Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Taxi operators: commercial motor requirements in Australia

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

Data as at

Verified requirements, by state

  • 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 — a requirement about the insurer, not just the cover, which is worth checking before you buy from an overseas underwriter. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Taxi operators in South Australia hold accreditation under Part 4 Division 1 of the Passenger Transport Act 1994, administered by the Department for Infrastructure and Transport. The Act groups taxi and chauffeured vehicle work together as a point to point transport service. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: The MAIB premium is a vehicle registration requirement, not a licence condition, and the two should not be confused. Class 6 covers a taxi or luxury hire car and attaches to registering the vehicle, the same mechanism by which every registered Tasmanian vehicle carries MAIB cover. The accreditation itself carries no insurance condition: the conditions the Commission may impose are a safety and security management plan, safety and security audits, vehicle inspections, record keeping, and a system for managing risks to safety. 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: MAIB cover is enforced automatically through vehicle registration, since a vehicle without it cannot be lawfully registered. No insurance evidence obligation was located in the accreditation scheme itself. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 — recorded with low confidence; check the source before relying on it Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Taxis in Tasmania run on accreditation from the Transport Commission under the Passenger Transport Services Act 2011, alongside a taxi licence. Before a vehicle can be used as a taxi it must have passed a regulatory inspection, have a class 6 MAIB insurance premium paid, and have a taxi licence plate attached. 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. 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 adds administrative detail on top of the statute: the policy needs to be in the name of the taxi operator and to detail the TX registration number of each vehicle, a current certificate of currency is required with the application or on renewal and again each year on the anniversary of the accreditation, and adding a taxi means providing an updated certificate. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Taxi operators in the ACT hold accreditation from the road transport authority, through Access Canberra, under the Road Transport (Public Passenger Services) Act 2001. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Yes — but it is narrower than public liability, and the difference matters. Section 20(9) makes it a condition of a taxi licence that the holder ensure any injury to a person arising out of or in the course of that person's engagement to drive the taxi is covered by a policy of insurance. That is cover for the driver's own injury, closer to personal accident or workers compensation than to third party public liability. Separately, section 20(8) requires the vehicle to be registered under the Motor Vehicles Act 1949, which is where compulsory third party cover attaches — a registration requirement, not a licence condition. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: The Act states the condition but prescribes no lodgement or certificate production mechanism to the Director. Whether the Regulations require a certificate at application has not been confirmed. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: A taxi in the Northern Territory needs two things: operator accreditation under Part 3 of the Commercial Passenger (Road) Transport Act 1991, and a taxi licence under Part 4. Both come from the Director of Commercial Passenger (Road) Transport. NT · effective 2026-08-24 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25

By state and territory

Licensing is a state matter, so the requirement behind this cover changes at the border. These pages track the licence question in each jurisdiction.

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