Terms of service
Last updated: August 25, 2026
These are the rules for using Joontos. They're written to be read, not to be skimmed past. Using the app means you agree to them.
In these terms, "Joontos," "we," and "us" mean the Joontos app and the people who run it. "You" means you, the person using it.
1. What Joontos is — and what it isn't
Joontos introduces neighbors who are already making the same trip. That's all it does. You browse people going your way, you choose who you want to ride with, and the two of you arrange it between yourselves.
Joontos is not a transportation company. We do not operate vehicles. We do not employ, contract, supervise, dispatch, or direct drivers. We are not a taxi service, a transportation network company (TNC), a charter or livery service, a carrier, or a travel agency. We do not accept bookings, guarantee that a ride will happen, or take responsibility for whether it does.
The ride is between the two of you. Joontos is the introduction. Everything after that — whether you get in the car, whether you show up, how you treat each other — is yours.
2. Cost-sharing, not a fare
Joontos calculates a suggested split of the cost of a trip the driver was already making, based on distance and the standard federal (IRS) mileage rate.
This is cost-sharing, not payment for a service. A rider is chipping in on a trip that was happening anyway. A driver is not earning income, is not being hired, and is not providing transportation for compensation. Drivers should not use Joontos to make money, and the app is not built to let them: it will never suggest a split above a share of the real cost of the trip.
Joontos never handles the money. We do not hold, transfer, process, or guarantee any payment. There is no wallet, no card on file, and no connection to your bank. The app calculates a number and keeps track of whether you've both marked it settled. The actual money moves between the two of you, however you already pay each other.
That also means: if someone doesn't pay you back, Joontos cannot recover it for you. We have no money of yours to return and no way to take money from anyone else. Ride with people you're willing to be owed a few dollars by.
3. You must be 18, and the account is yours alone
You must be at least 18 years old to use Joontos.
Keep one account, keep it accurate, and keep your password to yourself. What happens under your account is your responsibility. Tell us right away if you think someone else got into it.
Use your real first name and a real photo of yourself. The whole app rests on a stranger being able to recognize you at a corner and trust that you are who the screen says you are.
4. If you drive
You are responsible for your own vehicle and your own legal obligations. By offering to drive, you confirm that:
- You hold a valid driver's licence.
- Your vehicle is registered, road-legal, and in safe working condition.
- You carry at least the auto insurance California law requires.
- You will obey traffic laws, and you will not drive under the influence of anything.
Joontos does not check any of this. We do not verify licences, registrations, insurance, driving records, or criminal history. We do not run background checks. The app deliberately does not display a "verified" badge on anyone, because nothing has been verified. When you get in a car, you are getting in a neighbor's car — the way you would with a coworker or a friend of a friend.
Check your own insurance. Personal auto policies handle cost-sharing differently, and some exclude anything they consider commercial driving. That's a conversation with your own insurer, not with us.
5. Rides, payments, and legal compliance
Joontos is a platform that introduces people traveling in the same direction. Joontos does not provide, arrange, operate, or broker transportation services, does not employ or contract with drivers, and is not a party to any arrangement you make with another user. Joontos does not process, collect, hold, or transfer payments of any kind.
Any arrangement regarding costs, contributions, or payment is made solely between you and the other user, off-platform, and at your own risk.
You are solely responsible for complying with all applicable laws, regulations, and licensing requirements in every jurisdiction you travel through or operate in. This includes, without limitation, laws governing for-hire and commercial passenger transportation, motor carrier licensing and permitting, and insurance requirements. Some jurisdictions treat accepting any payment for a ride — including contributions toward fuel or other costs — as operating a for-hire transportation service requiring a license, and impose substantial penalties including fines and vehicle impoundment.
You must independently verify what the law requires where you drive. Joontos does not provide legal advice, makes no representation that any arrangement you enter into is lawful, and disclaims all liability arising from your use of the platform or any arrangement made through it.
6. Community rules
Joontos only works if people are decent to each other. Use it and:
- Show up, or say you can't. Someone is standing on a corner because of you.
