Driver Agreement

This Driver Agreement (the “Agreement”) is between you and Ride Splits, LLC (“Ride Splits,” “we,” “us” or “our”). It applies when you use the Ride Splits app to give rides as a Driver, and it adds to the Terms of Service, which also apply to you. Words defined in the Terms of Service mean the same thing here. If this Agreement and the Terms of Service conflict about driving, this Agreement controls.

1. About this Agreement

1.1 How you accept it: You accept this Agreement in driver setup, before you can start driving, by ticking the box next to it. Ticking the box is your electronic signature. We keep a record of the version you accepted and when.

1.2 What else applies:

• The Terms of Service, including its agreement to arbitrate.
• The Code of Conduct, which sets out how you must behave and drive, including our zero-tolerance policy on drugs and alcohol and our accessibility rules.
• The Privacy Policy, which explains what we collect about Drivers and why.
• The background-check disclosure and consent you complete during driver setup. It is a separate document and is not part of this Agreement.
• The Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which governs your payout account (Section 9.2).

1.3 Changes to this Agreement: We'll tell you at least 30 days before a material change to this Agreement takes effect, by email and in the app, and ask you to accept the new version before you next drive. If you don't agree, you may stop driving and end this Agreement (Section 16). A change never reduces what you've already earned. Changes to the agreement to arbitrate follow Section 21.12 of the Terms of Service.

2. Your independence

2.1 You run your own business: You are an independent contractor running your own business. This Agreement doesn't make you an employee, agent, partner or joint venturer of Ride Splits, and you can't make promises on our behalf. Ride Splits provides the app that lets you find Riders, agree prices and get paid; it doesn't direct or control how you give rides.

2.2 What you decide:

• When you drive. You decide whether, when, where and for how long you drive. We never require you to drive on particular days or at particular times, or for a minimum number of hours.
• Which rides you take. You decide which requests to make offers on and what price to ask. You are never required to make an offer on, or to accept, any particular request, and turning requests down never affects your access to the app. Cancelling a ride you've already booked is different (Section 11).
• Other work. You are free to give rides or deliveries through other apps, except during a ride you're giving through Ride Splits, and to do any other work or business.
• How you present yourself. We don't require a uniform or our logo, except the vehicle sign California requires (Section 5.3).

2.3 Your costs and your permits: You provide your own vehicle, phone, fuel, insurance and everything else your business needs, and you pay its costs. You are responsible for having every license, permit and registration the law requires of you to give rides, and for following the laws that apply to you. What we tell you about laws and rules is general information, not legal advice.

2.4 Protections the law requires: If a law requires a company like Ride Splits to give Drivers particular pay, benefits or protections, we provide them as that law requires.

3. Becoming and staying a Driver

3.1 Who can drive: To drive with Ride Splits, you must:

• be at least 21 years old;
• hold a valid California driver's license and have at least 1 year of driving experience;
• pass our identity, background and driving-record checks under our written eligibility standards, which follow California law (Section 4);
• have a vehicle that meets Section 5 and insurance that meets Section 6; and
• complete our driver training before your first ride.

3.2 The steps: In the app, you add your vehicle with photos of its registration and insurance, confirm a profile photo that clearly shows your face, and agree to the background-check disclosure and consent. Then, on ridesplits.com/screening, you give your license, your driving record and the rest of the screening. Our team reviews your whole application there. While we review it, your application shows as pending and you can keep using Ride Splits as a Rider. If we need more information, we tell you what. Once you are approved, you tap “Start driving”, add a card and agree to the membership to start your free days (Section 7.2).

3.3 If we deny an application: We decide every application under the same written standards. If we deny yours, we tell you in writing which standard you didn't meet and how to dispute the decision.

3.4 Keeping your documents current: Your license, registration and insurance must stay valid while you drive. Send us each renewal before the old document expires. Once you are approved, our team checks every change to your vehicles: to renew a registration or insurance, add a vehicle or change one, send the vehicle's details and photos of its documents through the app where it lets you, or by email to help@ridesplits.com, and we check them and update your garage, or tell you why we can't. Email your renewed license to the same address. Tell us at once if your license is suspended, revoked or restricted, or if anything else changes that affects whether you may drive.

