Gallagher & Lipshutz represents people hit by FedEx, UPS and Amazon delivery trucks, box trucks, and the dump trucks, cement mixers, tankers, tow trucks, garbage trucks and utility trucks that work the streets of Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas every day. These are not car crashes with a bigger vehicle. The driver is at work, the vehicle belongs to a business, and the insurance behind it is commercial coverage with limits far above what an ordinary driver carries.
That is also what makes them harder. The name painted on the truck is often not the company that employs the driver. The company's claims team may call you before the police report is finished. The records that show what the driver was doing belong to the business, not to you. Our Las Vegas delivery truck accident lawyers identify the real employer and the coverage behind the driver, collect evidence before it disappears, and handle the claim through settlement or trial.
Consultations are free. Call (702) 381-3770 or contact Gallagher & Lipshutz before you give a recorded statement to any company or insurer, and before you sign anything an adjuster sends you. If the crash involved a semi truck or tractor trailer, our Las Vegas truck accident lawyers page covers the federal trucking rules that apply to those cases.
Why the Name on the Truck Is Only the Start
Under Nevada law, a business answers for the harm its employee causes on the job. NRS 41.130 makes the person who caused the injury liable and, when that person was employed by a company responsible for their conduct, makes the company liable too. In a delivery truck case, the whole claim turns on which company that is.
FedEx and Amazon both deliver most packages through independent businesses that hire their own drivers and own or lease their own trucks. The truck says FedEx or Amazon. The driver's paycheck comes from a local company most people have never heard of. That company's commercial policy is where the claim starts. The claim reaches the larger company when its contract, its delivery software, its control of the route and schedule, or its safety rules show that it controlled how the work was done, or when it put an unsafe contractor on the road. UPS is different: its package drivers are generally UPS employees, so the claim goes to UPS directly.
Finding the right company is the first thing we do. The police report, the DOT number on the truck's door, the registration and the driver's own statements at the scene usually identify the contractor within days. Getting it wrong costs time the evidence does not have, because delivery companies overwrite route data and camera footage on a schedule.
FedEx Truck Accidents in Las Vegas
FedEx contracts with independent business owners who own or lease the trucks, hire the drivers and run the routes. A FedEx Ground truck that hits you in Las Vegas is usually driven by that contractor's employee and insured under the contractor's commercial policy. FedEx Express, the overnight air side of the company, uses its own employees and vehicles, so a crash with an Express truck is a claim against FedEx itself.
The contractor structure does not end FedEx's responsibility. FedEx sets the service standards, the scanner and route technology, the vehicle requirements and the safety rules the contractor has to follow. When those controls reach into how the driver did the work, or when FedEx kept a contractor with a bad safety record on its routes, the claim can include FedEx and the far larger coverage behind it. The contract between FedEx and the contractor shows who controlled what. FedEx does not hand it over before a lawsuit, so our lawyers for FedEx truck accidents in Las Vegas obtain it in the litigation.
Many delivery trucks are heavy enough that federal safety rules apply when they carry interstate shipments. Under 49 CFR 390.5, a vehicle rated at 10,001 pounds or more and used in interstate commerce is a commercial motor vehicle. That brings the driver qualification, inspection and hours rules explained on our Las Vegas truck accident lawyers page, and it means the contractor has records it was required to keep.
UPS Truck Accidents in Las Vegas
A UPS package car is driven by a UPS employee, which makes the claim simpler to aim and harder to win. There is no contractor to find, and NRS 41.130 puts UPS behind its driver. But UPS is a large company with an experienced claims operation, and its adjusters handle Las Vegas UPS truck accident claims every week, while most injured people are dealing with one for the first time.
UPS trucks also generate more evidence than almost any other vehicle on the road. The handheld scanner records the time of every stop. The truck's telematics record speed, braking, seat belt use and whether the bulkhead door was open. The driver's training file, route history and prior incidents are all in the company's hands. UPS does not hand any of it over before a lawsuit, so we obtain it in the litigation.
Amazon Delivery Van and Amazon Flex Accidents
Amazon delivers through three kinds of drivers, and the claim is different for each. The blue Amazon delivery trucks in every neighborhood are run by Delivery Service Partners, independent businesses that hire and manage their own delivery drivers. A crash with an Amazon delivery truck is a claim against the Delivery Service Partner and its commercial policy first, and against Amazon when its routing software, delivery quotas and camera systems show it controlled the work. Amazon's tractor trailers are usually run by separate Amazon Freight Partner companies, and a crash with one of those is a semi-truck case.
