Refund & Cancellation Policy

This policy applies to every monthly lift-club seat booked and paid for through RouteMate SA. It explains what refund a rider can expect when a booking is cancelled, and what happens when a driver can no longer provide the trip.

Riders book and pay for a full calendar month of trips up front. The total amount includes the driver's fare plus a RouteMate SA rider service fee.

The service fee covers platform costs, payment processing, support and dispute handling. It is shown clearly before checkout.

The refund amount depends on who cancelled and how many trips had already been taken when the cancellation came in.

How the money is returned depends on how the booking was paid: card payments are refunded through Paystack, and instant-EFT payments through Ozow.

When a rider cancels a booking they paid for, only the driver's portion of the payment is refundable. The rider-side service fee and the driver-side commission are retained by RouteMate SA. This applies even where the rider cancels before any trips have been taken.

The reason is simple: the driver's contact details are released to the rider as soon as payment clears. Retaining both commissions prevents a rider from paying purely to obtain a driver's contact details and then cancelling for a full refund.

Riders can cancel an active or upcoming booking from the Bookings section of their RouteMate SA account. Drivers can cancel or pause a route from their driver dashboard.

Once a cancellation is submitted, the refund tier is calculated automatically and any refund due is processed back to the original payment method.

Approved card-payment refunds are returned through Paystack to the card used for the original payment. Approved instant-EFT refunds are returned through Ozow to the originating bank account.

Depending on the rider's bank or card issuer, refunds usually reflect within 5–10 business days.

RouteMate SA does not charge an additional fee to process a refund, but the original payment provider's fees are non-recoverable.

If a driver cancels a route or declines a booking, the rider receives a full refund of fare and service fee.

RouteMate SA may also adjust or waive the driver's commission on that booking.

Cancelling a RouteMate SA membership stops future automatic Paystack card charges. It does not cancel any existing monthly seat bookings that have already been paid for.

Those bookings remain active for the paid month and are governed by the refund tiers above.

If you believe a cancellation or refund was processed incorrectly, contact our support desk with your booking reference. We review each dispute case by case.

RouteMate SA reserves the right to withhold or reverse a refund where fraud, abuse or a breach of the Terms & Conditions is involved.