Capacity Release, Failed Allocation and Driver Exit Policy

1. Policy Function and Risk Objective

This Policy sets the rules that apply where booked logistics capacity is withdrawn, released, abandoned, rendered unusable or otherwise lost after a booking has entered the ShipSherpa marketplace.

It governs the commercial consequences of:

• customer cancellation
• booking amendments affecting reserved capacity
• failed collections
• no-show scenarios
• dispatch failure
• post-acceptance driver withdrawal
• fleet-side reallocation failure
• timed vehicle reservation loss
• heavy vehicle cancellation
• enterprise/API cancellation events
• false demand and cancellation abuse

The purpose of this Policy is not punitive. Its purpose is to allocate the economic consequences of lost capacity fairly across the marketplace once a route, driver, fleet resource or specialist vehicle has been reserved or deployed.

This Policy forms part of the ShipSherpa contractual framework and applies across standard same-day services, scheduled work, dedicated vehicle bookings, half-day and full-day hire, trunking, linehaul, overflow work, enterprise dispatch and API-originated bookings.

2. Core Commercial Principle

A booking may be cancelled before execution begins, but once ShipSherpa marketplace capacity has been reserved, accepted, dispatched or committed, the booking may generate a charge even if transport does not complete.

Charges under this Policy reflect one or more of the following:

• lost opportunity to deploy the vehicle elsewhere
• driver dead mileage
• reserved time-slot erosion
• specialist equipment allocation
• heavy vehicle planning cost
• dock-slot disruption
• linehaul timing impact
• enterprise service exposure
• replacement allocation friction
• fraud and false-demand protection

Where a booking has been amended by agreement, all cancellation windows and charging thresholds shall be measured by reference to the revised booking time, not the original one.

3. Capacity Status Categories

For the purposes of this Policy, a booking may sit in one of the following marketplace states:

Open Allocation
No driver, fleet partner or vehicle resource has yet accepted or been committed.

Reserved Capacity
A driver, fleet partner or vehicle resource has accepted or been ring-fenced for the job.

Committed Dispatch
The assigned resource has begun operational preparation, mobilisation, route positioning or scheduled deployment.

Arrival / Live Attendance
The driver or vehicle has reached site, entered the collection approach stage or is demonstrably present for collection.

The commercial consequences of cancellation increase as the booking moves through these capacity states.

4. Customer Withdrawal Before Capacity Is Reserved

A customer may cancel a booking without charge where either:

1. the cancellation occurs within the short error-correction period stated for the service type; or
2. no driver, fleet or vehicle resource has yet accepted or been reserved against the booking.

For standard same-day vehicle classes from car up to Luton, ShipSherpa may apply a brief grace period for obvious booking mistakes. Unless a different period is published for the relevant service, that grace period shall be 10 minutes from confirmed booking.

Once reserved capacity exists, the booking becomes subject to the charging structure in this Policy.

5. Standard Same-Day Vehicle Cancellation Matrix

Car to Luton vehicle classes

Where a standard same-day booking has entered Reserved Capacity, the following charging rules apply:

ShipSherpa may treat a driver as en route where dispatch evidence, platform status or communications show that the driver has materially committed to collection attendance.

6. Dedicated Vehicle Reservations

Half-day and full-day hire

Dedicated vehicle bookings carry increased lock-up risk because vehicle time is reserved for one customer and cannot readily be resold at short notice.

Where a dedicated half-day or full-day booking is cancelled, the following charges apply:

7. Heavy Vehicle, Trunking and Linehaul Capacity

7.5 tonne, 18 tonne, artic and similar specialist allocations

Heavy vehicle and linehaul bookings create materially higher planning exposure, including regulated driver hours, dock timing, return-leg inefficiency, specialist scheduling and revenue displacement.

Accordingly, unless a separate enterprise schedule applies, the following charging structure shall apply:

For the purposes of this section, “rolling” includes any demonstrable commencement of the transport movement or committed positioning of the heavy vehicle resource.

8. Failed Collection and Customer Non-Readiness

A booking may be treated as a failed collection where the assigned resource attends as required but transport cannot proceed because the customer, consignor or site is not operationally ready.

This includes where:

• no authorised contact is present
• goods are unavailable
• the collection address is wrong
• access cannot be obtained
• loading arrangements are not in place
• site induction or compliance prerequisites are unmet
• paperwork is missing
• dimensions or weight materially differ from those declared
• the goods cannot lawfully or safely be loaded

In such cases, ShipSherpa may charge up to the full route value together with any waiting time, wasted attendance, repositioning cost or specialist vehicle idle charge.

