Carrier Service Agreement
Carrier Service Agreement
This Service Agreement supports a commercial sustainability initiative commenced by Rural Freight Connections Pty Ltd, matching the requirements of freight transport businesses (Carriers) that have existing transport capacity and assets, to businesses that regularly ship or receive complimentary freight (Customers). Should you proceed with this agreement, we will use your information to contact you from time to time, to maintain a digital model of your available freight capability and capacity, for matching against our database of potential customers. Upon consideration of the following terms, and your review and acceptance of this agreement, we look forward to working with you to support safety, sustainability, efficiency, and reliability in your business activities.
Definitions
Our, us, we and ourselves means Rural Freight Connections Pty Ltd.
Your and you means the business specified in the 'Business' field of this agreement.
Carrier and carriers means a freight transport business or businesses represented by us that have available capacity and assets to permit expansion of their existing customer base.
Customer and customers means a business or businesses represented by us, that regularly ship or receive freight that is complimentary to the capabilities and capacity of a carrier.
General
Our core service is to connect carriers with customers, based on a comprehensive freight profile assessment and matching process. As such, we are not a Common Carrier and will accept no such liability. Furthermore, we, our employees and associates shall not be liable for any loss, damage, or injury claim, resulting from the failure of any carrier to provide services described in this or any other agreement, offer, or recommendation, provided as part of our core service, or any supplementary service, or the failure of any customer to provide, or require the volume or type of freight described in any agreement, offer, or recommendation, provided as part of our core service, or any supplementary service.
We may provide supplementary business enablement and development services, to assist you in the operation of your business, but provide these services as a third-party service only. We are not a performance, compliance, or account manager for your business.
We are not a freight broker. We endeavour to connect you directly with customers that match your service profile, and you are responsible for all financial services and interactions with those customers, such as, but not limited to, invoicing and debt recovery for the services you provide.
In working with you as a carrier, we represent you to customers, based on your supplied profile or profiles. By submitting this agreement, you agree to keep us informed of changes to your freight profile/s so that we may continue to work, to ensure your freight capabilities and capacity are understood and represented to the most suitable customers.
The terms of this agreement may be updated from time to time. By utilising our services, you agree to be bound by this agreement and any terms and conditions published on our website at the time of accepting bookings for transport or transport-related services through us, or a customer connected to you by us.
Safety
Safety is our number 1 priority. All activities must be taken with due process and the right level of care. This involves, but is not exclusive to:
- Chain of Responsibility (CoR) – all laws in the relevant jurisdiction/s must be adhered to by all parties as part of this agreement. No obligations, responsibilities, or liabilities of either the customer, or the carrier transfer to us as a result of this agreement.
- Breach of CoR – Witnessing any party breaching CoR, or pressuring any party to breach CoR, requires an immediate cessation of service. Please advise us of any potential/perceived/known breaches so that we may cease the service and advise our stakeholders.
- Driver hours – are integral to freight operations and CoR requirements. Booking timeslots must be adhered to where possible, and loading and unloading operations must be prioritised in order to ensure drivers can operate safely within the limits of relevant legislation.
- Loading and unloading – must be carried out safely, with all safety policies and procedures adhered to for the sender, receiver and carrier. Where policies/procedures conflict, the most conservative (risk-free) policy is to be met.
- Load restraint – loads must be restrained safely and securely in line with all relevant legislation and/or codes of practice regarding safe load restraint. The carrier must ensure that the vehicle is equipped with appropriate load restraint equipment and dunnage suitable to restrain and protect the freight, and that the driver/loaders are suitably trained to operate the necessary restraint equipment.
- Hazard identification and segregation – must also be considered, ensuring all freight is clearly marked and where necessary, segregated to comply with all applicable regulations and standards. Markings may include, but are not limited to, heavy items causing a manual handling hazard, or dangerous goods requiring product-specific identification and handling practices.
For any escalations/non-compliance to the above safety requirements, please contact us via Contact Us.
Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure
Information provided to you by us regarding our operations and matched customers may be confidential in nature and, as such, will be regarded as confidential unless:
- the information is freely available to the public by means of our website.
