THE YELLOW SCHOOL BUS COMPANY LIMITED TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT
Between a Person / Parents / Guardian or any other Payer of the Annual Passenger Pass (APP) and the School Transport Management and Services Provider and it’s Contracted Operator
Terms and Conditions of Yellow School Bus Transportation
These Terms and Conditions of School Transportation (“Terms”) constitute a legally binding contract between You (as a user of Our products and services) and The Yellow School Bus Company Limited.
The Yellow School Bus Company Limited is a company registered in England and Wales, trading as The Yellow School Bus under the web domains www.yellowbus.org.uk and www.theyellowschoolbus.co.uk and specialising in the management and supervision of home to school private transportation services tailor made for highly sort after grammar, faith and private schools.
The company specialises in tailor making home to school transportation services designed by the parents and for the convenience of parents and ultimately the safety of the pupil passengers. Our strategic partners and operators are contractually bound to our industry leading standards of service, with the security they have a secure contract for a designated period of time, ideally 3 - 5 years.
These terms detailed in the terms and conditions below relate to all of our operators, pupil passengers and parents who ultimately fund these services for the wellbeing and security of their children. It is important that all pupil passengers and their parents understand fully the terms and conditions detailed below. Please take time to read and understand them as they are legally binding, irrespective of if you have clearly read them or understand them as we expect you to ask any questions or challenge any points BEFORE signing up. Oversight is not considered an acceptable excuse so please take care to read and understand all points before entering into the annual transportation contract with one terms notice required at the end of each annual period should you wish to terminate the agreement.
We presume and acknowledge that reading the terms and conditions is the sole responsibility of each parent who pays and each pupil passenger who travels so that there is never any scope for confusion or any issue ever arises out of any ambiguity or otherwise from these terms and conditions. Please read them carefully and acknowledge any points and raise any questions if you have any concerns whatsoever BEFORE you sign up.
Amendments
We may alter or amend these Terms at any time without an obligation to notify you but will always endeavour to point out changes to the terms and conditions on the news section of the website and the most current version of these terms and conditions will always be uploaded to the website for any operator, parent or pupil passenger to review and comment upon.
The latest version of the terms and conditions showing upon the website will always be deemed to supersede any previous version of the terms and conditions as shown on the website. Kindly visit regularly the news section of the website to keep abreast of issues which may affect the terms and conditions of this contract as this will be the single place of notification of any updates.
Visit www.yellowbus.org.uk to review any amendments to the terms and conditions of this contract if the News Section of the website states: Breaking News: Update to T&C, usually the points updated will be clearly explained in the News link.
Definitions
The following words starting with Capital Letters have clear definitions inside of this agreement and should be understood to avoid any possibly ambiguity in definition.
“Additional Conditions” will always mean any additional written conditions which directly may affect you in relation to the services that you will be receiving from our operators or assigned contracted and regulated providers.
The following definitions have been provided for clarities sake and to avoid any ambiguity.
“Annual Passenger Pass – APP”: This represents the annual pupil passenger pass for that current academic year. It may be prorated and brought into line so that ideally all Annual Passes Commence in September of any academic year. This adjustment will normally be made after the first complete year of service. “APP” means an Annual Pupil Pass issued for travel on your desired pre-selected home to school bus service run by the operator assigned by The Yellow School Bus Company Limited (Company number 10706909) 19, Broad Oaks Road, Solihull B91 1JA.
“CCTV” means Closed Circuit Television that has been installed for the safety and security of both the pupil passengers on-board as well as the safety and security of the driver and or operator to deal with an manage any legitimate or otherwise claims against the driver or operator whilst the Yellow Bus is in service and operation. All cameras on CCTV are accessible by the school, the parents and the children to ensure a culture of complete transparency and to protect any child with low confidence against any kind of bullying that may occur whilst being transported to or from home.
“Code of Yellow School Bus Conduct” means the conduct code published on the yellow bus websites www.yellowbus.org.uk and www.theyellowschoolbus.co.uk
“Damage” means the damage, death, wounding or bodily injury, loss, theft, financial or other economic loss, loss of profit, loss of use, loss of revenue, anticipated savings, and/or loss of reputation or opportunity;
“Declaration” means a declaration which we may ask you to contractually sign to confirm Your agreement to these Terms and Conditions, despite the fact that the agreement between Us shall be valid and enforceable in the absence of any such Declaration once you have started to use any of our services;
"Fuel Adjustment" means the actual sum that has given rise to an extraordinary adjustment which will reflect in any unplanned increase in fees.
“School Academic Year” means from 1st September in any year and ceasing by 31 July in the following year and reflect a period of six half terms;
“Standard Fare” means the defined standard prorated payment for a single one way journey from your home to school or school to home.
“Technology” means the adoption of the latest technological advances relevant to the safety and security of the pupil passengers and the observational security and well-being of our assigned operator vehicles.