- Be respectful. No harassment, threats, slurs, sexual advances, hate speech, or intimidation — in chat, in the car, or anywhere else.
- Don't discriminate. No refusing or mistreating people over race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, immigration status, or anything like it.
- Be honest. No pretending to be someone else, no fake photos, no made-up cars or plates, no fake reviews, no using someone else's account.
- Don't turn it into a business. No advertising, recruiting, soliciting, or selling to people you meet through Joontos.
- Don't misuse other people's information. What you see in the app — a meeting point, a plate, a social handle — is for arranging your ride. Don't save it, share it, publish it, or use it to find someone outside the app.
- Don't attack the app. No scraping, no automated access, no attempting to break the security or reach data that isn't yours.
- Nothing illegal. No transporting anything unlawful, no using Joontos to commit a crime.
We can suspend or remove any account that breaks these rules, and in serious cases we'll do it without warning. Reports and blocks feed into that. Reports are kept even if the reported person deletes their account.
If you feel unsafe, get out of the situation first. If it's an emergency, call 911. Then report or block the person in the app.
7. Ratings, reports and blocks
You can rate someone once after your first ride together. Rate honestly. Ratings are shown to other people to help them decide.
You can report or block anyone. The person you report is not told who reported them. We review reports and act on them at our discretion — sometimes that means removing an account, sometimes it means watching. We can't promise a particular outcome, and we can't act on what we don't know, so please do report things.
8. What you put in the app
Your messages, your photo, your profile text and your trips stay yours. By putting them in Joontos, you give us permission to store and display them inside the app so it can work — showing your photo to a possible carpool partner, delivering your message, and so on. Nothing more. We don't sell it, license it to anyone, or use it to advertise.
Don't upload anything you don't have the right to use, and don't upload anything obscene, hateful, or illegal.
9. Things we don't promise
We built Joontos carefully and we test it hard, but we have to be straight with you:
- We don't promise you'll find a match, or that anyone will agree to ride with you.
- We don't promise the app will always be available, fast, or bug-free.
- We don't promise that a driver will show up, arrive on time, drive safely, or behave well — and the same goes for riders.
- We don't vouch for anyone. Profiles, ratings, cars and plates are what people typed in themselves.
- We don't promise the estimated cost split matches what a trip actually costs you. It's an estimate based on mileage, offered as a fair starting point.
The app is provided "as is," without warranties of any kind, to the fullest extent the law allows.
10. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by California law:
Joontos is not liable for what happens between you and another person you meet through the app. That includes accidents, injury, death, property damage, theft, harassment, assault, unpaid money, missed rides, or any other loss arising from a ride, a person, or an interaction that started here. You use Joontos, and you get in a car, at your own risk and on your own judgment.
We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages. Where we are found liable for anything, our total liability to you is limited to one hundred U.S. dollars ($100) — a figure that reflects the plain fact that Joontos is free and never takes a cent from your ride.
Nothing here limits liability that California law does not allow us to limit, including for our own fraud, gross negligence, or willful misconduct.
You agree to cover us for claims brought against Joontos because of something you did — your driving, your conduct, your breaking of these rules, or your violation of someone else's rights.
11. Ending it
You can leave whenever you want. Delete your account in the app: Me → Delete my account. It's immediate and it's real. If you owe someone money in the app, you'll be asked to mark your side settled first; you're only ever held to your own half.
We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, that puts other people at risk, or where we're required to.
Sections 2, 9, 10, and 12 survive the end of your account, because that's when they matter.
12. California law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute goes to the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles County, California, and you and we both agree to that.
Before filing anything, email us. Most problems are a misunderstanding and get fixed in a day. We'll do the same before we come at you.
13. The rest
- Changes. We may update these terms. The date at the top changes, and if a change matters we'll tell you in the app. Keeping on using Joontos after that means you accept the new version.
- The whole agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between you and Joontos about the app.
- If a piece fails. If a court decides one part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still stands.
- Not a waiver. If we don't enforce something right away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later.
- You can't hand it off. You can't transfer your account or these terms to someone else. We can transfer them if Joontos is ever acquired or reorganized.
Contact
Joontos · Los Angeles, California