Australia’s largest same day delivery company, Sherpa has taken the initiative to protect the health and wellbeing of its drivers by implementing Personal Accident Insurance for every Sherpa driver, including loss of income in the event of an accident.
The move makes a statement about how seriously Sherpa cares about the welfare of its drivers and the types of customers it works with, according to CEO, Duncan Brett.
“While they are not employees, we are going above and beyond what is required because of our genuine concern and passion to protect our drivers with insurance policy cover for Income Protection as well as Temporary/Permanent Death and Disability cover,” he said.
“While this adds notable cost to our business, we believe this is the right thing to do and we hope other companies follow our lead. Sherpa is going against the common narrative that these gig economy companies don’t care about their partner drivers. This initiative demonstrates that Sherpa does.”
The insurance cover means that if something happens on the way to pick up an order from a retailer, or on their way to drop off an order to a customer, the driver is insured.
“This level of cover would normally cost Sherpas more than $1,000 if they were to take out the cover themselves. However, Sherpa is meeting 100% of this cost. We understand how important safety is to gig economy workers, and we have responded accordingly,” Brett added.
“Sherpa has 11,000 drivers in our fleet, and they are the most important part of the business; busy everyday delivering everything from groceries and cupcakes to legal documents and building materials. They need to be protected.”