Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

Pasabaya is operated by Artem Blazhievskii (ablzh on GitHub). Pasabaya is a volunteer project, not a company. In these Terms, "Pasabaya" or "the Service" means the platform, and "we", "us", or "our" refers to Artem Blazhievskii as its operator.

By creating an account, browsing ride listings, publishing a ride post, requesting a seat, or otherwise accessing Pasabaya.app ("the Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to all of these Terms, you must not access or use the Service.

Our Privacy Policy explains how personal data is collected, used, shared, and retained. Accepting these Terms does not waive your data privacy rights or replace any separate consent required by law.

2. Eligibility & User Representations

You must be at least 18 years of age to register or use Pasabaya.app. By using the platform, you represent and warrant that:

• You have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement under Philippine law.
• You have never been convicted of a crime involving physical violence, harassment, sexual misconduct, extortion, theft, or any felony offense.
• If you offer a ride as a driver:
  1. You hold a valid, unexpired Philippine Driver's License appropriate for your vehicle classification.
  2. The vehicle you operate possesses current, valid Land Transportation Office (LTO) registration (Official Receipt and Certificate of Registration - OR/CR).
  3. The vehicle is covered by at least valid Compulsory Third Party Liability (CTPL) insurance as required by Philippine law.
  4. The vehicle is maintained in a safe, roadworthy mechanical condition.

These are your declarations. Pasabaya does not independently verify your age, identity, criminal history, license, vehicle registration, or insurance. Keep your account details accurate and your login credentials private.

3. Nature of the Platform

Pasabaya provides tools for publishing one-time or recurring driver offers, requesting and accepting passenger seats, receiving route alerts, and coordinating trips. Drivers choose their routes, travel days, departure times, and available seats. Pasabaya does not operate vehicles or direct drivers' journeys.

Drivers and passengers connect as independent private individuals. Any travel arrangement, route selection, meeting point, or schedule agreement is formed solely between the respective users. Pasabaya is not a party to any contract, arrangement, or understanding formed between users.

4. Non-Commercial Expense Sharing & Prohibition of Commercial Transport

Pasabaya is strictly dedicated to non-commercial carpooling between private individuals traveling toward a shared destination:

• Voluntary Expense Sharing: Where permitted by applicable law, travelers may voluntarily agree to share actual, out-of-pocket travel expenses such as fuel and tolls. Contributions must relate to the shared journey and must not generate profit or remuneration for the driver. Agree any contribution before traveling.
• Prohibition of Commercial Exploitation: Users are strictly prohibited from using Pasabaya to operate unauthorized public passenger transport ("colorum"), run taxi or shuttle services, offer commercial courier or cargo dispatch, or solicit fares for hire or reward.
• Direct Peer Settlement: Any permitted contribution is agreed and settled directly between users outside Pasabaya. Pasabaya does not set contribution amounts, collect or enforce payment, or adjudicate payment disputes.

Use of a free platform or sharing expenses does not establish an exemption from transport laws. Drivers must comply with applicable permit, franchise, licensing, registration, and insurance requirements. Pasabaya does not grant transport authority or insurance coverage.

5. Platform Fees & Payments

Pasabaya charges zero commission, zero booking fees, and zero service charges to drivers or passengers. The platform contains no in-app wallet, payment processing gateway, escrow mechanism, fare calculator, or dynamic rate engine. Pasabaya never receives, processes, collects, or disburses money on behalf of any user.

6. Seat Requests, Recurring Rides & Cancellations

All seat reservations on ride offers require explicit driver review and approval:

• Requests & Confirmation: Sending a seat request does not reserve a seat. A seat is confirmed only when the driver accepts the request while seats remain available and the trip and participants remain eligible. Drivers may accept or decline requests for lawful reasons, subject to the platform's availability and audience rules.
• Recurring Offers: Drivers choose the weekdays and departure time in Philippine time. A regular ride makes individual departures available up to 14 days ahead. Without an end date, it repeats until paused or ended. Passengers must request a seat for each departure; acceptance does not reserve seats on other dates.
• Schedule Changes: Editing a series does not automatically change departures that already have pending or accepted requests. Review those departures separately. Pausing a series stops new requests and expires pending requests while preserving accepted bookings. Resuming does not revive expired requests or canceled departures. Ending the series cancels its future departures, including accepted bookings.
• Closing Requests & Canceling: Closing a trip to new requests does not cancel accepted bookings. Drivers and passengers should use the cancellation controls promptly when they cannot travel and notify their companions. A confirmed booking can still be canceled; Pasabaya does not guarantee that a journey will take place.
• Ladies Only Rides: These offers require a driver and passengers whose profiles are set to female. Gender is self-declared. This preference does not verify identity or guarantee personal safety.
• Community Hub Rides: Rides posted within closed institutional hubs require email domain verification. Hub verification indicates that an institutional email address was verified; it does not constitute an endorsement, background investigation, or safety warranty by the institution or by Pasabaya.
• Route Alerts: An optional route alert requests a one-time notification about a matching, available offer. It does not book a seat or guarantee that the offer will remain available when you open it.

7. In-App Coordination Chat & Acceptable Use

The driver and accepted passengers receive access to their trip's coordination chat. Pending and declined requesters cannot access it. Eligible previously confirmed participants may retain access for cancellation coordination. Bans, account deletion, and loss of required hub access revoke chat access.

