How couriers are paid

- Provisional until approved: the system calculates the amount; Live Ops reviews the sessions that need a person's judgement, and a person approves each payment before it is made.

- 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 session.

- 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.

- VAT and your documents: rates exclude VAT. Each payment comes with a numbered payment statement. If you're registered for VAT in the UK and accept our self-billing agreement, we pay VAT on top and issue your VAT invoices for you.

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

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

Use the hourly rate shown for the session, including any applicable supplement. Your rate is in the currency of the country you are onboarded for: pounds in the UK, euros in France and złoty in Poland. Each area has its own hourly rates, set by Live Ops, for each tier and for bikes and mopeds or cars and vans. A session is paid at the rates of the area it was worked in on that day; a day worked in more than one area is paid at the highest of their rates. An area without its own rates uses the standard rates: in pounds, £13.00 an hour for bikes and mopeds and £17.00 for cars and vans, plus £0.50 at Tier 1. The euro and złoty standard rates are the pound rates converted once, at the European Central Bank rate of 20 October 2026, rounded to the cent; they don't move with the exchange rate. A change to an area's rates applies from the day Live Ops set, never to a session already reviewed or paid, and a lower rate never applies to a day that has already started. We tell you the rate for your session in the app. Planned availability does not mean every planned hour is paid: you are paid for the time you actually work. The final payment is rounded to whole pence.

Elevated rates: Live Ops can raise the hourly rate in an area for a set time, which always has an end, and we tell you in the app. Time you work in a session in that area inside that time is paid at the elevated rate for your vehicle (one rate for bikes and mopeds, one for cars and vans), and the rest of the session at your usual rate. A job that runs across the start or end is split by time. An elevated rate never lowers your pay: if your usual rate is higher, you keep it. Timing deductions are worked out at your usual rate. Your session breakdown shows which rate applied when.

Your tier is worked out automatically every Monday morning from your delivery outcomes over the eight weeks up to the Sunday just gone. The same rules apply to every courier, and you can see a change and its reason in the app.

- Delivery success: the share of your deliveries that didn't fail. A delivery you marked "I did not attempt delivery" or "No answer from customer or neighbours" counts as failed. A wrong or incomplete address, a refusal or a closed address doesn't count against you.

- Customer reviews: the share of your reviewed deliveries that the customer rated bad.

- Custody: parcels our records showed with you that another courier then scanned, without a recorded handover.

- Documents: whether any of your compliance documents, such as insurance, licence, right to work or DBS, ran out of date during the eight weeks.

Those four measures set your tier:

- Tier 1: at least 150 deliveries, delivery success of 98% or more, bad reviews of 2% or less, no custody issues and every document in date.

- Tier 3: fewer than 75 deliveries, delivery success under 95%, bad reviews over 5%, 3 or more custody issues, or any document that ran out of date. Any one of these is enough.

- Tier 2: everyone else.

Tier 1 also needs at least 150 deliveries in the eight weeks. With 75 to 149 deliveries you're in Tier 2, unless one of the Tier 3 measures applies. With fewer than 75 you're in Tier 3, because that's too few for a reliable result. Having no reviews doesn't count against you.

Changing or removing planned availability, finishing a session early, declining new work, using a substitute, the hours you plan or work, punctuality at the start of a session, speed and staff opinions of how you work are never part of your tier. You can decline a new assignment you have not accepted through Live Ops without giving an approved reason or accepting a replacement. Parcels already collected must be delivered, safely returned to the warehouse or handed over with authorisation.

Under the standard rates Tier 1 earns an extra £0.50 an hour; an area's own rates set the amount for each tier. A new tier's rate applies from your next session, never to one already started. If you think a delivery, review or custody record is wrong, ask Live Ops to review it. Asking never counts against you.

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 back to base that ends your day is unpaid, like your first journey from home.

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.

4. Pay once for the same work. We compare repeat customer delivery rows within the same session and for the same set of tasks. Sharing a postcode or merchant does not make two jobs duplicates. A delivery moved to a new address while you are on it is new work, so the journey to each address is paid. 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, and a journey you were taken off mid-route is judged on the travel your location shows, not as a repeat of the job you did later.

