Terms and conditions

The short version: a deposit holds your date, the balance is due before we set off, and your pet travels alone in our care with only your other animals for company. If the paperwork is not right on the day, the journey cannot start, so please read section 4.

These terms apply to every journey Express Travel Pet carries out. By paying a deposit you accept them. TO CONFIRM: registered company name, company number and registered office address.

1. The quote

1. A quote is valid for 14 days from the day we send it, unless it says otherwise.
2. The price is based on the addresses, dates, animals and vehicle you told us about. If any of those change, the price may change, and we will tell you before we act on it.
3. A quote is an offer to carry out the journey described in it. A contract exists once we receive your deposit and confirm the booking in writing.

2. Paying

1. A deposit of 20% of the total secures the date. The booking is not held until it arrives.
2. The balance is due 7 days before collection. Where you paid the deposit by card, we take the balance from the same card on that date and tell you beforehand.
3. We accept card payments through Stripe, and bank transfer by arrangement. Card details are handled entirely by Stripe.
4. If the balance is not paid by the due date we may release the date to someone else and treat the booking as cancelled by you.

3. Changing or cancelling

Cancellation charges are a share of the total price, counted from the collection date:

• More than 14 days before: the deposit is refunded in full
• Between 14 and 7 days before: the deposit is kept
• Less than 7 days before: 50% of the total is payable
• Less than 48 hours before, or on the day: the full price is payable

1. Moving a date once, more than 14 days before collection, costs nothing. After that a change is treated as a cancellation and a new booking.
2. If we cancel for a reason that is our fault, you get everything you have paid back in full.
3. Refunds go back to the card or account the money came from, within 5 to 10 working days.

4. Your pet’s paperwork

This is the part that stops journeys. Border officials check it, not us, and we cannot travel without it.

1. You are responsible for making sure every animal has the documents its route requires: a microchip, a valid rabies vaccination, a pet passport or an Animal Health Certificate, and any tapeworm treatment recorded in the right window.
2. We tell you what is needed when you book and we remind you as the date approaches, but the duty to obtain it is yours.
3. If a document is missing, expired or filled in wrongly on the day, we cannot start the journey. That counts as a cancellation by you, and the charges in section 3 apply.
4. You confirm that the animals are yours to send, and that you are not moving them for sale or rehoming unless you have told us, because commercial movements need different paperwork.

5. Your pet’s health and behaviour

1. Tell us honestly about illness, medication, anxiety, a tendency to bite, pregnancy or recent surgery. We can plan for almost anything we know about, and for nothing we do not.
2. We may refuse to carry an animal that appears to be seriously unwell, in labour, or a danger to itself or to our driver. If that happens at collection, the charges in section 3 apply.
3. If an animal becomes unwell on the road we will get veterinary help and contact you as soon as we safely can. You agree to meet reasonable veterinary costs, and we will not authorise anything beyond urgent care without speaking to you unless the delay would harm your pet.

6. What we do

1. We collect from the address you gave, carry only your household’s animals, and deliver to the address you gave.
2. Collection and delivery are within an agreed window, not at an exact minute. Traffic, weather, ferries and border queues move it, and we keep you informed when they do.
3. We stop every 3 to 4 hours for water, a walk in a secure area and a check on every animal, and we send a photograph at each stop.
4. You are welcome to travel with your pet where the booking includes a seat for you. Tell us when you book.

7. If something goes wrong

1. We are insured for the animals in our care. **TO CONFIRM: insurer, policy number and the limit per animal.**
2. We are responsible for loss or harm caused by our own failure to take reasonable care.
3. We are not responsible for a delay or a refusal at a border caused by paperwork, by an official’s decision, or by something outside our control such as severe weather, a strike, a ferry cancellation or a road closure. We will always try to find another way through.
4. We do not carry belongings other than a reasonable amount of your pet’s own food, bedding and toys, and we are not responsible for items sent with an animal.
5. Except where the law does not allow us to limit it, our liability for any one booking is capped at the price of that booking.
6. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

8. Your account

1. Keep your password to yourself. Tell us if you think someone else has it.
2. The quotes, invoices, documents and journey updates in your account are there for you; please do not share the private links with anyone you would not show the whole booking to.

9. Complaints

Write to us and a person will answer, not a form. We aim to reply within two working days and to resolve a complaint within 14. If we cannot agree, these terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction.

10. Changes to these terms

The terms that apply to your booking are the ones published on the day you paid your deposit. We keep the date of the last change at the foot of this page.