How much does limo insurance cost?

What this means for you

• The seat count sets the floor, and the floor is most of the bill. A six-passenger sedan is filed at $1,500,000 federally and $750,000 in California. A stretch that seats ten crosses into California’s $1,500,000 band. An eighteen-seat limo bus is a $5,000,000 vehicle under both rules. Adding a row of seats to a conversion is the most expensive thing an operator can do to the premium, and it is worth asking whether the row earns its keep.
• Drivers are the second number. Every carrier in this class pulls every driver’s record, and one driver with a serious violation in the last three years can move the whole account or exclude that driver from the policy. Age and years of commercial experience count. A written hiring standard, an annual record check and a policy of removing drivers who fail it are the cheapest rate improvements available.
• Alcohol on board is its own line. A stocked bar, or a bring-your-own policy, adds liquor liability and moves the account to the shorter list of carriers that write it. Some passenger carriers will not quote alcohol at all. The rate is lower where the operator can show a drinking policy the drivers enforce and no alcohol on runs that carry minors.
• Who is in the back matters. Prom, quinceañera and school work put minors in a vehicle with one adult, which is an abuse and molestation exposure the underwriter prices and the general liability policy commonly excludes. Airport and corporate work prices differently again, on radius and on the certificates the accounts demand.
• The vehicle is valued twice. Physical damage on a stretch or a party bus is priced on the stated value, and the stated value should include the coachbuilder’s invoice, not only the chassis. Insuring the conversion costs more, and not insuring it means the total loss pays for a sedan. The deductible is the lever here; a higher one on a vehicle you could stand to repair yourself lowers the rate without leaving the conversion bare.
• Loss runs and time in business decide the loading. New ventures carry the largest loading in this class, and it usually eases after twelve clean months and again at three years. Five years of loss runs, requested from every prior carrier before you go to market, are the document that lets an underwriter price the account rather than the class.
• The contract can cost more than the law. Hotels, venues, airport authorities and school districts write their own limits into the agreement, often above the statutory floor, and they ask to be named as additional insureds. The umbrella that satisfies them is a real cost. It is also the cost of the account, so price it against the revenue the contract brings rather than against the policy you had.
• Where the policy is written changes the paperwork. California accepts admitted carriers and non-admitted ones under Section 1763, and much of this class is written non-admitted. A non-admitted policy carries surplus lines tax and fees on top of the premium and sits outside the state guaranty fund. Neither is a reason to avoid it; both are reasons to ask which kind of quote you are looking at.

Related questions

Why will nobody quote me a ballpark over the phone?

Because in this class the same vehicle can price at several multiples of itself depending on who drives it, what happens in the back and what the loss runs say. A ballpark from a broker who has not seen the fleet is a number chosen to keep you on the phone. Send the vehicle list with seat counts, the driver list, five years of loss runs and your contracts, and a real number comes back.

Does a party bus cost more to insure than a limousine?

Almost always, for two reasons that stack. The seat count puts it in the $5,000,000 band rather than the $1,500,000 one, and alcohol on board adds liquor liability and shortens the list of carriers that will quote it at all.

Party bus insurance

Is a single sedan cheaper than a fleet, per vehicle?

Usually not, per vehicle. A fleet spreads the fixed cost of the account and gives the underwriter a loss history to price against. A single black car is placeable, and it is priced on the driver and the use more than on anything else.

Black car and chauffeur service insurance

What is the most expensive vehicle in the class to insure?

A motorcoach. The limit is the highest, the vehicle is worth the most, and the contracts that come with school and tour work ask for more than the federal floor.

Charter bus and motorcoach insurance

Can I lower the price by carrying the state minimum?

Only down to the floor, and the floor is set by law, not by the carrier. Below it you are unfiled and out of service. The real levers are the ones above: drivers, alcohol, deductibles, loss runs and the limits your contracts demand.

Limousine service insurance