Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Bus and coach operators: public liability requirements in Australian Capital Territory

Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.

Data as at

Verified for Australian Capital Territory

  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and the ACT states the figure in the Act itself. Section 111 of the Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) Act 2001 makes it an offence for an accredited operator to operate a public passenger vehicle where there is no public passenger vehicle policy for at least $5,000,000 for the vehicle. Read what that policy actually covers, because it is not the usual shape: a public passenger vehicle policy insures the operator against liability in relation to damage to property caused by, or arising out of the use of, the vehicle anywhere in Australia, whether or not on a road. It must come from a corporation authorised under the Insurance Act 1973 of the Commonwealth. Compulsory third party cover is a separate thing entirely, attaching to registering the vehicle rather than to the accreditation. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Production on demand, plus accreditation consequences. A police officer or authorised person may require evidence of the policy, with a defence if it is produced within three days at a prescribed place. Failure to maintain the policy is an express ground for refusing accreditation, including on renewal, and an express ground for disciplinary action. The service standards go further and require the operator's management system to include systems for ensuring compliance with section 111. There is no automatic suspension on lapse — unlike the construction occupations scheme, this needs a decision by the authority. There is also a standing record-keeping duty specific to buses: the accredited operator must make and keep a written record, for each bus, of the insurance policies that apply to its operation and their expiry dates. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Bus operators in the ACT hold accreditation from the road transport authority under the Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) Act 2001. A light rail service is expressly outside the additional insurance Part. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24

What contracts commonly ask for

Principals and head contractors set their own insurance requirements, and those are frequently higher than a licence condition. The requirement that binds is the higher of the two, and both have to be read from the actual document.

What this cover costs

This site publishes no cost benchmark for this cover. A benchmark needs a real sample of documents, and none is published until the sample is large enough to compute a median honestly. A benchmark from a handful of policies is a guess with a decimal point.

Sources