Terms and Conditions

Introduction and Part 1: The agreement

We are Shuttle (Pvt) Ltd (“Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), a company registered in Sri Lanka.

We operate the mobile application Shuttle (the “App”) and the website at shuttle.lk (the “Website”), as well as any other related products and services that refer or link to these legal terms (the “Legal Terms”) (collectively, the “Services”).

Shuttle is a ride-hailing application that connects riders with nearby independent drivers, giving both sides more control over how a trip is booked, priced, and completed than a conventional taxi app allows. The Services are currently available in Sri Lanka.

These Legal Terms are a legally binding agreement between you, whether personally or on behalf of an entity (“you”), and Shuttle (Pvt) Ltd, concerning your access to and use of the Services. By creating an account or using the Services, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by all of these Legal Terms. If you do not agree with all of them, you are expressly prohibited from using the Services and must stop using them immediately.

The same agreement applies whether you use Shuttle as a rider or as a driver. Some clauses are written for one role — the clauses on commission and vehicle insurance, for example, apply to drivers — but the agreement as a whole binds everyone who uses the Services.

Riders must be at least 18 years old. Drivers must be at least 21 years old and hold a valid driving licence, vehicle registration, and insurance. Anyone who does not meet these requirements is not permitted to use or register for the Services.

We will give you prior notice of any scheduled changes to the Services you are using. Modified Legal Terms take effect when we post them in the App or on the Website, or notify you at the address on your account. By continuing to use the Services after the effective date of a change, you agree to be bound by the modified terms.

You can contact us by email at support@shuttle.lk.

1. Our services

The information provided when using the Services is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation, or which would subject us to any registration requirement within that jurisdiction or country.

Those who choose to access the Services from other locations do so on their own initiative and are solely responsible for compliance with local laws, to the extent local laws apply.

2. Intellectual property rights

We own or license all intellectual property rights in the Services, including the source code, databases, functionality, software, designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics (the “Content”), as well as the trademarks, service marks, and logos in them (the “Marks”). These are protected by copyright and trademark law and by treaties around the world.

Subject to your compliance with these Legal Terms, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access the Services and to download or print a copy of any part of the Content you have properly gained access to, for your own use or for the internal purposes of your business — which, for a driver, includes providing transportation through the Services.

Except as set out here, no part of the Services and no Content or Marks may be copied, reproduced, aggregated, republished, uploaded, posted, publicly displayed, encoded, translated, transmitted, distributed, sold, licensed, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without our express prior written permission. Send requests to support@shuttle.lk.

Any breach of this section is a material breach of these Legal Terms, and your right to use the Services ends immediately.

3–4. Your account and registration

By using the Services, you represent and warrant that: all registration information you submit is true, accurate, current, and complete; you will keep it accurate and update it promptly; you have the legal capacity to agree to these Legal Terms; you meet the minimum age for your role; you will not access the Services by automated or non-human means, whether by bot, script, or otherwise; you will not use the Services for any illegal or unauthorised purpose; and your use will not breach any applicable law or regulation.

You must register to use the Services. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for everything done through your account. Your account is personal to you and may not be shared, rented, sold, or transferred.

If you provide information that is untrue, inaccurate, out of date, or incomplete, we may suspend or terminate your account and refuse any current or future use of the Services.

Part 2: Using Shuttle

5–6. Payment, fares and refunds

All amounts are stated and payable in Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR).

Riders pay for the ride directly to the driver, in cash, at the end of the trip. Shuttle does not currently process card payments and does not store card numbers. The price shown before a trip is confirmed includes Shuttle’s booking fee and any other platform fee, and Shuttle charges the driver a commission on each completed fare for use of the platform. Cancellation, no-show, waiting and route-update charges are set out in our Cancellation and Fees Policy.

You agree to pay all charges that apply to your trip at the rates in effect at the time. We may change our fees and commission rates and will give notice before doing so. We may correct any error or mistake in pricing, even if we have already requested or received payment.

