Local Link Conditions of Carriage

Introduction – What to expect from Local Link

• Local Link can provide journeys (subject to availability) throughout the year excluding Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years' Day.
• Local Link is a multi-occupancy service. You should expect to travel with other passengers going to different destinations than your own.
• For this reason, your journey may take longer than you might expect as it will include time to pick up or drop off others on the way. If you have a medical condition that limits the time you can be on our vehicles, please let us know when booking a trip.
• The vehicles used on this service are minibuses.
• All of our drivers are trained in customer service to ensure you have a comfortable journey.

These Conditions of Carriage outline your rights and any limitations of those rights, and our expectations of you, as a Local Link customer.

Transport for Greater Manchester, Local Link service operators and service partners value the custom of all Local Link customers and endeavour to provide a safe and comfortable journey experience. We will aim to always be helpful, courteous and to treat our customers with respect.

Transport for Greater Manchester, Local Link service operators and service partners will be referred to collectively, as Local Link Service Partners for the remainder of the document.

Feedback

We welcome all feedback and, wherever possible, will use feedback to inform how we improve and develop services for the future.

All feedback should be directed to our Customer Relations team:
Email: hello@beenetwork.com
Phone: 0161 244 1000
Post: Customer Relations, TfGM, 2 Piccadilly Place, Manchester, M1 3BG

We will provide a response within two working days, in full if possible. If further investigation is required, we will send an initial response to let you know and will send a full response once the investigation is complete.

If you are not satisfied with a response you receive, please contact us again.

Limitation of liability

Our operators run services on a first-come first-served basis, using a pre-determined schedule. For this reason, we cannot guarantee that your required journey will be possible every time you attempt to book a trip.

All trips will be booked with a flexible trip window of 10 minutes either side of the scheduled time unless otherwise requested at the point of booking. Our advisors will endeavour to request any trip restrictions before scheduling a booking however, will not be held liable if your trip runs earlier or later than you require and you did not specify these restrictions when you booked the trip.

Our drivers always try to run the service on time, according to the schedule. However, some circumstances are out of our control including, but not limited to; extreme weather conditions, traffic congestion, roadworks and failures of the mobile data network – these things might affect your journey. We will work to inform you wherever possible and to reduce the impact on service provision if the required resource is available at the time, but under such circumstances we will not be held liable for any losses, damage, costs or inconvenience that you incur.

In the event of the cancellation of your trip or withdrawal of the service prior to the scheduled time for reasons out of our control, we will attempt to contact you and try to help you to make alternative arrangements.

We do not exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence and your statutory rights remain unaffected.

Conditions

All customers who travel on a Local Link service shall be deemed to have agreed to be carried according to the conditions below.

Local Link service partners reserve the right to refuse travel to anyone who does not comply with the conditions below or is reasonably suspected to be contravening the Public Services Conduct of Drivers, Inspectors, Conductors and Passengers Regulations 1990 (as amended 2002). Service operators may also apply their own conditions of carriage and should be contacted directly for further information.

