This Driver Services Agreement ("Agreement") is between Topping Courier Inc., 87 Windrow St, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4E 0Y1 ("Topping", "we"), and you, the driver ("you"). You accept it in the Topping Driver app or when you sign up. It describes how you provide delivery services through our platform, how you are paid, and your rights under Ontario's Digital Platform Workers' Rights Act, 2022 ("the Act").
1. Your relationship with Topping
1.1 You provide delivery services as an independent contractor, not as an employee. You decide when you are online, and you are free to accept or decline any offer. You may also work for others, including other delivery platforms.
1.2 You have the rights that the Act gives digital platform workers, and nothing in this Agreement reduces them. If this Agreement conflicts with the Act or any other law, the law applies.
1.3 You are responsible for your own income tax, Canada Pension Plan contributions as a self-employed person, and HST registration if you are required to register. If you give us an HST registration number, we add HST to your pay as shown on your pay statements.
2. What you need
You must, at all times while you are online:
- hold a valid, full Ontario driver's licence (or equivalent class) and keep a driving record acceptable to Topping;
- use a vehicle that is safe, legally registered, and suitable for the size classes you accept;
- have automobile insurance that covers using the vehicle for paid deliveries, unless Topping tells you in writing that its own insurance covers your deliveries;
- have the legal right to work in Canada;
- keep your documents up to date in the app. We remind you before a required document expires. Don't drive for Topping while your licence, registration or insurance is expired, suspended or cancelled, and tell us right away if that happens. The app may stop you going online until you upload a valid document.
Before you start, we check your driver's abstract, your vehicle and insurance documents, and a criminal background check, with your consent.
3. Job offers
3.1 When we offer you a job, the app shows, before you accept: the estimated pay, the estimated distance and time, the number of stops, the area of the pickup and drop-offs, and the delivery promise. You see the exact addresses after you accept.
3.2 You may decline any offer. An offer expires if not accepted within the time shown in the app. Declining offers is never, on its own, a reason for removal.
3.3 Once you accept a job, you agree to complete it as promised, or to tell dispatch right away if you can't, so the job can be reassigned.
4. How you are paid
4.1 Pay per delivery. You earn a share of each delivery's price: 45% for standard deliveries and 50% for Rush, calculated on the price after any multi-drop discount and before promo codes and volume discounts. The share for each job is part of the estimated pay shown on the offer.
4.2 Failed deliveries. When a delivery can't be made for a reason that isn't your fault (for example, nobody is there to receive it), you are paid 100% of that delivery's pay.
4.3 Tips. Tips and gratuities paid by customers go to you in full. We don't keep any part of them, and they never count toward the minimum wage guarantee.
4.4 Pay period and payday. Pay periods are weekly, from Monday to Sunday. You are paid by bank transfer on the Friday after each pay period ends. The pay period and payday will not change without notice in the app.
4.5 Pay statements. For each pay period, we give you a statement in the app within 24 hours after the period ends, showing your deliveries, work time, pay, tips, any minimum-wage top-up, and deductions (if any) with their reasons.
4.6 Deductions. We only deduct amounts from your pay where the law permits, such as amounts you authorize in writing. We never deduct for customer complaints, damage claims or vehicle costs without your written agreement and only where the law allows.
5. Minimum wage guarantee
5.1 For each pay period, your pay for work time will be at least the general minimum wage in Ontario for every hour of work time (currently $17.95 per hour, adjusted whenever the government changes it).
5.2 Work time is the time from when you accept a job until you complete it (the last delivery is done or the job is cancelled). Time spent online waiting for offers isn't work time under the Act.
5.3 If your pay for a pay period is less than the minimum wage for your work time, we add a top-up to that period's pay. Tips are not counted toward the minimum.
6. How you perform deliveries
You agree to:
- follow traffic and parking laws, including Ontario's distracted-driving laws: don't handle your phone while driving;
- handle Shipments with care, keep them secure, and never open them;
- deliver only to the address and person shown in the app, follow delivery instructions, and take a photo of every delivery (and a signature when the app asks for one);
- refuse items you reasonably believe are prohibited or dangerous, and tell dispatch;
- treat customers, recipients and staff with respect;
- keep customer information confidential and use it only to complete deliveries.
7. Location and information we collect
The app shares your location with Topping only while you are online, so dispatch can offer you nearby jobs and customers can see an arrival time. Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect about drivers and how long we keep it. We keep the records the Act requires for at least 3 years after you stop working with us.
8. Ratings
Customers can rate deliveries. You can see your own rating summary in the app at any time, and we will give you your rating information within 24 hours if you ask. Ratings are used to coach and recognize drivers and are one of the things we consider if service problems arise.
9. Removal from the platform
9.1 If we decide to remove you from the platform for 24 hours or more, we will give you written reasons and at least 2 weeks' (14 days') notice before the removal takes effect, or pay you instead of notice where the Act allows.
9.2 We may remove you without notice only in the situations the Act allows, such as when you have engaged in wilful misconduct, disobedience or wilful neglect of duty that is not trivial and has not been condoned by Topping, or where the Act otherwise permits. Even then, we give you written reasons.
9.3 Notices are sent to the email address in your profile and shown in the app.
9.4 You can stop providing services at any time by telling us. We pay everything you earned up to that date on the next payday.
10. No reprisals
We will not penalize you, threaten you or remove you because you asked about or exercised your rights under the Act or this Agreement, or because you made a complaint.
11. Insurance, damage and incidents
11.1 Report any accident, injury, theft or damage to dispatch right away, and help with any claim or investigation.
11.2 You are responsible for your vehicle and its costs (fuel, maintenance, insurance, parking tickets and traffic fines you incur).
11.3 You aren't responsible for loss of or damage to Shipments unless it results from your gross negligence or wilful misconduct, and then only as the law allows.
12. Disputes
If you have a concern about pay or anything else, contact us first; we will review it and answer in writing. Disputes are governed by the laws of Ontario, and you may resolve them in Ontario, including by filing a complaint with the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. Nothing in this Agreement prevents you from exercising your rights under the Act.
13. Changes
We may update this Agreement. We will give you at least 2 weeks' notice in the app before changes take effect, except changes required by law or that only benefit you. If you don't agree with a change, you can stop providing services before it takes effect.
14. Contact
Topping Courier Inc., 87 Windrow St, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4E 0Y1
Phone: +1 905 975 6362 · Email: info@toppingcourier.ca