Refunds and fare disputes. Fares are final once a trip is completed, except where a fare was charged in error, where a trip was not provided, or where a cancellation, no-show, or waiting charge is reversed following a dispute. Raise a dispute through Help and Support in the App, or by email to support@shuttle.lk, within seven (7) days of the trip. We will review it and, where it is upheld, adjust or refund the amount concerned. Nothing in this section affects any right you have under applicable consumer law.

7. Prohibited activities

You may not access or use the Services for any purpose other than that for which we make them available. Other than a driver providing transportation through the Services as intended, the Services may not be used in connection with any commercial venture that we have not specifically endorsed or approved.

As a user of the Services, you agree not to:

• Systematically retrieve data or content from the Services to build a collection, compilation, database, or directory without our written permission.
• Trick, defraud, or mislead us or other users, particularly in any attempt to obtain sensitive account information.
• Circumvent, disable, or interfere with security-related features of the Services.
• Use any information obtained from the Services to harass, abuse, or harm another person.
• Make improper use of our support services, or submit false reports of abuse or misconduct.
• Use the Services in a way that breaks any applicable law or regulation.
• Upload or transmit viruses, Trojan horses, or any material that disrupts the use, features, operation, or maintenance of the Services.
• Engage in any automated use of the system, including scripts, data mining, robots, or similar data-gathering tools.
• Attempt to impersonate another user or person, or use another user’s account.
• Interfere with, disrupt, or place an undue burden on the Services or the networks connected to them.
• Harass, intimidate, or threaten any of our employees or agents.
• Decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the software making up the Services, except as permitted by law.
• Use the Services to advertise or offer to sell goods or services, other than a driver offering transportation through the Services as intended.
• Sell or otherwise transfer your profile.
• Permit any person other than the verified account holder to provide rides using your driver account, or share, rent, or transfer account access.
• Submit false, altered, or fraudulent identity, licence, vehicle registration, or insurance documents.
• Provide transportation without a current valid driving licence, vehicle registration, and insurance required in your jurisdiction.
• Operate a vehicle while impaired, or use the App in a manner that is unsafe or unlawful while driving.
• Carry more passengers than the vehicle is licensed for, or transport unlawful items.
• Harass, threaten, discriminate against, or endanger another user, or record another user without their consent.
• Falsely trigger the emergency or SOS feature, or falsely report a safety incident.
• Falsify your GPS location, or use any device, emulator, or software to spoof, mask, or manipulate location data.
• Create bookings with no genuine intention to travel, or accept trips with no genuine intention to complete them.
• Deliberately take an inefficient route, prolong a trip, or manipulate wait times to increase the fare.
• Evade or falsely dispute fares, wait-time charges, cancellation fees, no-show fees, or tips.
• Register or maintain multiple accounts, or create a new account after your access has been suspended or terminated.
• Arrange, complete, or settle any trip outside the Services in order to avoid platform fees or commission.
• Access the Services other than through the official App, including via any script, bot, scraper, or direct call to our APIs.
• Interfere with, disable, or circumvent any security, verification, or fraud-detection feature.
• Copy, cache, store, or redistribute map data, imagery, or routing results obtained through the Services.

Breaching this section may result in suspension or permanent termination of your account, and we may report you to the authorities.

8–9. Your content and your chat

The Services let you add content: a profile photo, the ratings you give, and the messages and photos you send to the other party on a trip. Content you make visible to other users — such as your profile photo and the ratings you leave — is referred to here as your “Public Content”.

By providing Public Content, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, and distribute it for the purpose of operating, providing, and improving the Services. You keep ownership of it. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except where we must keep it to comply with the law or to resolve a dispute.

Messages and photos you exchange with a driver or rider in the App are private between the two of you, except that authorised Shuttle staff can read them when investigating a safety report or a dispute. We host and transmit them in order to deliver the Services, and we keep them briefly for safety and dispute handling. Chat content is automatically deleted about 72 hours after a completed trip; chat content on cancelled trips is not currently deleted automatically. We claim no commercial licence over your private messages, we do not publish them, and we do not make them available to other users.

You are responsible for what you send or upload. You confirm that your content is yours or that you have the rights to it, that it does not infringe anyone’s intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights, and that it is not illegal, harassing, hateful, defamatory, obscene, discriminatory, threatening, sexually explicit, false, or misleading.