3.5 Only you drive: Only you may give rides on your Driver account. Never let anyone else drive on your account or use your login.

3.6 Coming back: If you stop driving and come back within 30 days, your approval still counts. After 30 days, you go through the checks again.

4. Background checks and your driving record

4.1 The checks: Before you can drive, you consent to background checks in the separate disclosure and consent form. Ride Splits runs the checks itself: a local and national criminal records check that includes a search of the National Sex Offender Public Website, and a review of your official California driving record. The criminal check uses your Social Security number, not only your name.

4.2 Repeat checks: We check your driving record and your criminal history again at least every 12 months, and we may monitor them more often where the law allows.

4.3 Arrests, charges and convictions: Tell us at help@ridesplits.com within 5 days if you are arrested for, charged with or convicted of any criminal offense, or if you get a traffic conviction. If you're arrested for or charged with an offense covered by our standards, we may suspend your Driver account until the case is resolved, and we lift the suspension if it ends without a conviction.

4.4 Your copy: You'll receive a copy or a summary of your criminal background check.

4.5 If you think a result is wrong: If you think information in a check is wrong or incomplete, tell us at help@ridesplits.com. We'll review it, give you a chance to provide records, and tell you what we decide.

5. Your vehicle

5.1 Vehicle standards: Your vehicle must have 5 seats including yours (you may offer up to 4 to Riders), be registered and legally available for you to drive, be insured as Section 6 requires, and be safe, reliable and clean. You may give rides only in the vehicle marked as active in your garage in the app, and never with more Riders than it has passenger seats.

5.2 Titles and recalls: You may not give rides in a vehicle with a salvage, rebuilt, junk or total-loss title. Any open safety recall must be repaired before you give rides in the vehicle. Tell us at once if your vehicle's title status changes.

5.3 The Ride Splits sign: California requires TNC vehicles to display the company's sign (trade dress). Display the Ride Splits sign we give you, as we instruct, while you are available for or giving rides, and remove it when you aren't. Return or destroy it when you stop driving. The sign is for driving with Ride Splits only: don't use our name or logo in any other way, and never present yourself as a Ride Splits employee.

6. Insurance

6.1 Your own policy: You must carry personal auto insurance on your vehicle with a rideshare (TNC) endorsement or equivalent coverage that meets California's requirements, show us proof of it, keep it in force whenever you drive with Ride Splits, and tell us at once if it lapses, changes or is cancelled. When you add your insurance, you enter its expiry date and we keep it; our team reviews the document itself.

6.2 Important insurance information: California law requires us to tell you the following in writing:

• What Ride Splits provides: Ride Splits maintains a TNC insurance policy that meets the coverage California law requires for rides arranged through Ride Splits, including at least $1,000,000 of liability coverage from when you accept a ride until it ends.
• Your personal policy might not cover you while you are available for rides or giving a ride through Ride Splits, depending on its terms. Check with your insurer before you drive.
• Financed or leased cars. If your car is financed or leased, your agreement with the lender or lessor may restrict using it to give rides. Check with them before you drive.

Except as stated here, Ride Splits doesn't provide insurance for you, your passengers or your vehicle.

6.3 Accidents and claims: Report any accident or injury connected with a ride to us within 24 hours, through the app or at help@ridesplits.com, and cooperate with us and with any insurer handling a claim.

7. Your Driver membership

7.1 What the membership is: To accept rides and commute plans after your free days, you need a Driver membership, which costs $12.99 a month. Ride Splits takes no commission from your rides; the membership is how Drivers pay for using Ride Splits.

7.2 Your free days: You get 14 free days, once, starting when you are approved and tap “Start driving”. To start them, you choose a saved card and agree to the membership; nothing is charged that day. Your first charge happens automatically when your free days end. If you cancel during them, you are never charged and your account becomes a Rider account when they end.

7.3 Automatic renewal: YOUR MEMBERSHIP RENEWS AUTOMATICALLY EVERY MONTH. WHEN YOUR FREE DAYS END, WE CHARGE THE CARD YOU CHOSE $12.99, AND THEN THE SAME AMOUNT (OR THE PRICE IN EFFECT AFTER NOTICE UNDER SECTION 7.7) EVERY MONTH UNTIL YOU CANCEL. YOU CAN CANCEL AT ANY TIME IN THE APP UNDER PROFILE → MEMBERSHIP.

