Terms of Service

These Terms govern access to and use of the FreightShield website, member portal, PayChecker, document vault, work-record tools, case-preparation tools and related services (the Service). FreightShield is based in Melbourne, Victoria and is currently focused on Victorian owner-drivers.

The final contracting party will be the registered legal operator identified here before launch (FreightShield, we, us or our). By creating an account or using the Service after the effective date, you agree to these Terms and acknowledge the Privacy Policy.

Effective date: to be set on publication after the legal operator details are inserted.

You may use the Service only if you:

• are at least 18 years old and able to enter a binding agreement;
• are an owner-driver or independent contractor operating in Victoria;
• provide complete and accurate account information; and
• use the Service for lawful business purposes.

FreightShield is not presently designed for employee award calculations or for work governed by another Australian state or territory. Contact us before relying on the Service outside its stated scope.

FreightShield helps you organise records, compare figures you supply against selected rate or contract information, identify a possible discrepancy, and prepare material for your own follow-up. Results are preliminary information, not a finding that money is legally owed.

FreightShield is not a law firm, accounting practice, financial adviser, union, regulator or debt collection service. We do not provide legal, financial, tax or industrial-relations advice, create a solicitor-client relationship, represent you, or guarantee payment, recovery or any other outcome. Obtain independent professional advice for decisions that matter to you.

A Premium evidence pack is a structured record for independent review. It does not include a lawyer referral or professional opinion. Any professional service requires a separate engagement with that provider.

Some features use artificial intelligence to read documents, extract fields, check document suitability, explain results, audit whether a case file appears complete, or draft correspondence for staff review. AI can misread a document, omit context or produce an inaccurate statement.

You must check every extracted field, rate, calculation input, summary and draft against the original source. FreightShield's deterministic calculator owns the displayed arithmetic; AI commentary must not be treated as a recalculation or final decision. Carrier correspondence is reviewed by a person before it is sent. We do not use AI to make a final legal determination about your rights or entitlement.

Keep your password and sign-in method secure, promptly tell us about suspected unauthorised access, and do not allow another person to use your account. You are responsible for activity carried out through your account unless the activity resulted from our failure to take reasonable security precautions.

You retain ownership of information and documents you upload. You give us a limited, non-exclusive permission to host, copy, analyse, transmit and otherwise process that material only as reasonably needed to provide, secure and support the Service, comply with law, and follow your authorised instructions.

You must have the right to provide the material. Before uploading, remove tax file numbers, bank login credentials and health or medical information that is not necessary. Do not upload another person's sensitive information without a lawful reason and their authority where required. Our handling of personal information and overseas providers is described in the Privacy Policy.

You must not:

• upload false, misleading, unlawful, infringing or malicious material;
• use the Service to harass, threaten or improperly pressure a carrier or another person;
• attempt to access another user's data or bypass security, usage or entitlement controls;
• reverse engineer, scrape or disrupt the Service except where the law expressly permits it; or
• present an automated output as legal advice, a regulator's decision or a guaranteed entitlement.

New paid subscriptions are currently paused. When paid plans are made available, the applicable plan, billing interval, usage limits, total price, taxes and any recurring charge will be shown before purchase. Payments will be processed by Stripe, and the plan will renew at the disclosed interval until cancelled.

You will be able to manage or cancel an active subscription through the billing portal or by contacting us. The cancellation timing and access end date shown in the portal will apply. We will give reasonable advance notice of a material price increase and allow cancellation before it takes effect.

Change-of-mind refunds are not promised. Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, remedy or other right under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot lawfully be excluded, including a right to a refund or other remedy where the law requires one.

We contact a carrier about your case only after you give the required authority and the workflow confirms the applicable plan and evidence requirements. You are responsible for checking the carrier contact details and the substance of your instructions. Staff-reviewed correspondence asks about a possible discrepancy; it is not a letter of demand or legal representation.

FreightShield and its licensors own the Service, software, visual design, templates and branding, excluding your content. We give you a limited, revocable, non-transferable right to use the Service for your own lawful business records while your account is active. You may download and use reports created from your data for your own business, dispute-resolution and professional-advice purposes.

We aim to operate the Service with reasonable care and skill, but maintenance, provider outages, security events or events beyond our reasonable control may interrupt access. We do not promise uninterrupted or error-free availability.

We may improve or change features. For a material adverse change to a paid Service, we will give reasonable notice where practicable and offer a reasonable way to cancel before the change applies. We will not use a change to remove rights that cannot be excluded by law.

We may suspend access immediately where reasonably necessary to address fraud, unlawful use, a security risk, non-payment or a legal requirement. For other material breaches, we will ordinarily give notice and a reasonable opportunity to fix the issue. You may ask us to close your account at any time.

Before closure, download records you need. We may retain submitted case evidence, billing records, security logs or dispute records where reasonably necessary or required by law. Eligible deletion requests are handled under the Privacy Policy. Account closure does not cancel an external subscription unless we confirm that it has been cancelled in Stripe.

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts or modifies a right, guarantee, condition, warranty or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under the Australian Consumer Law. Where a statutory guarantee applies, our service must meet the standard required by law.

Subject to those non-excludable rights, each party is responsible for loss that was reasonably foreseeable and directly caused by its breach, negligence or unlawful conduct. Neither party is responsible for indirect or consequential loss that was not reasonably foreseeable. No limitation in these Terms applies to fraud, wilful misconduct, breach of confidentiality or privacy, or liability that the law does not permit us to limit.

Contact us first and explain the issue and the outcome you want. We will acknowledge the complaint and try to resolve it fairly. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking urgent relief or using a regulator, tribunal, court or other remedy available by law. Victorian users may also contact Consumer Affairs Victoria.

We may update these Terms to reflect legal, security or Service changes. We will show the revised date and, for a material adverse change, provide reasonable advance notice where practicable. The change will apply prospectively. If you do not agree, you may stop using the Service and cancel any affected subscription before the change takes effect.

These Terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia. The courts and tribunals of Victoria have non-exclusive jurisdiction. If part of these Terms is unenforceable, the remaining parts continue to apply.

Email sasha@freightshield.com.au. The registered legal operator, ABN or ACN and service address must be inserted here before launch.