Rider Terms

1. About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Smart Approaches Limited, trading as Smart Eatx, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 14796914), whose registered office is at 4 Admiral Way, Regus House, Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, SR3 3XW ("Smart Eatx", "we" or "us"). They apply when you apply to ride with us, and whenever you use the Smart Eatx rider app.

You accept them when you submit your application in the app. The app records which version you accepted and when. When we change them, you'll be asked to accept the new version before you can go online again (see Changes to these terms).

Our Rider Privacy Notice explains how we use your personal data. It isn't part of these terms, but please read it.

In these terms, a delivery is an order or parcel we offer you, and a customer is whoever's order or parcel you carry, or whoever receives it.

Nothing in these terms takes away any rights you have by law.

2. How Smart Eatx works

Smart Eatx sells delivery. Restaurants, shops and businesses use us to deliver their customers' orders, and people book us to send parcels. We offer those deliveries to riders through the rider app: restaurant food, grocery orders or parcels.

When none of our riders takes a delivery in time, we may pass it to Stuart, a courier company we work with. If you accept an offer before a Stuart courier has collected the order, the delivery is yours and Stuart's booking is cancelled.

3. Your status

You're self-employed. You aren't our employee, and nothing in these terms makes you one or makes us partners. You decide:

• when you go online, for how long, and when you take a break or stop. There are no shifts and no minimum hours;
• which offers to accept. You never have to accept one; and
• whether to work for other platforms or businesses at the same time, including our competitors.

We don't promise you any amount of work. How many offers you get depends on demand, where you are and how many riders are online.

You must do every delivery yourself. Your account is personal to you: you can't send anyone in your place, share your account or let anyone else use it. This is because we check each rider's identity, right to work and background, and customers are shown who is coming.

You provide, at your own cost, your vehicle, its fuel or charging, your phone and mobile data, and any equipment you use. We don't charge you to use the rider app.

If a court or tribunal decides that the law gives you rights as a worker or an employee, you have those rights, whatever these terms say.

4. Who can ride

To ride with us, you must:

• be 18 or over. The app checks your date of birth;
• have the right to work in the UK, and keep it for as long as you ride;
• pass our identity check and our background check;
• use a vehicle we accept: a bicycle, e-bike, cargo e-bike, motorcycle, car or van;
• for a motorcycle, car or van, hold a driving licence that lets you drive it in the UK, and the insurance the law requires (see Road safety and the law);
• have a smartphone that runs the rider app, and a phone number we've verified with a code; and
• complete our training in the app.

We may turn down an application that doesn't meet these requirements, or where we have another good reason, such as a check that isn't clear or information that isn't true. The app shows our reason.

5. Applying

You apply in the app, step by step. The app shows which steps are done, which are waiting for review and which need your action.

1. Personal details: your date of birth, your home address (with a UK postcode that exists) and an emergency contact.
2. Identity: an identity check by Didit, our verification provider, reads your passport, identity card, driving licence or residence permit, takes a live selfie and matches your face to the document. Its date of birth must match the one you gave us. If the check isn't available, you upload a photo of your ID and a selfie for our team to review.
3. Right to work: with a British or Irish passport, which you prove in an identity check (or with a photo, if checks aren't available), or with a Home Office share code, which our team checks on GOV.UK.
4. Vehicle: its type, make, model, year and colour, the registration number of a motorcycle, car or van, and photos of the front and back.
5. Driving licence: for a motorcycle, car or van only, through an identity check or by uploading the front and back, with its expiry date.
6. Payouts: you set up a Stripe account to be paid into (see Payouts).
7. Training: short modules in the app, each with a quiz you must pass.
8. Review and submit: you check everything and submit your application, accepting these terms. You need a verified phone number to submit.

You have three tries at each identity check. If you use them all, contact support and we'll look into it.

Our team then reviews your application and carries out a background check. We can't approve an application until the background check is clear. We'll tell you what the check involves before it starts, and if it includes a criminal record check, we'll ask for your agreement first.

We may ask you to give something again, such as a clearer photo. When we approve you, we approve you to work in a zone. If we reject your application, the app shows our reason.

Everything you give us must be true, complete and your own. Giving false information or someone else's documents is a serious breach of these terms, and may be a crime.

6. Keeping your details up to date

Your driving licence, and a right to work that's time-limited, have expiry dates. We remind you 30 days and again 7 days before one expires.

If one expires, your account is paused: you can't go online and you get no new offers until you've given us the new one and it's approved. You can then work again straight away.

To change your vehicle, add the new one in the app. You keep using your approved vehicle until our team approves the change.

