Driver agreement

1. This agreement

This agreement is between NIK TRAVEL AGENCY PTY LTD (ABN 70 657 974 091), which operates Berim (“Berim”, “we”) and you, a driver who carries Berim passengers (“you”).

You accept it when you sign up in the Berim Driver app, or when you first accept a trip, whichever comes first. Our terms of use and privacy policy also apply. If they conflict with this agreement, this agreement wins.

2. You’re an independent contractor

• You provide driving services to Berim as an independent contractor, not as an employee, partner or agent.
• You choose when you’re available and which trips you accept. There are no minimum hours, and declining a trip offer before you accept it doesn’t count against you.
• You can drive for other businesses, including other transport operators, as long as you don’t do it during a Berim trip.
• You decide how you run your business and pay your own costs, except as this agreement says.

3. What you need to drive

Before your first trip, and at all times while you drive with us, you must have:

• a full Australian driver licence of the right class for the vehicle;
• a current NSW Point to Point Transport driver authorisation;
• the right to work in Australia;
• an ABN; and
• a finished Stripe payout account, so we can pay you.

For a vehicle you supply, you must also have:

• current registration, with the vehicle registered and authorised for passenger service as NSW law requires;
• CTP insurance for passenger use, plus at least third-party property insurance; and
• a valid safety inspection, where the law requires one.

Upload these documents in the app, and upload the new version before each one expires. We check them before you can accept trips. We may pause your access while a document is missing, expired or under review.

Tell us within 24 hours if any of these happen:

• your licence or authorisation is suspended, cancelled or given conditions;
• you’re charged with an offence that affects your fitness to drive passengers; or
• your vehicle’s insurance lapses.

4. Accepting and running trips

• Trip offers: each offer shows the pickup time, route, group size, bags and your pay before you accept it. Once you accept a trip, you’re committed to it.
• If you can’t make it: tell us as early as possible, and at least 24 hours before pickup unless there’s an emergency, so we can find another driver. Repeatedly cancelling accepted trips at short notice may lead to fewer offers or the end of this agreement.
• Be on time: arrive at pickup on time, in a clean, safe and roadworthy vehicle with enough seats and luggage space for the booking.
• Use the app: start and finish each trip in the app, and keep it running during the trip so passengers can see your location.
• Waiting and no-shows: wait at least 15 minutes after the pickup time, or 60 minutes after landing for tracked airport pickups. Try to call the passenger before you leave, and contact us before marking a no-show.
• Off-app trips: don’t take payment from Berim passengers outside the app, or arrange trips with them directly, during this agreement and for 6 months after it ends.

5. Safety and conduct

• Road rules: follow all road rules and Point to Point Transport laws. Where the Heavy Vehicle National Law applies to your vehicle, follow its fatigue rules and keep a work diary when they require it.
• Alcohol and drugs: never drive under the influence. The legal alcohol limit for drivers of public passenger vehicles is zero.
• Fatigue: don’t drive when you’re fatigued.
• Seatbelts and children: make sure passengers wear seatbelts where they’re fitted. Children must have the restraints NSW road rules require for your vehicle.
• Respect: treat passengers with respect. Don’t discriminate against anyone, including because of disability. Always accept assistance animals.
• Refusing or ending a trip: you may refuse or end a trip if a passenger is violent, threatening or abusive, puts anyone’s safety at risk, or breaks the law. Tell us straight away.
• Incidents: report any accident, injury, complaint or incident to us within 24 hours, and to police where the law requires. Some incidents must also be reported to the Point to Point Transport Commissioner.
• Lost property: return any lost property to us or the passenger as soon as you can.

6. Your pay

• Your share: for each completed trip, we pay you the driver share shown in the trip offer. We work it out from the fare under our pay settings, and fix it when the trip is completed.
• Tips: we pay you 100% of any tip.
• How you’re paid: we transfer your pay through Stripe to your payout account after each trip is completed and paid. Stripe then pays it into your bank account on its payout schedule. If your payout account isn’t ready, we hold your pay until it is.
• Statements: you can see each trip’s pay and payout status in the app.
• Adjustments: we may adjust a payment that was wrong. If a passenger gets a refund because of something within your control, we may also deduct a fair amount from future pay, for example for a no-show or a trip you didn’t complete. We’ll tell you why, and you can dispute it with us.
• Changes to pay settings: we’ll give you at least 14 days’ notice. Trips you’ve already accepted keep the pay shown when you accepted them.
• Your costs: you pay your own vehicle, fuel, tolls, phone and other running costs, unless the booking includes a toll or other charge we pass on to you.

7. Tax and insurance

• Tax: you’re responsible for your own income tax, and for GST registration and reporting if it applies to you. We don’t withhold tax from your pay unless the law requires it. Get advice from a registered tax agent about your situation.
• Passengers: Berim is the supplier of the trip to the passenger. We issue the passenger’s tax invoice and pay the NSW Passenger Service Levy.
• Insurance: you insure any vehicle you supply, as section 3 sets out. We hold public liability insurance for our business. We recommend you also get income protection and personal accident cover, because as a contractor you aren’t covered by workers compensation unless the law says otherwise.

8. Location and your information

• While a trip is in progress, the app shares your precise location with us and the trip’s passengers, including when it’s in the background. It stops when the trip ends.
• Passengers see your first name, vehicle and number plate.
• We keep your documents and trip records, and share them with regulators when the law requires, as our privacy policy explains.
• Use passengers’ names, phone numbers and addresses only for their trip. Don’t keep them, share them or contact passengers after the trip, except to return lost property.

9. Feedback and complaints about you

Passengers can rate trips and make complaints. We’ll tell you about any complaint that could affect your access, and give you a chance to respond before we decide. We may pause your access straight away while we look into a serious safety complaint.

10. Ending this agreement

• You: you can end this agreement at any time by deleting your account or emailing us. Finish or hand back any trips you’ve already accepted first.
• Us, with notice: we can end it by giving you 14 days’ notice.
• Us, straight away: we can end it, or pause your access, without notice if:
  • you no longer meet section 3;
  • you seriously or repeatedly break this agreement;
  • you put passenger safety at risk; or
  • you act dishonestly or fraudulently.

Whichever way it ends, we pay everything you earned up to the end date.

11. Responsibility and liability

• You’re responsible for loss or damage you cause through negligence, breaking the law or breaking this agreement. You agree to cover our reasonable losses from claims caused that way, except to the extent we caused them.
• We’re not liable for your indirect losses, such as lost earnings from trips not offered, except where the law doesn’t allow us to exclude them.
• Nothing in this agreement removes rights you have that the law says can’t be removed.

12. Changes, disputes and law

• Changes: we may change this agreement with 14 days’ notice in the app or by email. If you keep driving after that, you accept the change. If you don’t accept it, you can end the agreement before it takes effect.
• Disputes: raise any dispute with us first at support@berim.app. We’ll both try in good faith to settle it within 30 days before going further. If it’s still unresolved, either of us can refer it to mediation with a mediator we agree on, or to the courts.
• Law: this agreement is governed by the laws of New South Wales, and the courts of New South Wales can hear disputes about it.
• Whole agreement: this agreement, with the terms of use and privacy policy, is the whole agreement between us about driving for Berim.