A sedan with a chauffeur is livery, whatever the app on the dash.

Commercial auto liability, filed for livery

Injury and property damage while carrying passengers for a fee, at the limit the federal rule and your state permit set for a vehicle of that seat count. For-hire passenger carriers in interstate commerce need $5,000,000 of liability coverage on any vehicle seating 16 or more including the driver, and $1,500,000 on any vehicle seating 15 or fewer including the driver.

Without it — The personal auto policy on the same sedan excludes public or livery use. The first paid ride voids the coverage you thought you had.

Hired and non-owned auto

Liability for rides farmed out to affiliate operators in other cities and for chauffeurs who drive their own vehicle under your name.

Without it — The corporate client contracted with you. When the affiliate’s car crashes in another city, you are the name on the suit.

Workers compensation

Chauffeurs hurt in a collision, lifting bags, or waiting at a curb, whether you call them employees or contractors.

Without it — Most state boards look at who controls the schedule and the vehicle, not at the contract, and a misclassified chauffeur’s injury arrives with a penalty attached.

General liability

A passenger hurt beside the vehicle, a claim from a hotel or airport authority, the office and the lot.

Without it — Airport permits and corporate travel contracts ask for it by name, and the auto policy does not include it.

Physical damage on late-model vehicles

Collision and comprehensive on the sedans and SUVs the lender requires you to insure, at values that keep up with a fleet replaced every few years.

Without it — A financed vehicle without physical damage coverage is a loan you keep paying on a car you no longer have.

Abuse and molestation

Defense and damages for an allegation from a passenger, in a business where one driver and one passenger are alone in a car with no witness.

Without it — General liability commonly excludes abuse. The allegation costs a defense whether or not it is true.

Umbrella

A limit above the primary policies for the corporate accounts and airport authorities that ask for more than the filing.

Without it — The contract that made the business worth running names a limit, and the business without it does not get the contract.

I drive for a rideshare app in a black car. Is that the same as livery insurance?

No. App-based rideshare is a separate market with its own rules, and the specialty carriers that write public auto do not write it. A chauffeur service that dispatches its own vehicles under its own permit, whether the booking arrives by phone, by corporate account or by an app the company runs, is livery, and it is insured on a commercial auto policy filed for that use.

Livery, rideshare and taxi, and why they are insured differently

My sedan seats four. Do the passenger carrier rules even apply to me?

At the federal level, the rule reaches for-hire passenger carriers in interstate commerce with limited exceptions, and a taxicab seating fewer than seven passengers off a regular route is one of them. A chauffeured sedan on airport and corporate work is not a taxicab, and interstate trips put it under the rule at $1,500,000. In California a sedan files with the Public Utilities Commission at $750,000 for eight seats or fewer including the driver, and a corporate contract can ask for more than either.

Passenger carrier requirements by seat count and state

We farm rides out to affiliates in other cities. Whose insurance answers?

Both, and yours first. The affiliate’s auto policy answers for the affiliate. Your client hired you, so the suit names you, and hired and non-owned auto liability on your own policy is what answers for it. Collect the affiliate’s certificate every year and confirm the limit meets your own contracts, because a client who required $5,000,000 from you required it from whoever actually drove.

Hired and non-owned auto insurance

What does black car insurance cost?

Less per vehicle than a stretch or a bus, because the limit is lower and there is no conversion to value, and it still moves on the same things. Drivers and their records, the radius, airport work, how many vehicles, the loss runs and the limit the contracts demand. The cost guide takes each in turn.

What moves the price of chauffeured vehicle insurance

We also run stretch limousines and a party bus. Same policy?

One policy, with each vehicle described and filed at its own band. The stretch adds a conversion to value and prom season to underwrite. The party bus crosses sixteen seats and adds alcohol on board. Each is its own conversation with the same carrier.

Limousine service insurance

Who writes chauffeured sedan work?

The same specialty passenger carriers that write the rest of public auto. Berkshire Hathaway Homestate writes limo alongside taxi and school bus, and National Indemnity treats limousines as target business. None of them writes app-based rideshare, and a general commercial auto carrier that declined you was never the right market for the class.

The public auto market, and who writes what

Do you write charter coaches as well as sedans?

Yes. A coach sits at the other end of the same class, at the $5,000,000 band with the MCS-90B endorsement and the school and tour contracts that come with it.

Charter bus and motorcoach insurance

What does a black car service insurance application ask for?

The applications for black car service businesses ask about 4 things above all: what type of livery service do you operate (taxi, limousine, airport shuttle, tour bus, or other); how far on average do your passengers travel from pickup to drop-off; what are your written policies and procedures for driver hiring, background checks, drug testing, and experience requirements; how long has your business been operating. Have your last five years of claims history from your current insurer, called loss runs and a list of all your drivers with their names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, years of experience, driver's license numbers, hire dates, and any accidents or violations ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.