Terms of Service

Last updated: 6 September 2026 · Applies to rideback.com.au, the RideBack app and the RideBack Driver app.

These terms are the agreement between you and RideBack when you book a trip, travel on one, or drive one. Please read section 6 and section 7 closely — they deal with your vehicle and your insurance, and they are the part of this agreement most likely to matter to you.

By confirming a booking, or by accepting a job in the Driver app, you accept these terms.

1. What RideBack is

RideBack provides a professional personal driver who drives your own vehicle. The most common reason people book us is to get themselves and their car home together after a night out.

We are not a taxi, rideshare, hire car or chauffeured-vehicle service, and we do not supply a vehicle. The vehicle used on every trip is yours, and you remain its owner or authorised operator throughout.

That single fact shapes most of this agreement. Your registration, your roadworthiness and your motor insurance are what govern the vehicle on the road, not ours.

2. Who can use it, and your account

• You must be 18 or over to hold a RideBack account and to book a trip.
• You must be the owner of the vehicle, or have the owner's permission for someone else to drive it. If you are booking for another person, you confirm you have their authority to give us their details.
• Your account is personal. Keep your sign-in details to yourself and tell us promptly if you think someone else has used your account.
• Give us accurate details. Bookings fail most often because a phone number or an address is wrong.

3. Booking, confirming and changing a trip

• A booking is a request until we confirm it and assign a driver. You will see the confirmation and your booking reference in the app.
• RideBack works best booked ahead. We will always try to cover a short-notice request, but availability is not guaranteed.
• Turn on notifications in the app. That is how we tell you a driver has accepted, is on the way, and has arrived. If you switch them off, please watch the app instead.
• Be ready at the pickup point at the booked time.
• To change a booking, contact us as early as you can. Changes depend on driver availability and may change the fare.
• We may decline or cancel a booking where we cannot perform it safely or lawfully, or where the vehicle or the request falls outside this agreement. If we cancel and you are not at fault, you are not charged.

4. What a trip costs

The price you are shown before you confirm is the price for the trip as booked. We do not apply surge pricing.

• Fares are in Australian dollars and include GST. A tax invoice is issued for every completed trip.
• Fares are made up of a base fare that includes an initial distance, a per-kilometre rate beyond it, and any surcharge that applies to the time of your trip. The current rates are shown in the app before you confirm.
• A late-night surcharge applies to trips between 11pm and 7am. It is included in the price you are shown.
• A minimum fare applies regardless of distance.
• Payment is by card, processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
• Tipping is entirely up to you and never expected.

Things that can change the fare on the day

• Extra stops or a changed destination. If you add a stop or change where you are going, the fare is recalculated on the actual route driven.
• Waiting time. See section 5.
• Tolls, parking and ferries. Any toll, parking fee or similar cost incurred on your trip is passed on to you at cost. Where your driver has to pay it out of their own pocket, a small handling amount may be added; you will see it on your invoice.
• Fuel and charging. Your vehicle is yours to fuel or charge. If a driver has to refuel or recharge mid-trip to complete the journey, the cost is passed on to you at cost.

Where a change materially increases the fare, your driver will tell you before it is incurred wherever it is practical to do so.

5. Waiting, lateness and cancellation

Waiting time

Every booking includes a short grace period at pickup at no charge. After that, waiting time is charged per minute at the rate shown in the app. Your driver may not be able to wait indefinitely if they have another booking after yours; they will tell you if that is the case.

If you know you are running late, tell your driver through the app. It usually costs less than a no-show.

No-show

If we cannot reach you and you have not appeared at the pickup point within the no-show window shown in the app, the booking is treated as cancelled by you and charged as a late cancellation.

Cancelling

• Cancel well ahead of your pickup time and there is no charge.
• Cancel close to the pickup time, once a driver has been assigned and is travelling to you, and a cancellation fee applies. The fee is shown in the app before you confirm the cancellation.
• If we cancel because we cannot safely or lawfully perform the trip through no fault of yours, you are not charged.

If you do not pay

If a payment fails we will contact you and give you a reasonable opportunity to settle it. Unpaid amounts may be referred for recovery, and reasonable recovery costs may be added. We would much rather sort it out with a phone call — please talk to us.

6. Your vehicle

Tell us your car's make, colour, number plate and whether it is manual when you book. Your driver has to find it, often at night outside a venue, and has to be licensed and able to drive it.

By booking, you confirm that for the whole trip:

• You are the owner or lessee of the vehicle, or have the owner's authority, and no restriction, notice or permission stands in the way of someone else driving it.
• It is registered in an Australian state or territory, and the registration papers and insurance certificate are in the vehicle.
• It is roadworthy and safe to drive — tyres, brakes, lights, windscreen — with no defect or condition that makes it unfit to drive.
• It is covered by a current comprehensive motor policy under which our driver is covered, and your policy carries no restriction on who may drive — not by name, not by age, not by experience.
• Our driver's use of your vehicle is permissive use authorised by you and covered by that policy.
• It has enough fuel or charge to reach the destination. If your driver judges that it does not, they may refuel or recharge on the way and the cost is added to your fare.
• It contains no contraband — no firearms or other weapons, explosives, illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia, stolen property, or open containers of alcohol.
• It is legal to drive, and is not subject to a defect notice or carrying an unsecured load.

