The Driver Who Hit You Was on the Clock. Now What?

The van that ran the light had a logo on the door. Or the pickup that drifted into your lane was hauling ladders between job sites.

When the person who caused your crash was driving for work, you may have a claim against the business that put that person on the road. The company's insurer knows it, and it will work hard to prove the driver wasn't "working" at the moment of impact, or wasn't really its employee at all. Here's how Nebraska decides those questions.

The basic rule: the business answers for its employee's driving

Nebraska calls it respondeat superior, which is Latin for "let the master answer." The Nebraska Supreme Court put it plainly in Cruz v. Lopez (2018): "Under the doctrine of respondeat superior, an employer is held vicariously liable to third persons for the employee's negligence in the course of the employer's business."

Two things have to be true: the driver was the company's employee, and the crash happened in the course of the company's business. You don't have to prove the employer did anything wrong itself.

That matters because a plumbing company or a regional distributor usually insures its vehicles under a commercial policy with limits well above what an individual driver buys. When injuries are serious, getting the employer into the case can decide whether the claim covers your losses.

"He was off the clock" and the scope-of-employment fight

The most common defense is that the driver, though employed, was on personal time: grabbing lunch, dropping a kid at school, heading home. Nebraska doesn't let that argument win automatically. In SMS Trucking Co. v. Midland Vet, Inc. (1971), a company's president was killed driving the company car back from a business trip, after spending the evening with a customer and a company salesman. The court held that "whether the act in question was within the scope of employment is, ordinarily, one of fact for the determination of the jury," and that "such a question must be determined by looking at all of the relevant factors concerning the nature of the employment as well as the purpose and degree of any alleged deviation."

Two more lines from that opinion do a lot of work in these cases:

• "The mere fact that an agent was not, at the exact time of the accident, immediately pursuing the principal's business purposes does not necessarily take him out of the scope of employment."
• The evidence showed "a business use of the car at the time of the accident, even though it may have been in combination with a personal purpose."

So a coffee stop mid-route doesn't erase the business purpose of the trip. The bigger and more personal the detour, the stronger the employer's argument. A Saturday trip to the lake in the company truck is a very different case from a drive between two service calls. What usually decides it: whose vehicle it was, where the driver was headed and why, whether that time was paid, and what the driver told the officer or dispatch.

The independent-contractor defense

The second defense is that the driver wasn't an employee at all. Subcontractors, couriers and app-based delivery workers are often labeled independent contractors. The label matters, because Cruz also restates the general rule that "one who employs an independent contractor is generally not liable for physical harm caused to another by the acts or omissions of the contractor or its servants." But a label is not the end of the analysis. The court lists ten factors, starting with "the extent of control which, by the agreement, the employer may exercise over the details of the work." Others include who supplies the vehicle and tools, payment "by the time or by the job," and whether the work is part of the company's regular business. What the parties call themselves is only one factor: "whether the parties believe they are creating an agency relationship." And "ordinarily, a party's status as an employee or an independent contractor is a question of fact."

Even when the driver truly is a contractor, Cruz recognizes four exceptions where the hiring business can still be responsible: when it retains control over the contractor's work, when it possesses and controls the premises where the injury happened, when a statute or rule imposes a specific duty on it, or when the work involves special risks or dangers.

I won't oversell those exceptions. The control exception requires "substantial" control that must "manifest in an ability to dictate the way the work is performed, and not merely include powers such as a general right to start and stop work, inspect progress, or make suggestions that need not be followed." In Cruz, a general contractor wasn't liable for a hauling subcontractor's driver in part because it never told the hauler "what route to take." And the court repeated that "operating motor vehicles is not an inherently dangerous activity," so the special-risk exception rarely fits an ordinary crash.

So evidence of actual control is the whole ballgame. Did the company assign routes, track drivers by GPS, require a uniform or branded vehicle, or discipline drivers for running late? Those details can move a case from "contractor" to "employee."

App-based services raise their own coverage questions, covered in my post on rideshare and app-driver crashes. If a city, county or state vehicle hit you, special notice rules apply; see my post on government vehicle claims.

When the company is at fault itself: negligent entrustment

Respondeat superior makes the employer pay for the driver's mistake. A separate claim, negligent entrustment, targets the company's own mistake: handing the keys to someone it shouldn't have.

In DeWester v. Watkins (2008), the Nebraska Supreme Court applied the Restatement rule that "it is negligence to permit a third person to use a thing or to engage in an activity which is under the control of the actor, if the actor knows or should know that such person intends or is likely to use the thing or to conduct himself in the activity in such a manner as to create an unreasonable risk of harm to others." The court also held the claim can be brought against "a defendant who had the right to control the property, but was not its legal owner."

That fits work vehicles, which are often leased or titled to a related company. What counts is who decided who drove.

