Captain & Boat Operator Terms

How these terms fit together

These terms are additional to, not a replacement for, BOWTT's general Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, which also apply to you as a BOWTT user. Where something is specific to operating as a captain or boat owner on BOWTT, it is set out here.

Becoming a BOWTT captain

To operate on BOWTT you must apply, provide the documents BOWTT asks for, and pass BOWTT's review, including a field visit to see you and your boat in person. BOWTT may approve, decline, or ask for changes to an application at its discretion, based on eligibility and safety. A boat licence/registration document for the boat is required; if you do not currently hold a personal captain's licence number, you may leave that field blank and continue — this does not stop your application, but you remain responsible for meeting any licence or certification the law requires you to hold in order to operate your boat.

Accurate information and documents

You must give BOWTT accurate, current information about yourself, your boat and its documents, and tell us promptly if anything changes — including if a document (such as a boat registration) is renewed, replaced or has expired. BOWTT may ask you to update or re-submit a document, including one it previously accepted, and may temporarily limit your ability to receive requests until an expired or invalid document is corrected.

Operating your boat

You are responsible for your boat being seaworthy, carrying the safety equipment (including life jackets) the law requires, and being operated safely and within its stated capacity. You must hold whatever licences, registrations, insurance and certifications apply to your boat and to you as its operator under Kenyan law and any applicable county or maritime authority requirements.

Accepting and completing trips

When you are online, BOWTT may send you eligible passenger requests based on your boat's class, capacity, location and availability. You may accept or decline a request; declining a specific request does not send that same request back to you. Once accepted, you are expected to complete the trip you agreed to, confirm boarding before starting, and mark the trip complete once it has finished.

Payments and commission

Passengers pay you directly — in cash, M-Pesa or Airtel Money — once the trip is under way. BOWTT does not collect or hold passenger fares. In exchange for using BOWTT to find passengers, you owe BOWTT a commission on your completed, non-waived trips, calculated as a percentage set out in the app, starting from your 11th completed trip (your first ten completed trips are free of commission). You are responsible for settling your commission balance with BOWTT through the methods BOWTT provides. Failing to confirm a passenger's payment honestly, or falling behind on commission owed, may affect your ability to receive new requests.

Passenger receipts and refunds

When you confirm in the app that a passenger has paid, BOWTT emails that passenger a payment receipt generated from your confirmation. Only confirm payment once you have actually received it. The receipt shows the amount quoted to the passenger in the app, so you should charge the quoted amount. If you and a passenger agree a different amount, that is between you and the passenger, and BOWTT's receipt will still show the quoted amount.

BOWTT does not receive, hold or refund passenger fares. Because you collect the fare, any refund that is due to a passenger, for example for an overcharge or a trip you were paid for but did not complete, is your responsibility and can only be issued by you. BOWTT may contact you to help resolve a passenger's payment concern, and may take action under these terms if a concern is not handled fairly. BOWTT's receipt is not a tax invoice. You remain responsible for any receipt, invoice or tax record the law requires you to issue for your own income.

Ratings and reputation

Passengers rate you and your boat after each completed trip, and this contributes to your reputation on BOWTT, alongside factors such as how many trips you have completed, your reliability and your cancellation history. A single rating, high or low, does not by itself define your reputation — it is built over time. BOWTT may recognise consistently strong performance with a reputation badge; badge names and the requirements to earn one are set by BOWTT and may change.

Conduct

You must treat passengers respectfully, communicate honestly to coordinate a trip, and not manipulate ratings, bookings, or the matching system in any way. Harassment, fraud, unsafe operation, or repeated failure to honour accepted trips may lead to a warning, temporary suspension, or removal from BOWTT, depending on severity.

Suspension and removal

BOWTT may suspend or remove a captain or boat from the platform for breaching these terms, for a serious safety concern, for an expired or invalid document that is not corrected within a reasonable time BOWTT communicates to you, or where required by law or a competent authority. Where practical, BOWTT will tell you why and what, if anything, you can do about it.

Your relationship with BOWTT

Operating as a captain on BOWTT does not make you an employee of Homesly Investment or of BOWTT. You remain responsible for your own boat, your own compliance with the law, and your own tax and licensing obligations as a boat operator.

Changes and governing law

We may update these terms from time to time; continuing to operate on BOWTT after a change means you accept the updated terms. These terms are governed by the laws of Kenya.

Contact

Questions about these terms, or about your application, documents or commission balance, can be sent to info@bowtt.com or raised through your BOWTT captain account.