• Permitted Use: In-app chat must be used exclusively to coordinate trip logistics (such as pickup locations, delays, luggage capacity, and arrival estimates).
• Prohibited Conduct: You must not send harassment, hate speech, threats, sexually explicit material, stalking messages, fraudulent requests, unauthorized advertising, or off-platform commercial solicitations.
• Protect Your Information: Do not disclose bank account credentials, credit card details, e-wallet PINs, one-time passwords (OTPs), or government identity documents in chat. Share only what your companions need to coordinate the trip.
• Messaging & History Deadlines: Messaging closes 24 hours after the booking cutoff. If a trip is canceled while messaging is open, messaging closes 24 hours after cancellation. Cancellation does not reopen closed messaging or unavailable history. Authorized participants may read the conversation for another 30 days after messaging closes. At the history deadline, chat becomes inaccessible and deletion from the live database is scheduled. Background job delays can postpone physical deletion; backup copies follow the separate retention schedule in the Privacy Policy.
• Privacy & Moderation: Messages are protected in transit but are not end-to-end encrypted. Staff do not routinely monitor trip chat. Access may be necessary to investigate reported abuse, protect lawful rights, or comply with valid legal requirements, subject to applicable law and the retention deadlines. See the Privacy Policy for details.

8. Reliability, No-Show Incidents & Account Freezes

Community punctuality and accountability are essential for peer-to-peer carpooling:

• Mutual Reliability: Both drivers and passengers must arrive punctually at agreed meeting spots or notify companions in advance if unexpected delays arise.
• Reporting & Review: After a trip's departure, eligible participants may record trip outcomes and report a no-show. A report is an allegation, not a confirmed strike. An eligible administrator reviews the incident, records a reason for confirming or dismissing it, and notifies the reported account. Decisions can be corrected, with earlier decisions retained in the history. Submit reports honestly and avoid unnecessary personal information.
• 60-Day Rolling Window & Temporary Freezes: We count upheld no-show incidents in a rolling 60-day window. A decision that brings an account to three (3) or more upheld incidents triggers a 7-day freeze if it is not already frozen. During the freeze, the user cannot publish new offers, request seats, or accept new bookings. Active recurring schedules are paused. Existing accepted bookings are preserved, and a freeze alone does not remove otherwise authorized chat access. A paused schedule requires the driver's explicit action to resume after restrictions end.
• Questions About a Decision: Contact [email protected] with the relevant trip and decision details if you believe a decision is incorrect. Repeated or serious misconduct may lead to further restrictions or account termination.

9. Assumption of Risk & Safety Due Diligence

Traveling with other users involves risks. Consider the arrangements and your own circumstances before accepting or joining a ride.

Pasabaya does not conduct criminal background checks, license verification, or vehicle safety inspections. Take reasonable precautions before traveling:

• Meet in well-lit, public areas with visible foot traffic.
• Inspect the driver's license, vehicle plates, and registration documents before boarding.
• Share your ride details, route, and companion information with family members or trusted emergency contacts.
• Decline to board or leave immediately if you feel unsafe or observe signs of intoxication or reckless behavior.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Service is provided strictly on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express, statutory, or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable Philippine law, Pasabaya disclaims all warranties, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, roadworthiness of vehicles, driver competence, passenger conduct, and uninterrupted or error-free site operation.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by Philippine law, Pasabaya and its operators disclaim liability for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses arising from use of the Service. Users remain responsible for their own driving, conduct, travel arrangements, and obligations to one another. Pasabaya does not guarantee another user's performance, the availability of a seat, or the completion of a trip.

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability for our fraud, intentional misconduct, gross negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. These Terms do not waive your statutory rights or excuse Pasabaya from its obligations under applicable data privacy or other mandatory law.

12. Indemnification

To the extent permitted by Philippine law, you agree to indemnify Pasabaya and its operators against third-party claims and reasonable losses or legal costs to the extent caused by your unlawful conduct, infringement of another person's rights, or breach of these Terms. This obligation does not cover losses caused by Pasabaya's own wrongful acts or omissions, or require you to waive rights or assume liabilities that cannot lawfully be transferred to you.

13. Administration Rights, Suspension & Termination

To protect the community and enforce these Terms, Pasabaya may restrict, suspend, or terminate an account, listing, or membership where reasonably necessary, including when:

• You breach any provision of these Terms or community safety rules.
• We receive substantiated reports of harassment, abusive language, stalking, fraud, extortion, or reckless endangerment.
• We receive complaints regarding unauthorized commercial transport ("colorum") or fare solicitation.
• The platform administration reasonably determines that continued access presents a safety hazard to other community members.

Urgent safety or abuse concerns may require action before notice can be given. Restrictions remain subject to applicable law. You may contact [email protected] about an account restriction.

You may delete your account through Account Settings at any time. Deletion removes or replaces profile identifiers, stops recurring offers, cancels active commitments, and scrubs personal text. De-identified trip and safety history and separate recovery records may remain as described in the Privacy Policy; deletion does not promise that all historical records or backup copies disappear immediately.

14. Modifications to Terms

We may revise these Terms as the Service develops or legal requirements change. We will publish the revised version and effective date and announce material changes on the platform and by email to registered users. Where required by law, we will give advance notice or request acceptance before a change applies. If you do not agree to revised Terms, stop using the Service and cancel any ongoing arrangements responsibly. Changes to personal-data processing are also subject to the notices and consent requirements described in the Privacy Policy.