RouteDrift Terms of Service

RouteDrift is a mobile app that helps drivers offer empty seats on trips they are already making, and helps passengers book those seats, mainly in the Québec–Ontario corridor. Drivers and passengers are independent members; drivers are not RouteDrift employees and RouteDrift does not transport anyone.

This website explains the service and hosts our policies. Accounts, bookings, payments and support happen in the app.

By creating an account you accept these Terms, the Privacy Policy and the Community Agreement. If you do not agree, do not use RouteDrift.

• You must be at least 18 years old and give accurate information: legal name, date of birth, phone number and address.
• You must confirm your email before you can sign in. Your password must have at least 8 characters, including a letter and a number.
• Keep your password and phone secure; you are responsible for activity on your account. You can turn on App Lock (Face ID or fingerprint).
• One account per person. Do not create accounts to get around a restriction.

• Passengers must verify a government photo ID with a selfie before booking a seat or sending a parcel.
• Drivers must turn on driver mode and have their photo ID, driver’s licence, vehicle registration and insurance, and a vehicle photo approved before posting rides.
• The RouteDrift team usually reviews documents within 24–48 hours. Approval is not guaranteed and can be withdrawn.
• Verification badges help you decide, but they do not guarantee anyone’s behaviour, a vehicle’s condition or insurance coverage.

• Hold a valid licence, use a safe, registered and insured vehicle, and follow traffic, insurance and tax laws.
• Post accurate routes, stops, times, prices, seats, luggage and parcel rules, and ride policies (pets, smoking, quiet ride, winter tires and so on).
• Prices may only share the cost of the trip, never make a profit. For each part of the route, the price per seat cannot be more than $0.20 per km (with a $10 maximum allowed for short hops of up to 50 km). The app suggests about $0.135 per km, calculates the distance with Google, and does not let you post a higher price.
• The times shown at pickup and drop-off stops are estimates based on the route. Set times you can actually reach and keep passengers informed of delays.
• Never carry more passengers than your vehicle’s legal seats at any point of the trip.
• From 30 minutes before departure, tap “Start trip” when you leave. It records the start of the trip, asks you to record any parcel you pick up there, and turns on live location. A ride with passengers or parcels can only be completed once it was started.
• You can post the same ride on several days (up to 14 days ahead, 10 rides at once) and add the return trip. Each one is a separate ride with its own bookings, and these rules apply to each.
• Before cancelling a ride or closing bookings, accept or reject every pending request. Cancelling requires a reason that passengers will see, and it is no longer possible once the departure time has passed with passengers on board. Cancelling in the last 30 minutes is a last-minute cancellation (see section 9).
• Once passengers have booked or requested a seat, the date, departure time, vehicle, route, stops and prices are locked to protect them. You can still change notes, ride policies, luggage, booking method, payment methods, parcels, and seats nobody has booked or requested. To change something that is locked, cancel the ride (passengers’ service fees are refunded or released) and post a new one.
• Mark a ride as complete only after it has actually happened; the app allows it once the expected arrival time has passed.

• Choose the correct pickup, drop-off, seats and route segment before you send a request.
• Be at the pickup point on time and respect the driver’s ride rules.
• Pay the driver fare directly to the driver, using a payment method accepted on the ride (cash or e-transfer).

• Manual approval: your request stays pending until the driver accepts or rejects it. No seat is reserved before acceptance.
• Instant booking: when the driver allows it and the seats are free, your booking is confirmed right away.
• If another request is accepted for your seat first, your request becomes “Seat unavailable” and you can pick another seat.
• A multi-stop ride can carry different passengers on different parts of the route. A seat may be free for one segment and taken for another.
• The driver’s phone number and licence plate are shown only after the booking is confirmed, and are locked again once the trip is completed.

RouteDrift charges passengers a service fee per booking, by card through Stripe. The fee depends on your pass: no pass — 15% of the fare (minimum $4.99, maximum $8.99); Regular Pass — 10% (minimum $3.49, maximum $6.99); Premium Pass — 7% (minimum $2.49, maximum $4.99). Amounts are in Canadian dollars. Free rides have no service fee.

The app always shows the service fee and the driver fare before you confirm. The driver fare is not collected by RouteDrift: you pay it directly to the driver.

For a manual-approval request, the service fee is authorized (held) on your card when you send the request and charged when the driver accepts. For instant booking it is charged when the booking is confirmed.

Stripe emails you a receipt for pass payments. Every service fee and its status (held, charged, released, refunded) is listed in the app under Profile → Payments.

