Verification Policy

1. How drivers are verified

Onboarding has two parts. You must finish both before your account is active. Most drivers complete it in about fifteen minutes, and you can pause and resume at any point.

Part 1 - proving who you are

1. Phone OTP. Your mobile number is confirmed with a one-time code. That number becomes your account identifier, and one number means one account.
2. Aadhaar scan. You photograph your Aadhaar card. We read your name and date of birth from it. The number is masked (for example XXXX XXXX 5647) and the full number is scrubbed before anything is stored. We do not perform Aadhaar e-authentication and we are not an authentication user agency.
3. Driving licence. You enter your DL number and date of birth. We query the government Sarathi record and read back your name, date of birth, validity, the vehicle classes you are licensed for, and the official photograph held on that record.
4. Live photo and face match. You take a selfie in the app. A liveness check confirms you are physically present rather than holding up a printed photo or a screen. That selfie is then compared against the official licence photograph from step 3.

Part 2 - proving the vehicle

5. Registration certificate. You enter the registration number. We query VAHAN and read back the status, owner name as recorded, maker, model, category, seating capacity, commercial classification and expiry.
6. Commercial permit and insurance. You photograph your cab or contract-carriage permit and your insurance certificate. We read the permit number, type, validity and the vehicle number it covers, and confirm the vehicle is licensed for commercial passenger use.
7. Vehicle photos. Five photographs of the actual vehicle, so posters can see what will turn up.

2. How travel agencies and fleet operators are verified

An agency or fleet account is built from the same verified building blocks, plus business checks.

• The account holder completes the full Part 1 driver verification above - a real, identified person is always accountable for the account.
• Every vehicle on the account is verified individually through Part 2: RC via VAHAN, commercial permit, insurance and photographs. There is no bulk shortcut.
• Every driver operating under the account must hold their own verified Dutiess account. An agency cannot post a driver we have never seen.
• Business proof. For accounts holding several vehicles we may additionally ask for a GST registration, a shop-and-establishment or trade licence, a tourist or transport operator permit, or a board resolution or authorisation letter showing you may act for the business.
• Fleet size checks. Where a single account adds an unusual number of vehicles quickly, we pause and confirm the business exists before activating them.

If you are onboarding a fleet, write to us and we will do it with you rather than leaving you to work through it alone.

3. What documents are required

Private, non-commercial vehicles cannot onboard. The commercial permit gate is deliberate: Dutiess is a professional network, and a duty performed in a private car is not legal passenger transport.

4. One licence, one vehicle, one account

A driving licence number and a vehicle registration number are each unique across the entire platform. If either is already registered, the new attempt is refused immediately.

This is what stops a person banned for a no-show from simply reappearing under a new phone number, and what stops the same car being presented by three different "owners". If a vehicle genuinely changes hands, contact support with proof of transfer and we will move it after review.

5. What happens if verification fails

Failing a check does not mean your account is rejected. Our system never auto-rejects a driver. Instead, one of four things happens:

Common reasons applications go to review, and how to clear them quickly:

• Name spelled differently across Aadhaar and licence (initials, middle name, surname order). Very common, almost always approved on review.
• Date of birth differs between documents. Send whichever document carries the correct one.
• Face match is borderline - usually because the licence photo is old or low quality. Retake the selfie in daylight, facing the camera, without a cap or sunglasses.
• Government record is out of date. Sarathi and VAHAN occasionally return stale data. Tell us and we will verify manually.
• Permit does not name your vehicle. Upload the permit that matches the registration number you entered.

6. Verification does not stop at onboarding

• Expiry monitoring. Licences, permits, insurance and RCs have end dates. As they approach we remind you, and once one lapses the affected vehicle or account is restricted until it is renewed.
• Re-verification. We may re-run any check at any time, and we routinely do so after a serious report is filed.
• Behavioural signals. Verification proves documents. Conduct is measured separately by the reliability score, mutual ratings and the strike system - see the Community Guidelines.
• Audit trail. Every check made about you is logged with its result, so any decision about your account can be explained to you and reviewed by someone else.

7. What verification does not promise

We want to be precise about this, because overclaiming would be its own kind of dishonesty.

Verification confirms that, at the time of checking, the documents were genuine, current and belonged to the person presenting them, and that the vehicle is licensed for commercial use. It is not a criminal background check, not a driving-skill assessment, not a guarantee of punctuality or courtesy, and not a promise about anyone's future conduct.

That is exactly why ratings, reliability scores and strikes exist alongside it - and why you should still read a driver's history before handing over your customer.

8. What we do with your documents

Documents are stored encrypted, accessible only through an authenticated admin interface used by the small team that runs verification review, and every access is logged. Your Aadhaar number is masked and the raw number is scrubbed before storage. We do not sell documents, share them with other users, or use them for anything other than verification, fraud prevention and legal obligations.

Full detail - including retention periods and how to have your data deleted - is in the Privacy Policy, and infrastructure detail is on the Security page.

9. Appeals

If your application is rejected or your account is restricted, you may appeal once by emailing hello@dutiess.com within 14 days, with the phone number on the account and anything that supports your case. A person who was not involved in the original decision will review it, and we will reply within 7 working days.

---

Related: Community Guidelines · Privacy Policy · Security · Report abuse