Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Rideshare drivers: insurance and scheme requirements

Booked passenger transport through a platform, requiring accreditation in most states.

Data as at

Required by law or licence

  • Licence liability condition: Yes — third-party property insurance with a cover of at least $5 million, for every vehicle used to provide point to point passenger services, covering damage caused to other people’s vehicles or property arising out of an accident. AND THIS IS NOT CTP. Compulsory Third Party (the green slip) is mandatory for registration and covers injuries to people; it does not cover property damage. The $5 million third-party property policy is a separate, additional policy, and confusing the two is the most common way an operator ends up uninsured for the exposure that actually applies. NSW · effective 2016-11-01 NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Vehicle owners are responsible for holding the cover. A taxi or booking service provider must ensure all vehicles have appropriate insurance and maintain records to monitor and confirm the policies are current and compliant with point to point transport law. Evidence is checked through safety audits rather than filed up front, so the record-keeping is itself the obligation. NSW · effective 2016-11-01 NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: The Point to Point Transport Commissioner, under the Point to Point Transport (Taxis and Hire Vehicles) Act 2016 (NSW). The Commissioner authorises individuals, corporations or partnerships to provide a booking service, a taxi service, or both. Note where the obligation sits: it is the authorised service provider and the vehicle owner who carry duties, not the driver as such. NSW · effective 2016-11-01 NSW Point to Point Transport Commissioner · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition of any kind. The full text of the 2018 Regulations — all 36 regulations and both Schedules — contains ZERO occurrences of the word "insurance". The parent Act's Schedule 2 lists "insurance requirements for commercial passenger vehicles" as a head of power for making regulations, and THAT POWER HAS NEVER BEEN EXERCISED. So Victoria could impose a requirement tomorrow by regulation without amending the Act, and has not. UNDERSTAND WHAT CTP IS AND IS NOT: compulsory third party insurance is a condition of REGISTERING A VEHICLE in every Australian jurisdiction, and it covers injury to people. It is not a licence condition, and it does not cover damage to other people's property. Treating CTP as "the insurance the licence requires" is the single most common mistake in this industry. Victoria's own CTP scheme sits under the Transport Accident Act and attaches to registration, entirely separately from this regime. New South Wales requires every point to point vehicle to carry third-party PROPERTY insurance of at least $5 million on top of CTP. On the full text of the instruments read, no other jurisdiction checked replicates that. NSW is an outlier here, as it is with tow trucks. VIC · effective 2018-07-01 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence evidence required: None. There is no insurance condition to evidence. VIC · effective 2018-07-01 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licensing body: Regulated under the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Industry Act 2017 (Vic) and the Commercial Passenger Vehicle Industry Regulations 2018 (Vic). VIC · effective 2018-07-01 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence liability condition: CTP only, and reached by an unusual route. The Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Standard 2010 defines "relevant vehicle" so as to EXPRESSLY EXCLUDE a booked hire service or taxi service, which means the Standard's own compulsory third party provision does not reach them. CTP applies instead through vehicle registration under the Motor Accident Insurance Act 1994 (Qld), using specific premium classes for taxi and booked hire work. UNDERSTAND WHAT CTP IS AND IS NOT: compulsory third party insurance is a condition of REGISTERING A VEHICLE in every Australian jurisdiction, and it covers injury to people. It is not a licence condition, and it does not cover damage to other people's property. Treating CTP as "the insurance the licence requires" is the single most common mistake in this industry. New South Wales requires every point to point vehicle to carry third-party PROPERTY insurance of at least $5 million on top of CTP. On the full text of the instruments read, no other jurisdiction checked replicates that. NSW is an outlier here, as it is with tow trucks. QLD · effective 2026-08-24 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: CTP through vehicle registration in the correct premium class. No separate policy is required by the authorisation. QLD · effective 2026-08-24 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Regulated by Transport and Main Roads under the Transport Operations (Passenger Transport) Act 1994 (Qld), through driver authorisation and service authorisations. QLD · effective 2026-08-24 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: CTP-equivalent only. The full 228-page Regulations — all fifteen Parts and seven Schedules — contain exactly ONE insurance provision, regulation 98(1)(c): the vehicle "must have the appropriate category of motor injury insurance required for the vehicle under the Motor Vehicle (Third Party Insurance) Act 1943". Motor injury insurance is Western Australia's CTP-equivalent scheme. No property or public liability requirement appears anywhere in the instrument. UNDERSTAND WHAT CTP IS AND IS NOT: compulsory third party insurance is a condition of REGISTERING A VEHICLE in every Australian jurisdiction, and it covers injury to people. It is not a licence condition, and it does not cover damage to other people's property. Treating CTP as "the insurance the licence requires" is the single most common mistake in this industry. New South Wales requires every point to point vehicle to carry third-party PROPERTY insurance of at least $5 million on top of CTP. On the full text of the instruments read, no other jurisdiction checked replicates that. NSW is an outlier here, as it is with tow trucks. WA · effective 2020-07-01 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: The correct category of motor injury insurance for the vehicle, as part of vehicle authorisation. WA · effective 2020-07-01 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Regulated under the Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 (WA) and the Transport (Road Passenger Services) Regulations 2020 (WA), through vehicle authorisation. WA · effective 2020-07-01 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and South Australia states the figure. Regulation 13(1)(v) of the Passenger Transport Regulations 2024 conditions the accreditation on two policies issued by an insurance company incorporated in Australia being in force: a policy of public liability insurance indemnifying the accredited person and any authorised driver in an amount of at least $5,000,000 in relation to death or bodily injury caused by, or arising out of, the use of a vehicle for the purposes of the service; and a policy indemnifying them in relation to damage to property caused by, or arising out of, the use of the vehicle. The only carve-out in that paragraph is a regular passenger service, meaning a service conducted according to regular routes and timetables — the scheduled metropolitan network, not point to point work. This is separate from and additional to compulsory third party cover, which attaches to registering the vehicle under the Motor Vehicles Act 1959. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: The policies must be in force as a condition of the accreditation at all times, and must be issued by an insurance company incorporated in Australia. Rideshare platforms commonly arrange cover, but the accreditation condition sits on the accredited person. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Rideshare in South Australia runs on a Small Passenger Vehicle accreditation — metropolitan, non-metropolitan, special purpose or traditional — which the Passenger Transport Regulations 2024 group together as a chauffeured vehicle service. Small passenger vehicles seat twelve or fewer including the driver and cover rideshare vehicles, chauffeur vehicles and country taxis. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition was found in the accreditation scheme. The conditions the Commission may impose are a safety and security management plan, audits, vehicle inspections, record keeping and a risk management system. MAIB cover attaches to registering the vehicle, which is a registration requirement rather than a condition of the driver's or operator's accreditation. This negative rests on a partial rather than a complete read of the Act. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: None located in the accreditation scheme. MAIB cover is enforced through vehicle registration. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Rideshare in Tasmania operates through restricted hire vehicle arrangements inside the Transport Commission's accreditation scheme under the Passenger Transport Services Act 2011, rather than through a licence class of its own. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • 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. There is also a separate duty on the vehicle licensee under section 60N, where the licensee is not the driver, to take reasonable steps to ensure the vehicle is insured in the way prescribed by regulation. One caveat worth carrying: no current provision prescribing that manner could be located. The supporting definition was inserted in 2015 and omitted in 2016, so section 60N may be operating without a prescribed manner, with section 111 doing the substantive work. 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. Access Canberra asks for a copy of the certificate of currency for public liability insurance with minimum coverage of $5,000,000. It also asks for the vehicle's Motor Accident Injury cover to be upgraded to the rideshare class — that is a vehicle registration matter under the Road Transport (Third-Party Insurance) Act 2008, not a condition of the accreditation, and the two are easy to confuse. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Rideshare in the ACT takes two separate authorisations under the Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) Act 2001: a rideshare driver accreditation and a rideshare vehicle licence. A rideshare vehicle is a public passenger vehicle, so the operator side of the arrangement carries the accreditation obligations too. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition. The word insurance does not appear in the private hire car licence conditions at section 33. The Act does impose a driver-injury insurance condition, but only on taxi and minibus licences; private hire cars are not among them. Section 33(6) requires the vehicle to be registered under the Motor Vehicles Act 1949, which carries compulsory third party cover as a registration requirement rather than a licence condition. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: None. There is no insurance condition on the private hire car licence for evidence to attach to. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Rideshare operates in the Northern Territory inside the private hire car category in Part 5 of the Commercial Passenger (Road) Transport Act 1991. There is no separate rideshare licence class. The operator needs accreditation under Part 3 and then a private hire car licence. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25

Cover commonly held

Ordered by how central each cover is to this occupation. This is what businesses in the trade commonly hold and what contracts commonly ask for — it is not a statement that any of it is legally required, and it is not a recommendation.

  • Commercial motor insurance — Cover for vehicles used for business, including utilities, vans and trucks, and liability for damage they cause.
  • Public liability insurance — Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.
  • Workers compensation insurance — Statutory cover for injury to workers, arranged through each state or territory scheme rather than on the open market.
  • Goods in transit insurance — Cover for goods while they are being carried, whether the carrier owns them or is moving them for a customer.
  • Motor fleet insurance — A single policy covering a group of business vehicles rather than rating each one separately.
  • Business pack insurance — A packaged policy combining property, liability and interruption sections for small business.
  • Personal accident and sickness insurance — Cover paying a benefit when an owner or contractor cannot work through injury or illness, where no workers compensation applies.

Statutory schemes that can apply

Checking what you hold

The document a principal, a landlord or a licensing team will ask for is a certificate of currency. The checker reads one and lists what it does and does not show.

Sources