For-Hire Livery Insurance in Massachusetts

For-hire livery insurance is commercial auto coverage for vehicles that carry passengers for compensation. In Massachusetts it spans four distinct classes — taxi, airport taxi, black car and limousine, and non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) — and each is underwritten differently. The class on your policy determines which contracts your certificate of insurance can actually satisfy.

The four Massachusetts livery classes

Carriers do not treat "for-hire" as one thing. How your operation is classified drives your rate, which vehicles are acceptable, and — most importantly — what your certificate of insurance is able to say.

The four for-hire passenger classes commonly written in Massachusetts.
Class	What it covers	Typical vehicles	What makes it distinct
Taxi	Street-hail and dispatched trips at metered or municipally set rates	Sedans, minivans, hybrids	Licensed by the municipality; medallion or hackney license rules vary city to city
Airport taxi	Taxi work built around airport queues and terminal runs	Sedans, minivans, larger SUVs	Longer average trip, higher annual mileage, and airport-authority permitting on top of the local license
Black car & limousine	Pre-arranged, non-metered trips at a contracted rate	Executive sedans, SUVs, stretch limousines, sprinter vans	No street hails; corporate and event accounts often impose their own insurance requirements by contract
Non-emergency medical transport (NEMT)	Pre-arranged trips carrying patients to non-emergency medical appointments	Sedans, minivans, wheelchair-accessible vans	Work usually arrives through a transportation broker under a contract with its own insurance schedule

Why your class matters more than your price

The cheapest for-hire policy in Massachusetts is worthless if it is written on the wrong class. Broker, hospital, and facility contracts do not just ask that you carry insurance — they specify who must appear as an additional insured, on which policies, and with what language. A policy written for one kind of work will not always produce a certificate that satisfies a contract written for another.

If you run medical trips, or expect to, the class question needs answering before you buy — not the week your first certificate is rejected. Bring your actual contract or broker application to the conversation.

Can a taxi-classed policy add a broker or hospital as an additional insured?

That is settled by your policy's endorsement forms and your contract's wording, not by the class code on its own. Read the contract's insurance schedule, identify the additional-insured endorsement it names, and confirm your policy carries that form for that entity — if it does not, the policy has to be endorsed or rewritten, whatever class it sits on. Several sites state flatly that a taxi-classed policy can never add a broker, hospital, or facility. That may be true of a particular carrier's class structure; we have not been able to confirm it as an industry-wide rule, so we will not publish it as one. Send us the contract and the policy and we will tell you exactly which endorsements you are missing.

Massachusetts minimums versus what you actually need

Massachusetts compulsory auto limits rose to 25/50/30 effective July 1, 2025 — $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident for bodily injury to others, and $30,000 for property damage. Personal Injury Protection is separate and unchanged at $8,000. Those are the limits that keep a registration valid. They are not the limits that keep a for-hire operation in business.

Three separate things can demand far more than the state floor:

Federal (FMCSA), if you cross state lines for hire. A vehicle designed to carry 16 or more passengers including the driver requires $5,000,000 of public liability coverage. At 15 or fewer including the driver, the interstate for-hire requirement is $1,500,000. Two counting rules matter. The driver's seat counts, so a vehicle sold as a "15-passenger van" is a 16-capacity vehicle. And 49 CFR 387.27(b) exempts several operations from the rule entirely — including taxicab service seating fewer than seven that does not run a regular route or between specified points, transportation of school children and teachers, and vehicles carrying fewer than 16 people on a single daily round-trip commute. Whether the federal rule reaches your operation is worth confirming before you buy to it.
Your broker or agency contract. For Massachusetts human-service transportation work the contractual floor is tiered by seating capacity and runs up to $5,000,000 — the NEMT page walks through the whole schedule and its scope. At the smallest tier it is already ten times the state bodily-injury limit.
Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. 220 CMR 152.02 sets minimum financial responsibility for the carriage of passengers for hire at $1,500,000 for 15 or fewer passengers and $5,000,000 for 16 or more. Where it applies it overrides any lower contractual tier. Note that this rule counts passengers while the human-service transportation tiers count seats including the driver, so the two schedules do not line up at the boundaries.

One practical point that saves operators money: the contractual limits at the larger seating tiers can generally be met by combining a business auto policy with an umbrella or excess policy rather than buying the whole limit primary. If you were quoted a $1,000,000 primary auto policy for a 12-passenger van with no mention of the excess route, it is worth asking why.

Coverages to expect on a for-hire program

Auto liability at the highest limit any of the three sources above demands
Physical damage — comprehensive and collision. Expect deductibles well above what you are used to on a personal auto policy
Uninsured and underinsured motorists, and Personal Injury Protection
Hired and non-owned auto, and drive-other-car where owners drive vehicles they don't title personally
General liability or a business owner's policy — for the office, the dispatch space, and passenger incidents that happen outside the vehicle
Workers' compensation and employer's liability — required by contract for drivers, and for monitors and attendants if you use them
Umbrella or excess liability — often the most economical way to reach a contractual limit
Roadside assistance and rental reimbursement — a vehicle out of service is revenue you don't earn

What underwriters ask for, and why

Nothing here is a trick question. Have these ready and your submission goes to market in a day instead of a fortnight.