• You cancel before the driver accepts, or the driver rejects your request: the hold is released. Your bank may take a few business days to remove it.
• The driver cancels the ride: the service fee is refunded or released.
• Last-minute cancellations by drivers: in the 30 minutes before departure, a driver who cancels a ride with confirmed passengers or parcels must choose a reason and write a message to the passengers. Passengers are told right away and their service fees are refunded or released. It is recorded as a last-minute cancellation. 2 last-minute cancellations within 60 days pause the driver’s ability to post new rides for 7 days; rides already posted are not affected. Repeated cases can lead to a suspension.
• If a trip with confirmed passengers hasn’t been started 10 minutes after the departure time, passengers are asked whether the driver came. A “No” is sent to RouteDrift support as a possible no-show, together with what was recorded for the trip.
• You cancel after the driver accepted: your seat is released, but the service fee is not refunded.
• No-show, or a completed trip: the service fee is not refunded.
• Cancellations are closed once the pickup time has passed.
• In exceptional cases, such as a documented problem with a trip, RouteDrift support may refund a service fee that these rules would not refund. Each exception is decided by a support manager, with a recorded reason.
• Payment problems can be reported to support from the app. Driver-fare disputes are between passenger and driver, but we review reports and may act on accounts.

• Regular Pass: CAD $5 per month. Premium Pass: CAD $10 per month. They lower only the RouteDrift service fee, not the driver fare.
• Before you subscribe, the app shows the price and the renewal date and asks you to agree to the recurring charge. Passes are billed by Stripe and renew automatically every month on the same card until you cancel.
• Upgrading from Regular to Premium takes effect right away. You are charged only the difference for the rest of the current month (a credit for the unused days of your old pass, minus the price of the new pass for those same days), and your renewal date does not change.
• Switching from Premium to Regular takes effect on your next renewal date. You keep Premium until then and can undo the switch before that date. Nothing is charged when you schedule it.
• You can cancel at any time in the app (Profile → Passenger passes → Manage). The pass stays active until the end of the period you paid for. Partial months are not refunded, except under the 48-hour rule below.
• 48-hour refund: if you contact support within 48 hours of a pass payment (the first payment or a monthly renewal), and you have not used the pass’s lower fee for any booking since that payment, we refund that payment in full. Your pass then ends right away.
• If a monthly payment fails, we notify you and Stripe retries the payment. The lower service fee is paused until the payment succeeds.

