Legal
Is it legal to accept payment from my passengers?
Yes, it is legal when:
1. You are offering rides to friends, neighbours, colleagues and family and you are
splitting the cost.
If you offer rides to strangers that you pick up off the streets, you would be deemed
to be providing a transport service and you would need a license. That is why there
are many social tools at ShareTransport.sg. You should get to know the people whom
you are keen to carpool with, and use our “Add Friends” tool to add them as friends
before offering rides in your cars.
2. You are not profiting.
The principle is ‘cost-sharing’. This is why we have fixed the amount of money you
can ask from your passengers at $4.60 per trip, regardless of the distance, the
make of your car, the amount of ERP charges and other reasons etc.
3. You are not doing it full time.
You should be “on your way” to the destination, such as to work or home. If you
go out of your way to provide rides or if you do it as your full time job, you would
need to apply for the appropriate licenses.
At ShareTransport.sg, all carpool rides are taken on a friendly basis.
The payment is not for a transport service provided, but rather friends sharing
the cost of a ride. When your passengers use our payment system to pay for their
share of the rides, they have to accept a set of terms and conditions which waives
their right to action against you (the driver) as a provider of a commercial transport
service.
What about the car driver’s insurance?
There are many types of motor insurance and vehicles. Drivers should check with
their insurance provider that they have all the necessary insurance to operate a
motor vehicle, to cover bodily injury to all the occupants in the vehicle, and to
carpooling.
Please read our
Terms and Conditions
Do I have to pay taxes for the payment I receive from carpooling?
At ShareTransport.sg, the payment is one of cost-sharing amongst friends, colleagues
and neighbours. As such, it should not be considered "income" and would not be subject
to income tax. However, you should check with your income tax consultant if you
are unsure about your personal situation.
Do I have to pay taxes for the payment I receive from carpooling?
At ShareTransport.sg, the payment is one of cost-sharing amongst friends, colleagues
and neighbours. As such, it should not be considered "income" and would not be subject
to income tax. However, you should check with your income tax consultant if you
are unsure about your personal situation.
Safety
Is it dangerous to carpool?
For safety, you should not get into a car with strangers. Use our social tools to
get to know someone really well first before adding them as friends in your ShareTransport
network.
As carpool arrangements are likely to be between people who live and work close
to each other, you should arrange to meet up at a public place at least once before
the carpooling takes place. You should be comfortable with each other before committing
to carpooling.
You should not get into a car if anybody in the carpool makes you uncomfortable.
What is Ad Hoc Car and Taxi pooling?
This is for people who can’t commit to long term car or taxi pooling. You should
add as many friends as possible who live, work or study near you. As and when you
need to car or taxi pool, you can use our website or app to “Post Single Trip” and
locate your friends to share a ride!
Cost-sharing and payment administration
Why has ShareTransport.sg fixed the price of carpooling
trips?
1. To prevent drivers from profiting.
2. To remove the need to negotiate prices every time a trip is made.
Why has ShareTransport.sg fixed the price at $4.60?
From our experience of having several thousand carpool trips offered since our launch,
the asking cost-share prices from drivers are between $3 to $5. Thus, the price
of $4.60 would make sense for drivers. There are usually 22 working days a month.
$4.60 x 22 works out to about $100.
To offer a carpool ride, the driver will be incurring extra fuel cost (because of
the extra load) and he will be increasing the wear and tear to parts of the car
such as the brakes, tires, seats and others. It is also only fair that the passengers
pay a part of the ERP charges, road taxes, insurance cost, COE and other costs that
the drivers incur.
For passengers, the price of $4.60 per trip would not make sense if the trip was
short, as a taxi ride could be cheaper. However, for longer distances, it is a low
price to pay for a car-ride.
"Your banner ad says: Recover up to $600 in
car costs a month. How is that possible?"
If you take 3 passengers everyday in your carpool for both the morning trip to work
and the evening trip back home, the amount you would recover in costs would be:
$4.60 x 22 (working days per month) x 2 (morning and evening) x 3 (passengers) =
$607.20.
What if I work very far away? What if I incur a lot of ERP charges? What if mine
is a luxury car? Can I charge more for these reasons?
The ShareTransport.sg payment system processes by number of trips. There is
no way for you to change the price per trip. If you ask your passengers to pay in
cash for a higher amount, you run the risk of being seen to be profiting from your
passengers and providing a transport service, which requires a license.
A carpool is the sharing of transport to a destination that you were already planning
to go. What your passengers are paying you is simply to help cover the cost of you
providing a trip to them. You are not meant to make a profit.
Why should I use ShareTransport.sg’s payment administration and let ShareTransport.sg
make a commission? Why can’t I just pay my driver in cash?
One of the most important reasons to use our payment system is that the passengers
would have to accept a set of terms and conditions that gives you some legal protection.