Booking trips

• All trips must be booked through the Local Link Call Centre by telephone, on the Local Link booking website.
• You must first register with the appropriate Local Link service before booking trips. You can register on the Local Link booking website or by contacting the Local Link Call Centre.
• You must state the origin and destination of your requested trip when booking.
• Trips must be pre-booked so that a seat can be allocated on the vehicle. Trips can be booked between 7 days and 60 minutes in advance of travel.
• If you are a registered member of the Local Link scheme you are entitled to book trips to travel with others who are not registered. However, non-registered users may not book trips or travel without a registered member present. For the purpose of seat allocation, please remember to notify the call centre of the extra passengers travelling.
• Once a trip has been booked you must be ready to travel from 10 minutes before and up to 10 minutes after the agreed trip time, unless you requested otherwise at the point of booking. The vehicle may arrive at any point during this 20 minute window. If you are not ready at this time, our driver will have to leave without you to be on time for the next passenger.
• If your vehicle does not arrive as expected, you can call the Local Link Call Centre between 7am and 8pm Monday-Friday, 8am-8pm Sat, Sun & BH to check the progress of your vehicle.
• If you need to cancel a trip you should give as much advance as possible. We reserve the right to suspend trip bookings for a period of 30 days for customers who fail to honour 3 bookings in a 30 day period without at least one hour’s advance notice of cancellation. You can cancel trips through the Local Link Call Centre or on the Local Link website. We understand that it may not be possible to cancel a trip outside call centre opening hours if you have no access to the internet. We will take this into consideration before suspending bookings.Failure to cancel unwanted bookings results in a wasted journey and means other customers could be refused a journey unnecessarily. We reserve the right to cancel your membership if you repeatedly fail to honour your bookings.
• If you have a mobile phone, please give us the number when you first register, so we can contact you if our vehicle is delayed or if our driver has trouble finding you.

Customer Conduct

Members of staff and customers of all Local Link Service Partners deserve to be treated with respect. Appropriate action will be taken if you are found to have been behaving in a threatening or abusive way towards a member of staff or another customer. An example of such would be abusive telephone calls, harassment or veiled threats and intimidation.

Members of staff are instructed to report such incidents to their managers for investigation.

We reserve the right to withdraw your registration if you are found to be behaving inappropriately towards a member of staff or another customer.

The driver may refuse to fulfil your trip if he/she believes your behaviour jeopardises the safety, security or comfort of themselves or other customers.

In particular you must ensure that you:

• Use the safety equipment provided to you (e.g. seatbelts) unless you have provided us with a medical exemption certificate prior to travel.
• Refrain from smoking conventional or electronic cigarettes.
• Refrain from consuming alcohol or illegal substances.
• Behave in a manner that cannot be perceived as threatening, disruptive or abusive to others.
• Refrain from leaving litter or discarded items on vehicles.
• Do not damage or interfere with any part of the vehicle.
• Except in an emergency, refrain from talking to or distracting the driver whilst the vehicle is moving.
• Do not carry a weapon, blade or other item with which you could cause harm to yourself or others.
• Do not commit a crime.

Carriage of wheelchairs, small prams, bicycles and mobility scooters

• Where possible we will accommodate wheelchairs, small prams, bicycles and mobility scooters, subject to availability of space on the vehicle.
• If you wish to travel with any of the above, you should inform us at the point of booking so that an appropriately sized vehicle can be allocated.
• If you wish to travel with a mobility scooter please give us a minimum of one week’s notice of its make and model details so that we can determine if it can be safely and legally carried. In some circumstances, an operator representative may conduct a home assessment to confirm a mobility scooter’s suitability for carriage.

Luggage/Shopping bags

• On Local Link services the driver may refuse to carry more than 3 shopping bags per customer or larger suitcases if they: cannot be safely secured; take up seating capacity on the vehicle; or if they obstruct other customers from entering, exiting or sitting comfortably in the vehicle.

Fares and Ticketing

• When boarding the vehicle, you must pay the appropriate fare for and/or display the appropriate ticket or pass for the trip that you have booked.
• The driver retains the right to refuse carriage to anyone not paying the correct fare.
• If travelling under the concessionary fares scheme or paying a child’s concessionary fare, a valid pass, permit or IGO card must be displayed every time you travel and scanned using the onboard Ticket machines.
• When purchasing a weekly ticket, you are advised to book your trips for the week early, as the flexible nature of the service means that we cannot guarantee that there will be room on the vehicle. We are not liable for trips that are refused due to insufficient capacity.

Travelling with animals

• You can bring your pet with you when you travel, provided that it is suitably restrained or carried in an appropriate container and does not pose any hygiene or safety issues. Animals are not allowed on the seats or to block any aisles of the vehicle and remain your responsibility at all times. You must advise us of any animal that you intend to bring with you when you make your booking.