Terms of Service

01The agreement

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are an agreement between you and DriftRoute LLC, a Michigan limited liability company (“DriftRoute”, “we”, “us”) covering your use of the DriftRoute website and accounts, whether you use them as a homeowner, a snow removal provider, or both. By creating an account, requesting a visit, or accepting a job you agree to these Terms and to the Privacy Policy, which explains how information is handled and forms part of this agreement.

DriftRoute operates only in Michigan, United States. You can create an account yourself; no invitation is needed. Homeowners may request visits only for properties in Michigan, and a business is listed and can accept jobs only after DriftRoute has reviewed its application and insurance documents and approved it (see “What DriftRoute is, and is not” and “Additional terms for providers”). Features may change, be paused, or be switched on for some deployments and not others; the version of these Terms shown to you describes the deployment you are signed in to.

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter a binding contract to use DriftRoute. A person using DriftRoute for a business represents that they are authorized to bind that business.

02What DriftRoute is, and is not

DriftRoute sells single snow removal visits to homeowners, and local providers perform them. When you request a visit, DriftRoute is the seller and the merchant of record for it: your contract for the visit is with DriftRoute, you pay DriftRoute for it, the charge on your card is DriftRoute’s, and DriftRoute handles refunds, problem reports and disputes about it. A provider performs the work under its agreement with DriftRoute, which is these Terms. Providers are independent businesses or individuals, not employees, agents or partners of DriftRoute, and DriftRoute does not itself operate the equipment that clears snow.

Providers set their own base prices. A quote is the provider’s own base price, adjusted by a fixed, visible amount for property size that DriftRoute sets. DriftRoute also sets a ceiling on base prices, $150, to prevent fraud, and a minimum, $10, which is technical: below it, a cancellation fee would be less than a card can be charged.

Before a provider is listed, DriftRoute reviews their application and the insurance evidence they upload: general liability of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate; auto liability for any vehicle, ride-on machine or stand-on machine used to clear snow, such as a plow truck, and for any ATV, UTV or tractor used during visits or between driveways, including to carry or tow equipment, of at least $1,000,000 combined single limit (using walk-behind equipment, including self-propelled snow blowers, or driving a car or truck to visits doesn’t require it); and workers’ compensation evidence: a current policy, a Notice of Exclusion (WC-337) stamped by Michigan’s Workers’ Disability Compensation Agency, or, from a sole proprietor with no employees, its declaration made in its DriftRoute account. These amounts are DriftRoute’s own requirements, not legal minimums. A person reviews each document, and a provider whose required coverage is no longer current stops receiving new work, and its visits that have not started are canceled, with no charge to the homeowner. The review checks each document’s dates and limits against these amounts; it is not a guarantee of a provider’s workmanship, of what a policy will pay in a given case, or of a provider’s identity beyond what their documents and Stripe’s verification show. Ratings are calculated only from completed visits reviewed by the homeowner who booked them.

03Accounts and sign-in

• Sign-in is provided by Clerk, our sign-in provider, with a one-time code sent to your email address or with your Google account; DriftRoute does not use passwords. You create your sign-in yourself, on Clerk’s sign-up page. Keep your email account secure: you are responsible for the security of the sign-in methods you use, and for everything done through your account.
• Homeowner, provider and operations accounts are separate roles with separate permissions. One sign-in may hold a homeowner profile and a place in one provider business: its own, or as a driver for another.
• Keep your profile accurate. Providers must keep their legal name, business structure, contact details, services, equipment, vehicle use, staffing and coverage documents current; material changes to an approved profile are reviewed again before they go live, and the approved listing stays up meanwhile, except that a change of business structure or staffing that the provider’s workers’ compensation evidence does not cover, including inviting a driver while relying on the sole proprietor declaration, pauses new work until DriftRoute has reviewed it and cancels the provider’s visits that have not started, with no charge to the homeowner.
• Do not share an account, impersonate anyone, or use another person’s documents or identity.

04Requesting and performing a visit

The quote

Every visit is a single job, not a seasonal contract. The quote is calculated by DriftRoute from the provider’s own base price, adjusted by a fixed, visible amount for property size. The quote is fixed when you request the visit and cannot be changed in the browser. A “Standard” property is three to four cars’ width; “Small” is up to two; “Large” is five to six.

What a visit includes

Each visit is one service, chosen when you request it, with no add-ons:

• Driveway plowing. A plow on a truck or other vehicle clears the whole driveway, pushing the snow into piles at the side.
• Snow blowing. A snow blower clears the whole driveway, throwing the snow off to the side.

