Business terms

Vanflex is run by Ironbridge Group Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (number 16757150), registered office 60 Suffolk Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2AQ (“Vanflex”, “we”, “us”).

Vanflex is a platform. Each run is carried out by an independent, self-employed van driver (“the driver”) whose documents we've checked: passport, insurance covering work in Europe and, for vans over 2.5 tonnes, a standard international operator licence and a smart tachograph. We arrange the run, take payment, pay the driver, and handle cancellations, refunds and complaints.

These terms are for businesses only. If you're sending something as a private person, please don't use Vanflex Business.

We check every business account before it can post a Europe job: its details, and its Companies House record where it has one. We may turn an account down, and we'll tell you why; you can change your details to have it checked again. UK runs paid by card can be booked straight away.

While you're signed in to your business account, runs you book on vanflex.uk (parts runs, materials, rubbish, courier runs and the rest) are booked for your business. They follow our customer terms for prices, paying, cancelling, refunds, what we can't carry, waste and damage, as for any customer; where those terms say “you”, it means your business. Where the customer terms give rights only to consumers, they don't apply to a business.

Updates and receipts go to your account's email, and drivers can call the account's phone number. Each run can carry your own job reference, shown on its receipt and on your monthly statement.

Your card is held when you book and charged when a driver takes the run. The card you pay with is saved to your account with our payment provider, Stripe, and offered next time; you can choose a different one at any payment.

The sites and merchant branches you save are kept with your account until you remove them. Only add a site contact's name and number if they're happy for a driver to call them about a delivery.

You tell us where it's collected (in the UK), where it's going, the collection day (at least 4 days away), the latest day it can be delivered, and what's going: the number of pallets or boxes, the total weight (up to 1,500 kg), the size of the biggest item and what it is. It must be accurate: drivers price and plan on it, and the van has to carry it legally.

Collection is between 8am and 6pm on the collection day; your driver confirms the time once booked. The delivery day can't be sooner than the EU drivers' hours rules allow for the distance. We work out the route through the Channel Tunnel and show a guide price, line by line.

We take phone numbers and links out of your notes: your booked driver gets your contact details.

You choose how it's priced:

• Prices from drivers. Up to 5 checked drivers each send one price, which the others can't see. Prices close after 48 hours (or at 5), then you have 48 hours to choose one. When you choose, you pay the price in full, and that driver is booked at once.
• Your own price. You set the price (at least 5 days before collection) and it's held on your card when you post. The first checked driver to accept is booked and the payment is taken then. If nobody has within 5 days, or by 3 days before collection, the job ends and the hold is released.

Prices are from £350 to £6,000 and include everything for the run: the road miles there and back, the Channel crossing, any nights away, the driver's time and Vanflex's fee. You pay by card through Stripe. There's no charge for posting a job or getting prices.

You get a receipt in your account for every run delivered. If you need a VAT invoice, email ironbridgegroup@outlook.com with the receipt number.

You are the exporter. You (or your customs broker) make the UK export declaration and give us its Movement Reference Number (MRN), or your broker's details, before your job goes to drivers. You're responsible for the import formalities at the destination, and for any duty, import VAT and charges there, unless you've agreed otherwise with your buyer.

The driver carries the goods and the documents you give them; neither the driver nor Vanflex is your customs agent or representative. If the van is held at a border because a document is missing or wrong, you're responsible for the costs that result, and the delivery day moves.

You must not send:

• dangerous goods (anything covered by the ADR rules), weapons or ammunition;
• live animals, or anything that needs to be kept cold or frozen;
• cash, precious metals, jewellery or securities;
• anything that's illegal to export from the UK or import where it's going, or needs a licence you don't have;
• excise goods (alcohol, tobacco) without the right documents.

Pack the goods so they can be loaded, strapped and carried safely. The driver can refuse to load anything that isn't as described, isn't packed properly, or that they believe breaks these rules. If they do, we treat it as a cancellation by you on the day (section 8).

Every run travels with a CMR consignment note, as the CMR Convention requires. Please have one ready at collection, or complete it with the driver. The receiver signs it at delivery, and the driver photographs the signed note: you can see the photo in your account as soon as it's delivered. Note any damage you can see on the CMR note at delivery.

From when the driver sets off to collect until delivery, you can see where the van was last seen on a map in your account, and each checkpoint as it's reached: collected, at the Folkestone terminal, across the Channel, delivered. We email you at each one. Phones can go quiet in the tunnel or while roaming, so the map can be a little behind.

You can cancel a job for free until a driver is booked: before you choose a price, or, at your own price, before a driver accepts (the hold is released).

Once a driver is booked, email ironbridgegroup@outlook.com to cancel. More than 72 hours before collection, we refund you in full. Within 72 hours, we may keep up to half the price to pay the driver for time and a crossing they've already committed to.

If the booked driver can't do the run, we offer it to our other checked drivers at the price you paid. If none takes it in time, we refund you in full. Either way we email you straight away. We're not liable for other costs a cancellation causes you.

The carriage is international carriage of goods by road, so the CMR Convention applies. Under it, the carrier's liability for loss of or damage to the goods is limited to 8.33 Special Drawing Rights (about £9) for each kilogram of gross weight lost or damaged, and to the price of the run for delay. If your goods are worth more, insure them for the trip yourself.

Tell us about damage or loss you can see on delivery, on the CMR note and by email, straight away; damage you can't see, within 7 days of delivery. Claims must be made within one year. We'll help you take a claim to the driver and their insurer.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn't allow to be limited.

Your business account is for your business. Keep your sign-in safe: you're responsible for jobs posted and runs booked from it. We keep your job records and receipts for six years (HMRC rules), and the CMR photo for 400 days, so it's there for a claim. See our privacy notice.

We may update these terms; the version date is at the top. A job is under the terms you agreed when you posted it.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.