During the National Day holiday, a passenger in Hunan booked a cross-city ride through a carpooling platform, but a dispute later arose over the trip.
On the evening of September 30, the passenger booked a carpool ride from Xiangtan to Yiyang on the platform. The order showed a fare of 161.7 yuan for two passengers. After departure, the driver collected advance highway toll fees from the two passengers, 30 yuan each, totaling 60 yuan.
The distance from Xiangtan to Yiyang is over 120 kilometers. Under normal traffic conditions, this trip usually takes less than two hours.
However, the trip took far longer than usual, lasting over five hours in total. The driver didn't drop off the two passengers until around 1:00 AM on October 1st.
According to the passengers, the driver pulled into a service area during the journey, claiming the electric vehicle needed charging. Subsequently, the vehicle's speed continued to decrease.
The passengers observed that the vehicle seemed to deliberately control its pace, waiting until midnight on October 1st when the highway toll-free policy took effect before exiting the highway toll station. As a result, no actual highway toll expenses were incurred for the entire trip.
Upon reaching the destination, the two passengers learned that no highway tolls had been charged and requested the driver refund the 60 yuan previously collected for tolls. The driver refused, arguing that the highway toll-free policy applied to the vehicle itself and did not exempt passengers from bearing the cost. The two parties failed to reach an agreement.
After negotiations failed, the passenger posted details of the trip online for feedback and simultaneously filed a complaint with the travel platform, requesting platform intervention to resolve the order dispute.
After seeing the relevant feedback, the platform's customer service proactively contacted the complaining passenger via private message, informing them that the complaint had been received. They requested the passenger to submit corresponding order-related materials and arranged for specialized staff to investigate the matter.
The platform stated publicly that its rules are clear: if no actual highway tolls were incurred during the trip, the driver cannot charge passengers for them.
If verification confirms that the passenger's report is accurate, the platform will refund the relevant fees to the passenger and take appropriate action against the driver involved, including measures such as suspending the driver's operating privileges on the platform.
