Split costs and save up to $228 per trip
on routes you're already driving

Seat Sherpa is cost-sharing, not commercial driving — same legal category as splitting gas with friends. Your personal auto insurance usually covers it the same way it would cover any personal trip, because our per-seat price cap keeps you in true cost-sharing territory and away from anything an insurer would call "commercial."

The one wrinkle: many personal auto policies contain a "livery exclusion" — language that excludes coverage when the vehicle is used "for hire." A reasonable insurer reading it correctly should say "cost-sharing isn't for-hire, you're covered." An aggressive claims adjuster looking for a reason to deny might point to the app-based payment and refuse to pay. You can't predict which interpretation a specific adjuster will pick when it matters.

Before your first trip, take 5 minutes to do one of these:

1. Call your insurance carrier, disclose that you'll be using Seat Sherpa to share trip costs, and get a quick answer on whether your policy covers it. For most carriers and most policies, the answer will be yes.
2. If you want extra peace of mind, add a ride-sharing endorsement (sometimes called a "rideshare rider") to your policy. Most CA/NV carriers — Mercury, Allstate, Progressive, State Farm, USAA — offer this for $15–$30/month. It explicitly removes any ambiguity in the livery exclusion.

You're driving on your own insurance — Seat Sherpa doesn't currently provide platform liability coverage. Knowing your coverage situation before you drive is the single most important thing you can do.

Passengers pay through the app via Stripe when they book. The money is held securely until you enter the passenger's 4-digit pickup code at the curb — that confirms the trip started and releases your share (95% of each seat) to your bank account through your connected Stripe account, paid out about 2 days later. The 5% we keep covers credit card processing and the platform's operating costs. Stripe handles all card details; we never see your card or your passenger's.

Seat Sherpa is a cost-sharing carpool platform, not a commercial transport service like Uber or Lyft. The legal difference matters: cost-sharing carpools don't need to be licensed as Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), which keeps everyone's life simpler — no commercial insurance requirements, no special permits, no $1M policies, lower fees.

For that to hold up, drivers can't profit from a trip — they can only recover what the trip actually costs to drive. The IRS publishes a standard mileage rate every year ($0.725/mile for 2026) that's universally accepted as a proxy for the real cost of operating a personal vehicle: gas, wear, depreciation, insurance. We use that as our ceiling:

max per-seat price = (trip distance × $0.725) ÷ seats offered

Examples (4 passenger seats):

• LA → San Diego (~120 mi) → max $20/seat
• LA → Vegas (~270 mi) → max $48/seat (IRS cap, still under the $60 ceiling)
• Bay → LA (~380 mi) → would calc to $68, capped at $60 (our hard ceiling)
• Bay → Las Vegas (~570 mi) → would calc to $103, capped at $60

On longer routes the IRS-rate cap is generous enough that our $60 brand ceiling takes over. On shorter routes the IRS cap binds. Either way, you can't price yourself into "commercial driver" territory by accident — when you post a ride the app shows the exact max for your route (trip distance × $0.725 ÷ seats offered) and won't let you set a seat price above it.

This is also why a rideshare endorsement isn't strictly required (see the insurance FAQ above): you're staying squarely in cost-sharing territory, which is what your personal auto insurance is designed to cover. The endorsement is a belt-and-suspenders option if you want extra peace of mind, not a legal necessity.

If they no-show, you don't enter their pickup code — and the booking stays in limbo until you cancel it with a reason. Per our cancellation policy, they may forfeit some or all of their fare depending on how close to departure it was. You drive your trip with the other passengers (if any) and the no-show pays the cancellation fee. You can also block a no-show passenger so you don't see them on future bookings.

Things happen. If you cancel a confirmed booking, passengers get a 100% refund automatically. Cancelling once or twice is fine; doing it routinely will affect your driver rating and your ride visibility in the marketplace. We expect drivers to honor the commitments they post.

Quite a bit, on the right trips. On an LA→Vegas run in a 5-seat car at $35/seat, you'd receive $133 after our 5% fee. A round-trip fill-up for that route runs $90–$120, so passenger contributions cover all your fuel — and a 7-seat van on Bay→LA saves up to $228, more than enough for gas, wear, and a meal at the destination. The IRS standard mileage rate ($0.725/mile, which accounts for gas + wear + depreciation + insurance) is the ceiling we enforce: you can't price above that. The result is cost-sharing, not commercial driving.

Often, yes — a real carpool has real perks. With two or more people in the car you can use HOV/carpool lanes to skip traffic, and with a FasTrak Flex tag set to your headcount, carpools get discounted (sometimes free) tolls in Bay Area express lanes and on the bridges. Heads up so you don't get dinged: most carpool lanes need 2+ occupants, but some — including the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge — need 3+, and the toll discounts only apply during posted carpool hours. Follow the signs for the lane you're in.

Every passenger verifies their phone via SMS at signup. They get a rating after every ride that other drivers see. You can also block passengers you don't want to see again — they'll never appear on your bookings or in your inbox. Two-way ratings build trust over time so the platform self-cleans.

It's how we confirm a trip actually happened. Each passenger sees a unique 4-digit code in their app. At pickup, you ask them for it and enter it in your app — that marks the trip as started and unlocks the "Mark complete" button. Without the code, the trip doesn't count and you don't get paid. It's a low-friction safety net against fraud on both sides (drivers claiming trips that didn't happen, passengers ghosting after paying).

Any safe, registered, insured passenger vehicle works — even a 2-seat coupe. You set the number of passenger seats you can offer when you post a ride (1 to 7), so the more seats you can share, the more of your trip costs get covered. Sedans, SUVs, vans, hybrids, EVs, pickups, coupes — all welcome. We verify your registration and license at signup. No specific make, model, or year requirements.

Anywhere within California and Nevada, for now. The most popular routes are SF↔LA, Bay↔Vegas, LA↔Vegas, LA↔San Diego, and LA↔Palm Springs, but you can post any route — including small towns, college campuses, and so on. We'll expand to Arizona and Oregon once CA/NV is humming.

Driving income is taxable. Stripe will issue you a 1099 if you earn $600+ in a calendar year. You're treated as an independent contractor — track your mileage, gas receipts, and a portion of vehicle maintenance as deductible business expenses. We're not tax advisors; consult one if your driving volume is significant.