A truck or company vehicle hit me: can the owner or employer be held responsible?

Truck and delivery van collisions are listed among the crashes on our auto accident page because they raise a question ordinary crashes do not: who besides the driver answers for the harm. The answer matters because a business's coverage is often very different from a driver's personal policy. This page explains the California rules for employer responsibility, owner liability and its limits, claims against public agencies, and the records to ask for early.

How does a claim against a company work, step by step?

1. Get the right names at the scene. In an injury crash, the driver must give you their name and address, the vehicle's registration number, and the owner's name and address (Vehicle Code section 20003(a)). Photograph the company name and any numbers on the truck or van. Our page on what to do after a crash in Glendale covers the 24-hour report.
2. Identify the employer and the owner separately. They are often different: a business may lease its trucks or hire drivers through another company.
3. Ask for records to be preserved. Send a written request to the company to keep driver logs, dispatch records, vehicle data and camera footage. For motor carriers covered by the federal hours of service rules, a federal regulation requires keeping drivers' records of duty status for at least six months (49 CFR 395.8(k)(1)).
4. Open claims with every insurer involved. That can include the company's commercial policy, the owner's policy and the driver's personal policy.
5. Check whether a public agency is involved. A city bus, county truck or state vehicle requires a written government claim within six months (Government Code section 911.2).
6. File suit within two years if the claim does not resolve. That is the general deadline for injury lawsuits (Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1).

Who besides the driver can be responsible?

These theories can overlap. CACI 3700 also reminds jurors that an employee is always responsible for harm caused by their own wrongful conduct, whether or not the employer is also liable, so a claim usually names both the driver and the business.

When is a driver acting within the scope of employment?

The injured person has to prove it. Under CACI 3720, conduct is within the scope of employment if it is reasonably related to the kinds of tasks the employee was hired to perform, or if it is reasonably foreseeable in light of the employer's business or the employee's job responsibilities. For a delivery driver, driving the delivery route is plainly related to the job.

Several instructions fill in the edges. CACI 3722 says an employee's conduct can be within the scope of employment even if it breaks a company rule or does not benefit the employer, so a company policy against speeding or phone use does not by itself end the employer's responsibility. CACI 3723 says incidental personal acts, minor delays and departures from the most direct route are reasonably expected and remain within the scope of employment; only a substantial deviation that amounts to abandoning the employer's business takes the driver outside it.

Commuting is the main exception. Under CACI 3725, an employee is generally not acting within the scope of employment while traveling to and from work. But the commute is within the scope of employment if the employer requires the employee to drive so the vehicle is available for work, or if the employee's vehicle use benefits the employer in the ways the instruction describes. CACI 3726 covers a business errand made during a commute, and CACI 3727 covers commutes the employer has agreed to pay for.

What if the driver was a contractor, not an employee?

Many delivery and trucking companies call their drivers independent contractors. For employer responsibility in an injury case, CACI 3704 says the most important factor is whether the company had the right to control how the driver performed the work, not just the result, and that it does not matter whether the company actually exercised that right. The jury also weighs other factors, such as who supplied the equipment, whether the driver was paid by the hour or by the job, and whether the work was part of the company's regular business. A label in a contract does not decide the question. A different test, the ABC test, governs wage claims; our page on whether a worker is an employee or a contractor explains it.

What does owner liability cover, and what are its limits?

Vehicle Code section 17150 makes every owner of a motor vehicle liable for death or injury caused by the negligent or wrongful operation of the vehicle by anyone using it with the owner's express or implied permission, whether in the owner's business or otherwise. Under CACI 720, the relationship between owner and driver can support a finding of implied permission, and an employer-employee relationship is one of the examples given.

Section 17151(a) caps that liability at $15,000 for injury or death of one person, $30,000 for more than one person, and $5,000 for property damage in any one crash. The cap applies to liability imposed by that chapter "and not arising through the relationship of principal and agent or master and servant," so it does not limit an employer's responsibility for an employee acting within the scope of employment. Section 17151(b) adds that an owner is not liable under the statute for punitive damages based on the driver's conduct, though it may be for its own wrongful conduct. Under section 17152, the driver must be made a defendant if they can be served, and a judgment is collected first from the driver's property. An owner may defend by showing that the driver substantially violated the time, place or purpose of a limited permission (CACI 721).

What changes the answer?

What the driver was doing at that moment

A coffee stop on the route can be the kind of incidental personal act CACI 3723 treats as within the scope of employment; a weekend trip in the company truck may not be. Dispatch records, delivery scans and GPS data often answer this question better than anyone's memory.

Who owned the vehicle

If a leasing company or an individual owned the vehicle, the owner's statutory liability is capped by section 17151, but the employer's responsibility is not. When the owner and the employer are the same business, both theories may apply. For how the driver's own policy limits interact with your coverage, see our page on California's minimum insurance limits.