Before your free days start, the Start driving screen shows the price, the date of your first charge, how often you're charged, that the membership renews until you cancel, and how to cancel, and you tick a box to agree. We keep a record of that agreement, and of any cancellation, and email you a confirmation of each. Once a year, we also remind you by email of the price, how often you're charged and how to cancel.

7.4 Cancelling: You can cancel in the app at any time, under Profile → Membership. You keep driving until the end of the month you've paid for (or until your free days end), and we remind you 7 days and 1 day before your account becomes a Rider account. We don't refund part of a month when you cancel.

Our half-price offer. When you cancel after at least one paid month, we may offer you your next month at half price. The offer is available once per email address. If you accept it, the regular price applies again from the month after. You can always decline it and finish cancelling.

7.5 Before your account becomes a Rider account: Rides you've booked must be completed or cancelled. Commute plans you drive continue until your paid period ends; they then end, and their Riders are refunded for what wasn't driven.

7.6 If a monthly charge fails: If a monthly charge fails, we tell you, and you can pay it at once in the app with any saved card; the month keeps its usual date. Otherwise we try it again every day for 3 days. If it still fails, your account becomes a Rider account. While your membership will be charged, you can't remove your last saved card; add another one first, or cancel your membership.

7.7 Price changes: We'll email you at least 30 days before we change the membership price. The new price starts with your next monthly charge after that notice period, and you can cancel before then.

7.8 If we end your membership: If we end your membership early for one of the reasons in Section 14.1, for example after more than five strikes in a calendar month, the membership fee you paid for that month isn't refunded. If you believe you didn't break this Agreement, the Terms of Service, the Code of Conduct or the law, you can ask for a refund by emailing help@ridesplits.com with your evidence. We review each request on its own facts and decide whether to refund it at our discretion.

7.9 One membership, just for you: Each person can have one membership. It is personal to you, can't be transferred and has no cash value.

8. Your prices and what you earn

8.1 Your prices: You name your own price for each ride, quote a weekly or monthly price for each commute plan, and can counter or decline any counter-offer. Ride Splits never sets or suggests your price. Riders pay your price plus our platform fee and a card processing fee (Section 7.2 of the Terms of Service).

8.2 What you earn:

• Rides and tag-alongs: the full price you agreed, earned when the ride ends at the Rider's drop-off.
• Commute plans: the plan price for each period the Rider pays for. Each ride you complete earns that ride's share as it ends. When the period ends, you also earn what's left of it that wasn't refunded: for example the rides the Rider skipped, the day a Rider leaves the plan, and days their place was frozen for an unpaid charge.
• Late cancellations and no-shows: when a Rider cancels late or doesn't show up, they pay a fee of 25% of the fare. The fee is shared in this order: first Stripe's costs of collecting it and of paying it out to you; then you receive up to $1; then Ride Splits keeps its $1 platform fee; and you receive the rest. If the fee wouldn't cover Stripe's costs (a fare under $2.30), no fee is charged. No fee is charged during a disaster period either (Section 8.10 of the Terms of Service).

The platform fee and the card processing fee that Riders pay aren't part of your earnings. Your only charges from Ride Splits are your membership and, if you choose to use it, the early payout fee (Section 9.4).

8.3 Tolls, parking and tips: Tolls and parking are part of the price you name, so take them into account. Riders never have to tip. Any tip a Rider gives you through the app is yours in full; Ride Splits keeps no part of it.

9. Getting paid

9.1 We collect for you: Ride Splits collects Riders' payments for you as your limited payment collection agent. When a Rider pays Ride Splits for a ride or a plan, the Rider's obligation to pay you is met, and you look only to Ride Splits for that payment. We keep what you've earned until it is paid out to you under this Section. You don't earn interest on it.

9.2 Your payout account: Payouts go to you through a Stripe account that Ride Splits creates and manages for you, through our own screens in the app. To set it up, you agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Services Agreement, and you authorize Ride Splits to manage that account and to share your information with Stripe on your behalf. You must give accurate identity, tax and bank details, which are sent to Stripe. Stripe may ask for more information before it can pay you. If you give wrong bank details, we aren't responsible for money sent to the account you gave.