Amazon Flex drivers are the third kind. They deliver in their own cars and SUVs, and their personal auto policy may deny a claim because the car was being used for business. Amazon provides Flex drivers in every state except New York with a commercial auto policy, including liability and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, that applies while the driver is actively delivering during a delivery block, the shift the driver signs up for in the Flex app. Whether the driver was inside a block at the moment of the crash decides which policy pays, and the app records it and our Amazon truck accident attorneys in Las Vegas obtain it in the litigation.
Amazon's warehouses and delivery stations in North Las Vegas and Henderson put hundreds of these trucks on the roads before dawn, on tight schedules, in neighborhoods where they stop, back up and pull out every few minutes. Backing crashes, right turns into bicyclists and pedestrians, and rear-end crashes when a delivery truck stops short are the patterns seen most.
Box Trucks, Dump Trucks, Cement Mixers, Tankers, Tow Trucks, Garbage Trucks and Utility Trucks
The other work trucks on Las Vegas streets are not package trucks, but the claims work the same way: a driver at work, a business behind the driver, and commercial coverage that has to be found and pursued. Each type has its own rules and its own evidence.
Box Truck Accidents
Box trucks move furniture, appliances, restaurant supplies and casino freight through the valley all day, and they are driven by employees of moving companies, food distributors and local delivery businesses. A box truck rated at 10,001 pounds or more is a commercial motor vehicle under the federal rules above when it carries freight across state lines. A box truck that only works inside Nevada falls under Nevada's motor carrier rules instead, and NRS 706.291 requires those carriers to file proof of liability insurance with the DMV. Either way, its operator carries commercial coverage. The claim runs through the company whose name is on the door, or, when the truck is leased, through the business that leased it and employed the driver.
Dump Truck and Cement Mixer Accidents
Dump trucks and cement mixers serve construction that never stops in the valley, and they crash in two ways. The first is a heavy vehicle driven too fast or too close for its weight; a loaded mixer carries its weight high and rolls in turns a car takes easily. The second is the load. NRS 484D.850 prohibits driving any vehicle that is not built or loaded to keep its load from dropping, sifting or leaking onto the road, and requires every load and its covering to be securely fastened. Gravel that cracks a windshield or a load that shifts on a ramp is a violation of that statute and evidence of fault. These trucks usually belong to a contractor or a materials supplier, such as Las Vegas Paving, and the claim runs through that company.
Tanker and Fuel Truck Accidents
A tanker carrying fuel or chemicals in a placarded quantity is treated as a commercial motor vehicle under federal rules regardless of its weight, and its operator has to carry far larger insurance than an ordinary carrier. A tanker crash also brings fire and exposure injuries a normal crash does not, so the hazardous materials records, the driver's endorsement and the loading records become part of the case.
Tow Truck Accidents
Tow trucks work in traffic by design, on the shoulder of I-15 and US-95 and in the lanes of the Strip. They hit people while backing, while pulling out with a car on the hook, and while the driver is watching the vehicle instead of the road. Nevada tow companies are regulated by the Nevada Transportation Authority, and NRS 706.291 requires every tow car operator to file proof of liability insurance with the Authority.
Garbage Truck Accidents
Trash trucks run the same residential streets every week, stopping every few yards, with drivers watching the cans and the arm. Most of the valley's residential trash is collected by Republic Services under franchise agreements with the county and cities, and a crash with a Republic Services truck is a claim against that company like any other commercial truck claim. A crash with a truck owned by the city or county itself is a government claim with different rules. NRS 41.035 caps a tort award against a Nevada government body at $200,000 per claimant with no punitive damages, and NRS 41.036 requires the claim to be filed with the governing body within two years.
Utility Truck Accidents
NV Energy bucket trucks, Southwest Gas service trucks and the contractors who work for them are on residential streets every day, often parked half in the lane with a crew working around them. A crash with a utility truck is a claim against the utility or the contractor that employed the driver, and utilities keep dispatch records, vehicle telematics and crew schedules that show where the truck was supposed to be and how it was parked.
The Insurance Is Why These Cases Are Different
Nevada requires a private driver to carry only $25,000 in liability coverage per person under NRS 485.185, and a serious injury uses that up in the emergency room. A business that puts a truck on the road carries commercial coverage, and an interstate carrier of property in a vehicle over 10,001 pounds has to carry a federal minimum under 49 CFR 387.9 that is many times the Nevada figure. The larger companies behind the contractors carry more still. When the coverage behind the truck turns out to be small, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage becomes the largest policy in the case; Nevada requires insurers to offer it in the same amount as your liability limits under NRS 690B.020, and our Las Vegas car accident lawyers page explains how those policies work.
