A for-hire passenger carrier crossing a state line needs three separate things from the federal government, and a USDOT number is only one of them. The insurance floor is $1,500,000 for a vehicle seating fifteen or fewer and $5,000,000 at sixteen or more. A limo runs $85 to $225 an hour, and because operators set hour minimums, a 90-minute airport run can still bill you for three hours.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Limousine or chauffeured car, hourly charterNational range | $85 to $225 per hour |
| Party bus, hourly charterNational range | $125 to $200 per hour |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
The figures here are national. Where a source publishes figures state by state, the state pages carry that local figure instead of this one. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
A USDOT number is required for a vehicle designed or used to carry more than eight passengers including the driver for compensation, or more than fifteen passengers including the driver, or at 10,001 pounds gross vehicle weight, operating in interstate commerce. A nine-passenger van for hire crossing a state line triggers it.
Operating authority, the MC number, is separate. It is registered under 49 U.S.C. 13902 and required of for-hire carriers transporting passengers, or arranging their transport, in interstate commerce, with an exception for operations inside a commercial zone.
Insurance is separate again, and 49 CFR 387.303 sets the floor: $1,500,000 for a for-hire passenger vehicle seating fifteen or fewer, and $5,000,000 at sixteen or more, filed on the appropriate form.
This is the part that misleads people who check. Thirty-six states plus Puerto Rico require their own intrastate commercial vehicle registrants to obtain a USDOT number, California, Texas, Florida and Alabama among them. So an operator can hold a USDOT number and have no federal operating authority at all, because they never leave the state and never needed any.
The inverse also holds. An operator running only inside one state is licensed by that state rather than by an MC number, and the absence of one does not mean they are unlicensed. If your trip crosses a state line, ask about operating authority specifically. If it does not, ask what the state requires.
A vessel carrying more than six paying passengers requires a Certificate of Inspection from the Coast Guard, issued after an inspection, and that certificate fixes the maximum passenger capacity, the authorized route and the required crew. At six or fewer the boat may run as an uninspected passenger vessel under an operator's license, with no certificate. An inspected vessel must be run by a Master rather than by an operator of uninspected passenger vessels.
The source read for this was a captain's licensing school rather than a government page, and it gave no regulatory citation, so treat the detail as industry description and ask the operator to show you the certificate itself. On a boat carrying twenty people, that document exists and they will have it aboard.
NOAA Fisheries asks the public to stay 100 yards from whales and 50 yards from dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions and sea turtles, under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, which prohibit harassing, harming, pursuing, wounding, killing, capturing or collecting protected species.
Several distances are legally enforceable rather than advisory, and they are tighter. North Atlantic right whales, 500 yards. Killer whales in Puget Sound, 200 yards. Humpbacks in Alaska and Hawaii, 100 yards. Federal law prohibits swimming with Hawaiian spinner dolphins or approaching within 50 yards of them.
A boat that closes on an animal to give you a better photograph is making a decision about your day that is not theirs to make. It is also the clearest signal available about how the rest of the operation is run.
The table above carries limousine and party bus rates and stops there. Tour and excursion tickets are missing on purpose. No national cost survey exists for whale watching or comparable excursions, and the only figures available are individual operators' own price lists, which is a sample of two, not a range. Publishing sixty to a hundred dollars as a national average would mean inventing a number and attaching a source that does not support it.
What is worth knowing without a figure: online advance fares generally sit below the walk-up price, child and infant tiers vary, small-boat trips cost several times a large catamaran, and some operators offer a sighting guarantee in the form of a free future ticket. Ask about all four before booking.
Work out first whether your trip crosses a state line, because it decides which set of questions applies. Interstate means federal operating authority and the federal insurance floor. Intrastate means your state's rules and a USDOT number that may or may not be required.
Ask for the insurance amount rather than whether they are insured. The federal floor is a floor, and a fifteen-seat vehicle and a sixteen-seat vehicle sit on different sides of a line worth three and a half million dollars.
Ask what the hour minimum is before you compare hourly rates. Two operators at the same rate with a three-hour and a five-hour minimum are not the same price for a short evening.
Get gratuity, fuel surcharge and cleaning fee stated in the quote. On a limousine those three routinely add a quarter to the number you were told.
On the water, ask to see the Certificate of Inspection and ask what distance the captain keeps from animals. Both answers tell you the same thing about the operation.
About $85 to $225 an hour depending on the vehicle, from $55 to $90 for an executive sedan up to $140 to $275 for a large stretch SUV. A typical single event lands between $350 and $1,700.
Because operators set hour minimums, typically two to three hours on a weekday and three to five at a weekend. A 90-minute airport run inside a three-hour minimum bills three hours.
Gratuity at 15 to 20 percent, a fuel surcharge of $15 to $60 or 3 to 10 percent, overtime at $55 to $200 per half hour, and a cleaning fee of $150 to $500 if the vehicle is left in a state.
Up to three separate things. A USDOT number for vehicles carrying more than eight passengers including the driver for compensation in interstate commerce. Operating authority, the MC number, under 49 U.S.C. 13902. And insurance filed to the federal minimum.
Under 49 CFR 387.303, $1,500,000 for a for-hire passenger vehicle seating fifteen or fewer, and $5,000,000 at sixteen or more.
No. Thirty-six states plus Puerto Rico require their own intrastate registrants to obtain a USDOT number, so an operator can hold one and have no federal operating authority because they never cross a state line.
A vessel carrying more than six paying passengers requires a Coast Guard Certificate of Inspection, which fixes its maximum capacity, its authorized route and its required crew. At six or fewer, no certificate is required.
NOAA asks for 100 yards from whales and 50 from dolphins, porpoises, seals, sea lions and turtles. Some distances are legally enforceable and tighter: 500 yards for North Atlantic right whales, 200 for Puget Sound killer whales.