9.3 Paydays: We pay you every other Monday for everything you earned up to 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on the Wednesday before, so each pay period runs 14 days, from a Thursday to a Wednesday. The app shows your next payday and your earnings, payments and payouts. Your bank usually shows the money within 1 to 2 business days. Earnings after that Wednesday wait for the next payday.

If part of a payday can't go out on Monday, for example because Stripe hasn't yet released Riders' payments, we send what we can and send the rest automatically as soon as it can go, at the latest on your next payday. We tell you once when that happens. Nothing you earned is lost.

9.4 Early payout: If you want your money sooner, you can ask for an early payout of at least $5 in the app. It's optional. The fee is shown before you confirm and is what Stripe charges us for an instant payout (currently 1% of the amount, and at least $0.50). Only banks and debit cards that accept instant payouts can receive one. You can't take an early payout of money that a payday payout is already sending. If Stripe refuses it, the fee comes back to you and the money goes out on your next payday.

9.5 When payouts wait: For your security, we pause payouts for 7 days after your bank details change, and we tell you when we do. Payouts also wait while Stripe verifies your information or tax details, and while we look into suspected fraud (Section 9.7).

9.6 Refunds and adjustments:

• If a Rider is refunded for one of your rides (Section 8.6 of the Terms of Service), your earnings for that ride are adjusted to match.
• If the refund happens after you've been paid for the ride, we take it out of your next payday, and we tell you.
• If your balance is negative, you owe it to Ride Splits and it comes out of your next earnings. If it isn't settled within a week after it was due, your account can't request or give rides until it is.

9.7 Fraud: We hold back or reduce your earnings only for fraud. If we reasonably believe an earning came from fraud, for example a ride that didn't happen, a ride marked as done that wasn't driven, accounts working together to move money, or someone else's identity or documents, we may hold it while we investigate, and cancel or recover it if we confirm the fraud. We tell you what we're looking into, and you can respond.

9.8 If a Rider's payment fails: If a Rider's payment for a ride you completed fails for good, Ride Splits still pays you for the ride.

9.9 If a payout fails: If a payout fails, or your bank sends it back, for example because of a problem with your bank account, we tell you and the money stays in your balance. Once you fix your bank details in the app, it goes out again on your next payday, and our support team can help you fix it.

9.10 Leaving with a balance: You can't delete your account while you have a balance. We pay it out on the next payday, or, if you are closing your account and ask our support team, straight away and without the early payout fee.

10. Your duties when you drive

When you drive with Ride Splits, you agree to:

• give rides only to Riders who booked through the app: no street pick-ups, no cash or other payment outside the app, no card readers and no extra charges;
• start a ride only when the Rider is with you, and record each step in the app honestly, knowing that marking a Rider as dropped off charges them;
• be at the agreed pick-up place at the agreed time, take a reasonable route, and end the ride at the agreed destination;
• book only rides you can make: the app hides requests that clash with rides you've booked and warns you when a pick-up looks out of reach;
• follow the law, including traffic laws, and the Code of Conduct, and never drive while impaired by drugs, alcohol, medication or fatigue;
• never discriminate against anyone, always accept service animals, and help Riders with folding wheelchairs and other mobility devices, as the Code of Conduct explains;
• refuse a ride to anyone under 18 who isn't with their parent or legal guardian, and tell us about it;
• let nobody ride along except the booked Riders and the people they bring with your agreement;
• follow each airport's rules, including where you may wait, pick up and drop off;
• use Riders' names, phone numbers, places, photos and other details only to give the ride or plan, and never copy, keep or share them; after a ride, contact a Rider only by sending a friend request in the app; and
• cooperate with our investigations of reports and incidents, with insurers, with law enforcement and with the California Public Utilities Commission.

California law allows the California Public Utilities Commission to receive information about Drivers, including you, without your consent.

11. Cancellations and strikes

11.1 Cancelling a booked ride: Cancel a booked ride only when you have to. When you cancel, the Rider is never charged, and their request reopens to other Drivers.

