What to verify before you put an executive in a car

Ground transportation is usually the least examined line in a travel program and the one carrying the most personal risk. It is also, unusually, a category where a federal agency publishes the honest answer for free, so the work here is knowing which four questions to ask and where each one is answered.

It is also getting more attention. In research published on April 22, 2026, the Global Business Travel Association found concern about employee safety while traveling had risen to 67 percent of respondents from 56 percent in January, and that 36 percent of organizations were re-evaluating their duty of care policies.

Source: GBTA, Global business travel continues but confidence drops sharply, April 22, 2026

Why does a car service need vetting when a ride app does not?

It is the other way round, and that is the point. A for hire passenger carrier holds operating authority, files proof of insurance with the federal government, and has a roadside inspection record published under its own number. A transportation network company operates under a different framework entirely, with no per vendor carrier record for you to read.

So vetting a car service is possible in a way that vetting an individual rideshare driver is not. If your travel policy has a duty of care clause, this is the category where it can actually be satisfied with evidence rather than assurances.

Car service or Uber Black to Logan, and how the two actually differ→

What is operating authority, and how do you check it?

It is federal permission to carry passengers for hire across a state line. FMCSA's own guidance states that a carrier operating a vehicle in interstate commerce as a for hire motor carrier of passengers must obtain interstate operating authority unless it operates within a commercial zone, and that applicants are issued an MC number.

In this corridor that matters more than it would elsewhere, because a run from Methuen that touches Salem or Nashua has crossed a state line. Two public systems answer the question:

1. The SAFER Company Snapshot, which FMCSA describes as a concise electronic record of a company's identification, size, commodity information and safety record, including the safety rating, a roadside out of service inspection summary, and crash information.
2. The Licensing and Insurance system, where a USDOT or docket number is all you need to enter to pull the authority and the insurance filings on record.

Confirm three things while you are in there: that the operating status reads active, that the authority is for passengers rather than property, and that the address on file matches the company you are talking to. A number that returns a different company has told you more than any capability deck.

Source: FMCSA, SAFER Company Snapshot

Source: FMCSA, Licensing and Insurance carrier search

How much insurance is legally required?

It is set by the size of the vehicle, not the size of the company, and FMCSA determines the minimum by the highest seating capacity of any vehicle in the fleet.

That is a floor, not a target. Plenty of carriers hold more, and a corporate account is the right moment to ask what the actual policy limit is rather than what the regulation requires.

Source: FMCSA, Licensing and insurance requirements for passenger carriers

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What should a certificate of insurance actually say?

A federal filing proves a carrier is insured. A certificate of insurance proves it is insured right now, and it is the document your risk team will want in the vendor file. Ask for it before the first trip rather than after an incident.

• Your company named as certificate holder, spelled the way your legal entity is spelled.
• The policy period, so nobody discovers at renewal that the file is eleven months stale.
• Auto liability at or above the limit the vehicle class requires, with the limit shown rather than described.
• Workers compensation, which is what tells you the chauffeur is an employee rather than a contractor with your exposure attached.
• Additional insured status if your policy asks for it, which is a request the carrier's broker handles rather than the carrier.
• A renewal reminder in your own calendar, because a certificate expires quietly and nothing notifies you.

What does Massachusetts require on top of the federal rules?

A second layer, triggered by seat count. The Commonwealth's guidance is explicit: to operate a for hire vehicle carrying 10 or more people including the driver within Massachusetts, a carrier first needs operating authority from the Department of Public Utilities, and every year it must submit current proof of insurance and an application for decal renewal.

So a sedan or an SUV moving an executive sits under one regime and a coach moving a whole team sits under two. If your program books both, ask about both, and expect the answer to differ by vehicle rather than by vendor.

Source: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Apply to be a passenger carrier in Massachusetts

What rules apply to the chauffeur, not just the company?

More than most travel managers expect, and the trigger is the vehicle rather than the job title. Under the federal definition, a vehicle designed to carry 9 or more passengers including the driver for compensation is a commercial motor vehicle. That is a lower bar than it sounds, and it catches a stretch limousine.

Once it applies, three things follow that you can ask about by name:

• A pre trip inspection. 49 CFR 396.13 requires the driver to be satisfied the vehicle is in safe operating condition before driving it. That is the walk around, and it is a rule rather than a courtesy.
• Hours of service. 49 CFR 395.5 sets the passenger carrying limits at 10 hours driving after 8 consecutive hours off duty, 15 hours on duty, and 60 hours in 7 days or 70 in 8. Those numbers differ from the truck limits most people half remember, which is worth knowing before you plan a 16 hour day around one chauffeur.
• Drug and alcohol testing. 49 CFR Part 382 subpart C requires pre-employment, post-accident, random, reasonable suspicion, return to duty and follow up testing, with random rates set at 50 percent for controlled substances and 10 percent for alcohol.

One honest limit on that last point, because it is widely overstated in this industry. Part 382 applies to drivers operating a vehicle that requires a commercial driver's licence, which for passenger work means a vehicle designed to carry 16 or more people including the driver, and that driver needs a passenger endorsement on top of the licence. A coach or a large bus is squarely inside it. A sedan is not, and any operator claiming every chauffeur on its roster sits in a federal testing pool is describing something the regulation does not permit.

Source: 49 CFR 395.5, Maximum driving time for passenger-carrying vehicles

Source: 49 CFR 396.13, Driver inspection

Source: 49 CFR 382.305, Random testing

So the useful question is not whether a vendor tests. It is which of its vehicles fall inside which rule, and whether it can tell you without checking. An operator who answers that accurately in one go is telling you something real about how it runs.

How should a roadshow or a multi day visit be booked?

As directed hourly, not as a string of point to point transfers, and the reason is control rather than cost. A roadshow schedule moves. A transfer booked to an address cannot absorb a meeting that runs forty minutes long, and a chauffeur released after the drop is a chauffeur somebody has to re book under pressure.

One request worth making explicitly: ask for the same chauffeur across a multi day visit. It costs nothing, it removes a briefing every morning, and by day three the person driving your executive knows which entrance the building actually uses.

What should end up in the vendor file?

1. USDOT and MC numbers, and the date you checked them.
2. A screenshot or print of the SAFER snapshot at the time of onboarding, including the roadside inspection summary.
3. A current certificate of insurance naming your company, with the policy expiry diarised.
4. Confirmation of Massachusetts operating authority where any booked vehicle carries 10 or more people including the driver.
5. A named account contact with a direct number, and the answer to who picks up at four in the morning.
6. The written cancellation and no show terms, agreed before the first booking rather than during the first dispute.

None of this takes an afternoon once you know where to look, and it is the difference between a vendor you selected and a vendor you defaulted to. Ours is already open: the numbers are on this site, the safety record is public, and the certificate arrives when you ask for it.