If you want to drive a car anywhere beyond your own driveway, you need motor insurance. By the same token, you’ll need taxi insurance if you want to use your car as a passenger business.Whether its a minibus, a minicab or just your own personal vehicle turned to a profitable purpose, if you want to offer a passenger service then you’ll need both a license and insurance. The reasoning behind this is fairly straightforward; you need to be able to pay for any accidents in which you’re liable for not just damage to other vehicles but also in the case of a claim from the fare-paying member of the public in your backseat.
Of course, beyond the very basic level of cover, insurance just makes sense for a taxi firm or driver. After all, keeping your car on the road isn’t a question of convenience, it’s about your livelihood. Fire and theft cover will help you replace your vehicle if you have the very worst luck and your taxi is completely taken from you, though the chances are with your car constantly on the road you could also benefit from breakdown cover. In and of themselves, repairs can be quite costly. When you factor in the loss of earnings that a broken down taxi will result in, insurance becomes an obvious way of ensuring that you have peace of mind.
Naturally, different kinds of taxi firms have different policy requirements. Broadly speaking the two main types of taxi insurance depend on the two main forms of taxi service; public hire, or private hire.
Public hire is the classical taxi service, as seen in the black cabs of London or in the bright yellow street cabs of New York. These are the ones that are licensed to perform immediate pickups in the street when flagged down. Given that these kind of taxi firms generally operate with a fleet of cars, they may opt for multiple driver insurance and given that they tend to operate in a busier, urban areas, they’ll also likely be required to take out a more comprehensive policy by any insurer.
Private hire is where taxis are made available by arranged appointments or from a taxi rank. Because of the lower running and licensing costs, these can be anything from a centrally run taxi office or even an individual trader. These companies tend to benefit more from named driver policies, as often the drivers supply their own vehicles or the firm knows well in advance who is likely to be driving which car. This can result in much cheaper insurance as the individuals driving records can be taken into account when deciding upon costs.
Anyway, comprehensive cover can be well worth the expense for any taxi operator. Some insurance can even pay for cleaning costs or damage caused by the often unpredictable members of the public. It’s not just the law – it’s pretty sensible too.