- the information is freely available to the public by means of the customer's website.
- We have advised you in writing that the information is not confidential.
You, your employees and associates agree to:
- keep confidential, all ideas, processes, techniques, information, and technical know-how, employed and/or utilised by us, whether provided in writing, through discussion, or any other means.
- keep all confidential information securely, in order to safeguard it from unauthorised access.
- return or destroy any and all stored copies of confidential information when it is no longer required for the service of this agreement.
In the event of a breach of confidentiality or disclosure of information, you, your employees, and your associates agree to:
- notify us as soon as is reasonably possible if you suspect that a breach of confidentiality has occurred.
- cooperate with us in any action (including court action) we may reasonably take to protect the confidential information.
The obligation to maintain confidentiality survives the termination or expiry of this agreement.
Non-Circumvention
The time taken to locate and onboard customers for carriers can be considerable. Likewise, the time taken to find a suitable carrier to meet the bespoke needs of certain customers can also be considerable. The costs associated with doing so in an active fashion can be prohibitive to many small businesses.
To protect the investment made by us:
- You, your employees and associates agree that you will not solicit or approach any customer/s introduced or referred to you by us concerning or in connection with any proposed or possible arrangement or scheme that in any way competes with or is detrimental to a negotiation or existing agreement between us and the introduced or referred customer.
- In the event that you decide to discontinue services with us, you, your employees, and associates agree that you will not solicit or approach any customers introduced or referred to you by us for a period of not less than 12 months from the date that you advise us of the discontinuation of services.
Liability
You are responsible for any breach of confidentiality covered by this agreement, by yourself, your employees, or your associates, and agree to indemnify us and keep us indemnified against all actions, claims, proceedings, demands, liabilities, losses, damages, expenses, and costs (including legal costs on a full indemnity basis) that may be brought against us, or which we may pay, sustain, or incur as a direct or indirect result of any such breach of confidentiality by you, your employees, and/or your associates.
You are responsible for any circumvention of this agreement, whether initiated by yourself, your employees, associates or any other party, and you agree to compensate us for any damages incurred as a result of the circumvention. Furthermore, you agree to compensate us for lost earnings resulting from circumvention for a minimum amount, equivalent to 12 months of expected trading for informed circumvention, and additionally, compensate for past lost earnings should you fail to inform us of circumvention when it occurs.
Commercial and Other Arrangements
Once this agreement has been submitted, we will provide you with recommendations of suitable customers and details of their freight profiles as we match their profiles with yours through our systems, at our absolute discretion. Should you choose to proceed with negotiations with any of these customers, we will work with you to present the customer with:
- your standard terms and conditions, unless you advise us to present an alternative.
- your credit/account application process, to ensure you have full control and appropriate visibility of any financial risk associated with the customer.
- jointly developed pricing schedules and commercial terms that take into account an agreed percentage (commission) of freight service and freight service related revenue resulting from the connection, as well as your component of any charges for such freight and freight related services.
- jointly develop service offerings and service level agreements in order to service the connection.
- access to your transport booking service if applicable.
In exchange for our facilitation, you agree to:
- provide us with POD's for all deliveries for these customers
- provide us with copies of all DIFOT reports produced for these customers
- provide us with copies of all invoices for freight services and freight related services for these consumers, and on receipt of these invoices, we will invoice you for our percentage (commission) of any revenue at the rate agreed upon in the jointly developed pricing schedule produced for the relevant customer/s.
- pay each invoice received from us within 14 days of the invoice date.
- be solely responsible for any penalties arising from a failure to meet any service level agreements.
Any carrier-specific due diligence processes – for example, Safety, Legal and Financial - remain your responsibility. We recommend that you conduct your own checks that are in accordance with your own due diligence requirements.
Service Level Agreement
- You commit to providing services as described in respective service offerings, in line with service level agreements, and being solely responsible for any penalties applied as a result of failure to meet such service levels.
- We commit to periodically reviewing your freight profile/s and advising you if we become aware of any suitable customers, and working with you in an attempt to secure successful business connections with those customers.
Contact Details
Contact details are maintained on our Contact Us page. Contact Us.