11.2 What counts as a strike: You get a strike when:

• you cancel a booked ride less than 60 minutes before its pick-up time, including by marking a plan ride as one you can't drive, or ending a plan or removing a Rider from it, within that hour;
• a Rider cancels because the app showed you would clearly be late (Section 5.11 of the Terms of Service);
• you don't arrive within the time set in Section 8.4 of the Terms of Service, and the ride is cancelled; or
• you pressure a Rider into cancelling a booked ride, and our team confirms it.

11.3 What strikes lead to: We warn you after your first and your third strike in a calendar month, by push notification, in your inbox and by email. If you get more than five strikes in a calendar month, our team may end your membership (Section 7.8 explains what happens to that month's fee). Your count starts again at the beginning of each month and is shown on your Profile.

11.4 Emergencies: If you had to cancel because of a real emergency, such as an accident, a medical emergency or a breakdown, send proof to help@ridesplits.com and our team may remove the strike. The same goes for a single ride you cancelled because the Rider brought a pet you hadn't agreed to (Section 5.7 of the Terms of Service): send proof, such as a photo or the ride's messages, and we'll remove the strike. A service animal is never a pet, and refusing one is discrimination. Cancellations during a disaster period (Section 8.10 of the Terms of Service) don't count as strikes. Nor does ending or refusing a ride because a Rider is unsafe, for example aggressive or too drunk to ride safely, when you report it in the app at the time; a report found to be false counts as a strike, and may also be fraud.

11.5 Riders who don't show up: If a Rider hasn't come 5 minutes after you mark that you've arrived, you may mark them as a no-show, and you earn from the late-cancel fee under Section 8.2. Wait longer, without any fee, for a Rider with a disability who needs more time. Marking a no-show or an arrival that isn't true is fraud.

12. Commute plans you drive

12.1 Quoting a plan: You quote a plan only in answer to a Rider's request: a price for each Rider, weekly or monthly. The seats you can fill are limited by your active vehicle.

12.2 Joins and tag-alongs: You may quote, counter, accept or decline requests to join one of your plans or to tag along for one date. The plan's existing Riders are told about a new Rider; they aren't asked.

12.3 Changing a plan's price: A new price, or a switch between weekly and monthly, is a proposal to the Rider. The current terms continue until the Rider accepts, and an accepted change starts with their next charge.

12.4 Rides you can't drive: You can mark a plan ride as one you can't drive; on a round trip, the ride there and the ride back are separate rides. On a plan with one Rider, that ride is cancelled. On a plan with several Riders, you mark it for one Rider at a time, because not every Rider rides every day. The Rider is refunded that ride and their ride request reopens to other Drivers; a ride the Rider had already skipped isn't refunded. Doing it less than 60 minutes before pick-up is a strike (Section 11.2).

12.5 Ending a plan: You can end a plan, or remove a Rider from it, at any time. Its Riders are told and are refunded for every scheduled ride in their paid period that won't be driven, which isn't part of your earnings. Doing it less than 60 minutes before one of the plan's rides is a strike (Section 11.2).

12.6 When your membership ends: If your membership is ending, you keep driving your plans until your paid period ends. They then end, and their Riders are refunded for what wasn't driven.

13. Ratings, reports and investigations

13.1 Ratings: Riders can rate you after each ride, and you can rate them. Ratings are feedback: a low rating on its own doesn't lead to deactivation. We may look into an account whose ratings stay low, and act only on what we find under this Agreement, the Terms of Service and the Code of Conduct. Rate Riders honestly, based only on how they behaved.

13.2 Zero tolerance: If a Rider reports that you seemed impaired by drugs or alcohol, we suspend your Driver account at once while we investigate, as California requires. While you're suspended, your booked rides reopen to other Drivers without charge to their Riders, and Riders in your commute plans are refunded for the rides you can't drive.

13.3 Reports about you: We review every report about you. We may ask you about it, and you agree to cooperate. While we look into a serious report, we may suspend your Driver account (Section 14.2).

