Terms, Conditions and Policies

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Terms and Conditions (subject to change without notice, updated March 2024)

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We have a non smoking or vaping policy in our vehicles and premises at all times

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JCTS.be is a Private Hire Operator under and subject to Oldham Council Taxi and Private Hire regulations and policies along with many other regulations, laws and policies. Our Oldham Council Private Hire Operator number is PHO014 and covers our vehicles only, which have to be booked in advance and which are operated in accordance with the conditions within it. 

(See www.oldham.gov.uk/taxis for more information on all aspects of the Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle licensing that JCTS.be operates to)

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What do you get from JCTS.be on a trip? Professional service, honest upfront price, minimal delays, modern comfortable compliant vehicle with a highly experienced driver, comprehensive booking with minimal hassle afterwards and a wide range of booking types available.

Once we have your booking details we will confirm the trip and price along with our recommended time schedule. Our vehicle will be prepared as appropriate, arriving at the allocated times.

Our vehicle and driver work to the highest limits of the laws and regulations of the vehicle, Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle trades and are fully compliant with our licensing council regulations (unlike a large number of other PHV drivers) We are correctly insured and our vehicle kept as clean as possible.

Our upfront prices will be honoured subject to our T & C's (unlike some ride share apps) and should include all known charges as discussed in our confirmation of your booking; the more information you can supply the better price we can offer. 

How we work our costs out? Well, time both waiting and travelling, collection and stopping locations, mileage, possible delays, charges, weather, routes available, stops en route time as well as travelling empty, all make a difference to the price. Clean air, low emission and PHV charging zones, Congestion charging, Toll roads, bridges, tunnels as well as drop off and collection points or parking will also affect the price a lot and are not covered under a large number of other operators so don't assume they are if you're comparing prices. The price we give you should be the price you pay! We allow a reasonable amount of time for the start and finish of trips along with any rest stops on longer journeys but we might have to add a waiting charge for excessively extended times.

Process for paperwork and bookings. All the details and information we take for any booking will only be used by JCTS.be for your booking. We do not pass on your information but do have to securely store some of your booking as part of our legal requirements for compliance of our operating licence. This storage as with all our operation, including our vehicle dash-cam video recording, is done to the standards covered by our Information Commissioners Office guidelines and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) policies.

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Cancellations and Payments

We normally ask for payment at the start of a trip, (or a partial payment for very long trips). For trips like an airport booking we ask for the trip to the airport at its start and the return from the airport when we get you home. We feel this works best in case of delays or problems between the two trips. We do have a touch to pay phone app which charges us a minimal amount to use but we will happily take cash as our preferred method of payment.

Cancellations by you the customer, we require 24 hours notice prior to the collection time to cancel any booking with zero charge to the customer; please email jctsdotbe@oulook.com with the heading "Cancellation" and your booking details. For shorter notice periods, especially when we are travelling long distances, we might make a charge to recover costs such as fuel used, parking and other costs we incur.

Cancellation by us, if it ever did arise when we needed to cancel a booking we will give as much notice as possible but a minimum of 48 hours (or 5 working days for long distance booked well in advance trips like a cruise ship holiday) but we will do everything we can to still provide you with transport before we get to that point. We have no intention of leaving anyone stranded or out of pocket.

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Legal Requirements as set out by Oldham Council Policies and Regulations

Driver. Our Driver holds a valid Oldham Council Dual Drivers badge which shall be on display or worn, the conditions of which includes a medical, enhanced  DBS check with updates, a full driving licence as set out in Oldham Council Licensing documentation and they will have a smart appearance . Our driver will know your booking details and keep you informed should any unforeseen delays out of our control be  encountered. A legal requirement of a maximum of ten hours driving limit with passengers onboard is in place with a 6 hour minimum rest period for normal working time.

Vehicle. Our Private Hire Vehicle will have been correctly serviced, hold a valid MOT, Tax, valid plating compliance test, be fully insured for use as a PHV, be correctly marked as per regulations, have a comprehensive start of shift inspection as part of its compliance. It will also have the required safety equipment and paperwork onboard as required by the laws and regulations that we have to operate to, the interior will be in a clean condition and the outside as clean as it can be due to work commitments. Onboard dash cams are non-audio recording and covered under ICO and GDPR policies. We use Satellite Navigation to assist with routing and minimise delays. Our non-PHV goods carrying vehicles are well serviced, insured, MOT and kept to the same high a standard as our PHV. Our vehicles will not be allowed to exceed the speed limits and are tracked for insurance purposes

