Texas Expanded Its Law Regulating Transportation Network Companies to Include Delivery Network Companies

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Patricia Tsipras

October 2, 2025

Effective September 1, 2025, Texas implemented new regulations for delivery network companies – defined as business entities that offer or use a digital network to arrange for the delivery of food, beverages, or consumer goods from a restaurant or retail establishment to a customer.[1]  See 2025 Tex. HB 4215.

Key Provisions
To operate in the state of Texas, delivery network companies must now obtain a permit from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, pay a fee, and implement various policies and procedures.

The required procedures include certain minimum qualifications for individuals accessing the digital network as a delivery person, including that:

• the individual is at least 18 years of age
• the individual has valid, government-issued photo identification
• the individual has a valid driver’s license, if the individual indicates an intention to undertake digitally prearranged deliveries by motor vehicle
• the individual pass a local, state, and national criminal background check[2]
• the individual’s driving record be reviewed, if the individual indicates an intention to undertake digitally prearranged deliveries by motor vehicle[3]

The required policies include:

• an intoxicating substance policy that prohibits a delivery person on the digital network from any amount of intoxication. The delivery network company must include on its website or digital network application a notice about the policy with details regarding how to make a complaint about a suspected violation of the policy, and the company must keep records of complaints for at least two years.
• a nondiscrimination policy – notice of which the company must provide to each person authorized to log in as a delivery person on the company’s digital network – that prohibits a delivery person on the digital network from discriminating against a customer or potential customer based on their geographic location or destination, race, color, national origin, religious belief or affiliation, sex, disability, or age.

Independent Contractor Status
The new law also outlines when a delivery person can be considered an independent contractor.  It requires that the company and the delivery person agree to independent contractor status in writing.  It also prohibits the company from:

• prescribing specific hours during which the delivery person is required to be logged in to the company’s digital network
• imposing restrictions on the delivery person’s ability to use the digital networks of other delivery network companies
• prescribing the territory within which the delivery person can provide deliveries
• restricting the delivery person from engaging in another occupation or business

Employer Takeaways:  If you operate as a delivery network company as defined in HB 4215, review and update your policies and practices to comply with these new regulations.  We can help.

The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, Texas, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issue.

[1] The term does not include an entity that delivers only products that the entity produces or stores on the entity’s premises.

[2] A delivery network company may not permit an individual to log in as a delivery person on the company’s digital network if (1) the individual has been convicted in the preceding seven-year period of any of the following: (a) driving while intoxicated; (b) use of a motor vehicle to commit a felony; (c) a felony crime involving property damage; (d) fraud; (e) theft; (f) an act of violence; or (g) an act of terrorism; or (2) the individual is found to be registered in the national sex offender public website maintained by the United States Department of Justice or a successor agency.

[3] The driving record of an individual who is authorized to undertake digitally prearranged deliveries by motor vehicle must not contain a conviction in the three-year period preceding the issue date of the driving record of: (1) more than four offenses classified by the Department of Public Safety as moving violations; or (2) one or more of the following offenses: (a) fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer; (b) reckless driving; (c) driving without a valid driver’s license; or (d) driving with an invalid driver’s license.