This document sets out the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for Ride With Mates (ridewithmates.com), operated by Dynamik IT Solutions, a sole-operator IT solutions business based in Auckland, New Zealand.
By using Ride With Mates you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the service.
These terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand, including the Privacy Act 2020 and the Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017.
Ride With Mates is a free, community-based ride coordination tool. It helps groups of people — neighbours, workmates, teammates, or friends — organise carpools, share fuel costs, and reduce their emissions. It is not a transport service, taxi service, or rideshare platform.
By using Ride With Mates you agree to:
Dynamik IT Solutions reserves the right to remove any content or disable access to any group that violates these terms, without notice.
Ride With Mates is a coordination tool only. Dynamik IT Solutions accepts no liability whatsoever for any incidents, injuries, losses, or damages arising from carpool arrangements made through this service, including but not limited to road accidents, theft, personal injury, or property damage.
Drivers are solely responsible for ensuring their vehicle insurance covers the carriage of passengers. Many personal vehicle insurance policies in New Zealand do not cover passengers in a private vehicle used for a carpool arrangement. It is your responsibility to check with your insurer before offering rides.
Ride With Mates does not verify the identity of any user. Users are responsible for their own safety when deciding whether to share a ride with another person. Only share your group’s invite code with people you know and trust.
Ride With Mates is provided “as is” without any guarantee of uptime, availability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The service relies on third-party infrastructure (Firebase, OpenRouteService) and may be unavailable from time to time. Dynamik IT Solutions accepts no liability for any loss or inconvenience caused by service interruptions.
Driving distances and travel times shown in the app are estimates provided by OpenRouteService and may not reflect actual road conditions. Do not rely on them for safety-critical decisions.
Dynamik IT Solutions may suspend or terminate access to Ride With Mates at any time, with or without notice, including in cases of:
You may stop using the service at any time by signing out and requesting deletion of your data (see Your rights below).
Dynamik IT Solutions is committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how it is stored, and your rights regarding that information.
The following information may be collected and stored when you use Ride With Mates:
| Data | When collected | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Display name | When you join or create a group | To identify you to other group members on the rides board |
| Username (e.g. sarah_k#4829) | Generated automatically on first join | To allow you to sign back in after logging out |
| Group membership | When you join a group | To track how many members are in each group |
| Trip details (destination, time, seats, route) | When you post a ride | To display your trip to other group members |
| Pickup address | When you post a ride | Used only to calculate driving distance via OpenRouteService. Not shown publicly to other users. |
| Messages | When you send a message in a trip chat | To facilitate coordination between driver and passengers |
| Join timestamp | When you join a group | Administrative record |
Your data is used only for the following purposes:
We do not:
All data is stored in Google Firebase Firestore, located in the australia-southeast1 (Sydney, Australia) region. By using Ride With Mates you consent to your data being stored in Australia.
| Service | Purpose | Data shared |
|---|---|---|
| Google Firebase Firestore | Database & real-time data sync | All app data listed above. Subject to Google’s Privacy Policy. |
| OpenRouteService (ORS) | Driving distance calculation | Your pickup address and destination when you post a ride. Subject to ORS Privacy Policy. |
| Google Fonts | Typography | Your IP address may be logged by Google when fonts are loaded. Subject to Google’s Privacy Policy. |
We take reasonable steps to protect your data, including:
However, no system is completely secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your data and accept no liability for unauthorised access resulting from circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
Your data is retained for as long as your group exists in the system. Group admins can delete their group at any time, which removes all associated trips, messages, and member records from Firebase. Individual users can request deletion of their data at any time (see below).
Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 you have the right to:
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@dynamikitsolutions.com. We will respond within 20 working days as required by the Privacy Act 2020.
If you have any questions about these terms or our privacy practices, please get in touch:
For privacy complaints you may also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz or freephone 0800 803 909.
We may update these terms from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page will reflect the date of the most recent update. Continued use of Ride With Mates after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.