Tell support straight away if you're disqualified from driving, lose your right to work in the UK, or your vehicle is no longer insured or roadworthy, and don't go online with that vehicle until it's sorted. Tell support, too, if your address, phone number or emergency contact changes.

7. Going online and offers

You can go online once you're approved, your documents are in date, you've accepted the latest version of these terms and you have an approved vehicle. You can take a break (with no offers) or go offline whenever you like, once you've finished the deliveries you're carrying.

While you're online, the app sends us your location, including in the background, so we can send you offers. If we don't hear from your phone for 2 minutes you get no offers, and after 30 minutes we take you offline, unless you're carrying an order.

How offers are chosen. Offers are sent automatically. For each delivery, we look for available riders whose vehicle is big enough for it, nearest to the pickup first, and look a little further out every short while. Your ratings, and offers you've declined before, aren't used to decide who gets an offer.

What an offer shows. The pay, including any boost; the pickup and how far you are from it; the distance and rough time to the drop-off; the drop-off area (for example, E1); the number of items; and whether it's food, groceries or a parcel. You see the customer's name, address and notes once you accept.

Accepting and declining. You're free to accept, decline or ignore any offer, and declining doesn't count against you. You may hold several offers at once. Each stays open until another rider takes the delivery or our search ends, as the app shows. The first rider to accept gets the delivery.

When we allow it, we may offer you another order that's on the way of one you're already carrying.

Once you've accepted, please do the delivery. If you can't after all, hand it back in the app before you collect it, saying why, so we can find another rider. You aren't paid for a delivery you hand back. If you hand back deliveries often, our team may contact you to understand why.

8. Doing a delivery

The app takes you through each step. Follow it, and any reasonable instructions from the customer or our team.

At the pickup.

• When our location check is on, you must be within 200 metres of the pickup for the app to let you say you've arrived, collected the order or brought it back. Keep your location on.
• Enter the 4-digit pickup code from the store's ticket or from the sender. After 5 wrong tries, the pickup locks and support will help you.
• Check you have the right order or parcel before you leave.

At the drop-off.

• Hand food and groceries to the customer in person. Every hand-over in person needs the customer's 4-digit delivery code. After 5 wrong tries, the hand-over locks and support will help you.
• Leave a parcel in a safe place, or with a neighbour, only when its sender chose that option. Take the photo the app asks for, and with a neighbour, record who took it in.
• If nobody answers, report it in the app and try to reach the customer. After 5 minutes (or 1 minute for a parcel whose sender asked you to ring and wait), follow the app: a food order ends there and you're still paid for it, and a parcel goes back to its sender.

Age-restricted items. Some deliveries, such as groceries with alcohol and parcels marked as containing alcohol, need an ID check under Challenge 25. Check the person's ID every time and record its type in the app: a passport, photo driving licence, PASS card or military ID. If they can't prove they're 18 or over, or you believe they're drunk or buying for someone under 18, don't hand the restricted items over: report it in the app and take them back to the pickup. You can still hand over the rest of a grocery order. Age-checked items are never left at a door or with a neighbour.

Problems. Report problems in the app as they happen: a store that's closed, an order that isn't ready, a store you can't find, a missing pickup code, a breakdown or an accident. If you break down or have an accident before you've collected, the delivery goes to another rider. If it happens after, our team will contact you to sort out the order.

Returns. When a delivery has to go back, take it back to the pickup and mark it as returned in the app.

9. How we expect you to behave

Customers, store staff and other road users must be able to trust our riders. You must:

• treat everyone politely and with respect, and never harass, threaten or discriminate against anyone;
• keep orders and parcels secure and protected from heat, cold, rain and dirt, carry food in a clean, suitable container, and never open, tamper with, eat or keep anything you carry;
• not work under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or when you're too tired or unwell to work safely;
• record every step honestly, including arrivals, collections, hand-overs, waiting, problems and photos. Never fake your location, use software that changes it, or record a step that didn't happen;
• never ask a customer for money, or take payment from them, for a delivery booked through us; and
• follow the law, including food safety, licensing and data protection law.

If we receive a complaint about you, we'll look into it fairly and, unless safety needs us to act at once, give you a chance to tell us your side before we decide anything.

10. Road safety and the law

Your safety matters more than any delivery. Never look at an offer or use your phone in a way that puts you or anyone else at risk.

