be held liable, and how the cases are ultimately handled legally.

• Accident location: Delivery trucks accidents differ from those with larger commercial trucks because they often happen on city streets and in urban neighborhoods, while the majority of 18-wheeler crashes happen on larger roads or highways. By virtue of where they travel, delivery trucks also have an increased risk of running into people on foot or riding bicycles as they navigate local routes.
• Governance: Most delivery trucks don't cross over state lines during a standard work day, which means many of them aren't subject to federal "interstate" truck regulations from the FMCSA. Instead, their behavior is usually governed by state and local laws.
  For instance, interstate truckers can legally only drive so many hours in a day, but delivery trucks don't have the same restrictions. That doesn't mean it's any less dangerous for a delivery driver to be on the road for twenty hours in a row; it's just there's no hard and fast rule against it. This places an extra burden on those investigating the crash to dig deep and see if it was even safe for the driver to have been behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
• Who's driving: Unlike the majority of tractor-trailer operators, a delivery driver may not be the direct employee of the company whose products they transport. For example, Amazon has a partner contract program called Amazon Flex where local drivers use their own vehicles to drop off packages. Most are also familiar with "gig economy" services that contract drivers as well, like Uber and DoorDash. Those vehicles aren't often trucks, but since they transport people and goods for money they are still considered commercial.
  This means that these vehicles usually come with commercial policies and every commercial policy comes with lawyers looking out for the insurance company's interest (which isn't yours). Right off the bat, that makes these types of crashes more complex.

We actually need to talk about that final point—who's driving the delivery vehicle, and on whose behalf—in more detail, because it may affect who's considered liable for an accident caused by the delivery driver.

Delivery Vehicle Driver: Employee vs Contractor

Just knowing the right person to hold accountable in a delivery vehicle crash can differ significantly depending on whether the driver is a company employee or an independent contractor. Let's look at those possibilities individually.

Driver is a Company Employee

If a delivery truck driver who causes an accident and injuries is a company employee, their employer may be held vicariously liable for the driver’s actions under the legal doctrine of respondeat superior. This doctrine basically says that a company is responsible for any damage their employee causes if he is negligent in the performance of his job.

You would think that given these rules, it wouldn't make a difference whether the behavior that led to the crash was the driver's or the company's; either way the company is to blame. This fails to consider that juries are much tougher on companies that misbehave than they are on individuals who make a bad decision in the moment.

Here are a few examples of how a company's behavior can contribute to a crash:

• Negligent Hiring: If the company didn't vet the new hire by checking his criminal and health records—basically hiring anyone with a pulse to keep more trucks moving at all times—then their failure to perform due diligence may increase their accountability in a crash.
• Negligent Supervision: Companies are required to keep an eye on their employees' behavior, but some get pretty lax about that. For example, failing to discipline or fire an employee who drives drunk might show the company itself was negligent in keeping watch on its workforce.
• Untrained/Unqualified Driver: A delivery van or box truck might not require a CDL, but it still may take specialized training to get someone used to their increased weight and different centers of gravity. Failing to prepare a new hire for these challenges drastically increases the chance they will ultimately crash and hurt themselves or others.
• Irresponsible Policies: Some companies try to stay competitive by cutting corners to make more deliveries, or to save money on their bottom line. If they incentivize their employees to make an unreasonable number of deliveries per hour or day, those drivers may have to speed or make other dangerous choices to get the job done.

That's just a handful of many ways a company may get careless and put people at risk—not that they'd ever admit it. In fact, many businesses would greatly prefer to throw their employees under the bus if something goes wrong, so it's always important to investigate a truck accident carefully to learn the whole story. We've seen many situations where a driver's misconduct was traceable back to company negligence. That's not just true of direct employer-employee relationships, either—many contractors end up in the same boat, even if it's shaped a little differently.

Driver is a Contractor

Just like employee drivers, contractors making deliveries can end up in serious traffic accidents. However, the companies they drive for may argue they're solely responsible for their own mistakes since "they work for themselves." That argument could potentially limit the company's liability or even shift it all onto the driver.

Some may feel like that's a pretty raw deal for the contractor, especially if some of the negative company behavior mentioned above occurred. If the company is careless or gets bossy about the driver's deadlines or delivery volume, should they be able to dodge responsibility for a crash he causes while trying to comply? I, and the law, think not.

Texas law has traditionally held that companies who exert strict control over their operators have for all intents and purposes hired them as regular employees. If the company provides vehicles and equipment, creates the driver's schedule, and expects the driver to obey its internal rules, does it really matter whether the driver fills out a 1099 or a W-2 for the sake of a truck accident lawsuit? In the eyes of Texas law, not particularly. The company has some leeway to argue it isn't liable for the driver's wrongdoing, but that defense carries less weight than they want people to believe.

So if an accident victim can sue a company like their hired contractor is a regular employee, what's the point of even making the distinction? Well, because every detail matters when building a case against the person or people who hurt you—and every possible defense the company might come up with has to be anticipated and prepared for. Unfortunately, your average accident victim may not realize that.

Grossman Law Can Help

Litigating a delivery truck accident is generally more complex than resolving a fender bender car accident through the insurance claims process. As if investigation and case assembly aren't enough, the trucking company and its insurer will most likely put every hurdle they can think of in the way. After a delivery truck accident, that may include trying to distance themselves from the actions of their contracted driver—and hoping nobody on the victim's side knows how to overcome that. It's always best to have an experienced attorney on your team to make sure those tactics don't succeed.

The Texas truck accident lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have years of experience helping accident victims and their loved ones after all types of commercial wrecks, including those with delivery vehicles. If you or someone you know were injured in a delivery vehicle accident, contact Grossman Law today for a free and confidential consultation.