Operator. Our Operator license PHO014 covers our PHV for bookings made in advance which have to contain detailed information as required by Oldham Council Licensing regulations such as your name, address, contact number, pick up and destination addresses, date and time of trip and booking. This information needs to be retained for a period of time should the council need to check our trip records and should any complaints occur or be requested by a legitimate legal body. We also have to have complaints and lost property procedures along with ensuring all company, Oldham Council, local and national laws / policies,  GDPR and ICO are followed as well as our vehicle and driver are fully compliant and legal. Only correctly regulated persons can deal with any booking or personal details. We do have safeguarding policies which have to be followed for persons under 18 years of age or persons with specific requirements for travel which we need to be able to plan for in advance. We don't carry child seats in the vehicle unless by prior arrangement at the time of the booking

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ALL OUR VEHICLES, PREMISES & DRIVERS are NON SMOKING or VAPING. The use of any recreational drugs or the inhalation of gasses is illegal in our vehicles and will not be tolerated as it places our staff, driver, vehicles or members of public at risk.

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Commitment to you our customer

We are committed to transporting all our customers as safely as possible in the most comfort as possible. Our vehicle has a full set of seat belts, 3 in the rear and front belts, along with plenty of standard modern equipment should the worse happen.  We don't have child seats in the vehicle as we would need this confirmed at time of the booking and be as per the laws require. The driver will have the best route planned along with the technology to minimise travel times and will try their utmost to ensure your comfort at all times with any stops to on/off board having to be within the laws and regulation, such as complying with clearways, yellow or red lines, private land locations and so on. Should a delay occur or a situation which results in a change to the expectations of the journey our driver will keep you informed and help rectify the situation the best we can. Our ultimate aim is to provide you with a professional, safe, comfortable, pleasant trip from start to finish, to the time scale for the sensibly low price, confirmed to the booking as we want you to travel with us again.

If you require any assistance or help during your trip with us please ask our driver to assist you, if you want to chat he will be happy to do so although subjects we can talk about can be somewhat limited (however driving as safely as possible and concentrating on that is the main priority)

 We can provide USB charging points, radio stations, any temperature be it cold with air-conditioning, nice and warm or anywhere in between

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Policies ( as per Oldham Council Regulations, www.oldham.gov.uk/taxis)

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Safeguarding Policy.

This policy covers all our passengers and staff as well as those vulnerable members of the public and our passengers we encounter through our work. The use of seatbelts in our vehicles is a must, if you have a certificate of exemption you must have it with you as passengers must legally wear them (special rules for under 14s apply for Private Hire Vehicles which differ from that of a normal car) Smoking, vaping, recreational drugs or inhalation of gasses are NOT to be used in or next to our vehicles or premises.

Abuse. Abuse should not have to be tolerated by anyone, things go wrong or accidents happen, our driver will do his best to minimise these issues the best he can and try to diffuse any situations that develop including with other surrounding vehicles and members of the public. Abuse is not always this obvious, sometimes other situations can arise that can be taken as abuse, our driver has some training in this as part of PHV driver training and has a legal responsibility to report severe cases to the appropriate authorities. This can also be limiting to what subjects our driver can chat about during a journey. We have a legal responsibility to be very aware of issues such as child exploitation along with other important issues. Should anyone feel unsafe in our vehicle please tell our driver and we can do whatever is necessary.

Drop off and pick up. Our driver would hope that any trip location that allows passengers in or out of the vehicle can be done legally and safely, unfortunately this isn't always the case, please allow for our driver to compromise if necessary to be able to carry out this important part of the journey. A Oldham Licensed Private Hire Vehicle is not allowed to use a bus lane, a bus stop, solid line cycle lane, junction, school or crossing zone, red or yellow lines, urban clearway, goods loading zone, disabled parking or restricted private land to stop in. This makes a lot of places extremely difficult to perform stops for on/off boarding to our high standards especially around high footfall areas like town centres. Please understand this when our driver is trying to perform a safe disembark or embark.

Passengers with disabilities. Our vehicle is a standard estate car and our staff have limited training in the assistance of disabled passengers with all aspects of travelling with us. We aim to offer the maximum assistance to all our passengers and are happy to always learn more with help and feedback from our passengers. We understand disabilities are not obvious and some can quickly affect how people can function from first hand experience, we wont rush you, if you need help or time we will happily comply. 

Vulnerable adults. We aim to treat people with any form of vulnerability as normally and professionally as we can but ideally any useful information that can be provided to assist us with this should be disclosed beforehand if possible or appropriate. Ideally contacts for our destination and legal guardians should be provided in case of any situation which may be negative for the personal comfort of our passenger.

Under 18 passengers, obviously if only under 18 years of age passengers are onboard for a trip we will need to have permission of the legally responsible guardians at both ends of the journey. The journey can only take place should all parties and persons be fully happy with the arrangements of the trip which should be in writing. Emergency contact numbers for all minors' guardians on longer trips will have to be given and carried as well as a legally responsible person for transfer of responsibility to take place at the destination. Contact with all parties involved will have to be  maintained for the trip as discussed before the trip starts.  The regulations for the carrying of under 14's with regards to seat belts and child seats is slightly different in a Private Hire Vehicle compared to a normal car, we do prefer to have children under 14 to be carried correctly in your supplied seat which can connect to seat belts and isofix mounts. We can not administer any form of medication to any minor in our care.

