Sixteen seats is the line between $1.5M and $5M.
Commercial insurance for bus, limousine and charter operators — the federal minimums set by seating capacity, and the alcohol and abuse exposures freight never faces.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What bus and limousine operations businesses actually need.
Commercial auto
Vehicles the business owns and the people who drive them for work.
Without it — The federal minimum for a passenger carrier is set by seating capacity, and crossing sixteen seats changes the number substantially.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — A full vehicle produces many claimants from one event, which is how limits are exhausted.
Sexual abuse & molestation
Covers allegations of abuse by staff or volunteers. General liability usually excludes it outright, and any organisation working with children, patients or vulnerable adults will be asked to carry it by name.
Without it — Carrying passengers, particularly minors on school, church and youth work, is an exposure general liability commonly excludes.
Liquor liability
If you serve alcohol, your general liability almost certainly excludes what happens after you serve it.
Without it — Alcohol served or permitted on board is a liability no freight operator has.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — Boarding, alighting and premises claims sit outside the auto policy.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Drivers, luggage handling and passenger assistance produce the injuries.
Auto physical damage
Damage to your own tractor and trailer. Primary liability pays for what you do to everyone else and nothing for your equipment, so without this a rollover you caused leaves you paying off a truck you can no longer run.
Without it — Coaches and stretch vehicles are expensive and slow to replace.
Lori Adams, TRS
Commercial Trucking Insurance Advisor
Twenty-five years in trucking insurance. Knows the filings, the radius rules and the carriers that will actually take the risk.
Transportation Risk Specialist (TRS)
What bus and limousine operations operators ask us.
What is the federal minimum for a passenger carrier?
It is set by seating capacity. For-hire passenger carriers in interstate commerce need $5,000,000 for vehicles seating 16 or more passengers including the driver, and $1,500,000 for vehicles seating 15 or fewer including the driver. That is a different rule and a different number from the $750,000 that applies to general freight, and it is why adding a row of seats can change your obligation.
Does a 15-passenger van count as a bus?
For the financial responsibility rule it falls in the lower band, which is exactly why the seat count matters. Confirm the capacity as manufactured rather than as you use it, because the rule follows capacity rather than how many people you happen to carry.
We run party buses with alcohol on board. Is that a problem?
It is a different appetite and it needs saying up front. Alcohol on a moving vehicle combines liquor liability with passenger exposure and late-night driving, and a number of carriers that write charter work will not write it. Where it is disclosed it is placeable; where it is discovered, it is a coverage argument.
Why is abuse and molestation raised for this class?
Because passengers are in your care in a way freight never is, and school, church, youth and special-needs transport heighten it considerably. General liability commonly excludes abuse outright, so where the exposure exists it needs its own coverage — and the organisations contracting this work increasingly require it by name.