Supplier Terms of Service

1. Platform role and independent contractor status

Who you are contracting with. In a Pickle Breakdown is a trading name of IN A PICKLE BREAKDOWN LTD, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17456795, whose registered office is 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, United Kingdom, IP28 7DE. References to “we”, “us” and “the platform” mean that company.

Marketplace facilitator. We provide a lead-generation and payment-processing platform connecting you (the supplier) with customers requiring roadside assistance and recovery.

Independent status. You operate as an independent contractor running your own business. You are not an employee, agent, or partner of the platform. You are fully responsible for your own working hours, equipment, and compliance with local laws.

2. Onboarding, compliance and insurance

Verification. To remain active on the platform, you must maintain and provide proof of valid motor trade insurance, public liability insurance, and any necessary local licences required to perform vehicle recovery and roadside assistance.

Equipment standard. You are responsible for ensuring that all recovery vehicles and diagnostic equipment used are well-maintained, safe, and road legal.

Account suspension. We reserve the right to temporarily or permanently suspend your account if your insurance lapses, or if we receive repeated safety complaints.

3. Job broadcasting and acceptance ("first accept wins")

Broadcast logic. Jobs are broadcast to eligible suppliers based on proximity and capability.

Acceptance. The platform operates on a "first accept wins" basis. Once you accept a job, you are contractually obligated to fulfil it.

Response times. Upon accepting a job, you must proceed directly to the customer's location and update your status in the Supplier portal ("En route", "Arrived", "In progress").

4. Service tiers and outcome logging

You agree to fulfil the service the customer requested, at the fixed tier price:

• Roadside Assistance (£55) and Vehicle Recovery (£89). You must perform the requested roadside assistance or 10-mile recovery to the best of your ability.
• Unsure / Assistance with Possible Recovery (up to £115). You must first attempt roadside assistance. Whether the vehicle can be repaired or must be recovered depends on its condition, on safety, and on your capability.

Honesty protocol. On completion you must accurately log the outcome in the Supplier portal. If you fix the vehicle at the roadside on an “Unsure” job you must select “Fixed at roadside”, and the customer’s final amount becomes £55. If recovery was required you must select “Recovered”, and the amount is £115. Falsely logging outcomes to inflate payouts is grounds for immediate termination.

Where the vehicle cannot be repaired at the roadside. Roadside assistance is an attendance and assistance service: it does not guarantee that every vehicle can be repaired. If you attend and genuinely carry out the roadside assistance and diagnostic service but the vehicle cannot be repaired there, log it as “I assisted, but it cannot be repaired at the roadside”. That is treated as a completed roadside job: the customer pays £55 and you receive £50 in full. It is not a cancellation and it is not a failure on your part.

5. Additional services, parts and mileage

Platform scope. The platform processes the fixed tier amounts only (£55, £89 or £115).

Agreement before the work. Any additional parts, labour, specialist work or recovery mileage beyond the included service must be explained and agreed with the customer before that chargeable work or mileage is incurred.

Independent transactions. Those additional charges are directly between you and the customer. You are responsible for invoicing and collecting them through your own payment arrangements, and the platform provides no payment processing, protection or guarantee for them.

6. Payouts and platform allocations

Fixed allocations. Each core tier carries a fixed platform allocation, and you receive the rest. There is no percentage commission, no subscription and no lead fee:

• Roadside Assistance — £55. You receive £50; the platform retains £5.
• Vehicle Recovery — £89. You receive £80; the platform retains £9.
• Unsure, recovery required — £115. You receive £100; the platform retains £15.
• Unsure, roadside assistance only — £55. You receive £50; the platform retains £5.

How you are paid. Payouts are processed through the configured Stripe Connect flow. When a job settles, a transfer of your amount is made to your connected Stripe account. Stripe then pays that balance out to your own bank account on its own rolling schedule; that payout timing is set by Stripe and is not controlled by In a Pickle Breakdown. You provide your bank details to Stripe directly, and we neither see nor store them.

When a transfer is made. On completion, once the customer confirms or the displayed fallback period passes without a response. If a problem has been reported, the transfer is held for review.

Refunds and chargebacks. Where a refund is due to a customer, or a card chargeback is raised against a job after you have been paid, you agree that we may reverse the corresponding transfer from your connected account, or recover the amount from subsequent payouts. Only your share of the amount being refunded is reversed. We will tell you when this happens and why.

Off-platforming prohibition. You must not ask a customer to cancel an active job in order to pay you directly and bypass the platform. Any attempt to do so may result in removal from the platform.

7. Cancellations, wasted call-outs and strikes

Before you accept. If a customer cancels before you accept, nothing is captured and no payout arises.

After you accept. If a customer cancels once you have accepted and been assigned, a fixed £25 cancellation fee is charged. You receive £20 as compensation for your time and fuel, and the platform retains £5.

Safety cancellations. A customer may cancel at any point, including after you have arrived. Where a customer cancels because they feel unsafe, no cancellation fee is charged and no payout arises. A report of this kind is reviewed; nothing is decided by the fact of it being made, and we may ask you for your account of what happened.

Unattended vehicles (wasted call-out). If you arrive and nobody is with the vehicle, you must first attempt to contact the customer through the platform or by phone. If they remain unreachable after a 10-minute wait, you may end the job as a wasted call-out. A fixed £25 is charged — you receive £20 and the platform retains £5. No strike.

