NEMT in Louisville, KY (2027): Metro Certificates, Inspection Stickers, and Medicaid Rides

Louisville and Jefferson County share one government, Louisville Metro, and its code licenses the vehicles that carry paying riders on county streets. Wheelchair lift and ramp vans fall under it as disabled persons vehicles. So on top of the state certificate every Kentucky NEMT company needs, a Louisville company also holds a Metro certificate, a Metro sticker on each van, and a Metro permit for each driver. Metro Code Sec. 115.240 defines Louisville Metro as all of Jefferson County.

Who regulates NEMT vans in Louisville

Chapter 115 of the Louisville Metro Code, in Secs. 115.240 to 115.270, governs ground transportation. Its list of vehicles for hire includes taxicabs, wheelchair accessible taxicabs, and disabled persons vehicles: state licensed vehicles used, though not only, to carry people with disabilities, built for no more than 15 passengers plus the driver. Every vehicle for hire must be affiliated with a Metro certificate holder, so a van either runs under your own certificate or under another company’s.

The code leaves out courtesy vehicles and para-transit vehicles, which it defines as vehicles designed and equipped only for riders who stay in their wheelchairs. A lift van that also seats riders who walk fits the disabled persons vehicle definition instead, so ask the Metro office before you count on that exemption. See wheelchair vans for NEMT for the van itself.

The code names the Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses, but as of October 2026, Louisville Metro Alcoholic Beverage Control, the Department of Specialty Permits and Licenses, issues ground transportation licenses at 444 S. 5th Street, Suite 200, by appointment on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Statewide, you first need a Disabled Persons Vehicle or taxicab certificate from the Transportation Cabinet’s Division of Motor Carriers, and Medicaid trips come only through the regional broker. The Kentucky guide covers both steps.

How to get a Metro certificate

1. Hold your state authority. Sec. 115.250 lets Metro approve stickers only when the Commonwealth has granted you a certificate, or a letter, for the number of vehicles you will run in Louisville Metro.
2. Set up inside the county. Sec. 115.263 requires a central place of business in Louisville Metro that meets zoning, building, and safety codes. You also need good standing with the Kentucky Secretary of State and the Louisville Metro Revenue Commission, and no unpaid Metro penalties (Sec. 115.244).
3. File the notarized application. Pay the $100 nonrefundable fee and $30 for each vehicle (Sec. 115.243). Every officer, director, and principal owner signs. The form asks for your Revenue Commission number, a certified financial statement no more than 30 days old, your passenger experience, copies of your state certificates and fee receipt cards, your depot locations, your color scheme and vehicle numbers, and your driver training procedures.
4. Clear the background rules. An applicant is refused when any owner or officer had a felony, or a drug, prostitution, obscenity, or sex offense, within five years, or lost a Metro certificate within five years (Sec. 115.244). Time spent serving the sentence does not count toward the five years.
5. Renew every January. Certificates expire at midnight on January 31. File a new application and fee by January 15, with $30 for each current vehicle, and pay $30 when you add a vehicle mid-year. KRS 281.631 caps that local fee at $30 per disabled persons vehicle.

Tell the office before you change your address, officers, ownership, training procedures, or fleet.

Inspection stickers and vehicle rules

Each van needs its own Metro inspection sticker, and the certificate holder alone is responsible for getting it (Sec. 115.250). With the application, you file:

• A certificate of insurance, bond, or self-insurance plan for each vehicle.
• A safety certificate signed by a Metro approved mechanic, who must meet the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence requirements and have no stake in any vehicle for hire.
• Registration in Louisville Metro. Each van is registered, or its title transferred, there, and a van bought elsewhere is transferred before the sticker issues.

A sticker costs $20 per vehicle at the first inspection and at each semiannual inspection, and it expires at midnight on April 30 or October 31 (Secs. 115.250 and 115.251). A vehicle not registered in Kentucky can run up to 30 days in a 12-month period for a $20 fee. A new van with fewer than 1,000 miles skips the first mechanical inspection, and a company with 50 or more licensed vehicles can ask for inspections at its own place of business.

The Metro inspector checks, among other items, a current map of Louisville Metro within the driver’s reach, a working seat belt at every passenger seat, doors or windows a rider can open from the seat, legal window tint, and no unrelated decals. Air conditioning must hold the rear compartment at 80 degrees or less from March through October, and heat must reach at least 60 degrees from October through April. The color scheme and lettering rules in Sec. 115.259 apply only to taxicabs, but a van leaving another carrier must be unmarked within three days.