What the company knew about the driver

A company that let an unfit driver use a vehicle may be responsible for its own negligence, apart from vicarious liability. CACI 724 requires proof that the owner knew or should have known the driver was incompetent or unfit, and CACI 426 sets similar elements for negligent hiring, supervision or retention.

Whether the vehicle was public

Vehicle Code section 17001 makes a public entity liable for injury caused by an employee's negligent driving within the scope of employment, and Government Code section 815.2 states the same principle generally. Government Code section 815.4 can make a public entity responsible for an independent contractor's conduct to the extent it would be liable as a private person. Vehicle Code section 17004 protects a public employee personally when driving an authorized emergency vehicle in response to an emergency call or in pursuit. A claim against the agency starts with a written government claim within six months; our page on claims against Glendale or Los Angeles County lists the offices that take them.

Whether someone died

A fatal truck crash changes who brings the claim and what may be recovered. Our page on wrongful death and survival claims in California explains the difference and the changes for cases filed from 2026.

A worked example

For example, imagine a hypothetical delivery driver who works for a Glendale bakery supplier. On his morning route he stops for coffee, then pulls out onto Glendale Avenue without looking and hits a car, injuring its driver. The van is leased from a fleet company and insured under the supplier's commercial policy.

Several rules apply at once. The coffee stop is the kind of incidental personal act CACI 3723 treats as within the scope of employment, so the supplier may be responsible for the driver's negligence under CACI 3701. The leasing company, as owner, may be responsible under section 17150, but only up to $15,000 for the injured driver under section 17151, because its liability does not arise from employment. The van driver remains personally responsible as well. If the van had a camera or a telematics system, a letter asking the supplier to preserve that data protects key evidence. None of this predicts the outcome; it shows who may be responsible and why.

Common mistakes after a crash with a company vehicle

• Dealing only with the driver's personal insurer. The employer's commercial policy may be the main source of coverage.
• Treating the $15,000 owner cap as the limit of the claim. Section 17151 does not cap an employer's responsibility for an employee on the job.
• Accepting "he was off the clock" without checking. The vehicle-use, business-errand and paid-travel exceptions in CACI 3725 to 3727 can bring a commute within the scope of employment.
• Waiting to ask for records. The federal minimum for keeping records of duty status is six months, and video systems may record over footage sooner.
• Missing the six-month government claim. A crash with a public vehicle has a far shorter first deadline than a private claim.

What to do this week

1. Write down the company name, vehicle numbers and any phone number shown on the vehicle, and keep your photographs.
2. Get the police or CHP report and confirm it lists both the driver and the owner.
3. Send the company a written request to preserve driver logs, dispatch and GPS records, and camera footage.
4. Tell your own insurer about the crash and ask for your declarations page.
5. If any public agency vehicle was involved, count six months from the crash date.
6. For a sense of how long a case may take once filed, read our page on the injury case timeline in Los Angeles County.
7. Gather your records with our list of what to bring to a personal injury consultation.

Frequently asked questions

Can I claim against both the driver and the company?

Yes. CACI 3700 says an employee is always responsible for their own wrongful conduct, whether or not the employer is also liable. In an owner liability claim, section 17152 requires the driver to be named as a defendant if they can be served.

The driver was using his own car for work. Is the employer responsible?

It can be, if the driving was within the scope of employment under CACI 3720. Ownership of the car does not decide employer responsibility; what the driver was doing for the employer does.

A family member was driving a company car. Who is responsible?

If the family member drove with permission, the owner may be liable under section 17150 up to the section 17151 limits. Employer responsibility would require the driver to be an employee or agent acting within that role.

Can I get punitive damages from the vehicle's owner?

Not for the driver's conduct under the owner liability statute; section 17151(b) rules that out. The statute does not make an owner immune from punitive damages for its own wrongful conduct.

A city bus or county truck hit me. What is different?

The agency can be responsible for its employee's driving under Vehicle Code section 17001, but you must present a written claim within six months. If the case goes to court, our page on where Los Angeles County injury cases go explains the local courts and offices.

What if I was a passenger in the company vehicle?

A passenger may claim against the driver and the employer like anyone else, and other policies may also apply. Our page on whose insurance pays a passenger explains them.

Do these rules apply to motorcycle crashes with trucks?

Yes. The same employer and owner rules apply whatever you were driving. The CHP advises riders to avoid lane splitting next to large vehicles; our page on lane splitting and motorcycle claims explains how a rider's conduct is weighed.

How can Glendale Law help?

We identify the driver's employer, the vehicle's owner and every policy that may apply, ask for the records that show what the driver was doing, and handle the claims against each. Call (818) 244-9000 or request a consultation.