Although we have no obligation to monitor content, we may remove or edit any content at any time, without notice, if we reasonably consider it harmful or in breach of these Legal Terms. We may also suspend or disable your account and report you to the authorities.

10. Ratings and reviews

The Services let riders and drivers rate each other after a trip. Ratings may be numeric scores as well as written text, and both are covered by this section.

When you leave a rating or review, you must have had firsthand experience of the person you are rating; you must not use offensive, abusive, racist, or hateful language; you must not include discriminatory references based on religion, race, gender, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or disability; you must not refer to illegal activity; you must not post false or misleading statements; and you must not organise a campaign encouraging others to post ratings, whether positive or negative.

We may accept, reject, or remove any rating or review at our discretion, including where we believe it to be fraudulent, retaliatory, or in breach of this section. We are under no obligation to screen ratings. Ratings are not endorsed by us and do not represent our views. By leaving a rating or review, you grant us a perpetual, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to reproduce, modify, translate, display, and distribute it in connection with the Services.

11. App licence and app stores

We grant you a revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right to install and use the App on devices you own or control, strictly in accordance with these Legal Terms.

You must not: decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code of, or decrypt the App, except as permitted by law; modify, adapt, or create derivative works from the App; break any law in connection with your use of the App; remove or obscure any proprietary notice; use the App for any purpose it is not designed or intended for, other than a driver providing transportation through the Services as intended; make the App available over a network permitting use by multiple devices or users at once; use the App to build a competing product or service; use the App to send automated queries or unsolicited commercial email; or use our interfaces or intellectual property in the design or distribution of other applications, accessories, or devices.

App stores. The following applies where you obtained the App from the Apple App Store or Google Play (each an “App Distributor”). Your licence is limited to using the App on a device running Apple iOS or Android in accordance with the App Distributor’s usage rules. We, not the App Distributor, are responsible for providing maintenance and support. If the App fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify the App Distributor, which may refund the purchase price, if any; to the maximum extent permitted by law, the App Distributor has no other warranty obligation. You confirm that you are not located in a country subject to a United States government embargo or designated by the United States government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not on any United States government list of prohibited or restricted parties. You must comply with any applicable third-party terms when using the App. The App Distributors are third-party beneficiaries of this section and may enforce it against you.

12. Managing the Services

We reserve the right, but are not obliged, to: monitor the Services for breaches of these Legal Terms; take appropriate legal action against anyone who, in our sole discretion, breaks the law or these Legal Terms, including reporting them to law enforcement; refuse, restrict, limit the availability of, or disable any of your content; remove content that is excessive in size or burdensome to our systems; and otherwise manage the Services in a way designed to protect our rights and property and keep the Services working properly.

Part 3: Legal

13–14. Privacy and copyright

We care about data privacy and security. Please read our Privacy Policy, which you can open from Profile in the App or at shuttle.lk/privacy. By using the Services you agree to be bound by it, and it is incorporated into these Legal Terms.

The Services are hosted in India, Singapore and the United States. If you access the Services from a region whose data-protection laws differ from those of India, Singapore and the United States, then by continuing to use the Services you transfer your data to, and consent to it being processed in, those countries.

Copyright infringement. We respect the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe material available on or through the Services infringes a copyright you own or control, notify us at support@shuttle.lk with details of the material and of your rights in it. We will send a copy of your notification to the person who posted or stored the material. You may be liable for damages if you make a material misrepresentation in a notification, so if you are not sure whether material infringes your copyright, consider taking legal advice first.

15–16. Term, termination and changes

These Legal Terms remain in force while you use the Services. Without limiting any other provision, we may, at our sole discretion and without notice or liability, deny access to and use of the Services to any person, for any reason, including for breach of any representation, warranty, or undertaking in these Legal Terms or of any applicable law. We may terminate your use of the Services, delete your account, and delete any content you posted, at any time and without warning.

If we terminate or suspend your account, you must not register a new account under your own name, a false or borrowed name, or the name of a third party. We may also take legal action, including pursuing civil, criminal, and injunctive remedies.

We may change, modify, or remove the contents of the Services at any time, at our discretion, and we are under no obligation to update information on the Services. We will not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, price change, suspension, or discontinuance of the Services.