“Terms” has the meaning of the scope of the understanding that we may have;
“Website” means the website www.yellowbus.org.uk or the www.theYellowschoolbus.co.uk;
“We”, “Us”, “Our” and “The Yellow Bus” means The Yellow School Bus Company and it’s operators, Bus drivers and other The Yellow School Bus employees, officers and agents in the course of their duties for or on behalf of The Yellow School Bus Company Limited.
“WiFi” means the age and content restricted wireless internet that is installed on every Yellow Bus in live operation on contracts.
“You” and “Your” means You, being a pupil passenger OR the parent, person OR body purchasing an APP for or on behalf of the pupil passenger.
If any provision or part of any provision of these Terms and Conditions shall be held to be unlawful, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be to that extent severed from these Terms and Conditions and rendered ineffective as far as possible without modifying or affecting the legality, validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions which will remain in full force and effect.
These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law and You and We irrevocably submit to the non- exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
No third party shall have any right under the Contracts to enforce any of these Terms and Conditions. Any failure or delay by Us to exercise or enforce any right We have under these Terms and Conditions shall not operate as a waiver of that right or preclude the exercise or enforcement of it at any later time.
The basis of Your Agreement with Us is that We agree to carry You on Our Buses solely upon and subject to the terms and conditions set out in these Terms and Conditions and the Yellow School Bus Code of Conduct (available on Our Website) and any further Additional Conditions which may apply to You as amended from time to time and updated on the News section of the website under (“Terms”).
Together the Terms constitute the entire understanding between You and Us, set out our legal rights and obligations and form the basis of Our legal contract with You. They supersede any previous agreements, understanding or arrangements between Us in relation to the same subject matter based on hearsay, expectation or perceived perception.
These Terms and Conditions do not affect Your statutory rights.
Annual Passenger Pass “App”
All pupil passengers must hold a valid Annual Passenger Pass (“App”). Annual Passenger Pass for Your entire journey and must carry this APP with you at all times on each journey.
Upon boarding the Bus You must have Your APP out ready for inspection and must show Your APP to the Bus driver (or other relevant Yellow School Bus employee, agent or officer) promptly without having to be asked or otherwise prompted to do so.
You must check Your APP for errors as soon as You receive it and bring any discrepancies to Our attention immediately so that We may correct them.
Discrepancies shall not be rectified afterwards. You are solely responsible for ensuring that Your APP is valid for your entire journey.
You may not break Your journey except where a transfer is expressly permitted.
APP’s are for personal use only and are not transferable to any friend.
Our issue of a APP to You does not give rise to any offer, contract or understanding that Buses shall run on time but we do reserve a seat allocated for You and only You on your designated Yellow School Bus.
Your APP remains Our property at all times and if there is breach of contract then you will be asked to surrender it to Us immediately upon request.
We reserve the right to require You to provide Us with proof of identity and/or proof of age to verify You as the bona fide holder of a APP or to confirm Your age.
If You lose Your APP, or Your APP is defaced, damaged or appears to have been tampered with, it shall not be valid for travel. You must notify Us immediately as we have the right to refuse You travel.
On some routes where viability is being assessed and numbers are less than 25 passengers a physical APP may not be issued but a register is maintained by drivers.
We reserve the right to decide whether or not to re-issue You a APP, acting in Our sole reasonable discretion. If We do agree to re-issue a APP, We shall issue you one APP for Free and with no charge. However we reserve the right to charge You an administrative fee of 20 pounds (£20) inclusive of VAT if you lose your APP again. If the re-issue of Your APP is necessary because Your APP has been deliberately defaced then We also reserve the right to charge You an additional fee of twelve (£20) pounds for the re-issuance of Your APP.
When Your APP expires, it shall no longer be valid for travel.
Your APP has a validity of One Academic Year Only and each Academic Year you will be issued a new APP. Unless the agreement terminated with a terms notice under exceptional circumstances if a child leaves the school.
We are looking into brining in Auto APP technology which will offer automatic face recognition registration on a school bus and will in time move away from a physical APP.
Care of Duty of Parent/Guardian/Person paying for the APP
If You are the parent or guardian (or other person) who purchases the APP and/or ticks the Declaration on behalf of someone else, You undertake that You have authority to act on behalf of the other person and acknowledge that You are responsible for ensuring that Your child (or other passenger) has read and fully understands these Terms and Conditions and the Yellow School Bus Code of Conduct and any applicable Additional Terms and complies with them as if they were You.
Services
Your School Transportation on Our services is subject to all applicable bye-laws, safety and other regulations issued by competent authorities from time to time and all terms and conditions to which any APP is subject to.
