I drive for an app as a contractor. Which scheme am I actually in?

In most cases the CTP scheme, because an independent contractor is generally not a worker for workers compensation purposes and so has no employer policy standing behind them. NSW does deem some subcontracting arrangements to be employment, and whether yours is one of them is decided on the facts rather than on the label in the app's terms. What does not depend on any of that is your CTP position: statutory benefits for treatment and care do not ask why you were on the road, only that you were injured in a motor accident.

I was an employed driver in a company vehicle. Do I have two claims?

Possibly, and the answer turns on what you were engaged as rather than on the label the app uses. Drivers signed up as independent contractors are usually left with CTP alone. A driver genuinely employed by a courier, a shuttle operator or a delivery business, and driving in the course of that employment, can sit inside both schemes at once. The two are sequenced rather than mutually exclusive, and our work-related car accident page sets out the section that does the sequencing and what each insurer has to do. The practical advice is the same either way: lodge, tell each insurer about the other claim, and keep being treated while it is worked out.

I was the passenger in a rideshare car. What do I do?

You claim as a passenger, and it does not matter whose driving caused the collision. Statutory benefits are available to a person injured in a motor accident, and a passenger has never had to establish anything about fault to get treatment funded. The claim goes to the CTP insurer of a vehicle involved. The six licensed CTP insurers in this state are AAMI, Allianz, GIO, NRMA, QBE and Youi. Source: SIRA, licensed NSW CTP insurers (checked September 2026). If you do not know which one, SIRA's free helpline, CTP Assist, on 1300 656 919, will help you find it.

My earnings change every week. How are weekly payments worked out?

They are calculated on your pre-accident weekly earnings measured against what you can still earn, so variable income is a question of evidence rather than a barrier. For the first 13 weeks the rate is 95% of that shortfall; from week 14 to week 78 it is 80% where you have no earning capacity and 85% where you have some. Pull together your app payment statements, bank records and tax paperwork early, because reconstructing a year of app income after the fact is far harder than exporting it in week one.

I was logged in but between jobs when it happened. Does that matter?

It can matter for whether a workers compensation claim is available to you, and that turns on the facts of the arrangement and the connection between the work and the accident. It does not change your CTP position. Statutory benefits under the motor accident scheme are not conditioned on what you were doing on the road or on who you were doing it for, so the treatment pathway is the same whether the app said you were on a job, waiting for one, or heading home.

Will any of this treatment cost me?

Approved treatment on an accepted claim is billed to the CTP insurer and you are not invoiced for it. The honest caveat is the other side of that sentence: SIRA states plainly that where an insurer denies liability or declines a treatment request, the accounts become the patient's personal responsibility. That is why we get approval confirmed before booking a block of treatment, and why we tell you where the claim stands instead of assuming somebody already has.

Driving for a rideshare or delivery app when you crashed?

Call us and we get app-based drivers and riders to a doctor and physio, and on most of these claims the CTP scheme is the one that pays for it.

You were working when it happened, but you probably have no employer, no sick leave and no workers compensation policy behind you. That combination sends a lot of drivers straight back out on the road hurt. This page explains which scheme covers you, what happens if you do have an employer, and how income support works when your pay comes from an app.

(02) 7238 7379

Which claim

No employer usually means CTP is the scheme that responds

The first question a hurt delivery rider asks is who pays. The answer is less complicated than the working arrangement that produced it.

Most people driving or riding for a rideshare or food delivery app are engaged as independent contractors. An independent contractor generally sits outside workers compensation, because there is no employer holding a policy that answers for the injury. NSW does deem certain subcontracting arrangements to be employment, and whether a particular arrangement falls inside that is decided on the facts of the engagement rather than on what the app’s terms call you. Either way, it is not a question you should have to settle before you get an X-ray.

That is the useful part of the CTP scheme for app-based drivers. The motor accident scheme does not ask why you were on the road. It asks whether you were injured in a motor accident. A rider clipped on Cleveland Street on a delivery run and a rider clipped on the way to visit a friend are in the same position as far as statutory benefits for treatment and care are concerned. Fault does not gate the first year either: treatment and care and weekly payments are available for 52 weeks even where a person was wholly or mostly at fault, and for longer where the injury is not a threshold injury and the person was not mostly at fault.

We get you to a doctor who can give the insurer the full medical picture. If a decision on your claim still needs reviewing after the insurer’s internal review, or your injury is not a threshold injury and a damages claim may be open to you, we put you in touch with a compensation lawyer if you need one. None of that holds up your treatment.

Source: Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 ss 3.11, 3.12 and 3.28. Checked September 2026.

Passengers

If you were in the back of the car

Passengers are the least complicated claimants in the scheme and the ones most likely to assume they have nothing.

A passenger injured in a rideshare vehicle claims as a person injured in a motor accident, and nothing about that depends on whose driving caused it. You do not need to identify a culprit, you do not need to fall out with the driver, and you do not need to hold any insurance yourself. The claim is directed to the CTP insurer of a vehicle involved in the accident. Six insurers are licensed to write CTP in New South Wales: AAMI, Allianz, GIO, NRMA, QBE and Youi.

What passengers most often lose is time. The trip receipt in your app is a dated record of where you were and who was driving, so save it now rather than hunting for it in three months. Report the accident to police as soon as you can (within 24 hours if anyone was hurt and police did not attend) and keep the event number, because the insurer needs a report made within 28 days to verify the claim. Lodge a statutory benefits claim within 28 days so weekly payments can be back-dated if you end up unable to work, and make the claim within three months. If you do not know which insurer to approach, SIRA’s free helpline, CTP Assist, on 1300 656 919, will help you find it.

