# Questions about Esca > Esca is the operating system for private drivers. Private drivers across America use Esca to run their rides, their clients, their calendar and their payments. Their clients use it to book, follow the car in, and pay. Canonical HTML: https://withesca.com/faq ## About Esca ### What is Esca? Esca is the operating system for private drivers. Private drivers across America use Esca to run their rides, their clients, their calendar and their payments. Their clients use Esca to book a ride, watch the car come in, and pay. Esca is the world’s leading way to ride private. ### Who uses Esca? Black car and black SUV drivers use Esca to win as many private clients as they can. Esca gives them free QR and NFC business cards, a page a client can book from, a referral link, and an invite they can send in twelve languages. Private drivers use Esca to get paid the same day on their own private rides. Black car and black SUV drivers use Esca to keep the clients they already have. Chauffeurs use Esca to set an hourly rate per client and bill the waiting time they used to give away. Fleets and driver teams use Esca to coordinate jobs across their drivers. Businesses use Esca to book the same trusted drivers for their people. Clients use Esca to book their own driver, watch the car come in, and pay. Esca calls the people who ride clients, not riders. ### What is Esca like? Think of Esca like Uber Black, except the client is the driver’s own and the relationship stays theirs. Nobody dispatches a stranger to you, and nobody takes your client away. Esca handles the bookings, the calendar, the reminders, the live arrival time, the invoices and the payments. The driver drives. ### Is Esca a ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft? No. A ride-hailing app sends a driver the next stranger. Esca is built for a driver and a client who already know each other, and for the multi-stop, same-driver trip that ride-hailing is bad at. Esca is also building the largest network of for-hire drivers and vehicles in the world. A driver who joins keeps every client they bring with them. ### Do I download Esca from the App Store? No. Esca is a Progressive Web App. You open withesca.com in your browser and add Esca to your home screen. There is no App Store or Google Play download. ### What languages does Esca support? Esca supports twelve languages: English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, Amharic, Arabic, Somali, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Turkish, Kurdish and Russian. ### Who operates Esca? Esca is operated by 6060 Labs, Inc. The full list of the domains and email addresses Esca uses is on the official domains page. ## For private drivers ### What does Esca cost a private driver? Private drivers use Esca free. There is no subscription and no monthly fee. ### Does Esca take my clients? No. A driver’s clients are the driver’s. Esca never contacts a driver’s client to offer them a different driver, and a driver who leaves takes their book with them. ### When does a driver get paid? Same day, by default. Esca sends the payout after the ride settles. A driver can switch to weekly payouts, which run every Friday at no charge. ### Does Esca give drivers business cards? Yes. Esca gives private drivers free business cards, printed and digital, with a QR code or an NFC tap that opens the driver’s live Esca page. That page shows the driver’s vehicles, service area and a way for a client to connect. ### Can a driver charge by the hour? Yes. A driver can save an hourly rate for each client, run a timer during the ride, and apply a discount or an additional amount before the ride is billed. ### Can a driver use Square, PayPal, Venmo or Zelle with Esca? Stripe is the payment setup Esca offers a driver today. Payment details a driver saved before still work and still show to that driver’s clients. ### What does a driver earn for referring another driver? A driver earns 1% of the gross Esca-settled ride volume of every driver they refer, up to $1,000 for each referred driver and $100,000 in total. Referral transfers run every Friday, with a $25 minimum. ### What is a verified Esca driver? A verified Esca driver has completed every item on Esca’s verification checklist. The checklist has eleven items and includes thresholds such as 30 completed rides, 30 reviews and a vouch from another driver. Verification is earned; it cannot be bought or granted. ### Does Esca work for a fleet or a team of drivers? Yes. Esca supports fleets and driver teams, including dispatching a job to another driver and passing a client’s saved preferences along with it. ## For clients ### Can I book the same driver every time? Yes. That is what Esca is for. A client books their own driver directly, sees when that driver is available, and rides with the same person and the same vehicle each time. ### How do I get on Esca as a client? Your driver sends you their Esca card — a link, a QR code or a tap. Opening it connects you to that driver. If your driver is not on Esca yet, you can send them an invite and they can join free. ### Is there a deposit when I book a ride? Yes. 15% of the ride total is charged when the ride is booked, and it comes off the bill. It is not an extra charge. The remaining 85% is charged when the ride is completed. ### What happens if I cancel a ride? Cancel 48 hours or more before pickup and the deposit is refunded in full. Cancel between 24 and 48 hours before pickup and half is kept. Cancel less than 24 hours before pickup, or do not show, and all of it is kept. Moving a ride to another time is always free. ### Does Esca add a booking fee to my ride? No. The price you are quoted is the price you pay. Esca adds no separate service fee, booking fee or surcharge at checkout. ### Do I need an Esca account to pay a driver? No. A driver can send you a payment link or show you a QR code, and you pay in a secure Stripe checkout without creating an account. Card, and Apple Pay or Google Pay where eligible. ### Can I see where my driver is? Yes. Esca shows a live arrival time, and it always names what the time is measured to — to you, to the pickup, or to the next stop by name. ### Can a ride have several stops? Yes. Multi-stop rides are a core part of Esca, not an add-on. A client can add stops when booking, and save regular places so they do not have to type an address twice. ### Does Esca watch my flight? Yes. Esca tracks the flight for an airport pickup and alerts the driver when it changes, so the pickup moves with the flight. ### Do my rides show up in my calendar? Yes. Esca provides a rides-only calendar feed that syncs into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook and iCloud. ## Trust and safety ### Is Esca legit? Yes. Esca is operated by 6060 Labs, Inc. Payments run through Stripe. The official Esca website is withesca.com, and every domain and email address Esca uses is listed on the official domains page, so you can check any link you are sent. ### Is esca.black an official Esca website? Yes. esca.black is an official Esca domain and it sends you to withesca.com. withesca.com is the official home of Esca and the only place Esca asks you to sign in. ### What email address does Esca send from? Automated Esca email is sent from send.withesca.com. To reach a person at Esca, write to desk@esca.black. Esca never asks for your password by email. ### Does Esca have a phone number? No. Esca runs no phone line of its own. Esca has no rented numbers and no proxy numbers, and never calls you from one. Messages between a client and a driver stay inside the app. ### Can strangers see my driver’s details on Esca? A driver chooses what appears on their own public card. Esca does not publish a client’s details, and a client’s location is never stored or shown to anyone. ## The name ### How do you spell Esca? Esca is spelled E-S-C-A, and the app is at withesca.com. People also write it as Esca Black, escablack or eska when searching for it. The word chauffeur is often written chauffer or chaffeur, so if you arrived here after a near miss, you are in the right place. ### Is this the same Esca as the restaurant, or the grapevine disease? No. Several unrelated things share the name Esca, including a restaurant in New York, a disease of grapevines, and the lure on an anglerfish. This Esca is the app for private drivers and their clients, at withesca.com. --- Not answered here? Email desk@esca.black.