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Customer Service  & Complaints Policy

Our customer service and satisfaction is at the heart of our business, we do our utmost best to offer high quality great value service, it's one of the things that we pride ourselves on and why you should travel with us; you know exactly what you are getting as you might be with us in our vehicle for a considerable length of time depending on your journey.

Should anything go wrong or is not to your liking then please tell your driver, they will do all they can to rectify the issue. If that is not enough or the issue is more important please email us afterwards at jctsdotbe@outlook.com with the subject of "Complaint". Please provide your name, the date of your trip along with the start and finish address along as much information you can about the complaint, issue or problem. We would hope to be able to find a solution to any complaint by the end of 10 working days from recite of the email. If you feel your compliant has not been satisfied after these 10 days then please contact Oldham Licensing department via licensing@oldham.gov.uk You will need all your trip information as well as our operator trip details that we will send you and then can assist if possible to help find a solution.

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Equality Policy

At JCTS.be we believe everyone shall be treated with the highest levels of respect and understanding with no difference for who they are. With this in mind we do our utmost best to ensure everyone we encounter and that every trip is done as professionally with as much care and understanding as possible. We fully understand that some of our customers might require specific conditions to help them travel or enter/leave our vehicle as well as any premises. Passengers with any sort of mobility, health, disability or impairment should feel at ease when they travel with us, we at JCTS.be understand most issues but sometimes we might not realise the best method of help for you and always appreciate you telling us what you need; we're not trying to be over helpful we are just trying to help you. Sometimes we can find problems with regards to what, how and where we can legally stop to pick up and drop off customers, our drivers will do the best they can and will explain what issues they have. Unfortunately a number of councils and companies do not understand the needs of disabled and poor mobility passengers and enforce no stopping zones by CCTV and send charge notices in the post at a later date, Manchester City Centre has some typical examples of these.

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Data Protection Policy

Your privacy and information is very important to us. We comply with, and are regulated by the Information Commissioner's Office with regards to all areas of our business and are GDPR compliant. We have to hold some information for a long period of time to comply with regulations regarding bookings and trips, other information is held for a lot shorter period of time. Your information is not passed on to anyone unless legally necessary to the authorities, we don't even use cookies on our website. All our electronic devices are to be used sensibly and have anti-virus protection installed and only used on secure, safe WiFi networks. Additional drivers will be issued with a phone and not allowed to use their personal one for customer details. All our staff will have been BDS checked on a regular basis and trained in what is required to keep a high level of privacy and data protection. All financial transactions by card will be done in accordance with all current regulations, necessary details stored securely for the minimal period of time and then disposed of correctly to comply with GDPR,  ICO and financial institutions.

All completed paper documentation for customers or staff will be stored in secure locked filing units, accessible by authorised staff only and only for the required time need, then disposed of by cross cutting shredder. Electronic devices and memory units will be fully deleted and if necessary dismantled into recyclable parts All our vehicles have on board dash cameras pointing front and rear which only record video, we do not allow video or audio to be taken from inside our vehicles except in limited circumstances which would fall under our safeguarding policy for very vulnerable passengers when all parties are in consent. These recording are to be deleted as soon as the trip is completed.

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Recruitment & Suitability Policy for members of staff.

All our drivers will be dual Hackney Carriage Taxi and Private Hire badged with Oldham Council. They will hold a valid clean enhanced DBS certificate which is checked regularly by both ourselves and Oldham Council Licensing. They will be compliant with our dress code and have training in customer service and Taxi/PHV regulations. Additional driving qualifications and training including first aid and advanced driving techniques are expected to help offer the highest standards of driving and service. Our drivers are expected to have an in depth understanding of vehicle maintenance and cleanliness. Smoking or vaping will not be allowed in any vehicle, our premises or at any collection or delivery location.

Vehicles will be plated by Oldham Council and maintained to a very high standard in accordance with the manufactures schedule, daily checks will be carried out by every driver at all times along with other legal requirements  and processes which are to be followed. Additional training will be included over time to keep our staff and drivers aware of changes to rules, laws and regulations. We have a zero tolerance on drink and drug driving or whilst on duty at work. All our non driving staff will be compliant with the current Oldham Council licensing regulations all of which can be found via www.oldham.gov.uk/taxis

JCTSbe Operator Number PHO014

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For more information regarding what to expect from a Private Vehicle Operator, Driver or Vehicle please visit the Oldham Council Licensing web pages at www.oldham.gov.uk/taxis or email licensing@oldham.gov.uk

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