14. Deactivation and appeals

14.1 Why we may deactivate you: We may deactivate your Driver account, meaning you can no longer give rides, temporarily or permanently, only for these reasons:

• breaking this Agreement, the Terms of Service or the Code of Conduct, including our zero-tolerance policy and our rules against discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct, and our accessibility rules;
• fraud, attempted fraud or other dishonesty, including recording ride steps that didn't happen, fake rides or taking payment outside the app;
• conduct that puts the safety of Riders, other drivers or the public at risk;
• no longer meeting our eligibility standards, including because of a background check, a driving-record check, or an arrest or charge (Section 4);
• a license, registration or insurance that is expired, invalid or missing, or a vehicle that no longer meets Section 5;
• more than five strikes in a calendar month (Section 11);
• a requirement of the law, a court or a regulator; or
• Ride Splits stopping its service in your area or altogether.

14.2 Suspension while we investigate: If we receive a credible report of fraud, of unsafe or illegal conduct, or of a breach of our zero-tolerance, discrimination, harassment or sexual-misconduct rules, we may suspend your Driver account at once, without notice, while we investigate. We tell you, look into it promptly, and lift the suspension if the concern isn't confirmed.

14.3 Telling you why: Unless safety or the law prevents it, we tell you in writing why we deactivated your account.

14.4 Appealing: You can appeal a deactivation by emailing help@ridesplits.com within 30 days, explaining why you think the decision was wrong and including any evidence. Our customer success team reviews appeals, and some reviews may be handled automatically in the app.

14.5 Your rides, plans and money: If you are deactivated, your booked rides reopen to other Drivers and their Riders aren't charged, your commute plans end and their Riders are refunded for the unused part, your membership ends (Section 7.8), and your balance is paid out on the next payday, unless the law or a fraud investigation requires us to hold it.

15. Taxes

You are responsible for your own taxes on what you earn, including income and self-employment taxes. Stripe provides the tax forms the law requires, using the tax information you give when you set up payouts. You must give accurate tax information, and payouts may wait until it is complete. Ride Splits doesn't withhold taxes from your earnings unless the law requires it.

16. Ending this Agreement

• You can stop driving at any time by cancelling your membership; your account becomes a Rider account at the end of your paid period or your free days. You can also close your account under the Terms of Service.
• We may end this Agreement only for the reasons in Section 14.
• If you return within 30 days, your approval still counts (Section 3.6).
• Sections about money owed, taxes, insurance claims, indemnity and disputes continue to apply after this Agreement ends.

17. Disputes

17.1 Arbitration applies: Section 21 of the Terms of Service applies to every Dispute between you and Ride Splits, including Disputes about this Agreement, your status as an independent contractor, your pay, earnings and payouts, your membership, deactivation, background checks, discrimination, harassment, wage-and-hour laws and any other law, except as this Section says.

17.2 Representative claims: To the fullest extent the law allows, you and Ride Splits waive the right to bring or take part in any class, collective or representative action. A claim under California's Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) for violations you suffered yourself will be arbitrated individually. Any part of a PAGA claim that the law doesn't allow to be waived or arbitrated will be decided in court, after the individual arbitration ends.

17.3 Arbitration fees for Drivers: For a Dispute about this Agreement or your driving, you pay no more than the filing fee you would pay to start a case in court, and Ride Splits pays all other arbitration costs, including the AAA's fees and the arbitrator's compensation.

17.4 Your right to opt out of arbitration: You can opt out of arbitration by emailing help@ridesplits.com from the email address on your account within 30 days of the day you first accept this Agreement, with your full name and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. If you do, Section 21 of the Terms of Service (apart from Section 21.1, contact us first) doesn't apply between you and Ride Splits, and Disputes will be decided in court under Section 23.1 of the Terms. Opting out doesn't affect anything else in your relationship with Ride Splits, and we will never treat you differently for doing it.

17.5 What you can always do: Nothing in this Agreement stops you from filing a claim for workers' compensation, unemployment insurance or state disability insurance benefits, or from filing a charge or complaint with a government agency, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the California Civil Rights Department, the California Labor Commissioner or the National Labor Relations Board, as the law allows.

18. General

The general terms in Section 23 of the Terms of Service apply to this Agreement. This Agreement, the Terms of Service and the documents they list are the entire agreement between you and Ride Splits about driving. Questions about this Agreement: email help@ridesplits.com.