Late Returns & Theft Policy
Host Responsibilities
A Host needs to file a police report if:
Host learns their vehicle or vehicle keys has been stolen
If the GPS is no longer working during a security case
When Hosts report the theft to police:
They need to declare Drive mate as a secondary victim so we can assist with the details police might need to recover the vehicle.
Hosts should ensure they say the car’s borrowed through a car-sharing platform (NOT a rental). Saying the GPS has been disconnected can also often help trigger a police theft report
In case police won’t accept the report for some reason, but the car is definitely stolen, as a last resort, Host can cancel a car’s rego with reason of it being stolen, then report the issue again to police.
During a late return case that’s already with Drive mate’s Security Team, hosts might also be asked to report the vehicle as stolen after a certain period of time in the off-chance the repossession agent’s police report won’t be accepted.
Process: Late Return
Initial Process
Late return cases are flagged to our team after 15 minutes of a trip ending where a Guest hasn't completed the return steps and/or returned the car to its home location.
Once a late return is flagged to our team, it’ll be investigated to determine if the trip is really late or if the Guest just failed to complete the return steps but returned the car to its home location.
If after the investigation and the trip is really late, the team would reach out to the Guest to check what’s going on, and if we can let them extend the trip.
The team would communicate with the Host what’s going on as well to keep them informed, especially for cases where there’s another trip that would be affected by the late return case.
If after a day and the car’s still not returned, the team would raise the case to the Security for further assistance.
Security Claims
Once the case is with Security, they’ll help recover the vehicle either through a Ground Ops agent or a Repossession Agent, depending on the gravity of the situation.
If the GPS is no longer updating though, the case has to be reported to the Police.
If after 28 days and the car’s still not recovered, Security Team would raise it to Claims Team to declare the car’s unrecovered and may be deemed as a total loss.
If the car’s recovered, the case is endorsed to the Claims Team for liability and other issues discussion (e.g. damage or cleanliness issue/s on car, if any).Claims
The Claims Team would then continue communicating with the Host and Guest regarding the claims of the case (liability, case settlements, car repair, etc).
Process: Theft Cases
Initial process
A Host or Guest reports the theft to us and to the police if the theft happened outside of a trip.
If theft happened during the trip, we’d require the Guest to file the police report. If they’re not able to do so, we’d then ask the Host to do so.
Drive mate’s frontline team acknowledges the report and investigates/gathers more info about the theft, including the police report details.
The frontline team creates a ticket and adds notes of their conversation with Host/Guest + their investigation, and endorses the case to the Security Team.
Security
The Security Team reviews the report and checks the GPS and Guest profile (if theft happened during booking).
The Security Team will help recover the vehicle either through a Ground Ops agent or a Repossession Agent, depending on the gravity of the situation.
If the GPS is no longer updating though, the case has to be reported to the police.
If after 28 days and the car’s still not recovered, Security Team would raise it to Claims Team to declare the car’s unrecovered and may be deemed as a total loss.
If the car’s recovered, the case is endorsed to the Claims Team for liability and other issues discussion (e.g. damage or cleanliness issue/s on car, if any).
Claims
The Claims Team would then continue communicating with the Host and Guest regarding the claims of the case (liability, case settlements, car repair, etc).