Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Rideshare drivers: commercial motor requirements in Australian Capital Territory

Cover for vehicles used for business, including utilities, vans and trucks, and liability for damage they cause.

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. 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

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