Entrustment matters most when the company knew about a suspended license, prior wrecks or impairment, and it opens hiring and supervision files to discovery. Related theories called negligent hiring or retention depend heavily on the facts; my post on driver qualification files shows the paper trail. For a car borrowed from a friend or relative, see my guide to borrowed-car crashes.

Finding out who the driver actually worked for

You can't make a claim against a company you can't name. At the scene and in the days after, these are the best sources:

• The vehicle itself. Photograph doors, tailgates, ladder racks and any magnetic signs. Many larger work vans and pickups count as commercial motor vehicles under 49 C.F.R. § 390.5 when used in interstate commerce with a weight rating of 10,001 pounds or more. Those vehicles must display the operating company's name and a number "preceded by the letters 'USDOT'" under 49 C.F.R. § 390.21, legible "from a distance of 50 feet." That number leads to the carrier's federal registration.
• The crash report, which lists the registered owner and insurer. A business owner is a strong lead.
• The driver's own words. "I was trying to make my last delivery" is evidence. Write it down that day.

Which insurance pays: commercial versus personal

With a company-owned vehicle, the commercial auto policy is usually the first place to look. Harder cases involve employees in their own cars: the sales rep in a personal SUV, the home health aide between patients.

Many personal auto policies limit or exclude coverage when the car carries goods or people for pay, or for certain business uses. Wording varies, so I read the actual policy rather than an adjuster's summary. Some businesses also buy coverage for employee-owned vehicles, often called hired and non-owned auto coverage. Requesting both policies early stops each insurer from pointing at the other.

If the coverage still falls short, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage may fill the gap.

Evidence that disappears fast

Businesses that run vehicles create records a private driver never would, and they don't keep them forever:

• Telematics and GPS logs: speed, hard braking and location by the second.
• Dispatch records, work orders and delivery scans: where the driver was sent and where he was minutes before the crash.
• Timecards and mileage logs, which answer the "on the clock" question directly.
• Fleet dashcams and phone records, company and personal.

An early preservation letter puts the company on notice that these records are evidence; my guide to dashcam, phone and vehicle data explains collection. Semi fleets have their own federal rules, covered on my truck accident page.

If you were riding with a coworker

If you were a crew member riding in the company vehicle, different rules apply. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-148, filing a workers' comp claim or accepting comp benefits "shall constitute a release to such employer of all claims or demands at law, if any, arising from such injury." Comp is usually your path against your own employer, but if another driver caused or contributed to the crash, a separate claim against that driver may still exist. My page on crashes while working walks through how the two claims fit together.

Three hypotheticals

These are made-up examples, not descriptions of any real client or case.

The delivery van. A parcel van turns left across traffic on 72nd Street and hits a car. The company says the driver is a contractor, but it assigned his route, required its uniform and branded van, and tracked every stop on its app. Control, the first Cruz factor, is now squarely in play.

The plumber's lunch stop. A service tech grabs a drive-through lunch between calls and rear-ends a stopped car. The company says lunch was personal. Under SMS Trucking, a short stop between assigned calls doesn't necessarily take him outside his work.

The rep in her own car. A sales rep driving her own sedan to a client meeting runs a stop sign. Her insurer cites business-use language; her employer says it doesn't own the car. The employer's vicarious liability and any coverage it carries for employee vehicles must be pinned down before anyone offers fair value.

Mistakes that weaken these claims

• Settling with the driver's insurer alone before learning whether the employer and its policy should be involved.
• Giving the company's insurer an early recorded statement; read why I urge caution with adjusters.
• Not photographing the vehicle's markings before it leaves.
• Waiting. Fleet data gets overwritten, and filing deadlines are strict; check the Nebraska statute of limitations.

Why people hit by work vehicles call me

When a business is behind the wheel, its defense starts early. So do I: I chase dispatch data, telematics and the documents showing who really controlled the work, and I prepare every case as if a jury will hear it. I've recovered more than $24 million for clients, including a $5.4 million result, and you can read five-star reviews from people I've represented. My firm was voted Best of Omaha for Personal Injury Law Firm in 2025 and 2026. See how I handle crash cases on my Omaha car accident lawyer page.

If a delivery van, contractor's pickup or company car hurt you, call (402) 378-9208 or reach me here. The consultation is free, and you pay no attorney fee unless I win money for you.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sue the company if its employee hit me in a company vehicle?

Often, yes. Nebraska holds an employer vicariously liable for an employee's negligence in the course of the employer's business. Whether the driver was on company business at that moment is usually a question of fact.

What if the company says the driver is an independent contractor?

The label isn't decisive. Nebraska courts weigh ten factors, with control over the details of the work at the top of the list, and several exceptions can still make the hiring business responsible.

What if the driver was using his own car for work?

The driver's personal policy may limit coverage for business use, and the employer may still be vicariously liable. The actual policy language and the employer's own coverage need to be checked.

Your Attorney

Frank Younes

Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.

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