We shall make all reasonable efforts to provide the service We advertise and have agreed to provide. However, We reserve the right to cease to provide Our services or to alter, suspend or withdraw any Bus or aspect of Our services from You or generally at any time immediately and without notice without incurring liability costs if we feel the operator providing the service has materially breached the level of service the Yellow School Bus Company expects to consistently and honestly deliver. In such a situation, the Yellow School Bus Company will demand that the statutory 3 month notice from the operator it has contracted and ask for a tender bid on the remaining part of the duration of the secured contract.
We operate all Yellow School Buses on a first come first served basis based on date stamp of when forms are submitted. We shall use reasonable efforts to accommodate passengers but We cannot guarantee that You will be able to travel on any particular Bus if that Bus is already full to capacity. Instead your application for the APP will be added to a waitlist which will then put your application in line with other pupil passengers. You will be provided a wait list position number and any updates will be notified to you immediately. We reserve the right to hold a nominal waitlist deposit
We reserve the right to arrange appropriate alternative transport at any time to meet Our commercial needs and the needs of Our passengers without notice. If, acting in Our sole discretion, We arrange alternative transport for You because You allege that Your Bus has run early or You have otherwise missed Your Bus as a direct result of a failing on Our part, We shall be entitled to investigate all circumstances surrounding such alleged failing and if such investigations (including without limitation consideration of Our archive GPS data and any available CCTV footage) substantiate that there was in fact no failing on. Our part, You shall be liable to re-pay to Us the entire costs incurred by Us in having arranged the relevant alternative transport for You. Such costs shall be charged to Your account for payment (in addition to all other sums due) at the time of Your next bus pass instalment or sooner, if We in Our sole discretion decide. You agree that We may increase any direct debit accordingly or request that you make a one off payment via phone using your debit card. If a GoCardless Account direct debit plan is cancelled intentionally after being set up then it must be set up again within 7 days otherwise We reserve the right to demand full outstanding payment for the remainder of the duration of the APP.
Notwithstanding the above clause, The Yellow School Bus will not pay any taxi fares unless an authorised representative of The Yellow School Bus and the relevant journey has been booked personally by The Yellow School Bus through its own taxi account. The fare shall only be paid for the length of route that the relevant Bus would have taken for the original journey. No other taxi fares shall be recoverable whatsoever unless approved in an emergency.
Should the numbers on a particular journey route ever drop to a level where a service becomes not commercially viable by a Contracted Operator, then that Contracted Operator would have to give in writing three (3) month’s notice and We will then place the route out to tender based on operators who we believe to be best positioned based on reliability first and secondly standard of vehicles to service the remainder period of the contracted period under MOU. Any refunds due for unexpected cessation of services which cannot be restored within a term will be processed by the end of term in which a contractor ceases service. All drivers would need to be enhanced crb checked and the contractual period offered would be the remaining portion of the rolling 5 year agreement that the Yellow School Bus Company has with the schools it works with . We have the ultimate say as to whether we are able to find a suitable Contracted Operator to deliver the standards of service we would like to deliver. Equally a terms notice is required by any parent(s) if they wish to cease using a route they have contracted to use and fees are due termly in advance. The APP can only be cancelled at the start of the summer term with a terms notice and automatically renews for the following year if a terms notice is not given. Operators provisions for each academic year are contracted for at Easter and a statutory terms notice should be given for cessation of your annual contract.
Should You have any property Lost then You should complete the Lost Property form on the website and we will endeavour to return your lost property as soon as possible. Wherever possible please send an image of your lost property.
You or the person or body that has the Duty of Care for the payment of the APP is able to terminate this agreement with 1 terms notice period before your APP is rolled over to the next year, usually this is at the end of Spring term or end of April whichever is earlier. We will accept any notice to terminate service no later than 7 days into the Summer term, under exceptional circumstances.
Any complaints that You may wish to register or any questions that you may wish to have answered can be submitted through the website and will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.
You agree that you will not make any defamatory or disparaging comments or remarks, in writing, orally or electronically, or on any social media about any and all current, former or future employees, directors, officers, of the Company or it’s contracted operators current, former or future employees, directors, officers, of the Company. The Company will not make, and shall instruct its senior executive officers and directors not to make, any defamatory or disparaging comments or remarks in writing, orally or electronically, about you; provided that, the Company and its directors, officers, employees and representatives may make such communications to regulators, government agencies or commissions as may be necessary or appropriate in its reasonable determination. Breach of this clause may lead to a claim for defamation and immediate cessation of service and a claim for damages.
Any recommendations of service or testimonials that You may wish to submit can be submitted through the website and can be sent to the following address info@yellowbus.org.uk
Any letters of recommendation can be sent to the following correspondence address:
YELLOW SCHOOL BUS COMPANY LIMITED
19 BROAD OAKS ROAD
SOLIHULL
WEST MIDLANDS
ENGLAND
B91 1JA