For example, they accept that you are providing the trips as a friend and on a cost
recovery basis, and they agree not to take action against you as a commercial transport
provider. You can read the terms and conditions here.
Also, our payment system makes it easier for cost-sharing to be administered. This
is because:
1. The passengers may not have the right change.
2. It is a hassle to collect payment from a few people every day.
3. If you let the rides accumulate before you collect, there could be a dispute
when the driver and passengers disagree on the number of trips that were actually
taken.
4. It is awkward for friends, colleagues and neighbours to be exchanging cash constantly.
5. Drivers don’t want to feel like taxi drivers.
6. If the authorities ask, we can give them the payment data to show that drivers
are not profiting and are keeping within the rules.
What is ShareTranport.sg’s commission rate?
Our commission rate is 7.8%. This includes the credit card charges that Paypal takes.
How does ShareTransport.sg’s payment system
work?
Drivers
1. You can only bill people whom you have added as ShareTransport Friends.
2. After a trip, select the ShareTransport Friends you want to bill and indicate
the number of trips to be billed. Select or create the trip details so that your
friends know which trip you are billing him or her for.
3. When your ShareTransport Friends or passengers pay you, your Account Balance
will be updated. You may withdraw the money at any time, but do note that withdrawals
of amounts less than $100 will attract a $3 admin fee. Withdrawals above $100 are
free.
4. Remember to indicate your bank and bank account number.
Passengers
1. You may pay for the trips you have been billed at any time. Payment will be through
a deduction from your Account Balance.
2. If you do not have enough value in your Account Balance, you can make a minimum
top up of $25. Payment is made via credit cards through Paypal.
3. You may withdraw any value you have in your Account Balance for FREE within two
months of the top up. Please write in to sales@sharetransport.sg if you wish to
do so. After the two months period, any withdrawal from the Account Balance will
attract a $3 admin fee.
What if my passengers refuse/forget to pay me via ShareTransport payment system?
Our system will send reminders to your passengers to pay their share of the costs
that they owe you. However, if they refuse to, there is nothing that we can do.
Ultimately, ShareTransport.sg is about friends sharing the cost of trips. If your
‘friends’ refuses to pay you, it is up to you to contact them to ask them to.
If they still refuse to, we recommend ‘unfriending’ them and not offer any more
rides to them in the future.
Using our payment system.
When you and your carpooler pay using our payment system, you have the added assurance
that we have your bank account and credit card details on record (for credit card,
we do not have your details directly. It will be carried by PayPal).
You are responsible for your own safety
ShareTransport.sg does not vouch for any of our users. You should exercise your
own care and discretion in who you carpool with.
Taxi Pool
How does it work?
If you cannot find a driver to offer you a carpool ride, you might want to look
for another person who has the same route requirements as you to share a taxi. Once
you find suitable people, you should add them as friends. Once they are your ShareTransport
friends, you will be able to detect them from our app if they are nearby. You can
then message them (via our app) to suggest to share a taxi.
You should add as many people who live, work or study near you as friends, so that
your chances of finding someone to taxipool with at any one time is high.
Taxipool Payment
Does ShareTransport.sg provide a payment service for taxipool?
No. You should split the taxi-fare right there in the cab.
How should we split the cab-fare when some alight before the others?
Agree at the start of the trip. ShareTransport.sg would like to establish this rule:
That the people who alight first should pay a slight premium on top of their share
to those alighting later. You can do this by rounding up your share.
For example, if 3 people shared a taxi ride and the taxi arrives at the first destination
at a meter fare of $12.50, the first person’s share is $12.50 divide by 3 = $4.16.
Round up to the nearest dollar would give you $5. So the first person should pay
$5 for the privilege of alighting first.
Let’s say by the time the taxi arrives at the 2
nd station that the fare
is $13.20. The second person’s share is $13.20 divide by 3 = $4.40. Rounded up to
the nearest dollar would again be $5. He should give $5 to the last person in the
taxi.
And let’s say by the time the taxi arrives at the last stop that the fare is $14.30.
The last person would have collected $10 from the first two people, and he would
have to fork out another $4.30 to complete the fare.
Managing a Carpool Relationship
What if I don’t like my Passenger/Driver?
You should have a face-to-face meeting before deciding to accept a long term carpool
passenger. Ask to see each other’s Identity Card to ascertain the identity and address.
If you find that you cannot get along with your Passenger/Driver, just tell the
other person. Don’t suffer in silence and seethe in anger. It is not safe to drive
that way.
How should I pay the driver after we have decided to part ways?
Wait for the alert from ShareTransport.sg and just pay as you would normally. We
would process the payment normally. It simply means that you would no longer be
paying this particular driver because he would not be ‘cost-sharing’ with you for
any more trips as you would not be accepting trips from him.