You are responsible for any consequence of the vehicle not meeting these conditions, including fines, impoundment and any refusal by your insurer to pay a claim.

If your driver forms the reasonable view that the vehicle is unsafe, unregistered or unlawful to drive, they will decline the trip. Where that happens the booking is treated as a late cancellation, because the driver has already travelled to you.

Your vehicle must also be able to seat everyone travelling, with a working seatbelt each. Your driver takes the driver's seat.

7. Damage, insurance excess and fines

If your car is damaged while our driver is driving it

Report it to us as soon as you can, and in any case within 24 hours. Because the vehicle is yours and insured by you, a claim for damage is made on your motor policy.

Where our driver is at fault for the damage, RideBack will contribute towards your insurance excess up to the limit published in the app and on our support page at the time of your trip. For minor damage that you would rather not claim on, we may instead offer to cover the repair up to that same limit. Either way, please talk to us before arranging repairs.

We are not able to contribute where:

• the damage was already there before the trip;
• the vehicle was uninsured, unregistered or unroadworthy;
• your insurer declines the claim because of something about you or the vehicle, such as an undisclosed modification or a policy restriction on who may drive; or
• the damage was caused by a third party, an animal, weather or a road hazard rather than by our driver's fault.

A quick walk around the car with your driver before you set off, and a photo or two, is the simplest way for both of you to avoid an argument later.

Third parties and injury

A claim by a third party arising from an incident during the trip is dealt with under your motor policy, since your vehicle was the one being driven. Compulsory third party insurance attaches to your registration.

Traffic fines and toll notices

Fines and infringements incurred by our driver while driving your vehicle are our driver's responsibility, not yours. Because the notice is issued to the registered operator, forward it to us promptly and we will arrange for it to be nominated to the driver. Fines that arise from the vehicle itself — an expired registration, an existing defect, or unpaid tolls — remain yours.

8. If something happens to you

Many of our trips happen late at night, and a fair number of our customers have been drinking. That is the service working as intended — but it means we plan for someone being unable to speak for themselves.

You may give us an emergency contact when you book. It is optional, and we would rather you gave one. Your driver only sees it once your trip is underway, and only if you provided it.

By booking, you authorise us and your driver, where you or another passenger is injured or becomes unwell during the trip and cannot make the decision yourselves, to:

• call emergency services and seek urgent medical care for you;
• contact the emergency contact you nominated, and tell them where you are and what has happened; and
• park and lock your vehicle safely at or near the hospital or wherever the trip ends. Your driver keeps the keys and hands them over only to you, a family member, or someone you or your emergency contact authorises. We will tell you and your emergency contact where the car is.

We will not leave you alone, and we will not leave your car unsecured. Where a trip ends this way, you are charged only for the distance actually travelled.

If you would rather we did not contact anyone on your behalf, leave the emergency contact blank and tell your driver.

9. Accidents, breakdowns and incidents

• If anyone is injured, or the road is blocked, call 000 first. Report the incident to police where the law requires it.
• Tell RideBack as soon as it is safe to do so. Drivers must report any incident to dispatch before finishing their shift.
• Where it is safe, take photographs of the vehicles and the scene, and exchange names, licence and registration details with anyone else involved. Note any witnesses.
• Do not admit fault at the scene. Give the facts to your insurer and to us.

If your vehicle breaks down mid-trip, or becomes unsafe to continue driving through no fault of our driver, the trip ends there. The fare for the distance travelled and any waiting time remains payable, and recovery of the vehicle is a matter for you and your roadside assistance provider. Your driver will stay with you until you are safe wherever they reasonably can.

10. Passengers, children, pets and conduct

Your driver is legally in charge of the vehicle and responsible for the safety of everyone in it. Please follow their reasonable directions.

• Seatbelts must be worn by everyone, and the number of passengers must not exceed the number of seatbelts.
• Children must travel in an approved restraint appropriate to their age and size. You are responsible for supplying and correctly fitting it.
• Unaccompanied minors cannot be carried. A person under 18 must travel with a responsible adult.
• No alcohol may be consumed in the vehicle, and open containers must not be carried in the cabin.
• No smoking or vaping in the vehicle. Your driver will stop somewhere safe if you ask.
• No illegal drugs or prohibited items, and nothing that makes the vehicle unsafe or unlawful to drive.
• Pets are welcome when they are appropriately restrained or in a carrier, and when you tell us at booking. Assistance animals are always welcome.
• Luggage must fit safely in your vehicle and be secured. Nothing may obstruct the driver's view or controls.
• Keep hands, limbs and belongings inside the vehicle, and keep music at a volume that does not distract the driver.
• Abuse, threats, harassment, unwanted physical contact and discriminatory behaviour are not tolerated — in either direction.

If a passenger soils the vehicle interior, that is your vehicle and your cleaning. If a passenger damages anything belonging to the driver, you are responsible for it.

