[andy318]

Anyone know Leap's arragement with their drivers? Their TOS makes it seem like the Uber for buses.

From Terms of service - "LEAP DOES NOT PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES, AND LEAP IS NOT A TRANSPORTATION CARRIER. IT IS UP TO THE DRIVER OR VEHICLE OPERATOR TO OFFER TRANSPORTATION SERVICES WHICH MAY BE ARRANGED THROUGH USE OF THE SERVICES"

[jsprogrammer]

You missed the best part:

>[Leap Transit, Inc] OFFERS INFORMATION AND A METHOD TO OBTAIN THIRD PARTY TRANSPORTATION SERVICES, ^^BUT DOES NOT AND DOES NOT INTEND TO PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES^^ OR ACT IN ANY WAY AS A TRANSPORTATION CARRIER, AND HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR ANY TRANSPORTATION SERVICES PROVIDED TO YOU BY SUCH THIRD PARTIES.

[jsprogrammer]

Some more goodies:

>We do not guarantee and do not promise any specific results from use of Leap and/or the Services.

>We, our subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees and our suppliers specifically disclaim any implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

They also don't offer any refunds:

>Any fees that Leap Transit may charge You for the Licensed Application or Services are due immediately and are non-refundable. This no refund policy shall apply at all times regardless of your decision to terminate your usage, our decision to terminate your usage, disruption caused to our Licensed Application or Services either planned, accidental or intentional, or any reason whatsoever.

So, they are basically saying they won't transport you, they don't make any claims to transport you [despite what their landing/marketing page appears to say], they will take your money if you think they will transport you, and they won't give it back to you when they don't transport you [which they never claimed to (except on their homepage)].

[joshrotenberg]

This might have been a decent gig for Lloyd Dobler:

"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."

[joshrotenberg]

What's confusing to me is the relationship they have with the, uh, hardware, when compared to Uber. They clearly have their own buses, but they aren't a transportation service, yet they somehow pay people to drive their buses to provide transportation. Seems like there is an even bigger dependence on various loopholes to operate this when compared with 1-1 ride sharing.

[baby]

Isn't it a way to get out of all legal issues so they can test if their start up works? I mean they only have one small route in one city, at this point it's more a test than a real big company.

[jsprogrammer]

Got to love it when the ALL CAPS directly contradicts all published marketing and intuition.

>see why Leap is the daily commute you’ll love

>Here’s how you ride

>Our first route travels between Lombard Street and Downtown.

>You’ll love our buses

>Our buses are fueled by renewable natural gas and take cars off the road.

>We stripped our buses down

>Every bus has a Leap team member on board

>Our beautifully designed app is the perfect companion to our buses

It sounded somewhat cool until you brought up these terms in their TOS. Now I'm just thinking: fuck these guys.

[ojbyrne]

Especially when the FAQ says:

"Do you use professional drivers?

All of our drivers have years of experience driving public and private transit. Each driver must pass through a complete background check and adhere to a zero tolerance alcohol and drug policy."

It sounds like its just a way to make bus drivers 1099 contractors, while dictating everything they do, since it seems unlikely to me that there are many bus owner/operators.

[ibejoeb]

I don't know if you should go that far. It's probably just a practical matter of operating a carrier. It might not be advantageous to combine logistics and operators, just like it's not really practical to build the motor vehicles themselves, even for large operations like city public transit.

[jsprogrammer]

Fine, but who knows if that's true.

State that up front then, don't bury it in ALL CAPS in your lengthy disclaimer on a separate page while having all your marketing material present a much different view of what you are actually offering.

Most likely this is an attempt to maximize the "app's" profits while pushing as much liability as possible off on to other people (ie. the driver and your "users") and to flout industry standards and regulations.

[jellicle]

> From Terms of service - "LEAP DOES NOT PROVIDE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES, AND LEAP IS NOT A TRANSPORTATION CARRIER. IT IS UP TO THE DRIVER OR VEHICLE OPERATOR TO OFFER TRANSPORTATION SERVICES WHICH MAY BE ARRANGED THROUGH USE OF THE SERVICES"

Shameful. I hope these guys - meaning everyone tempted to try to get rich by ignoring the law, including but not limited to Leap - go to jail. Some decent jail sentences would be educational for the rest.