Larger coverage does not mean an easier claim. The company's insurer will dispute fault, argue that your injuries came from somewhere else, question your treatment and, in the contractor cases, insist that the brand on the truck has nothing to do with it. Nevada's comparative fault rule, NRS 41.141, reduces your recovery by your share of fault and bars it only if your share is greater than theirs, so the company's first move is often to put fault on you. The evidence that answers that is in the company's hands. The company does not give it up before a lawsuit, so we obtain it in litigation.
How We Build a Delivery Truck Case
We start with the vehicle. The DOT number on the door, the registration and the police report identify the company that owns the truck and the company that employed the driver. Later, we ask for the route data, the scanner times, the truck's camera footage, the driver's file and training records, the prior incidents on that route, and the contract between the contractor and the brand it delivers for. None of that is handed over before a lawsuit; so, we must wait to get it in litigation. Most delivery trucks now carry cameras facing the road and the driver, and that footage is the best evidence in the case for as long as it exists.
We contact the businesses with cameras pointing to where the crash happened, because a delivery crash in a neighborhood or a parking lot is often recorded by a doorbell or storefront camera that will overwrite it within days to weeks. We get the police report and the body camera video when the case warrants it, and we subpoena the driver's phone records in the lawsuit when the company says the crash could not be avoided. When the injuries are serious, we retain the experts who document what the injury will cost over a lifetime, not just what it has cost so far.
What to Do After a Delivery Truck Crash in Las Vegas
The company starts protecting itself at the scene. A few things you do in the first hour and the first days protect you.
Step 1: Photograph the Scene, the Damage and the Truck's Door
Take pictures of the crash scene, the damage to your car and the damage to their truck, then the company name, the DOT or unit number on the door, the license plate and, if you can, the driver's ID badge or the name on the uniform. Contractor trucks often carry the brand's name on the side and the contractor's name in small print on the door, and both names go in the claim.
Step 2: Call 911 and Get the Event Number
Ask the officer for the event number before you leave. Every report, recording and camera request starts with it, and our guide to getting a Las Vegas crash report explains how each agency releases it.
Step 3: Go to the Emergency Room if Anything Feels Wrong
A delivery truck weighs two to three times what your car does, so the impact on your body is far harder than when another car hits you. The injuries often show up hours later. The ER is the safest place to find out, and its imaging and specialist referrals are how a real injury gets diagnosed.
Step 4: Do Not Give a Statement to the Company
The brand's claims team, the contractor's insurer and the driver's own insurer may all call, and each one is building a file. You can tell them a lawyer will be in touch. Nothing needs to be signed, and an early check can come with a release that ends the claim.
Step 5: Call Gallagher & Lipshutz
Call (702) 381-3770 and we will identify the companies, send the first requests and take over the calls about your injury claim, starting the same day.
Who is responsible when an Amazon delivery truck hits me in Las Vegas?
Usually the Delivery Service Partner, the independent business that employs the driver and operates the truck, through its commercial insurance policy. Amazon can also be responsible when its software, quotas and safety systems controlled how the driver worked, or when it kept an unsafe contractor on its routes. If the driver was an Amazon Flex driver in a personal car, Amazon's commercial policy applies while the driver was inside a delivery block.
Is FedEx responsible when a FedEx truck causes a crash?
For a FedEx Ground truck, the claim starts with the independent contractor that owns the truck and employs the driver, and it reaches FedEx when FedEx controlled the work or chose an unsafe contractor. For a FedEx Express truck, the driver is a FedEx employee and the claim is against FedEx directly. The contract and the police report tell us which one hit you.
Does Amazon insure its Flex drivers?
Amazon provides Flex drivers in every state except New York with a commercial auto policy, including liability and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, that applies while the driver is actively delivering during a delivery block. Outside a block, the driver's personal policy is the only one, and it may exclude business use. The app's block records settle which applies.
What if a city or county garbage truck hit me?
A claim against a Nevada government body is capped at $200,000 per claimant with no punitive damages, and it has to be filed with the governing body within two years. Most residential trash in the valley is collected by Republic Services under a franchise, and a claim against that company has no cap.
How long do I have to file a delivery truck accident claim in Nevada?
Two years from the crash for an injury claim under NRS 11.190, and two years to file a claim with the governing body if a government truck was involved. The company's records will not wait that long, so the claim should start well before the deadline. Our Nevada injury claim deadlines page covers the exceptions.
Can I still recover if I was partly at fault?
Yes. Under NRS 41.141 your recovery is reduced by your share of fault and barred only if your share is greater than the fault of the people you are suing. Delivery companies raise fault in almost every case, which is one reason the camera and route data have to be requested early.
If you were hit by a delivery truck, a box truck or a heavy work truck in Las Vegas, Henderson or North Las Vegas, call (702) 381-3770 or contact Gallagher & Lipshutz for a free consultation. We will find out which companies are behind the truck and what coverage applies, and we will handle it from there.
