High insurance rates decimate profits for area limo companies

Insurance costs are a standard business expense but limousine operators say it's extraordinary to have to pay $8,000 annually per vehicle.

Limo companies must insure each individual car. Today's high rates mean they're having a tough time keeping up.

Nationwide, limo company operators have seen insurance premium rates rise by as much as 300% since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Linda M. Moore, publisher of Limousine Digest magazine.

In 1999, Dean Schuler, president and chief executive officer of Carey New Orleans/Signature Livery, paid an annual premium of $33,000 for $1 million in coverage on his 10-car fleet. Now he pays $82,000 for the same amount of coverage - a 148% increase.

Right off the bat, anyone who had to renew insurance after the (Sept. 11 terrorist attacks), faced a terrible battle, Schuler said.

A rocky stock market, losses on investments and a tragic crash of a Customs Charters bus on May 9, 1999, that killed more than 20 people, all combined to hurt operators as well, said Gary Baca, general manager of the Louis Armstrong International Airport.