Terms of Service

ClearHubEA Limited operates a technology marketplace through which cargo owners and clearing agents (“posting parties”) contract road freight from transport service providers (“carriers”).

ClearHubEA is not a carrier, a freight forwarder or an insurer. We do not own trucks, employ drivers or take custody of cargo. The contract of carriage is between the posting party and the carrier. What we provide is the platform on which that contract is formed, recorded, executed and settled.

You must register an organisation, not merely an individual, and the person registering must be authorised to bind it. You are responsible for everything done under your account and for keeping credentials secure.

Before an organisation may quote or carry, ClearHubEA verifies its registration and tax identifier, and reviews the licences, insurance and inspection certificates uploaded for its vehicles and drivers. Each document carries an expiry date. When a document lapses, the vehicle or driver it belongs to is withheld from quoting until a replacement is accepted. Keeping documents current is your responsibility, not ours.

Verification is a check of the documents presented. It is not a warranty by ClearHubEA as to any operator’s competence, solvency or conduct.

A posting party publishes a load with its route, cargo, vehicle requirement, dates and the rate it will pay. Carriers submit quotes against it.

Quoting is sealed. A carrier sees neither the other quotes nor what the posting party is paying. A posting party sees the quotes submitted to it. Neither side is shown the other’s side of the commercial terms.

Quotes and counter-offers expire, and the number of counter-offer rounds is limited; the current periods are shown in the platform. Award is a single action: one carrier is accepted and the remaining quotes are closed at the same moment. On award a trip is created recording the load, the carrier, the vehicle, the driver and the rate agreed.

The posting party owes ClearHubEA the rate it published. ClearHubEA owes the carrier the rate the carrier quoted and had accepted. The difference is our fee for operating the marketplace.

The fee in force when a load is published is recorded against that load and is not recalculated afterwards. A change to our published rates affects loads posted after the change, never loads already on the board.

Each load is contracted in a single currency, and that currency and amount are the agreed terms. Where the platform additionally displays a figure converted to another currency — in reporting, for example — that converted figure is indicative only, is calculated at a rate recorded when the record was created, and does not vary what is owed.

The carrier must perform with the vehicle and driver named in the award unless a substitution is agreed and recorded on the platform. The carrier is responsible for the cargo while it is in its custody, and for holding the insurance its jurisdiction requires.

Delivery is evidenced by proof uploaded to the trip — a signed delivery note or photograph, timestamped. Delivery is treated as verified when a person authorised to do so confirms that evidence.

An invoice is raised to the posting party when a trip is contracted, and payment is due on the terms stated on it.

Declaring a payment on the platform is a claim that you have paid; it is not payment. A declaration is confirmed by ClearHubEA finance against the receiving account before the invoice is treated as settled.

A payout to the carrier accrues on award and becomes releasable only after delivery has been verified. Release additionally requires a second authentication factor. We may withhold a payout where the corresponding invoice is unpaid, where delivery is contested, or where we are investigating suspected fraud.

Every movement of money is recorded in a ledger that is written once and never edited. Those records are the primary evidence of what was agreed and what was paid.

A load may be withdrawn before it is awarded. After award, cancellation is a matter between the posting party and the carrier; the cancellation and its stated reason are recorded on the trip. Cancelling after a carrier has begun performance may leave you liable to that carrier for costs already incurred.

A dispute about carriage, cargo condition, delay or payment is between the posting party and the carrier, who are the parties to the contract of carriage.

ClearHubEA does not currently operate a formal adjudication process and does not decide such disputes. What we do provide, on request from either party, is the platform’s record: the load as published, the quotes, the award, the vehicle and driver assigned, the delivery evidence, and the payment and payout history. Where a dispute is unresolved we may withhold the related payout until the parties resolve it or a competent authority directs otherwise.

You must not misrepresent your identity, your fleet or your compliance status; upload a document that is not genuine; use another organisation’s account; attempt to circumvent the platform to avoid our fee on a load introduced through it; interfere with the platform’s operation; or use it for anything unlawful.

We may suspend or close an account that breaches these terms, whose verification has lapsed, or where we reasonably suspect fraud. You may close your account at any time. Closure does not affect obligations already incurred — an invoice already raised remains payable, and a payout already earned remains owing.

The platform is provided as it is. We do not warrant that any load will attract a quote, that any carrier will perform, or that any posting party will pay.

We are not liable for loss of or damage to cargo. That liability rests with the carrier and its insurers under the contract of carriage.

Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. Subject to that, our aggregate liability to you arising out of the platform is limited to the fees we earned on the transactions giving rise to the claim.

[The liability cap and any exclusions must be settled with counsel before these terms are published.]

We may change these terms and will revise the date above. Material changes will be notified to you. Continuing to use the platform after a change takes effect is acceptance of it.

These terms are governed by the laws of Kenya, and the courts of Kenya have jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of them.

ClearHubEA Limited, Mombasa Malindi Road, Stone House Building, Door One, Mezzanine, P.O. Box 97496-80112, Makupa, Mombasa — info@clearhubea.co.ke.