TERMS & CONDITIONS

CLARIFYING OUR BUSINESS PRACTICE FOR YOU

Strathbogie Removals & Trucking Pty Ltd

  1. Payment:
  • We work hard to provide a quality service and incur many expenses to do so: paying good employees, diesel and insurance being just three of many.
  • In return for providing the service we do, we expect prompt and full payment. Our terms are payment in full by cash, cheque, EFT or card upon delivery unless prior arrangements have been made.
  • We require a deposit of 50% of expected final invoice for all interstate jobs and those to/from Victoria west of Ballarat. This deposit is due 3 business days prior to date of job start.
  • We reserve the right to require a deposit of up to 100% of expected final invoice where we feel a customer might not be willing or able to pay us upon delivery.
  • Credit/debit card payments will incur a 2% surcharge, which is what the bank charges us.
  1. Loading and Unloading:
  • Safety of our staff and customers is our first priority. All drivers and assistants are empowered to refuse to load an item that is over 50kg per person or otherwise unsafe (slippery, overly bulky, has sharp edges, overly dirty, etc.) and must be physically lifted due to shape or other factors. Where mechanical means can be used to load or unload the item we will use them. Where disassembly can be done to reduce the weight we will do it, but if you are on a fixed price move this may incur additional charges.
  • Our staff are required to refuse to follow any direction or advice that is unsafe to persons or property – e.g. using a more-direct route to save time that involves a high verandah with no railing.
  • Hazmat, fuels and gasses. We will generally accept household quantities of hazmat, fuels and/or gasses as long as they are properly contained within clean sealed containers. All drivers and loading assistants are empowered to refuse to load any/all of the above if they feel they pose any safety risk to personnel or property (ours or yours).
  • Plants and plant pots. We will generally accept plants or pots, but may refuse them if we feel they are excessively dirty or liable to cause damage to our truck or your other furniture.
  • Difficult access. Where you are on a fixed price move and we encounter a difficult access to load or unload that you did not mention at time of booking (e.g. multi storey, narrow doorways or hallways, unable to get truck within 20 metres of destination), then we may charge you an additional fee to cover the extra hour(s) or parts thereof worked.
  • Where you are on a fixed price move and we have to wait for you in order to start or continue loading/unloading (e.g. waiting for door unlocking to gain access), then we may charge you an additional fee to cover the extra hour(s) or parts thereof waited.
  1. Wear and Tear
  • While we take every precaution while loading, carting, and unloading your goods, general wear and tear is sometimes unavoidable. Such wear and tear can include light scuffs on furniture, loosening of joins in furniture, rounding of boxes’ edges, cracking in plastic tubs, etc. We do not assume responsibility for items where the degradation is considered to be general wear and tear.
  • We will generally blanket all furniture items to guard against wear and tear, but blankets are not always foolproof and there is a chance furniture can scuff even through them. We will always do our best to protect your furniture. Where a furniture item is already exceedingly dirty or damaged, (such as items that have been in an outdoor shed), we may not blanket it if we need the blankets for something else.
  1. Breakage/Damage
  • We will only consider claims for breakage/damage where we assess that it is due to our own negligence.
  • Generally we will not consider it our negligence if any item packed inside a box, tub, piece of furniture or anything else that was not packed by us breaks or is damaged.
  • Generally we will not consider it our negligence if we mishandle an item resulting in breakage/damage due to circumstances entirely outside of our control (e.g. the customer’s dog runs under the feet of our employee loading and trips them, resulting in them dropping and breaking a china vase).
  • Generally we will not consider it our negligence if a customer or other non-employee was participating in loading or unloading the item in question.
  • Generally we will not consider it our negligence if an item clearly unsuitable to transport by our truck breaks or is damaged, e.g. a 2-metre-long balsawood, string and fabric scale model of the HMS Endeavour. We will always attempt to advise you where it appears to us unsuitable to transport, but it may not always be immediately visible.
  • Generally we will not consider it our negligence where we have advised you that there was an identified risk to your goods and you chose to proceed anyway, e.g. we told you that there was no way to effectively protect against breakage the glass shade of a large Tiffany floor lamp, but you told us to pack it anyway.
  • Generally we will not consider it our negligence where items have been broken or damaged in transit due to poor quality roads.
  • We carry $20 million Business Liability Insurance as well as Carrier Goods in Transit Insurance to protect both ourselves and you, the customer.
  • We will not file a claim under either of the above policies if we feel that the total damage(s) you have experienced due to our negligence are less than $500 fair market value. However, we will compensate you in credit against your moving costs up to $200 fair market value where we feel we have been negligent.
  • If we feel we have been negligent and the assessed damages are in excess of $200 fair market value, we may at our sole discretion choose to compensate you in credit against your moving costs or file a claim with our insurer.
  • If we file a claim with our insurer due to feeling that we have been negligent and the insurer consequently rejects or reduces the claim, we will consider this to be the binding determination of negligence and damages, if any.

  • We recommend CARTS – Removals & Storage Insurance

  • WHY?

    Removalists through their insurers only really need to offer up an indemnity value (or a Wear & Tear based Item value) where customers Household Effects are damaged or lost. If a Removalist is not directly at fault for the Damage or Loss to customers goods, then a customers claim for compensation can be very low or not offered up at all.

    This is why it can be important for customers to take out removals Insurance for themselves for their Household Effects and not rely on the removalist.

    https://buy.removalsinsurance.com.au/Public/PreQuoteQuestions?PackageId=16390&pageNumber=1&TEXT_ReferrerGUID_SuppliedFromEntryLink=CAR_STRATH

  1. Prohibited Items
  • All items prohibited to be carried in non-placarded trucks, or restricted to possess, or prohibited to possess, or not covered under our insurance policies will not be transported by us.
  • This includes (but is not limited to): live animals, explosives, firearms & ammunition, commercial quantities of hazmat, fuels or gasses, CITES animal products, or anything illegal to possess (e.g. stolen goods, child pornography, knuckledusters).
  • If we find that you have knowingly deceived us into transporting prohibited items (or attempted to do so), we will pursue you via civil and/or criminal complaint.