Driver permits

Every driver needs a Metro permit, and it ties the driver to one certificate holder (Secs. 115.245 to 115.248). The driver files a sworn, notarized application with an intent to lease or hire form signed by your company, a valid driver’s license, driving records and criminal histories from each state lived in during the past five years, and proof of a Revenue Commission account in good standing. The fee is $30.

A driver must be at least 18 and is refused for, among other things:

• A license suspended more than once in three years.
• Within five years, a conviction or diversion for homicide, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, a sex offense, a felony drug offense, unpaid child support, or fraud or abuse of a medical assistance program or any government transportation program.
• A DUI, hit and run, or reckless driving within five years, or within three years when no one was hurt or killed.
• More than three moving violations in three years, or more than two in the past year, for a first permit.

The permit runs to the last day of the driver’s birth month. A driver moving to another company surrenders the permit and pays a $30 transfer fee. On the job, the driver posts the permit where riders can read it (Sec. 115.255) and follows the dress code in Sec. 115.256: no T-shirts, tank tops, jogging suits, athletic shorts, or sandals, and knee-length shorts, never denim, only from May 15 to September 15. The hospitality and safety course in Sec. 115.247 applies only to taxicab and airport shuttle drivers. For the training brokers ask for, see the Kentucky guide.

Insurance for Louisville vans

Sec. 115.254 requires each vehicle to carry the coverage the state sets, on a policy, bond, or self-insurance plan approved by the Transportation Cabinet. For passenger vehicles, KRS 281.655 sets $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident, and $50,000 property damage up to 7 regular seats, and $600,000 per accident with 8 or more. Metro adds three conditions:

• The policy names Louisville Metro Government as an additional insured.
• Metro gets 30 days’ written notice before the policy is canceled.
• You report every claim over $1,000 to Metro each quarter.

For what brokers and facilities ask on top of these floors, see NEMT insurance requirements.

Running Medicaid trips under Metro rules

The Transportation Cabinet lists FTSB as the Medicaid broker for Region 6: Jefferson, Bullitt, Henry, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Trimble counties. It reviews your contract, inspects your vehicles, and signs your Medicaid application, and the Cabinet requires every new provider to keep at least three approved drivers and three working vehicles. House Bill 2 of 2026 also requires a GPS device, paid for by the broker, in every vehicle on Medicaid trips; see what HB 2 changed.

Metro’s own rules shape those trips:

• Direct routes. Sec. 115.253 has taxicab and disabled persons vehicle drivers take the shortest reasonable route. Its taxicab fare rules also tell drivers to take Medicaid voucher riders straight to and from the appointment, with no detours or added stops even when the rider asks.
• No waiting charge. The same taxicab rules bar a waiting time charge for Medicaid riders, whom the code still calls Kentucky Medical Assistance Program recipients.
• Manifests. Every disabled persons vehicle driver keeps a handwritten daily manifest of each trip’s time, origin, destination, riders, and fare, and keeps it at least 90 days (Sec. 115.264).
• Records. Your records include dispatch logs, accident reports, and medical transportation vouchers, kept where Metro can examine them (Sec. 115.265).

Trips into the county work differently from trips out of it. Sec. 115.242 exempts a trip that only brings a rider from outside Louisville Metro to a point inside it, but no one may pick up riders inside Jefferson County without every Metro permit. A Region 6 company based in Shelbyville or Shepherdsville that drives Medicaid riders home from Louisville hospitals needs the Metro certificate, stickers, and driver permits too.

Other ride work: TARC3

TARC3, Louisville’s ADA paratransit service, is run under contract by MV Transportation. TARC’s board approved the contract on January 10, 2020, after a 2019 request for proposals, and on March 24, 2026 it approved the last two one-year options, which staff said would give TARC time to bid the work again. MV uses subcontractors: in August 2025, TARC reported working with MV to tighten inspections of subcontractor vehicles. Ask MV, not TARC, about subcontract work.

Deadlines and reports

Metro’s calendar turns on January renewals and the April and October sticker dates, plus reports after crashes and claims. As of October 2026, Chapter 115 sets these:

When	What is due
January 15	Certificate renewal, $100 fee, and $30 for each vehicle
January 31	Certificates expire at midnight
April 30 and October 31	Inspection stickers expire; $20 per vehicle to renew
Last day of the driver’s birth month	Driver permit expires
Within 72 hours	Report a crash with a death, a serious injury, or over $1,500 in vehicle damage
Each quarter	Report other crashes, any claim over $1,000, and how many ride requests you got and could not serve
Each month	List in writing the drivers who stopped driving for you

Violations draw fines and points under Sec. 115.249, and a first 12 points in two years suspends a permit or certificate for six months. Under Sec. 115.999, each violation is a misdemeanor with a fine of $250 to $500, up to 50 days in jail, or both, and each day counts as a separate offense.