I was hit by a GIO insured driver, can I report it right now?

14 October 2026

I was hit by a GIO insured driver, can I report it right now?

Being without your car starts hurting before anything else does. If the crash happened at night, early morning, or on a weekend, the first thing you usually want to know is whether GIO is even open.

According to GIO’s published claims information, yes. GIO says you can call 13 14 46 to speak to claims staff “24 hours a day, 7 days a week”. You can see that on GIO’s own site here.

GIO also says you can lodge a claim online “24 hours, 7 days a week”, on its claims page here.

What is open right now, and what is not

If you need to contact GIO after a crash, the published options are:

• Phone claims staff on 13 14 46, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as stated by GIO here
• Lodge a claim online 24 hours, 7 days a week, as stated by GIO here

But there is an important limit on the online option. GIO says Claim Online is only available for specified policies, including Comprehensive Car and Platinum Car insurance, on its online terms page here.

GIO also says online claims are not available for Third Party Property Damage (all vehicle types) and some other policy types, on that same page here.

For GIO Third Party Car Insurance claims, GIO directs customers to call its claims consultants 24/7, as shown here.

You may also come across GIO’s 13 10 10 number. GIO says that line is open “8:30am, 5pm AEST/AEDT Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays)” on its claims page here. So if you are checking whether GIO is open, make sure you are looking at the claims contact path that fits what you need.

If it is an emergency, do that first

GIO’s own guidance says, “In an emergency call 000 for police and ambulance assistance”, including where “a person is injured or debris is blocking the road”. That wording is on GIO’s accident guidance page here.

That is separate from lodging a claim. Emergency help comes first.

Reporting it is only the start

Even when the insurer can be contacted straight away, that does not by itself get you mobile again.

A report to GIO tells the insurer an accident happened. It does not automatically arrange your replacement vehicle, manage the repair process for you, or stop you from spending your own time chasing the claim.

GIO also says that if someone is “not ready or unsure whether you want to lodge a claim, they can put a report in their system”, on its guidance page here. That can be useful if the accident has just happened and you are still getting organised, but it is still only a report.

If you were not at fault in Melbourne, what happens next matters more than GIO’s hours

If another driver caused the crash and you were not at fault, the practical issue is not just whether GIO will take the call. It is who manages the claim from here.

We help Melbourne and Victoria drivers who were not at fault by managing the claim against the at fault driver’s insurer, including GIO. That means you do not have to make this about claiming through your own policy just because the crash happened outside ordinary business hours.

This can matter if your car cannot be driven, if you need repairs arranged, or if you need a replacement vehicle while your car is off the road. Those are the parts people feel immediately.

Staying mobile while the claim is sorted

The hardest part for most drivers is not the phone call. It is the next morning, when school drop off, work, client visits, or deliveries still have to happen and the car is unusable.

If you were not at fault, we can arrange a replacement vehicle while your damaged car is off the road and manage the recovery process against the at fault driver’s insurer.

That is often the more useful path than waiting on hold, working out which GIO channel applies, or trying to decide overnight whether to claim on your own policy.

Why some drivers try to avoid claiming on their own policy

Depending on the facts of the crash and the paperwork involved, a not at fault driver may prefer to have the claim managed against the at fault driver’s insurer rather than lodging it through their own insurer.

That can matter where you are trying to avoid paying an excess up front or avoid turning first to your own policy when the other driver caused the damage. Whether that applies in your situation depends on the facts of the accident, the other driver’s details, and your own policy terms, so check your paperwork if you want to know exactly how your cover responds.

What to do now

If the crash has just happened and it is an emergency, call 000 first, as GIO directs on its site.

If you simply need to notify GIO, GIO says its claims staff are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 13 14 46, and it also says motor claims can be lodged online 24 hours, 7 days a week, subject to policy eligibility.

If you were not at fault and you want the claim managed properly from the start, with a repair pathway and a replacement vehicle arranged while your car is off the road, contact us now.

Call 0495 032 111