11. Our drivers

Every RideBack driver holds a current, unrestricted Australian driver licence and is screened before approval. Screening includes identity, licence history and a criminal-history check, and we re-check as required.

Drivers must be sober and unimpaired — a zero-alcohol, zero-drug rule applies for the whole of a shift — must drive lawfully and within the speed limit, must present neatly, and must keep what they see and hear about you to themselves except where safety or the law requires otherwise.

A driver may refuse to do anything unsafe or unlawful, including speeding, overloading the vehicle or carrying prohibited items, and you must not ask them to.

Driver accounts

Driver accounts are created and managed by RideBack dispatch. Credentials are personal and must not be shared. Drivers must keep their licence, right-to-work status and any other required document current, and tell us straight away if any of them changes. Accounts may be paused or closed where a driver breaches these terms or our safety standards.

Where a driver engages with RideBack as an independent contractor, they are responsible for their own tax, insurance and superannuation obligations, and nothing in this agreement makes them our employee, partner or agent.

12. Booking through RideBack

Please book every trip through RideBack. Arranging a trip privately with a driver you met through us — in either direction — takes both of you outside our insurance position, our screening, our records and our support, and we cannot help if something goes wrong. Doing so may result in the account being closed.

If you particularly like a driver, tell us. We will send them to you again whenever we can.

13. Messages, ratings and feedback

• Trip messages in the app connect you and your driver only while a trip is underway. They are for the trip, and they are retained as part of the trip record.
• After a trip, each of you can rate the other and leave feedback. Ratings and feedback are visible to RideBack and are used to maintain standards, resolve disputes and decide who keeps driving with us.
• Please keep feedback honest and civil. We may remove feedback that is abusive, discriminatory, or plainly false, and we may act on what feedback tells us.

14. Refusing or ending a trip

A driver may decline to start, or may end a trip partway, where they reasonably believe that continuing is unsafe or unlawful, that the vehicle does not meet section 6, or that their own safety or dignity is at risk. Where a trip ends early for one of those reasons, the fare for the distance travelled remains payable.

You have exactly the same protection. If a driver behaves in a way that makes you feel unsafe or disrespected, end the trip, get somewhere safe, and tell us immediately. We take that seriously and we act on it.

15. Your consumer rights

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any right or guarantee you have under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded. That includes the guarantee that our services are supplied with due care and skill and are fit for the purpose you told us about.

If something goes wrong with our service, you may be entitled to a remedy under those guarantees regardless of anything else in this agreement.

16. Our liability, and yours

Subject to section 15, and to the extent the law allows us to limit liability:

• our liability for a failure to comply with a consumer guarantee is limited to supplying the service again, or paying the cost of having it supplied again;
• we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including lost profits, lost opportunity or loss of an event you were travelling to; and
• we are not liable for loss caused by details you gave us that were wrong, by your vehicle being unroadworthy, unregistered or uninsured, by your insurer declining a claim, or by delays outside our reasonable control.

Things outside our control. We are not responsible for a delay or failure caused by something genuinely beyond our control — traffic, crashes, weather, floods, fire, road closures, industrial action, network or power outages, or the acts of a public authority. If a trip cannot go ahead for one of those reasons, we will not charge you a cancellation fee.

Your indemnity. You are responsible for loss we suffer because you breached section 6 (your vehicle), because a passenger you brought behaved as described in section 10, or because you used the service unlawfully.

17. Suspension and closing an account

We may warn, suspend or close an account where these terms are breached — in particular for unsafe conduct, abuse of a driver or a customer, non-payment, or giving us false information. Where we can, we will tell you why and give you a chance to respond first.

You may close your account at any time from Settings in the app, or by emailing us. Closing an account does not remove records we are required to keep; see our Privacy Policy.

18. Our brand and app

The RideBack name, logo, apps, website and content belong to us. You may use them to book and take trips.

Please do not copy, republish, resell, reverse-engineer, scrape or harvest any part of our site or apps, or use automated tools to extract our content, rates or driver information. Do not use our brand in a way that suggests we endorse something we do not.

19. Complaints and disputes

Tell us first — most things are fixed the same day. Email support@rideback.com.au with your booking reference and what happened. We aim to acknowledge within 2 business days and resolve within 20.

If we cannot resolve it between us, both of us will try in good faith to settle the matter by negotiation or mediation before starting court proceedings. Nothing in this clause stops either of us from seeking urgent relief from a court, or you from contacting your state or territory consumer-protection agency.

20. Privacy, changes and governing law

Privacy. We handle personal information as described in our Privacy Policy.

Changes. We may update these terms. The version published on this page when you confirm a booking is the version that applies to that booking, so a change never applies retrospectively to a trip you have already booked. We will tell you in the app or by email about changes that materially affect you.

Time limit on claims. Subject to your rights under the Australian Consumer Law and any period the law fixes and does not allow us to shorten, please bring any claim arising from a trip within 12 months of that trip. Tell us early — evidence, dashcam footage and memories all fade.

If a clause fails. If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, that part is severed and the rest continues to apply.

Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. You and we submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that state.

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