Terms of service

Porch Route is operated by Vector UX LLC, a Utah limited liability company (“we”, “us”). “You” means the business that creates an account and the people it lets in. By creating an account, clicking to accept, or using the service, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that business to these terms.

Porch Route is a service for businesses. It isn’t offered to consumers, and the people your drivers deliver to (“recipients”) are your customers, not ours.

• Authorised users — the owners, admins, dispatchers and drivers you add to your business in Porch Route.
• Drivers — the people who run your routes, whether they log in or open a driver link you send them.
• Recipients — your customers: the people whose addresses, names and phone numbers you put on orders.
• Customer data — everything you and your users put into Porch Route: orders, addresses, recipient contact details, vehicles, zones, settings and messages.
• Recipient data and location data — the parts of customer data about recipients, and the GPS positions your drivers’ phones share while a route is running.
• Messaging services — the texts and emails Porch Route sends to recipients and drivers on your behalf, under your business’s name.
• Order — the unit your plan is measured in. One delivery to one customer is one order. It counts once, in the month of its delivery date, when it is put on a route; updating, re-planning or moving it doesn’t count it again.

Porch Route plans delivery routes, sends them to your drivers, keeps your customers informed and reports each outcome back to you. Every feature is on every plan; plans differ in how many orders and customer texts they include each month, and in support.

• Porch Light is free for good: up to 150 orders a month and 1 vehicle, with email and tracking-link updates for customers.
• The trial. Every new business starts with 14 days of the Porch plan’s allowances, with no card required. When the trial ends and you haven’t chosen a paid plan, your account moves to Porch Light. Your data stays; a feature never disappears.
• Paid plans are billed monthly, or annually with two months free, at the prices on the pricing page when you subscribe.
• Allowances are advisory. We tell you at 80% and 100% of your plan’s orders or texts. Nothing stops working mid-route. If you stay above your allowance, we may ask you to move to the plan that fits.

What happens to data kept above the Porch Light limits after a downgrade: [data kept on downgrade — policy to decide].

You are responsible for the people you invite, the roles you give them and what they do with their access. Keep credentials and API keys confidential and tell us promptly if you think one has leaked.

Driver links are bearer links. When you dispatch a route, the driver receives a link that opens that one route with no login. Anyone holding the link can use it, so you decide who it goes to. A link stops working two days after the route date, is replaced if you send it again, and can be turned off at any time from the route.

• Accurate, lawfully collected information. You have the right to give us the addresses, names, phone numbers and email addresses you enter, and you keep them accurate.
• Consent to message recipients. You are the sender of every text and email to your customers. You obtain the consent the law requires before their number goes on an order, you honour opt-outs, and you don’t use delivery notifications for marketing. Our messaging terms describe the programme your customers are told about.
• Truthful texting registration. Carriers require your business — not us — to be registered before texts can be sent. The details you give for that registration are accurate.
• Driver safety. Drive mode hands navigation to the phone’s maps app and is designed to be used when the vehicle is stopped. You make sure your drivers follow traffic law and don’t operate the app while driving.
• Your drivers are yours. Whether they are employees or contractors, their pay, insurance, licences and working conditions are your responsibility, including any notice the law requires before you track their location.
• Food safety and the cold chain stay with you. Porch Route’s temperature rules decide which vehicle a stop can ride on. They are a planning aid, not a guarantee that goods arrive at a safe temperature.

Texts and emails travel through carriers and third-party providers we don’t control. Delivery isn’t guaranteed and carriers may filter or delay messages. Customer texts begin only after your business’s carrier registration is approved; until then, and on Porch Light, customers get email and tracking-link updates.

We may pause messaging for your business if a carrier reports complaints or we see the messaging rules being broken, and we’ll tell you why. A daily safety limit on customer texts protects against runaway sending; if you go past your plan’s monthly allowance we’ll let you know and may ask you to move to a plan that fits.

• Plan fees are charged in advance, monthly or annually, through our payment processor. Prices exclude taxes, which are added where they apply.
• Customer texts past your plan’s monthly allowance are charged at the rate on the pricing page (currently $0.015 a text, or 500 for $10). Email updates and tracking links are never charged for.
• Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel. There is no contract, so you can cancel at any time from your billing settings.
• If a payment fails we retry the card and tell you. Nothing stops working mid-route over a declined payment. If it stays unpaid for [days before downgrade], your account moves to Porch Light.
• Price changes take effect at your next renewal after we give you at least [price-change notice period] notice.
• Refunds: [refund policy].