Sources: SIRA, licensed NSW CTP insurers; SIRA, Guide for people injured in a motor vehicle accident; NSW Road Rules 2014 r 287 (classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_reg/rr2014104/s287.html); Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 s 6.13. Checked September 2026.

Employed drivers

When there genuinely are two claims

Not every driver on an app is a contractor. Couriers on the books, van drivers, shuttle and hire-car drivers and delivery staff paid a wage are in a different position, and it is the better one.

If you were employed and driving in the course of that employment when the collision happened, a workers compensation claim and a CTP claim can both be in play. The two schemes are not simply alternatives, and section 3.35 of the Motor Accident Injuries Act sets out how they interact. What it means for you is that the CTP insurer cannot decline your claim just because workers compensation might apply, unless you have made a successful workers compensation claim or have not made one when it asked you to, and the question does not stop you being treated in the meantime. Our work-related car accident page sets the provision out in full and explains what each insurer has to do while the question is open.

Journey crashes are the common grey area. A workers compensation claim for an injury on a trip between home and work requires a real and substantial connection between the employment and the accident, which is a higher bar than simply having been on your way somewhere work-related. Where that connection is not there, SIRA’s own guidance points people to the CTP scheme. Getting this triage right in week one changes which insurer funds your physiotherapy and which certificate your treating practitioner writes, so it is worth ten minutes on the phone. The detail sits on our work-related car accident page.

Source: Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 s 3.35; SIRA, Work break and journey claims. Checked September 2026.

Your income

Weekly payments when your pay comes from an app

Variable, multi-app income is an evidence problem, not a disqualification. The people who do badly here are the ones who leave the records until month four.

Weekly payments are calculated from your pre-accident weekly earnings, set against whatever you are still able to earn after the accident. The first 13 weeks after the accident are paid at 95% of that shortfall. Week 14 through to week 78 steps down to 80% where you have no capacity to earn at all, or 85% where you have partial capacity and are doing some work. The percentages are fixed by the Act. The figure they are applied to is yours to establish.

So start the paperwork while you are still at home with a sore shoulder. Export your payment statements from every app you drove for, not only the main one. Pull the bank statements that show the deposits landing. Have your most recent tax return and, if you run an ABN, your activity statements to hand. If your earnings climbed or fell in the months before the crash, be able to explain why. None of that is difficult in week one and all of it is painful in month six.

Alongside the earnings evidence sits the Certificate of Fitness. To claim weekly payments you must provide certificates covering the whole period claimed, together with a declaration as to your employment, and no single certificate can cover more than 28 days. The first must come from your treating medical practitioner; every certificate after that may be given by a medical practitioner or by your treating physiotherapist or psychologist. And lodge inside 28 days: a claim made later than that cannot have weekly payments back-dated to the period before it, which is money that simply evaporates.

Source: Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 ss 3.6, 3.7, 3.15 and 6.13; SIRA, Motor Accident Guidelines 4.68 and 4.69. Checked September 2026.

Your treatment

Who you actually see, and when

Drivers and riders present with a fairly consistent set of problems, and the sooner the first appointment happens the better the record reads later.

A doctor

Assessment of the neck, shoulder, wrist and back injuries that come out of a struck vehicle or a bike put down on the road, imaging where it is indicated, and the first Certificate of Fitness, which on a CTP claim has to be written by a medical practitioner.

How the certificate works

A physiotherapist

Rehabilitation aimed at the loads the job actually demands: hours seated, lifting bags and boxes, and the reach and rotation of getting in and out of a vehicle all day. One initial assessment needs no advance approval once a claim number exists.

Read the approvals guide

A psychologist

Driving for a living after a collision is its own problem. Clause 4.105 directs insurers towards clinicians experienced in psychological injury where it is likely to hold up a recovery.

See our car accident service

Source: SIRA, Motor Accident Guidelines 4.68, 4.105 and 4.106; SIRA, Providing allied health services in the NSW CTP schemes — FAQs. Checked September 2026.

Getting seen

How to book, and what to say on the call

Tell us three things and we can work out which scheme you are in before your appointment.

Ring (02) 7238 7379 or use the car accident booking page. Say the date of the accident, whether you were working at the time, and whether you are engaged as a contractor or paid a wage. Those three answers decide whether this is a CTP file, a workers compensation file, or one of the ones that needs both. Bring the police event number, the registration of the other vehicle, your claim or reference number if one exists, and the trip or delivery record from the app.

If nothing has been lodged yet, say so rather than waiting until it is sorted. Within the first 28 days after an accident the Guidelines allow one general practitioner consultation and two allied health treatment sessions to be funded before any claim exists, at the insurer’s discretion, and it works far better when a clinician asks for it than when a hurt driver does. You may also express a preference for who treats you: the insurer is required to facilitate that referral subject to the provider being suitable, and to give written reasons if it declines.

Source: SIRA, Motor Accident Guidelines 4.78–4.79 and 4.104; SIRA, Fees paid for motor crash health services. Checked September 2026.

FAQs

App-based drivers and riders, answered plainly

Six questions we field from rideshare and delivery drivers, with the source behind each answer.

Car accident injury NSW

Hurt on a job with no employer behind you? Start here.

We book you in with a doctor who assesses the injury and writes the first Certificate of Fitness, then line up physio for the demands of driving and a psychologist for what happens after a collision at work. Approved treatment is billed to the CTP insurer.

Book a car accident appointment

Or call (02) 7238 7379

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