One visit clears the snow on your driveway when your provider arrives, from the garage or parking pad to the street, including the end of the driveway and where a sidewalk crosses it, whatever the depth. A plow can leave a thin packed layer. Your provider sets their price knowing this and may decline a request. Not included: walks, steps, sidewalks, salting, and snow that falls, or that the city plow pushes back, after the visit. Deep snow is not a change in scope, so the quote cannot be raised on site. DriftRoute does not offer work beyond the visit, and it may not be arranged or paid for outside DriftRoute.

You choose the provider

DriftRoute lists the drivers of approved businesses that are taking requests. You choose one, and your request goes to that driver alone, who may accept or decline it. DriftRoute does not assign or substitute a provider, and never moves a request or a visit to another driver or business: if a request is declined, expires or is canceled, you may choose again.

Requests are time-boxed

You can have one request waiting for an answer at a time for the same time: “Soonest available” counts as the day you request it, and “Tomorrow morning” as the morning it is for. To send another for that time, wait for the answer, or cancel the waiting request, which costs nothing. A “Soonest available” request must be answered within 30 minutes; a “Tomorrow morning” request within two hours, and by 9 pm Michigan time the evening before at the latest. A request not answered in time expires, and a declined or expired request releases the card hold; your bank may take some time to remove the pending authorization. A declined or expired request costs you nothing. DriftRoute does not guarantee that any request will be accepted or that a provider will arrive at a particular time.

The lifecycle

A visit moves through Requested, Accepted, En route, Working and Completed; a request the provider declines, or does not answer in time, ends as Declined or Expired. Only the driver who accepted the request advances the job, and a job can be completed only with a photo of the finished work, which is attached to the visit. While a job is active the homeowner can follow the provider’s shared position on a map; that position is self-reported by the provider’s device, is not verified GPS, and may be unavailable or stale.

Canceling

A homeowner may cancel while a visit is Requested, Accepted or En route; once work has started it can no longer be canceled through DriftRoute. A provider may cancel a job they have accepted; repeated cancellations may lead operations to suspend their listing. Operations may cancel a visit where these Terms are not being met, and DriftRoute cancels an accepted job that has not started before its card hold would lapse, so that the hold does not lapse silently. What each cancellation costs is set out under “Payments, cancellations and refunds”.

At the property

• Homeowners are responsible for giving accurate address and access details, for noting hazards and obstacles (buried objects, drains, pets, vehicles, decorative features) in the property notes, and for ensuring the provider can lawfully enter the area to be cleared.
• Providers are responsible for performing the work safely, lawfully and to the declared scope, with the equipment and coverage they declared, and for not entering areas beyond what was requested.

Snow removal can damage what the snow hides

Even careful plowing or snow blowing can scrape or lift turf at the edges of a driveway, move gravel or loose stone, and strike things under or beside the snow: landscape lights, edging, sprinkler heads, drains, curbs, decorative stones, hoses and cords. A plow can leave a thin packed layer, and a cleared surface can freeze again. Before a visit, mark your driveway’s edges (for example with stakes or driveway markers), and use the property notes for hidden or fragile items, pets, vehicles and anything that must not be touched. This describes a risk; it is not a waiver. A provider remains responsible for damage caused by careless or negligent work.

Damage or injury

• The provider is responsible for its work. The business that performed the visit, and its insurer, are primarily responsible for bodily injury or property damage caused by the work, its drivers or its subcontractors. Make a claim for damage or injury to that business first.
• Tell DriftRoute. If the visit was charged, report it from the visit’s details within 24 hours of the charge: operations reviews it as set out under “Reporting a problem”, the provider is told of the report, and DriftRoute may refund up to what you were charged. A refund does not settle a claim against the provider. Damage found later, for example when the snow melts, can still be reported to support@driftroutemi.com, and the 24-hour window does not limit a claim against the provider.
• Keep evidence. Keep your own photos of the damage and a note of when you found it; the provider’s insurer may ask for them.
• Records. When the homeowner or the provider of a visit asks, DriftRoute will give them the visit’s records: the request and its property notes, the status history with times, the messages and the completion photo. When either of them asks in writing, DriftRoute will give the same records to their insurer.
• Nothing in this section releases DriftRoute from responsibility for its own acts or omissions, which “Disclaimers and limits on liability” governs.

Messages, photos and reviews

Use visit messages only for that visit. Completion photos must show the work performed at that property. A homeowner may rate and review a completed visit once; reviews must be honest and about the visit. You keep ownership of what you post and give DriftRoute a license to store, display and use it to run the service, including showing a completion photo to the homeowner and an aggregate rating on the provider’s listing.

