Florida Livery License: Permits, Renewals, and Penalties

In Florida, the only credential actually called a livery license at the state level is the vessel livery permit issued free of charge by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission under Section 327.54.¹ If you rent or lease boats to the public without also providing a licensed captain, you need one before you offer a single vessel. If you’re thinking of “livery” in the land-based sense (taxis, limousines, jitneys), Florida does not issue a state license for that at all; those operations are licensed by counties and municipalities, with the state setting only the minimum insurance rules.² The rest of this article covers the vessel permit in detail and then addresses the land-based side as a boundary.

Who Needs a Vessel Livery Permit

A vessel livery is any business that advertises and rents or leases boats to the public without also providing or requiring a U.S. Coast Guard-licensed captain to operate the vessel.³ That definition sweeps in motorboat rentals, jet ski rentals, and human-powered vessel rentals like kayaks and paddleboards. If your operation fits, you cannot lawfully rent even one vessel without the permit. The permit is free and valid for one year.¹

How to Apply

The application runs through the FWC Livery Permit Checklist (Form FWC 311). You’ll submit the checklist along with a signed Livery Permit Certification Form (FWC 312) and the supporting documents below.

A complete list of every vessel or watercraft you offer for rent or lease.
Proof of insurance covering at least $500,000 per person and $1 million per event for accidents, injuries, and property damage, plus either matching coverage for the renter or a written option for the renter to buy their own coverage.³
Enough U.S. Coast Guard-approved personal flotation devices on site for the combined passenger capacity of all your rental vessels, along with the other safety equipment required by Section 327.50.¹
Business creation records and a local business license or tax receipt if you operate as a company, or a government-issued photo ID if you apply as an individual.

One narrow exception: liveries that rent only human-powered vessels (kayaks, canoes, paddleboards) are not subject to the insurance requirement.¹

What You Can and Cannot Do Once Permitted

Section 327.54 forbids renting or leasing a vessel in any of these situations:³

The number of passengers exceeds the vessel’s authorized person capacity.
The motor’s horsepower exceeds the vessel’s rated capacity.
The vessel lacks required safety equipment.
The vessel is not seaworthy or is at risk of becoming derelict.
The renter or lessee is under 18, unless the vessel is human-powered.

Every rental has to be documented in a written agreement, and you must keep that agreement on file for at least one year and produce it for law enforcement on request.³

Pre-Rental Instruction

Before you hand over a vessel, you have to walk the renter through how that specific vessel operates, safe boating and right-of-way rules, local waterway hazards and restricted areas, water depths, and what to do if the boat capsizes, someone falls overboard, or an accident happens.³ Skipping the briefing because a renter says they’ve boated before is one of the more common ways liveries end up cited.

Renter Insurance Acknowledgment

If you don’t carry a separate policy covering the renter and the renter turns down the option to buy their own coverage, the renter has to sign a written acknowledgment of that choice. FWC provides an optional form (FWCDLE 319) for it.¹

Penalties

Operating a vessel livery without a permit is a first-degree misdemeanor: up to one year in jail and a fine up to $1,000.³ Other Section 327.54 violations (renting without required safety equipment, skipping the pre-rental briefing, and so on) escalate with repeat offenses:

First offense with no prior conviction in the past three years: second-degree misdemeanor, up to 60 days in jail and a fine up to $500.
Second offense within three years: first-degree misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum $500 fine.
Third offense within five years of two prior convictions: first-degree misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum $1,000 fine.³

More than one violation inside a three-year window also triggers a mandatory 90-day prohibition on operating as a livery. FWC can revoke a permit outright, or refuse to issue one, based on repeated violations.³

Renewing the Permit

FWC livery permits renew annually. The expiration date follows your business creation date, or your birthday if you hold the permit as an individual.¹ You can file the renewal paperwork before the current permit expires, but the new permit doesn’t activate until the old one lapses. If anything from your original application changes between renewals (vessel list, insurance carrier, or other information on file), you have 10 days to notify FWC.³

Land-Based For-Hire Operations: No State Livery License

Because people sometimes use “livery” to mean a car service, it’s worth stating plainly: Florida has no state-level livery license for taxis, limousines, or jitneys. The state authorizes counties to license and regulate for-hire passenger vehicles operating in unincorporated areas, and cities typically license them within municipal limits.² Requirements vary widely: some counties require permits, background checks, and vehicle inspections; others impose almost nothing. If you’re planning to launch a for-hire vehicle operation, start with the county or city where you’ll pick up passengers.

What the state does set is a floor on insurance. Under Section 324.032, operators of taxicabs, limousines, jitneys, and other for-hire passenger vehicles must carry a motor vehicle liability policy with minimum coverage of $125,000 per person for bodily injury, $250,000 per incident for bodily injury, and $50,000 for property damage.⁴ Those minimums sit well above the $10,000/$20,000/$10,000 baseline for ordinary passenger vehicles.⁵ Coverage must come from a carrier that belongs to the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association.⁶ Fleets of 300 or more for-hire vehicles can self-insure up to $300,000 per occurrence if a CPA verifies their net worth, but they still need excess coverage above that threshold.

Coverage has to be continuous. If an owner lets a policy lapse and then gets in an accident, tort immunity is gone and the owner is personally on the hook for benefits the policy would have paid.⁷ Registration and any local permit conditioned on insurance can also be suspended.

Uber, Lyft, and Other TNCs

Rideshare drivers work under a different framework again. Florida has preempted transportation network company regulation to the state level, so no county, city, or airport authority can require a local license, impose a tax, or otherwise regulate TNCs or their drivers. TNC insurance runs in two tiers: at least $50,000/$100,000 bodily injury and $25,000 property damage plus PIP and UM coverage while the driver is logged on but hasn’t accepted a ride, and at least $1 million in combined liability plus PIP and UM once a ride is accepted or a passenger is in the vehicle. TNCs must also run local and national criminal background checks and a driving record review before authorizing a driver, disqualify anyone with more than three moving violations in the last three years, and repeat the background check every three years.⁸

1
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Livery Regulations and Safety Information
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 125.01 – Powers and Duties
3
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 327.54 – Liveries; Safety Regulations; Penalty
4
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 324.032 – Manner of Proving Financial Responsibility; For-Hire Passenger Transportation Vehicles
5
Justia Law. Florida Statutes 324.021 – Definitions; Minimum Insurance Required
6
Florida Senate. Florida Code 324.031 – Manner of Proving Financial Responsibility
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 627.733 – Required Security
8
Florida Senate. Florida Code 627.748 – Transportation Network Companies