We cannot guarantee that the Services will be available at all times. We may experience hardware, software, or other problems, or need to carry out maintenance, resulting in interruptions, delays, or errors. You agree that we have no liability for any loss, damage, or inconvenience caused by your inability to access or use the Services during any downtime or discontinuance. Nothing in these Legal Terms obliges us to maintain and support the Services or to supply any corrections, updates, or releases.

17–19. Governing law, disputes and corrections

These Legal Terms are governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of Sri Lanka. Shuttle (Pvt) Ltd and you irrevocably agree that the courts of Sri Lanka have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any dispute arising in connection with these Legal Terms.

Informal negotiation first. To keep the cost of any dispute down, you and we agree to try to resolve any dispute, controversy, or claim relating to these Legal Terms informally for at least thirty (30) days before starting court proceedings. Informal negotiations begin when one party gives written notice to the other. This requirement does not apply to a claim for injunctive relief, to a dispute about the validity of either party’s intellectual property rights, or to a claim arising from allegations of theft, piracy, invasion of privacy, or unauthorised use.

Individual claims. Any dispute will be limited to a dispute between you and us individually. To the fullest extent permitted by law, no dispute may be brought as a class action, on a representative basis, or on behalf of the general public, and no proceeding may be joined with any other.

Corrections. There may be information in the Services containing typographical errors, inaccuracies, or omissions, including in relation to descriptions, pricing, and availability. We may correct any error, inaccuracy, or omission and change or update information at any time, without prior notice.

20–22. Disclaimers, liability and indemnity

The Services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, and you use them at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We make no warranty about the accuracy or completeness of the Services’ content, and we accept no responsibility for errors or inaccuracies of content, unauthorised access to our servers, interruption of transmission, or bugs or viruses transmitted through the Services by any third party. We do not warrant, endorse, or guarantee any product or service advertised or offered by a third party through the Services, and we are not a party to, and will not monitor, any transaction between you and a third-party provider.

Limitation of liability. We and our directors, employees, and agents will not be liable to you or to any third party for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special, or punitive damages, including lost profit, lost revenue, or loss of data, arising from your use of the Services. Our total liability to you, for any cause and regardless of the form of the action, is limited to the lesser of the total amount you paid us in the six (6) months before the cause of action arose, or USD 100 — or its equivalent in Sri Lankan Rupees at the rate applying on the date the claim arises.

Nothing in these Legal Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on implied warranties or the exclusion of certain damages; where those laws apply to you, some or all of the above may not apply and you may have additional rights.

Time limit for claims. Except for a claim relating to death or personal injury, any claim arising out of or relating to these Legal Terms or the Services must be brought within one (1) year of the date the cause of action arose, after which it is permanently barred.

Indemnity. You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Shuttle (Pvt) Ltd, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and their respective officers, agents, partners, and employees, from any loss, damage, liability, claim, or demand, including reasonable legal fees, made by a third party arising out of your content, your use of the Services, your breach of these Legal Terms or of your representations and warranties in them, your violation of a third party’s rights, or any harmful act toward another user you connected with through the Services. We may, at your expense, assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter for which you must indemnify us, and you agree to cooperate with that defence. We will use reasonable efforts to tell you about any such claim.

23–25. Your data and general terms

We keep certain data you transmit to the Services in order to manage their performance, as well as data about your use of them. Although we perform routine backups, you are responsible for the data you transmit and for any activity you carry out using the Services. You agree that we have no liability to you for any loss or corruption of that data.

Electronic communications and signatures. Using the Services, sending us emails, and completing forms in the App are electronic communications. You consent to receive electronic communications, and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. You agree to the use of electronic signatures, contracts, orders, and records, and to electronic delivery of notices, policies, and records of transactions.

General. These Legal Terms, together with any policies or operating rules we post in the Services, are the entire agreement between you and us. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision is not a waiver of it. We may assign our rights and obligations to others at any time. We are not responsible for any loss, damage, delay, or failure to act caused by anything beyond our reasonable control. If any provision is found to be unlawful, void, or unenforceable, it is severed and the remaining provisions continue in force. Nothing in these Legal Terms creates a joint venture, partnership, or employment relationship between you and us, and no clause will be construed against us on the basis that we drafted it. If a translation of these Legal Terms differs from the English text, the English text prevails.