• Follow the Highway Code and road traffic law, including the Road Traffic Act 1988.
• Don't hold or use your phone while driving or riding a motor vehicle: it's illegal. Use a secure mount, and only touch the app when you've stopped safely. On a bicycle, stop before you use your phone, too.
• Motorcycles, cars and vans. You must hold a valid driving licence for the vehicle, and motor insurance that covers using it for delivery work for payment (often called hire and reward, or courier, cover). Ordinary social, domestic, pleasure and commuting cover usually doesn't include delivery work. The vehicle must be taxed, have a valid MOT where it needs one, and be roadworthy.
• E-bikes. You can ride an e-bike without a licence or insurance only if it meets the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles Regulations 1983: it has pedals that drive the motor, its motor is rated at no more than 250 watts, and its assistance stops at 15.5 mph. Any other e-bike, including a converted one, is a motor vehicle that must be registered, licensed and insured.
• Bicycles. Keep your brakes working. Lights and a rear reflector are required by law at night. We strongly recommend a helmet and high-visibility clothing.
• Don't carry more than your vehicle can carry safely.
• Park legally. Parking tickets, speeding fines and other penalties are yours to pay.

You may decline, or hand back before collection, any delivery you think isn't safe, for example in severe weather or if you feel threatened. You won't be penalised for it, though you aren't paid for a delivery you hand back.

If you have an accident, make sure everyone is safe and call 999 if anyone is hurt or in danger. Then report it in the app. Give your details to anyone involved, as the law requires.

We don't provide insurance for you or your vehicle, or against injury or loss of income. You may want to consider personal accident and public liability insurance.

11. Your pay

You're paid for each delivery you complete, at the pay shown on its offer. Once you accept, that pay is fixed for that delivery.

How pay is worked out. Pay is a base amount plus an amount for each mile by road from the pickup to the drop-off. The distance you travel to reach the pickup isn't paid separately, but every offer shows it so you can decide. Rates are set for each city and type of vehicle, and may change. A change applies only to offers made after it.

Boosts. At busy times, we may add a boost in a zone, which multiplies the pay for deliveries that start there for a while. We tell riders nearby, and the offer shows the boost.

Waiting. If you wait at the pickup beyond the grace period, you're paid for each whole minute after it, for up to 30 minutes a delivery. Waiting counts from when you arrive or, if you're early, from when the order is due to be ready or the parcel is booked for collection. The waiting rate and grace period are set for your city and vehicle and fixed with the offer; support can tell you the current ones.

Tips. You get the whole of any tip on each delivery you hand over. It shows once the delivery is done.

When a delivery doesn't go to plan. If a delivery ends after you've collected it, for example because the customer doesn't answer or it has to go back, you're still paid the offer's pay and any waiting. If a delivery is cancelled before you collect it, or you hand it back, you aren't paid for it.

Seeing your pay. The app shows what each delivery paid, broken down, and your balance.

Corrections. If we've paid you too little or too much, for example because of a technical fault or a step recorded wrongly, we may correct it with an adjustment. The app shows each adjustment with its reason. If you think your pay is wrong, tell support as soon as you can.

12. Payouts

We pay your earnings weekly. A week runs from Monday to Sunday, UK time, and is paid on the Tuesday after it. The money goes through your Stripe account to your bank account. How quickly it reaches your bank depends on Stripe and your bank.

Payouts are made through Stripe Connect. You give your bank details in the app, and Stripe opens an account for you. Stripe will ask you to accept its own terms, and may ask for more information to verify you. We keep only your bank's name, the account holder's name and the last four digits of the account number. To change your bank account, use Stripe's pages, which you reach from the app.

If Stripe can't pay you yet, for example because it needs more details, your money stays in your balance until the first payout after that's sorted. A payout your bank sends back returns to your balance.

Holds. We may hold your payouts while we look into suspected fraud, a serious complaint, a possible breach of these terms or a payment problem. Your money stays in your balance while it's held, and the app shows that your payouts are on hold. We'll tell you why, unless the law or an investigation stops us, and release the hold as soon as we can.

If you owe us money, for example after an overpayment, we may take it from your future earnings with an adjustment.

13. Tax, National Insurance and HMRC

As a self-employed rider, you're responsible for your own tax affairs: registering with HMRC, sending Self Assessment tax returns where you need to, paying Income Tax and National Insurance contributions on your profits, and keeping records. We don't take any tax or National Insurance from your pay.

The Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023 require us, as a digital platform, to collect and check information about the people who earn through us, and to report it to HMRC every year. This includes your name, home address and date of birth, the account you're paid into, and what you earned in each quarter of the calendar year. If the rules need more from you, such as your National Insurance number or Unique Taxpayer Reference, we'll ask you for it.

If you don't give us information the rules require after we've asked and reminded you, the rules may require us to withhold your payouts, or stop you earning through us, until you do.