Materially inaccurate booking information. If the vehicle or the situation is materially different from the job you accepted, so that you cannot safely or properly carry it out, you may decline it. A fixed £25 is charged — you receive £20 and the platform retains £5. No strike. This outcome is reviewable: the customer may ask us to look at it, and where we find it was not justified we will reverse the charge and the corresponding transfer to you. If you can still assist with a different or additional service, you must explain the price to the customer and obtain their agreement before starting it.

Where you cannot carry out the service at all. If the service cannot be provided for a reason on your side — you do not have the equipment or capability the accepted job required, your own vehicle fails, or you otherwise cannot perform what you accepted — log it as “I could not carry out the service”. The customer is not charged automatically and no payout arises automatically. The job is held for our review with the note and any photographs you provide, and we decide what, if anything, is due. Repeatedly accepting work you are not equipped for may result in removal from the platform.

Your own cancellations (three-strike rule). Accepting a job is a firm commitment. If you accept and then cancel, the customer is not charged a cancellation fee and a strike is recorded. Three strikes may result in removal from the platform. Legitimate safety, material-misdescription and operational reasons for withdrawal will be considered and do not automatically carry a strike.

8. Reported problems

If a customer reports a problem, any pending transfer to you is held while it is looked at. You agree to:

1. provide requested evidence — location records, photographs, a written account — within the stated timeframe; and
2. attempt to resolve the matter directly with the customer.

What the platform does. We may assist with communication, request evidence, administer payments and investigate platform and payment matters. We do not act as the final legal adjudicator of workmanship, negligence or other service disputes between you and a customer. Those remain a matter between you and the customer, and either of you may pursue them through the ordinary legal routes.

9. Liability, damage and safety

Your responsibility. You are responsible for matters within your control, including performance of the roadside or recovery service, your personnel, your equipment and vehicles, your legal compliance, and loss or damage caused by your acts or omissions — including damage to a customer’s vehicle or property, and personal injury arising in the course of your work.

Our responsibility. In a Pickle Breakdown remains responsible for its own platform services and obligations.

Nothing excluded unlawfully. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Indemnity. You agree to indemnify the platform against claims and expenses brought by a customer arising from your service or negligence, to the extent those arise from matters within your control.

10. Taxes, accounting and VAT

Independent filing. You are strictly responsible for managing your own accounting, calculating tax liabilities, and filing your own returns with HMRC.

VAT obligations. Payouts are gross amounts. You are solely responsible for determining your VAT registration status and accounting for income tax or VAT owed on your earnings.

11. Platform uptime and technical issues

"As is" provision. The platform and website are provided "as is". We do not warrant they will be error-free.

Disruptions. We are not liable for lost earnings resulting from website downtime, server failures, GPS inaccuracies, or payment gateway delays.

12. Intellectual property rights

Ownership. All software, designs, branding, and logos are our exclusive property.

Limited licence. You are granted a limited licence to use the Supplier portal strictly for managing platform jobs.

13. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales, with the courts of England and Wales having exclusive jurisdiction.

14. Modifications and termination

Updates. We reserve the right to modify these terms with 30 days' notice.

Termination. You may terminate your account at any time. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts immediately for material breaches, including off-platforming, fraudulent outcome logging, expired insurance, or safety violations.

15. Data handling (UK GDPR)

Permitted use. Customer personal data (GPS, phone, registration) is provided strictly for completing the job.

Data protection. You act as an independent data controller and must comply with UK GDPR. You are prohibited from retaining data, sharing with third parties, or performing unauthorised marketing.

16. Stripe connected account agreement

Payment processing is provided by Stripe and is subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement. You agree to be bound by their terms and provide accurate business information.

17. Subcontracting and authorised personnel

You remain responsible under these terms for your personnel, their competence, their driving entitlement and their legal compliance. Where the person attending a job is not you, you must tell us who is attending so that we can identify them to the customer. You may not pass a job to a third party whose details you have not given us.

18. Non-solicitation

You agree not to solicit customers to bypass the platform for future services or distribute promotional material designed to circumvent the platform’s ecosystem.

19. Supplier right of refusal

Materially inaccurate booking information. You may refuse a job without a strike if the vehicle or the situation materially differs from the tier booked (for example, a severe crash versus a flat battery). See section 7 for what is charged, and for the customer’s right to ask us to review it.

Safety. You may abort a job if the location is critically unsafe or if the customer is abusive.

20. Professional standards, conduct and quality control

Zero tolerance policy. Services must be performed in a safe, professional, and courteous manner. Operating a recovery vehicle or performing services under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or engaging in reckless driving while en route to a customer, will result in immediate and permanent removal from the platform.

Professional conduct. You are expected to maintain professional standards at all times. Any misuse of the platform, including the use of inappropriate, abusive, offensive, or harassing language with customers, will be subject to a formal investigation.

Consequences of misconduct. If an investigation confirms a breach of professional conduct standards, the platform reserves the right to suspend or permanently deactivate your account at its sole discretion.

Performance. We monitor acceptance and attendance — jobs accepted and then abandoned, and reported non-attendance. We may restrict or remove an account for consistently poor performance. If customer ratings are introduced in future we will tell you before they affect your account.

21. Severability

If any provision is found invalid, the remaining provisions remain in full force.