Part 4: Riding with Shuttle

26. Nature of the Services

Shuttle is a technology platform that connects riders with independent third-party drivers. Shuttle does not provide transportation services, does not own or operate vehicles, and is not a taxi, carrier, or transport company.

Drivers are independent contractors and are not employees or agents of Shuttle. Nothing in these Legal Terms creates an employment relationship. Shuttle does not guarantee any minimum number of trips, any level of income, or that a driver will be available at any given time or location. Drivers are responsible for their own taxes and statutory contributions.

Shuttle is not responsible for the conduct, acts, or omissions of any driver or rider, or for the condition, safety, roadworthiness, or legality of any vehicle.

27. Fares, fees and charges

Fares displayed before a trip are estimates. The final fare may differ where the route changes, where waiting occurs, where stops are added or amended, or where the trip is edited during the journey.

The price shown before a trip includes a booking fee and any other platform fees. Cancellation fees, no-show fees, waiting charges and route-update fees may also apply, as set out in our Cancellation and Fees Policy.

Riders pay drivers directly for the ride, in cash. Shuttle charges the driver a commission on each completed fare for use of the platform. The commission rate depends on the payment method and is shown to drivers in the App. Where tipping is available, tips are voluntary and are paid in full to the driver.

28. Location data and emergency features

Drivers must share their device’s precise location with Shuttle while they are online and while a trip is active, including when the App is minimised on Android, so that riders can see them and trips can be matched. Nearby online drivers appear to riders as anonymous pins on the map. A rider’s precise location is used on the rider’s device, for example to set a pickup point; it is not sent to the driver, who receives only the pickup and drop-off points the rider chooses and, if SOS is used, the location described below. Drivers may not turn off location sharing during an active trip.

Riders and drivers can each use the emergency or SOS feature. When you press SOS, we send an SMS to the emergency contact saved on your account. The message says who pressed SOS and contains a link to the location they were at when they pressed it, the pickup and drop-off addresses, and the driver’s name, vehicle and number plate. Pressing SOS also ends the trip, and the fare is adjusted to reflect the part of the trip completed. The SOS feature is a convenience feature only and is not an emergency service. It does not contact the police, an ambulance, or any other emergency authority. In an emergency you should always contact your local emergency services directly.

Where a rider shares a trip-tracking link, anyone holding that link can open it without signing in. While the trip is active it shows the vehicle’s live location, the driver’s name, and the vehicle and its number plate. It also shows the pickup and drop-off addresses, which remain visible on the link after the trip ends. The message we prepare when you share a trip includes your name and those addresses. Share the link only with people you trust.

29. Insurance

Shuttle does not provide insurance cover of any kind to riders, drivers, or passengers.

Each driver is solely responsible for holding and maintaining the vehicle, third-party, and passenger insurance required by law in their jurisdiction, and for keeping that cover valid for the whole time they use the Services. Any journey taken through the Services is covered only by the driver’s own insurance, if any. You should satisfy yourself as to the cover in place before travelling.

30–31. Google Maps and Apple

The Services use mapping, routing, and location functionality provided by Google Maps Platform; on iPhone, the map itself is drawn by Apple Maps. By using the Services, you agree to be bound by Google’s Terms of Service, available at https://policies.google.com/terms, and by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service, available at https://www.google.com/help/terms_maps/, which incorporate the Google Privacy Policy. You may not copy, cache, store, or redistribute any map data, imagery, or routing results obtained through the Services.

Apple iOS users. These Legal Terms are between you and Shuttle (Pvt) Ltd only, and not with Apple Inc. Apple is not responsible for the App or its content and has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for it. Apple provides no warranty in respect of the App; if the App fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple and Apple will refund the purchase price, if any. Apple is not responsible for addressing any claim relating to the App, including product liability claims, claims that the App fails to meet a legal requirement, and claims arising under consumer protection legislation. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Legal Terms and may enforce them against you.