05Payments, cancellations and refunds

DriftRoute is the merchant of record for each visit and sells it to you. Your card is charged by DriftRoute, through Stripe, for a completed visit or a cancellation fee, and Stripe sends the provider’s share to the provider when your card is charged. Refunds are made by DriftRoute. Card details are entered on Stripe’s payment form and never reach DriftRoute. Stripe’s consumer terms apply to the card payment itself.

Card holds

When you request a visit, a hold (authorization) for the quote is placed on your card, and nothing is charged. The hold is charged when the provider completes the job with a photo, and never above the amount held. A hold that is not charged is released, as the table below sets out. A request is visible to providers only once the hold succeeds, and your bank may show the hold as pending. DriftRoute may review a charge before it is made, for example when its fraud checks flag a payment; your card stays held meanwhile, and the hold is charged or released before it would lapse.

Reporting a problem

For 24 hours after a charge (a completed visit or a cancellation fee) you may report a problem from the visit’s details, describing it in your own words. DriftRoute handles the report: its operations team reviews the report, the completion photo, the messages and the status history, and decides whether to refund you, any amount up to what you were charged, or not. Refunds are made by DriftRoute, to the card that was charged. You are emailed the decision. A problem raised after the window can still be sent to us, and any refund is then at DriftRoute’s discretion.

Disputes with your card issuer

Please give us the chance to resolve a problem before disputing a charge with your bank. If a charge is disputed, DriftRoute handles the dispute and submits the visit’s records to Stripe as evidence. While a dispute is open, no refund can be made outside it, and a dispute lost by the homeowner leaves the charge in place.

Holds that lapse

A card hold lasts about seven days. If a hold lapses while a job is active (for example, a bank releases it early) the provider’s job still completes and DriftRoute may contact you to settle the visit by another means; you remain responsible for paying DriftRoute for work that was performed.

Taxes and receipts

Prices are shown in United States dollars. Snow removal services are not subject to Michigan sales or use tax, so no sales tax is added to a quote. Stripe’s receipt is the receipt for a charge. Test-mode deployments, marked as such in a banner, move no real money.