9. Customer Cancellation Rights for Material Delay

A customer may cancel without cancellation charge where the assigned service is materially delayed beyond the applicable threshold and ShipSherpa is unable to provide a commercially reasonable recovery position.

Unless otherwise agreed:

• for standard same-day services, the threshold is 60 minutes
• for heavy vehicle, linehaul or timed dock services, the threshold is 90 minutes

This fee-free cancellation right shall not apply where the delay arises wholly or mainly from:

• force majeure
• customer instruction changes
• inaccurate booking data
• site congestion or customer-side loading delay
• road closure, police control or serious traffic incident
• severe weather
• restricted access conditions unknown at the time of dispatch

10. Driver and Fleet Freedom Before Acceptance

Drivers and fleet partners are under no obligation to accept any offered booking.

Nothing in this Policy requires a driver or fleet partner to take any route, maintain any acceptance rate or reserve availability for future work.

The legal and commercial consequences in this Part arise only after a booking has been accepted or a fleet resource has been committed.

11. Permitted Post-Acceptance Withdrawal by Driver or Fleet

Once accepted, a booking should only be relinquished where continued performance would be unsafe, unlawful or genuinely impracticable.

Legitimate withdrawal reasons may include:

• vehicle breakdown
• illness or incapacity
• regulatory hours risk
• unsafe loading
• prohibited or undeclared goods
• materially incorrect dimensions or weight
• route illegality
• insurance or compliance failure discovered post-acceptance
• serious site safety concern

Where possible, the driver or fleet partner must notify ShipSherpa immediately so reallocation can be attempted.

12. Unacceptable Capacity Capture Behaviour

The following conduct undermines marketplace confidence and is prohibited:

• accepting work without genuine intention to perform
• holding routes while seeking better-paying alternatives
• dropping lower-value accepted work for later higher-value work
• repeated late-stage withdrawal
• conflicting overbooking across multiple platforms
• fake acceptance for pricing or market intelligence
• surge gaming
• pattern-based route hoarding
• strategic abandonment of dedicated vehicle commitments

Where such behaviour is identified, ShipSherpa may apply commercial or access consequences including payout adjustment, reduced allocation priority, temporary suspension or permanent removal.

Any such platform response remains a marketplace integrity measure and does not imply employment-style discipline.

13. Fleet Reallocation Responsibility

Where a fleet partner has accepted a booking and its originally intended driver becomes unavailable, the fleet partner must use reasonable efforts to reallocate the work internally through an already approved and verified replacement.

No unapproved third-party substitution may be used unless separately authorised under the applicable ShipSherpa fleet onboarding framework.

The fleet partner remains responsible for any failed fulfilment arising from internal driver unavailability.

14. Enterprise, API and Negotiated Account Overrides

Some enterprise, API and strategic customer accounts may operate under:

• separate SLAs
• master services agreements
• negotiated tariff schedules
• account-specific cancellation windows
• customer-specific dispatch rules
• agreed reallocation protections

Where such a document expressly overrides this Policy, the negotiated enterprise arrangement shall prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.

In the absence of an express override, this Policy shall apply.

15. Abuse Detection and Investigation Rights

ShipSherpa may investigate booking and cancellation behaviour suggesting misuse of the marketplace, including:

• repeated short-notice cancellation
• false urgency creation
• warehouse slot blocking
• synthetic demand
• dedicated vehicle reservation abuse
• API cancellation loops
• route hoarding
• coordinated driver withdrawal
• repeated failed-collection engineering
• manipulation designed to test price elasticity or capacity depth

Where abuse is suspected, ShipSherpa may impose appropriate controls, including warning notices, charge enforcement, throttling, booking restrictions, API suspension or account termination.

16. Charges, Recovery and Set-Off

Any charge arising under this Policy may be:

• charged to the customer payment method
• invoiced to the account holder
• offset against sums otherwise due
• deducted from settlement flows where contractually permitted
• recovered through legal process where unpaid

ShipSherpa may retain evidence reasonably necessary to support charge enforcement, fraud defence, insurer reporting or customer dispute resolution.

17. Interpretation and Operational Integrity

This Policy is intended to preserve fair pricing, credible vehicle reservation economics, driver confidence, fleet reliability and enterprise-grade dispatch integrity.

It is also designed to discourage false demand, protect genuine capacity and support national scaling across same-day, scheduled, dedicated and future multimodal services.