Each year, we'll give you a copy of the information we report about you. HMRC may share it with tax authorities in other countries, as the law allows.

14. Refer and earn

While Refer and earn is running, the app gives you a personal code and invite link. If a new rider adds your code before submitting their application, you earn a bonus once they're approved and complete the number of deliveries the app shows within the number of days it shows, counted from their approval.

Each referral keeps the bonus and conditions that applied when the new rider joined with your code. We may stop or change Refer and earn for new referrals at any time.

A bonus goes into your balance and is paid with your next weekly payout. Referrals must be genuine: you can't refer yourself or make false applications, and we won't pay a bonus earned that way. The new rider doesn't earn a bonus for using a code.

15. Ratings and feedback

Customers can rate a delivery from 1 to 5 stars, with tags and a comment. You see your average rating and recent feedback in the app, but not who gave it. Customers tracking a delivery see your average rating.

Ratings don't affect which offers you get. We may look at ratings and feedback when we look into a complaint.

16. Your data and customers' data

While you deliver to them, customers and senders see your first name and initial, photo, vehicle, rating and location, and can call you on your phone number (a sender for up to an hour after delivery). Our Rider Privacy Notice explains this and everything else we do with your data.

You'll see customers' names, phone numbers, addresses and notes. Use them only for that delivery. Don't copy, keep or share them, and don't contact a customer once the delivery is over. If you find something a customer left behind, go through support.

Tell support straight away if your phone is lost or stolen, or if you think someone else has got into your account or seen customers' details.

17. Your account

You sign in to the rider app with your Smart Eatx account. Keep your password and sign-in codes secret, and use your own phone number. You're responsible for what's done with your account, unless that's our fault. You can have only one rider account.

18. Support and complaints

You can reach our rider support team in the app during the opening hours it shows. In an emergency, call 999 first.

If you're unhappy with anything, including a decision about your application, pay or account, tell support. Our team will look into it, and you can ask for any automatic decision to be reviewed by a person.

19. Equality

We want to treat everyone fairly. In line with the Equality Act 2010, we won't treat you less favourably because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. The minimum age of 18 applies to everyone, because of the legal and safety responsibilities of the work.

Offers are made by distance, vehicle size and availability, not by who you are. If you have a disability or health condition and need us to change how something works, such as how you complete a check or our training, tell support and we'll consider reasonable adjustments.

20. Pausing and ending

You can stop riding at any time without telling us. To close your account, delete it in your account settings or ask support. If you're still owed earnings, you can delete it once they're paid on the next payout day.

We may suspend your account (so you can't sign in or get offers), or end these terms:

• at any time, by giving you at least 7 days' notice; or
• straight away, if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms, act dishonestly, put anyone at risk, or no longer meet the requirements in Who can ride, or if we need to for legal or safety reasons or after looking into a serious complaint.

We'll tell you our reasons, unless the law or an investigation stops us, and you can ask us to review the decision.

When these terms end, we still pay you what you've earned, less any adjustments we're entitled to make. The sections on pay, payouts, tax, data, responsibility for loss and the law still apply.

21. Responsibility for loss

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

We're responsible for loss you suffer that's a foreseeable result of us breaking these terms or being negligent. We're not responsible for loss of earnings because you got fewer offers than you hoped or the app wasn't available, for loss caused by your vehicle, phone or mobile network, or for loss caused by events beyond our reasonable control.

We work to keep the rider app running, but we can't promise it will always be available or free of faults, and we may update or change it.

You're responsible for loss or damage you cause by breaking these terms or the law, or by being negligent, for example to an order or a customer's property.

22. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms, for example when the law or our service changes. We'll tell you in the app before a change takes effect, with at least 14 days' notice of any change that's significant and not in your favour, unless it's needed sooner for legal or safety reasons.

When a new version applies, the app asks you to accept it before you can go online again. If you don't agree with it, you can stop riding.

A change to pay rates isn't a change to these terms: the pay for every offer is shown before you accept it.

23. General

• These terms, with the instructions the app shows for each delivery, are the whole agreement between us about riding with Smart Eatx.
• We may transfer this agreement to another company, for example if our business is sold, without reducing your rights. You can't transfer it.
• If a court decides that part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• Nobody else has a right to enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can decide any dispute about them. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim in your local courts.

24. Contact us

Reach rider support in the app, email hello@smarteatx.com, or write to Smart Approaches Limited, 4 Admiral Way, Regus House, Doxford International Business Park, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, SR3 3XW. For your personal data, email hello@smarteatx.com.