06Additional terms for providers

• Eligibility. You must be at least 18, authorized to operate your business, and hold the coverage DriftRoute requires for the services you declare. For workers’ compensation, DriftRoute accepts a current policy; a Notice of Exclusion (WC-337) stamped by Michigan’s Workers’ Disability Compensation Agency, when everyone who works for your business is excluded on it and it uses no subcontractors; or, from a sole proprietor with no employees, the sole proprietor declaration. An LLC, a corporation or a partnership cannot make the declaration, even with a single owner.
• Your listing. You set your own base price, of at most $150, the ceiling DriftRoute sets to prevent fraud, and your service area, services, equipment and availability. Turn availability off when you cannot take work. You are listed only while approved, available and covered, and while Stripe reports your payout account able to receive transfers.
• Accepting work. Accept only jobs you will perform. Once accepted, head out, start and complete the job through DriftRoute so the homeowner can follow it, and attach a photo of the finished work to complete it.
• Location sharing. Turning sharing on, or “Head to job”, which starts it, shares your device’s position with the homeowner of a job you are on and with operations, and, while you are available for requests, on DriftRoute’s public map, where anyone visiting the website can see it without signing in while it is less than 90 seconds old. It shows where your device is, including at home, so turn sharing or new requests off before you head home. You may stop at any time; stopping deletes the stored position. DriftRoute never sends your position to a routing service.
• Independence. You decide which requests to accept. You choose and control your equipment, crew and drivers, your routes, the order of your jobs and the methods you use. DriftRoute does not direct or supervise the work while it is done. Nothing in these Terms creates employment, agency, partnership or a joint venture between you and DriftRoute, and you are responsible for your own taxes, licenses, permits, insurance, staff and subcontractors.
• What DriftRoute requires. Because DriftRoute sells each visit, it sets the conditions of the visit and checks some things before and after it. DriftRoute:
  • reviews your application and coverage documents before you are listed, and changes to reviewed details before they go live;
  • requires the coverage set out under “What DriftRoute is, and is not”, and takes you off new work, canceling your visits that have not started, when required coverage is not current;
  • defines the services and what a visit includes, fixes the quote when a request is sent, and sets the size adjustment and the limits on base prices;
  • sets the time to answer a request and the cancellation rules, including the cancellation fee;
  • requires each step of a visit to be recorded in DriftRoute, and a photo of the finished work to complete it;
  • sets DriftRoute’s share of each charge, and may review a charge before it is made or hold the charges for your business’s visits for review;
  • reviews problem reports and decides refunds;
  • forbids arranging or taking payment outside DriftRoute for work beyond a visit, and soliciting a homeowner during a visit to take future work off DriftRoute;
  • may suspend your business, which stops new work and location sharing and cancels your visits that have not started.
  These are conditions of selling the visit, not instructions on how to perform it.
• Conduct. Do not solicit a homeowner to take future work off the platform during a visit you obtained through it, contact homeowners outside the visit, or use a homeowner’s address for any purpose other than performing the visit.
• Review and suspension. Operations may request changes or suspend a listing where documents are missing, expired or inaccurate, where a problem report or dispute indicates a breach of these Terms, or to protect users. Suspension stops new work and location sharing, and cancels visits that have not started, with no charge to the homeowner; operations closes any visit already under way.
• Insurance. Keep the coverage described under “What DriftRoute is, and is not” in force, at the amounts stated there, while you are listed. Coverage that is not current takes you off new work and cancels your visits that have not started. DriftRoute does not need to be named as certificate holder or additional insured.
• Workers’ compensation. (“Provider” means you and your business.) Only Provider’s owners and employees may perform DriftRoute visits. Before any change to Provider’s workers’ compensation basis, Provider must update its information and provide evidence acceptable to DriftRoute. Provider shall reimburse DriftRoute and its insurer for any loss paid or incurred under MCL 418.171 arising from a claim involving Provider’s personnel, including compensation, benefits, defense costs, and related expenses.
• Indemnity. You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless DriftRoute LLC and its members, managers, employees and agents from and against all claims, losses, damages, liabilities and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of the work you, your drivers or your subcontractors perform or fail to perform, including bodily injury and damage to property, except to the extent a claim is caused by DriftRoute’s own negligence or willful misconduct.
• Drivers. A business may invite people to perform its visits under their own sign-in. By inviting a driver, the business warrants that the person is one of its owners or employees, not an independent contractor or subcontractor, is covered as DriftRoute requires by the insurance it has on file with DriftRoute, and is permitted to operate its equipment. The business also warrants that every person who drives a vehicle for its work, its owner included, holds a valid driver’s license for that vehicle, and that all of this stays true while the person works for it. By accepting an invitation, the driver confirms they are at least 18, says whether they will drive a vehicle for the business’s work and, if they will, confirms that they hold a valid driver’s license, and agrees to these Terms and the Privacy Policy, including sharing their location: on the public map while they are available for requests, and with the customer and operations during a job. A driver may change that answer at any time, and the business may record that a driver does not drive a vehicle for it. DriftRoute records these statements, each with the version of these Terms it was given under, and does not check them: it does not check licenses. The business remains responsible for its drivers’ work, and the base price, pay and reviews for the visits its drivers perform belong to the business, not to the driver. A business may end a driver’s access at any time, and operations may do so on a credible report. Ending access cancels the driver’s visits that have not started, with no charge to the homeowner.

07Provider pay and fees

• Your Stripe account. You are paid through Stripe Connect, to an account you open on Stripe’s pages. You agree to Stripe’s Connected Account Agreement, which governs that account. Stripe verifies your identity and bank details during onboarding and may ask you for more information; DriftRoute shows Stripe’s notices in your Business settings so that payments to you are not interrupted.
• What you receive. For each charge, a completed visit or a cancellation fee, you receive 85% and DriftRoute keeps 15%, rounded to the cent. DriftRoute pays Stripe’s processing fees out of its 15%; they are never taken from your share. For example, a $48.00 visit pays you $40.80, and DriftRoute keeps $7.20.
• When. Your share is moved to your Stripe account by Stripe when the homeowner’s card is charged; DriftRoute holds no payout. Stripe then pays out to your bank on its own schedule, which may hold a new account’s first payout for longer. A charge DriftRoute reviews before it is made, for example when its fraud checks flag a payment or while it holds payments to your business for review, is made when the review ends.
• Completed work not collected. If you complete a visit with its photo and the homeowner’s card is not charged (the hold lapsed, the charge failed, or DriftRoute released the hold after a review), DriftRoute still owes you 85% of the quote and pays it to your Stripe account, unless it records a reason you are not owed it, such as work not done or fraud.
• Cancellation fee. When a homeowner cancels while you are en route, you receive 85% of the 25% cancellation fee when it is charged. Canceling a job yourself never earns a fee and releases the homeowner’s hold.
• Problems, refunds and disputes. DriftRoute handles problem reports, refunds and card disputes. A refund DriftRoute makes takes back your share of it, the amount refunded less DriftRoute’s fee on it, from your Stripe balance, and you agree to that reversal. If your Stripe balance cannot cover it, DriftRoute refunds the homeowner from its own Stripe balance, and you owe DriftRoute your share of that refund: DriftRoute may recover it from you later by reversing your transfer, or write it off. A card dispute never takes your share: a dispute DriftRoute loses is carried by DriftRoute.
• Taxes. You are responsible for income and other taxes on what you receive. DriftRoute, not Stripe, issues the Form 1099 the law requires for what you receive, using the tax details Stripe collects from you during onboarding.

08Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• use DriftRoute for anything unlawful, or to harass, threaten or discriminate against anyone;
• enter false information, upload documents that are not yours or are altered, or post reviews or photos that misrepresent a visit;
• request visits you do not intend to honor, or accept jobs you do not intend to perform;
• probe, scan or test the security of DriftRoute, interfere with its operation, scrape it, or access another person’s information or an area you are not authorized to see;
• copy, resell or build a competing service from DriftRoute’s listings, data or software.

We may remove content, cancel visits, and suspend or close accounts that breach these Terms, and we will preserve and hand over records where the law requires.

09Disclaimers and limits on liability

What DriftRoute promises about a visit

A visit is offered and charged as these Terms describe: the scope in “What a visit includes”, at the quote fixed when you request it, charged only as “Payments, cancellations and refunds” sets out. If a visit is not performed as described, your remedy from DriftRoute is to report a problem and ask for a refund, as “Reporting a problem” sets out; for damage or injury, see “Damage or injury”.

Disclaimer of warranties

DriftRoute is provided “as is”. To the fullest extent the law allows, DriftRoute makes no other warranty about the platform, about any provider or homeowner, or about the work performed, including any implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free, that a request will be accepted, that a provider will arrive at a particular time, that a shared position or map is accurate, or that a completion photo shows every part of a property.

Snow and ice work is inherently variable. Conditions can change between a request and a visit, and a cleared surface can become slippery again. A visit does not guarantee that a surface is safe.

Limit on DriftRoute’s liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, DriftRoute’s total liability to you for all claims arising out of or relating to a visit, whatever the legal theory, is limited to the price of that visit, and for all claims that relate to no visit, to $100. DriftRoute is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue or data. DriftRoute is not liable for the acts or omissions of a homeowner, or of a provider beyond DriftRoute’s own obligations as the seller of the visit under these Terms.

What these limits do not cover

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes DriftRoute’s liability for bodily injury (including death), gross negligence, willful misconduct or fraud, or for anything else Michigan law does not allow to be limited or excluded. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain other limits; where that applies, these limits apply to the fullest extent permitted.

Your indemnity

You will defend and hold harmless DriftRoute and its members, managers, employees and agents from claims, losses and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your content, your performance of or failure to perform a visit, or your violation of law or of another person’s rights, except to the extent a claim is caused by DriftRoute’s own negligence or willful misconduct.

10Ending the agreement

You may close your account at any time by asking us; visits already in progress will be completed or canceled under the rules above, and any payment or refund still owed is settled. We may suspend or close an account for a breach of these Terms, where required by law, or if DriftRoute stops operating, with notice where practical. Sections that by their nature should survive (payment obligations already incurred, content licenses, disclaimers, limits on liability, indemnity and governing law) survive the end of the agreement.

11General terms

• Governing law and venue. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Michigan and applicable United States federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute that cannot be resolved between us will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Michigan, and you consent to their jurisdiction. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking relief in small-claims court where it is available.
• Changes. We may update these Terms as the service develops. We will post the updated Terms here with a new date and, for a material change, tell you in the app or by email and ask you to accept them. A material change binds a provider business only once its owner accepts it in the app. Until then, the previous Terms continue to apply to the business, and if its owner has not accepted the change by the date we give when we ask, the business gets no new work until its owner does; jobs it has already accepted are not affected. For anyone else, continuing to use DriftRoute after that date means you accept the change; a visit requested under earlier Terms is governed by the Terms shown when it was requested.
• Notices. Notices to you are given in the app or to your verified sign-in email. Notices to DriftRoute go to support@driftroutemi.com. Legal notices may also be sent by post to DriftRoute LLC, PO Box 12, Belmont, MI 49306.
• Whole agreement. These Terms and the Privacy Policy are the whole agreement between you and DriftRoute about the service. If any part is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our not enforcing a term is not a waiver of it. You may not assign this agreement; we may assign it as part of a change of ownership of DriftRoute, with notice to you.
• Third-party terms. Map data is © OpenStreetMap contributors and used under the Open Database License. Payments, and providers’ Stripe accounts, are also subject to Stripe’s terms linked above. Sign-in is subject to Clerk’s terms, and to Google’s if you sign in with Google.