Proof of prior livery coverage — ideally a year or more, continuous. This is the single biggest differentiator in for-hire pricing, and personal auto history does not substitute for it. A clean twenty-year personal record tells an underwriter nothing about how you run a fleet.
Loss runs from every carrier over the last three to five years — including the years you would rather not discuss. They will be ordered anyway; volunteering them reads as competence.
Garaging proof. Where the vehicles actually sleep, evidenced — a lease, a utility bill, photographs. Garaging address drives rate, and a mismatch found after a loss is a serious problem.
A driver schedule with dates of birth, license numbers, and years of for-hire experience. Standard livery programs are generally unwilling to write drivers under 25 — which collides with what broker contracts allow.
A vehicle schedule with VINs, model years, seating capacity including the driver, and whether each unit is wheelchair-accessible.
Your shift pattern and radius. Nights and airport runs are underwritten differently from weekday medical trips inside one county.
The contract itself, if you have one. The insurance schedule in your broker or agency agreement is the specification your policy has to be built against.

What moves your premium

Some of this is in your control and some is not, but you should know which is which. Continuous prior livery coverage, a clean loss history, experienced drivers over 25, a tight operating radius, a higher physical-damage deductible, paying the annual premium in full, and placing the general liability or business owner's policy alongside the auto all tend to help. Frequent small collision claims, driver turnover, night and airport exposure, older vehicles, and gaps in coverage all tend to hurt. Discounts and credits are set by each carrier, may or may not be available, and are never guaranteed.

Keep reading

Questions & answers

Can a taxi-classed policy add a broker or hospital as an additional insured?

That is settled by your policy's endorsement forms and your contract's wording, not by the class code on its own. Read the contract's insurance schedule, identify the additional-insured endorsement it names, and confirm your policy carries that form for that entity — if it does not, the policy has to be endorsed or rewritten, whatever class it sits on. Several sites state flatly that a taxi-classed policy can never do this; we have not been able to confirm that as an industry-wide rule and will not publish it as one.

What is for-hire livery insurance?

For-hire livery insurance is commercial auto coverage for vehicles that carry passengers for compensation. A personal auto policy excludes carrying passengers for a fee, so a driver doing for-hire work on a personal policy is generally uninsured for the trips that matter most.

Are the Massachusetts state minimums enough for a livery operation?

No. Massachusetts compulsory limits are 25/50/30 as of July 1, 2025, plus $8,000 PIP. Federal interstate for-hire rules require $1,500,000 at 15 or fewer passenger capacity and $5,000,000 at 16 or more including the driver, and Massachusetts human-service transportation contracts set their own tiered floor that reaches $5,000,000.

Does the driver's seat count toward passenger capacity?

Yes, under the federal rule. FMCSA counts seating capacity including the driver, so a vehicle marketed as a "15-passenger van" is a 16-capacity vehicle and falls in the $5,000,000 tier for interstate for-hire operation. Massachusetts human-service transportation standards also tier by capacity including the driver.

Can I use an umbrella policy to reach a $1,000,000 contract limit?

Generally yes for the larger seating tiers — Massachusetts human-service transportation contract language allows the capacity-based limits at nine seats and above to be satisfied by combining the business auto policy with an umbrella or excess policy. Confirm the specific wording in your own contract, since the broker has the final say on whether your certificate satisfies it.

Do I need workers' compensation if my drivers are independent contractors?

Assume yes. Massachusetts human-service transportation contracts require workers' compensation and employer's liability covering drivers and monitors, and Massachusetts applies a strict test to who counts as an employee. Treat a driver classified as a contractor as a question for your accountant and attorney, not as a way to skip the coverage.

How much does livery insurance cost in Massachusetts?

Livery insurance in Massachusetts is quoted per vehicle and rated on seven inputs: the class the policy is written on (taxi, black car and limousine, or NEMT), the liability limit your contract or regulator requires, seating capacity including the driver, operating radius, driver ages and years of livery experience, loss history, and whether you have continuous prior livery coverage. The limit requirement alone moves the number several times over — the same van rated to the $25,000 state bodily-injury floor and to a $1,500,000 Department of Public Utilities or broker-contract limit is not the same policy. Prevent quotes from your vehicle and driver schedules and your loss runs. We do not publish a per-vehicle range, because a page that does not know your class or your required limit cannot produce one honestly.

Can I get coverage if I have never had a livery policy before?

Often, but expect it to be harder and to price higher than a renewal with a year of clean livery history behind it. Bring everything else in good order — driver records, garaging proof, a realistic vehicle schedule — because a new venture is judged on the quality of its submission.

Do you write livery insurance outside Massachusetts?

This guide is written for Massachusetts, which is where our for-hire practice is focused. Prevent is also licensed in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, and Florida — ask us and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right agency for an operation based outside Massachusetts.

Written and reviewed by Bruno Rozembarque, CPCU — licensed Massachusetts insurance producer, National Producer Number 17777725. Last reviewed: August 4, 2026

Primary sources Massachusetts compulsory limits raised to 25/50/30 for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025 — Chapter 275 of the Acts of 2024; bodily-injury limits and the $8,000 Personal Injury Protection minimum — M.G.L. c. 90 § 34A; $30,000 property damage — M.G.L. c. 90 § 34O. Federal financial-responsibility minimums for for-hire passenger carriers — 49 CFR 387.33; the exemptions, including taxicab service — 49 CFR 387.27. Massachusetts human-service transportation insurance requirements and seating-capacity tiers — the FY25 HST Transportation Provider Performance Standards, published at hstrides.mrta.us. Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities minimum financial responsibility for the carriage of passengers for hire — 220 CMR 152.02. Note that MART's FY25 documents cite this as "DTE 220 CMR 152.04"; both that section number and that agency name are obsolete — the operative provision is 220 CMR 152.02, administered by the Department of Public Utilities. Requirements change; confirm current limits with your broker and with the agency before you rely on them.

Tell us what you drive and who you drive for.

Send your vehicle and driver schedules, your loss runs, and the insurance page of your broker contract. We will tell you what your current policy does and doesn't satisfy — before a certificate gets rejected.

Request a livery or NEMT quote Call (617) 913-4859