Insurance Requirements

All NYC for-hire vehicles must maintain minimum insurance coverage as specified by the TLC. Most 1-8 passenger livery and black car vehicles must maintain liability coverage in the amount of $100,000 per person / $300,000 per accident / $200,000 no-fault / $10,000 property damage. Vehicles more than 8 seats and luxury limousine vehicles must maintain higher insurance levels.

What is a For-Hire Vehicle?

In New York City, For-Hire Vehicles (also known as FHV) are a super class of licenses issued by the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC). FHV’s provide pre-arranged transportation to passengers within the five boroughs. There are three classes of FHV services:

• Black Cars
• Community Car Service also known as Livery
• Luxury Limousine

All three classes of vehicles must affiliate with a TLC licensed base or app company such as Uber, Lyft or Gett.

Differences between the classes

All For-Hire Vehicles provide similar service but there some differences between each license class. Black Car vehicles are typically new vehicles (7 model years or newer) that take more than 90% of passenger payments in non-cash form. Most of the on-demand apps such as Uber, Lyft, Gett and Via have licensed themselves as Black Car Bases and dispatch rides to Black Car Vehicles. Livery vehicles come in two flavors: livery and street-hail livery. Livery vehicles can be older and are allowed to accept cash payments whereas street-hail livery or green taxi have the additional ability to pick up street hails in the outer boroughs and upper Manhattan. Luxury limos typically also provide flat basis non-cash service with newer and higher valued vehicles.