You own your customer data. You give us only the licence we need to run the service for you: to store it, plan with it, send the messages you configure and return outcomes to your systems.

For recipient and driver data we act as your service provider (a “processor”). We use it only to provide the service, on your instructions, and never sell it or share it for advertising. Our data processing addendum sets out those commitments in the form privacy laws expect.

We may use aggregated, de-identified information about how routes and deliveries perform — for example, how long stops take — to improve planning and estimates. It never identifies you, your drivers or your customers. (Counsel: to be drafted within CCPA service-provider limits.)

You can export your data at any time. After you close your account we delete it within [deletion window], except copies in backups that expire on their own schedule and records we must keep by law.

By default Porch Route finds addresses, measures road distances and draws maps with services built on OpenStreetMap data (Nominatim, OSRM and OpenFreeMap). Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors; attribution stays visible on every map.

If you enable Google Maps Platform for your business, Porch Route includes Google Maps features and content. Your use of them is subject to the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy.

Texts, emails and payments run through the providers listed on our subprocessors page. We choose them with care, but their terms and outages are theirs.

• API keys belong to one business. Keep them secret; you can create and revoke them at any time.
• Rate limits apply and are documented. Don’t try to get around them.
• Webhooks are signed with your endpoint’s secret. You secure your endpoint and check the signature; we retry failed deliveries for a day and report anything still owed.
• If we retire an API version we’ll give you at least [API deprecation notice period] notice.

Our acceptable use policy is part of these terms. If it’s broken we may remove content, pause messaging or suspend the account, and we’ll tell you unless the law or safety prevents it.

Porch Route — the software, design, documentation and name — is ours or our licensors’. These terms don’t transfer any of it to you, only the right to use it while your account is open.

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without owing you anything, and you keep the right to use them too.

Each of us keeps the other’s non-public information confidential and uses it only for this agreement. That covers your customer data on our side and things like unreleased features or pricing on yours. The duty doesn’t apply to information that is public, already known, or must be disclosed by law (with notice where allowed).

We protect your data with the measures described on our security page, which is part of these terms, and we process personal data as set out in the privacy policy and the data processing addendum.

Routes, arrival times, distances and savings are estimates. Traffic, weather, road closures and how long a stop really takes are outside our control. Porch Route doesn’t guarantee that any delivery arrives on time or in a particular condition.

Features marked as early access or beta may change or be withdrawn. Except as these terms say, the service is provided as is, and we disclaim implied warranties to the extent the law allows. (Counsel to finalise.)

You will defend and cover us against claims that arise from the recipient lists, message content and consent you provide — including claims under telephone-consumer-protection laws — and from your drivers’ conduct.

We will defend and cover you against claims that Porch Route itself infringes someone’s intellectual property, provided you tell us promptly and let us handle the defence.

To the extent the law allows, neither of us is liable to the other for indirect or consequential losses, lost profits, or spoiled or lost goods, and our total liability under this agreement is capped at [liability cap, e.g. the fees you paid in the previous 12 months]. These limits don’t apply to the indemnities above or to anything the law says can’t be limited.

You can cancel at any time. We can suspend or end your account for a material breach that isn’t fixed within [cure period] of notice, for non-payment as described above, or immediately for serious misuse.

When the agreement ends you can export your data first, and we delete it as described in Your data. Sections about fees owed, data, confidentiality, disclaimers, indemnities, liability and disputes survive.

We won’t name your business as a customer, or use your logo, without your permission.

• Changes. We may update these terms. For material changes we’ll notify account owners at least [terms-change notice period] before they take effect; continuing to use the service afterwards means you accept them.
• Governing law and venue. This agreement is governed by the laws of [governing law], and disputes are heard in [venue].
• Notices to us go to [postal address] or through the contact page; notices to you go to your account owners’ email addresses.
• Assignment. Neither of us may assign this agreement without the other’s consent, except to a successor of the whole business.
• Force majeure. Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by events outside reasonable control.
• Entire agreement. These terms, the policies they link to and your plan make up the whole agreement. If a clause is unenforceable the rest stands. If documents conflict, a signed order form wins, then the data processing addendum, then these terms.