Terms for handlers

1. About these terms

1.1These terms are the agreement between you and GUARDPOST CONNECTIONS LTD, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 17454609, whose registered office is at 21 Lockington Crescent, Dunstable, LU5 4ST (“GuardPost”, “we”, “us”). You can contact us at support@guardpost.uk.

1.2They apply when you have a GuardPost account as a K9 handler or a static guard (a “handler”). You agree to them by ticking the box when you sign up, or by pressing “I agree” in the app. We record which version you agreed to and when, and email you a copy to keep.

1.3GuardPost acts as an employment agency. We introduce you to businesses (“clients”) who may engage you directly. We do not employ you, we are not an employment business, and we do not supply security services ourselves.

2. What GuardPost does for you

2.1We check your documents and qualifications before you can apply for work, and re-check them while you use GuardPost.

2.2We show you jobs posted by clients, send you job alerts if you turn them on, and pass your applications to clients.

2.3We give you and the client tools for the work: the job sheet, booking on and off, check-ins, incident logs and shift reports, and invoices raised in your name if you sign a self-billing agreement.

2.4We run a process for concerns a client raises about a shift and for sites left unattended, and we keep a reliability record.

2.5We do not promise you any amount of work, or that a client will accept you.

3. No fees, and your pay

3.1GuardPost never charges you a fee, for finding you work or for anything else. Clients pay GuardPost’s fee.

3.2You keep 100% of the rate the client posts. Your pay comes from the client, straight to you. GuardPost is not authorised to receive money on your behalf, and never does.

3.3Because we never hold your money, we cannot pay you if a client does not. What protects you is who we let book: a client’s business is checked on Companies House before they can post a job, and a client who has not paid GuardPost’s fees cannot book more work. If a client does not pay you, tell us.

3.4If you sign a separate self-billing agreement, we raise invoices to clients in your name for the shifts you worked. That agreement has its own terms. It does not allow us to receive your money.

4. Our authority to act for you

4.1We have no authority to act on your behalf, and we cannot agree a contract with a client for you.

4.2When you apply for a job, you are offering to work the shifts listed at the rate posted. If the client accepts, you and the client have an agreement for that work. GuardPost is not a party to it.

4.3Apart from invoices raised under a self-billing agreement you have signed, nothing GuardPost does commits you to anything.

5. Your status

5.1You work for clients as a self-employed person, or through your own company. You are not GuardPost’s employee or worker, and GuardPost does not direct how you do your work.

5.2You are responsible for your own tax, National Insurance and any VAT, and for your own equipment, dog, vehicle and costs unless you agree otherwise with the client.

6. What you must hold, and keep up to date

6.1To apply for or be booked on work you must hold, and keep valid: an SIA licence for the work, the right to work in the UK, public liability insurance of at least £2 million, and photographs matched to your photo ID. K9 handlers must also hold NASDU or BIPDT dog certification, a microchip registered to them, and suitable dog transport. Some jobs ask for more, such as a CSCS card, an enhanced DBS check or BS 7858 screening.

6.2You must tell us straight away if any of these is suspended, revoked, cancelled or changed — including your SIA licence and your permission to work in the UK.

6.3A document stops counting on its expiry date, automatically. We check SIA licences against the public register about every 30 days, and other documents at set intervals. Anything lapsed or missing stops you applying for or being booked on work until it is put right.

6.4Never accept or carry out licensable work you are not licensed for. It is a criminal offence for you, and can be for GuardPost.

7. Working a shift

7.1Arrive when and where you were booked, with what the job requires. Book on and off in the app. If the app is not working, follow your job sheet and enter your times in the app afterwards.

7.2Photographs and your location are recorded when you book on, and your location when you check in, log an incident or book off. They are a record, not monitoring: nobody at GuardPost watches your shift, and check-ins are not a safety line. Keep your own lone-worker arrangements, and in an emergency ring 999.

7.3What you enter goes into a log that cannot be edited afterwards, and it may be used as evidence, including by insurers and in court. Enter only what is true.

7.4Follow the client’s reasonable instructions on site, and the law.

8. Cancelling, leaving early and not turning up

8.1If you cannot work a shift, cancel it in the app as early as you can. Cancelling with at least 24 hours’ notice costs 3 points on your reliability record; with less, it costs 12.

8.2If you leave a shift more than 15 minutes before it ends, you must say why. If the client or site contact stood you down, it costs nothing, and the client is told what you said. Otherwise it costs 2 points with up to an hour left, 10 up to half the shift, 20 for more than half, and 25 for three quarters of the shift or more.

8.3If a site is left unattended — whether you tell us or the client reports it — you cannot take new work while GuardPost looks into it. We decide the outcome, which can include ending your access and cancelling your other bookings.

8.4A client can record a no-show if you have not booked on 60 minutes after the shift starts. A no-show costs 30 points.

9. Your reliability record

9.1Everybody starts on 100 points, and each of your first 40 completed shifts adds 2. Below 60 you cannot apply for or be booked on new work.

9.2Clients can see your score. If you think something on your record is wrong, tell us and we will check the shift log.

10. Concerns about a shift

10.1A client can raise a concern about a shift for up to 7 days afterwards. You are told, and have 7 days to accept or dispute it with your own account and photos.

10.2GuardPost then decides. Only a concern we uphold affects your record, by up to 30 points, and both you and the client are given the reasons.

11. How you use GuardPost

11.1Keep your account to yourself. Never let anybody else use it or work a shift in your place.

11.2Give accurate information, and upload only genuine documents that are yours.

11.3Use a site’s address, access details and contacts only for the booking they were given to you for, and keep them confidential — never share anything that could help somebody target a site.

11.4Treat clients, their staff and GuardPost fairly, and act lawfully.

12. Ending the arrangement

12.1You can end this arrangement at any time, without notice, by emailing support@guardpost.uk. Please work or cancel any shifts you are already booked on first.

12.2We can end it by giving you 7 days’ notice by email. We can suspend or end your access straight away, without notice, if you stop holding something section 6 requires, if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms (for example by working unlicensed, giving false information or leaving a site unattended), or if the law requires us to.

12.3If your access ends, we cancel any shifts you are still booked on and tell the clients. Money a client owes you is not affected. We keep records as our privacy policy explains.

13. Changes to these terms

13.1If we want to change these terms, we will email you the new version, show it in the app, and ask you to agree to it.

13.2A change applies to you only once you agree to it. If you do not, the terms you last agreed to keep applying until you or we end the arrangement under section 12. We will not stop providing our services to you because you have not agreed to a change.

13.3When you agree to a change, we email you the changed terms, and the date they apply from, within 5 business days.

14. Your personal information

14.1Our privacy policy, at guardpost.uk/legal/privacy, explains what we collect about you, what clients can see, how long we keep your documents and records, and your rights.

15. Liability

15.1GuardPost is not responsible for the work you do for a client, for anything a client does or fails to do, or for a client not paying you.

15.2We are not liable for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable, or for loss of earnings or work, except where the law does not allow that to be limited.

15.3Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow to be limited.

16. General

16.1These terms, together with anything you agree in the app for a self-billing agreement, are the whole agreement between you and GuardPost.

16.2If a court decides that part of these terms cannot be enforced, the rest still applies.

16.3These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales can decide any dispute about them.