How couriers are paid

- Provisional until reviewed: the system calculates the amount; Live Ops checks and approves it before payment.

- Paid: genuine travel, collections, delivery attempts and necessary returns to base.

- Unpaid: breaks, commuting and duplicate records of the same work.

- Timing: eligible faster jobs offset slower jobs across the shift.

- Store waiting: eligible waits over 15 minutes are not deducted; travel lateness still can be.

- Context matters: missing app records, dispatch changes and repeat visits can be reviewed.

- Something looks wrong? Contact Live Ops with the shift date and the entry. You can ask before or after payment.

Pay = working time × your shift’s hourly rate − net timing deductions + other adjustments.

Use the hourly rate shown for the shift, including any applicable supplement. A booked shift does not automatically mean every scheduled hour is paid. The final payment is rounded to whole pence.

1. Pay for genuine work. You can be paid for travelling to an assigned job, collecting parcels, making a reasonable delivery attempt and moving between jobs when needed. A failed delivery can still be paid if you genuinely attempted it. Returning parcels to base is separate work from the customer delivery. Returning empty to collect your next deliveries can also be legitimate work.

2. Exclude breaks and commuting. When there is no work to do, the break is unpaid. A gap in app activity does not necessarily mean you were on a break. Time spent travelling to a job belongs to that job. Your first journey from home to base is unpaid, even if dispatch interrupts it before you arrive. If already at base, genuine loading can be paid. A collection from a merchant fulfilment location is work. An empty or cancelled base collection is normally excluded; Ops can review evidence that collection actually happened. An empty trip to base at the end of the day can also be excluded where it does not represent work.

3. Use evidence of the actual attempt. Arrival records, parcel collection records, delivery confirmation and the journey help establish what happened. Proof that you collected or delivered parcels matters more than an arrival record on its own. Without arrival or other proof, a row is normally unpaid; Live Ops can change that after review. Cancellation needs context: whether work happened before or after it matters. A completion recorded against the wrong parcels remains paid for review, with unreliable timing withheld. Preparation notes can show whether parcels were ready and labels printed at the attempted collection; today’s status is not proof of their status then.

Preparation shorthand: R = ready, NR = not ready, P = label printing recorded, and ? = unknown. A time beside R is the recorded readiness time in London; grouped counts can show a mixed collection. These notes support review rather than prove that a collection happened.

4. Pay once for the same work. We compare repeat customer delivery rows within the same shift and for the same set of tasks. Sharing a postcode or merchant does not make two jobs duplicates. We keep the row with the clearest evidence that you did the job: collection or delivery proof first, arrival next, then the longest recorded time; an exact tie keeps the earlier row. The paid row can therefore be later in the list. Other repeat delivery rows are normally unpaid, even if you travelled again, but Live Ops can allow justified additional work. A different task set or a return to base is separate work.

For merchant collections, repeats without a new journey are normally paid once; a genuine journey back can be new work. At base, consecutive stationary loading records are treated as one session, keeping the longest eligible row. A break record between them does not automatically create a new loading session. The automatic distinction treats a quoted journey under two minutes as no new journey; Ops can review this if it misrepresents what happened.

5. Review work to fix an earlier delivery. Recovery or re-delivery after your own earlier delivery is normally flagged unpaid for review, including when that delivery was on another shift. Fixing someone else’s delivery can be paid. Having delivered the parcel earlier does not itself establish fault. Live Ops considers the circumstances, explains any reduction and gives you an opportunity to respond under the courier terms.

6. Assess timing across the shift. Travel is compared with the journey quote captured when the attempt started; time at the stop is compared with its allowance. If arrival is missing but the job is evidenced, the whole elapsed time can be compared with travel plus the stop allowance instead. Timing differences are rounded to minutes.

Positive differences show excess time; eligible negative differences show time made up. Selected excess time is reduced by eligible time made up across the shift. Only the remaining positive balance is deducted at your hourly rate; there is no extra timing bonus. For example, 10 minutes over and 6 minutes made up leave a 4-minute deduction. Excluded rows contribute neither paid time nor timing credit. Their available timing figure can still be retained so Ops can apply it if the row is later paid.

When dispatch interrupts a genuine journey, work already undertaken can be paid. A route change while standing still does not establish new work. A recorded late arrival can still be deducted; an incomplete job does not earn early-finish credit. Live Ops can check incorrect estimates or records. Never drive or ride unsafely to meet an estimate.

7. Separate merchant waiting from courier delay. For an eligible completed store collection, a reliably recorded wait of more than 15 minutes is paid without a waiting deduction. Travel lateness can still count. This is time at the collection after arrival, not the journey there. Customer return collections use normal timing allowances, with excess time deducted by default. Base loading does not receive the store-wait treatment. Waiting-time pay is independent of whether Quiver charges, waives or refunds a merchant bill.

- A job was left open: an implausibly long row can be shortened to recorded arrival plus the stop allowance, rather than paying the entire open period. Without a reliable anchor, it remains excluded for review.

- Times cannot describe real work: impossible timestamps or a large unexplained delay before arrival can leave the row unpaid until reviewed.

- Arrival looks wrong: an arrival within a quarter of a journey quoted at least 10 minutes is treated as unreliable for splitting travel from waiting. It cannot justify a merchant waiting bill on that basis.

- Records disagree: GPS, scans, parcel custody and job history can help Ops decide; missing or contradictory data should not be treated as certain proof.

- Known arrival-record outage: for eligible non-base jobs on 2 to 3 September 2026, a usable location trace can preserve pay without a timing deduction at payout. Without it, the row remains unpaid for review. Saved reviewer decisions are respected.

Open the shift breakdown to see each job’s time, timing difference and available notes. An excluded row is currently unpaid; a positive timing figure is excess time, and a negative figure is time made up. The note should explain the current decision.

Contact Live Ops in the app with the shift date, entry or task number, what happened and any supporting evidence. You can ask for an explanation or review before or after payment. If needed, escalate to matt@quiver.co.uk. A payment query remains valid after you stop working with Quiver.

The onboarding Courier Terms are version 1.10, dated 5 October 2026. Sections 6 and 7 cover earnings, timing and deductions; section 13 covers queries; section 14.2 permits an expressly incorporated payment schedule. The public terms page and onboarding currently provide the same versioned PDF. Current public terms should always come from onboarding’s document source; previously accepted copies remain tied to their original documents.