• Drivers choose whether a ride accepts parcels and the largest size they accept (small, medium, large or XL). To carry parcels, a driver needs at least 3 completed rides and, once they have 3 reviews, a rating of 4.5 or more, and must have no unsettled parcel.
• To send a parcel you must add a photo, a description, the recipient’s name and phone number, and the value of the contents, which can’t be more than $100. You confirm that it contains no cash, jewellery, electronics, ID documents, medicine, perishable food, live animals, or anything illegal or dangerous. RouteDrift does not insure parcels.
• The parcel price is fixed by RouteDrift according to the size and the distance between the pickup and drop-off cities, the same for every driver: small (up to 3 kg) $10 / $14 / $18 / $24, medium (up to 8 kg) $14 / $19 / $25 / $32, large (up to 15 kg) $20 / $27 / $35 / $45, XL (up to 23 kg) $26 / $35 / $45 / $58, for up to 150 km / 150–350 km / 350–600 km / over 600 km. The sender pays it directly to the driver when handing over the parcel. RouteDrift charges a separate fee in the app: $1.99 for small and medium parcels, $2.99 for large and XL (passes don’t change it). The recipient never pays.
• The sender confirms the parcel fits the chosen size, packaging included: small up to 35 × 25 × 15 cm and 3 kg (a shoebox), medium up to 45 × 35 × 20 cm and 8 kg (a backpack), large up to 60 × 45 × 30 cm and 15 kg (a carry-on suitcase), XL up to 80 × 55 × 35 cm and 23 kg (a large suitcase). If any dimension or the weight is bigger, it is the next size up. The driver checks this at pickup and can refuse a parcel bigger or heavier than booked.
• At pickup the driver checks that the parcel matches its description, confirms in the app that the fare was received, and takes a photo. The driver may refuse a parcel that wasn’t paid for, doesn’t match its description or isn’t allowed: the booking is then cancelled at the sender’s cost and the service fee isn’t refunded. The sender can report a payment problem in the app within 24 hours.
• If a parcel isn’t recorded as picked up at its pickup time, the driver is reminded, then the sender is asked whether they handed it over. The sender’s answer is kept with the parcel as evidence; only the driver can record the pickup, with a photo and the checks.
• Each parcel has a private tracking link that the sender shares with the recipient, who needs no account. It shows the parcel’s progress and a 4-digit handover code, and lets the recipient say they’re on their way and that they’re at the stop. About 30 minutes before the drop-off, the sender is asked to make sure the recipient is coming, and is told again 10 minutes before if the recipient hasn’t confirmed.
• The driver hands the parcel over only when the recipient gives the code, and takes a photo. Never share the code before you have the parcel. After 5 wrong codes, the code is locked until RouteDrift support unlocks it. The recipient can name another person to collect it, and can report damage within 24 hours of the hand-over.
• If nobody comes, the driver marks their arrival at the drop-off stop, waits at least 10 minutes, then marks the parcel as not delivered with a reason and a photo. If the recipient arrives within 2 hours while the driver is still nearby, the driver can still hand it over with the code at no extra cost.
• After a failed delivery, the driver keeps the parcel safe for up to 7 days, and the sender and driver agree in the app on where and when it is handed over, with a new code and photo. Collecting it from the driver is free. A delivery or return by the driver is optional and can cost extra, never more than the original fare, paid to the driver at the hand-over. One new attempt is allowed; after that, or if nothing is agreed, RouteDrift support decides what happens to the parcel.
• Who pays when a delivery fails depends on the cause, decided from what was recorded (positions, times, codes, photos and the recipient’s check-ins), never from a statement alone. If the recipient didn’t come or refused the parcel, the driver keeps the fare, the service fee isn’t refunded and any extra trip is paid by the sender; when the driver was at the stop on time and the recipient never checked in, this is applied automatically. If the driver was at fault, the driver refunds the fare and returns the parcel at their own cost, and the service fee is refunded. If it was nobody’s fault (for example a breakdown or an accident), the driver refunds the fare and the service fee is refunded. If the sender and driver disagree, RouteDrift support decides within 48 hours.
• A driver who owes a parcel refund, or who hasn’t offered a hand-over within 48 hours of a failed delivery, can’t post rides until it is settled; support may suspend an account if a refund remains unpaid for 14 days. Keeping, refusing to return or damaging someone’s parcel can lead to a permanent ban, and RouteDrift may give the evidence it holds to the police on a lawful request. Claims that the recorded evidence contradicts lead to a warning, then a ban from sending parcels.

• When a driver starts a trip, confirmed passengers can follow the driver’s location. Sharing stops as soon as the driver ends or completes the trip, and at the latest 30 minutes after the estimated arrival.
• Live location is part of the trip: the driver can’t stop it from the app during the drive. It ends when the driver taps “End trip” near the destination, when the ride is completed or cancelled, and at the latest 30 minutes after the estimated arrival. If location is turned off in the phone’s settings, the passengers are told.
• Emergency SOS helps you call 911 or text your emergency contact your location. It is not an emergency service: always call 911 first if anyone is in danger.

• Reviews unlock after a completed trip and must be honest and about the trip.
• You can report a problem on a trip from the app up to 30 days after departure — including when a booking was cancelled or refused — or report a member from their profile. Describe what happened (minimum 20 characters) and add up to 3 photos if useful. Safety, harassment and unsafe-driving reports, and any report on a trip where SOS was used, are handled first. The safety team may ask the other person for their account, without telling them who reported them.
• False or malicious reports may lead to restrictions on your account.

We may suspend or block an account, pause its rides, or cancel bookings for safety, verification, fraud, payment or Terms reasons. When a driver’s account is under review, their rides are paused and existing bookings are held until the review ends. If you think we made a mistake, email support with the address on your account.

You can delete your account at any time in the app (Profile → Delete account) or by email. Upcoming rides, bookings and an active pass must be cancelled first. Our Account deletion page explains what is erased and what is kept without your name.

• Harassment, threats, discrimination, fraud, impersonation or false documents.
• Unsafe or impaired driving, or carrying illegal or dangerous items.
• Getting around fees, verification or account restrictions, or arranging bookings outside the app to avoid them.
• Scraping, attacking or misusing the app, the website or our systems.

RouteDrift is provided “as is”. We do not guarantee that rides will be available, that members will show up or behave well, that a vehicle is in good condition, or that the service will always be available. To the extent permitted by law, RouteDrift is not liable for indirect damages or for disputes, accidents, delays or losses between members. Nothing in these Terms limits rights you have under consumer protection law, including Québec’s.

We may update these Terms when the service, fees or law change. We will show the new date above and notify you in the app of important changes. These Terms are governed by the laws of the province where you live and the federal laws of Canada.

Questions: support@routedrift.com.