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 session. 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 session. Travel is compared with the journey quote captured when the attempt started; time at the stop is compared with its allowance. At base, the allowance depends on how many parcels you load or return, whatever your vehicle. 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 session. 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, and if your location shows you covered less than half the distance expected for the time, that time is unpaid. 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. Where the records show you caused a wait, Live Ops can count it as yours: the time over the allowance is then deducted, and the merchant isn't charged for it.

- 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.

Tell Live Ops promptly, and report a theft to the police. An assignment or complaint is not proof of fault. We investigate whether your negligence, failure to follow reasonable goods-handling procedures or other breach caused the loss, taking account of Quiver's contribution and that of others. A robbery reported promptly, despite following the procedures, does not make you automatically responsible.

Recovery requires actual compensation or a credit provided to the affected client. It cannot exceed either the reasonable, legally recoverable loss attributable to your conduct or the compensation actually provided, after relevant recoveries. A retail price or commercial credit is not automatically the correct loss amount. We do not pass a discretionary client-retention payment to you as a goods claim.

Before a deduction, we send the incident details, evidence, basis, calculation and proposed amount. You have seven calendar days to respond. We consider your response and give a reasoned decision; silence is not acceptance. You can ask for reconsideration before or after payment. Quiver's decision does not remove statutory remedies or settle a legal dispute conclusively.

Only an established amount, with the required contractual or written authority and subject to applicable law, can be recovered from earnings. A deduction is limited to the outstanding amount and what is lawfully deductible from that payment. Any remaining balance is recorded and may be recovered from subsequent earnings on the same lawful basis, or pursued separately through a lawful process. These provisions do not retrospectively authorise earlier deductions.

Any temporary retention requires legal permission and prior authority. It is limited to the evidenced claim, the payment otherwise due or any lower lawful amount; we identify it in the notice and pay the undisputed balance when due. A claim is not an established debt. Review and retention must end within fourteen calendar days of the original notice, including the seven-day response period. We promptly release anything no longer justified, and release all retained pay by that deadline if the dispute remains unresolved. We do not extend or restart that period for the same incident. A later deduction must still meet the terms and applicable law.

### How a goods claim reaches you

- The notice: we send it to your inbox in the app and by email, with its number (such as GC-000007), what happened, the evidence, why we think you may be responsible, how we calculated the amount, and what Quiver paid the client. We only send one once Quiver has compensated the client, and it never proposes more than that compensation.

- Your response: you have until the end of the seventh calendar day after the notice, in your country's time, to respond in the app (open Profile, then Goods claims). We don't decide before then.

- The decision: we give our reasons within fourteen calendar days of the notice. If we don't, the claim lapses and nothing is recovered, and we don't make another claim for the same incident. The decision never approves more than the amount proposed, the loss we decide you caused, or what Quiver paid the client. Ask for a reconsideration in the app at any time; a reconsidered decision can only lower the amount.

- Settling it: nothing is held back from your pay while a claim is open. A decided amount is either paid by you, or set off on later payments as its own line on the payment email, taking as much of each payment as it needs until it is paid. You can also pay it off sooner by card in the app; it counts as soon as the payment goes through, and Quiver pays the card fee. A set-off never changes a payment statement or self-billed invoice, or its VAT.

A negative correction to a service calculation must be separately classified as a service correction, supported by a reasoned explanation and evidence. It must not be used to bypass the goods-claim safeguards. Existing recorded adjustments remain available for review; no historical payment is automatically changed by the new workflow.

When a payment reaches your bank, we email you a remittance advice: the amount, the day it was paid, the bank reference and the sessions it pays for. The payment's documents are attached to it, and you can find them in the app.

- Payment statement: a numbered statement of the sessions a payment covers. It isn't a VAT invoice, and no VAT is added to that pay.

- Rates exclude VAT: your hourly rates, supplements and adjustments are all before any VAT.

- If you're registered for VAT in the UK: tell us your VAT number and the date your registration started in the app, and we check the number with HMRC. Once it's checked, you can accept our self-billing agreement in the app. For each session the agreement covers, we pay VAT at the standard rate on top of your pay, and we issue a self-billed VAT invoice for those sessions instead of a statement. The VAT shown is your output tax due to HMRC. Don't issue your own invoices for the sessions it covers.

- Which sessions the agreement covers: sessions from the day you accept it, for 12 months, while your VAT registration that day is checked and has the agreement's VAT number. Sessions before you accepted it are paid without VAT. A new VAT number, or leaving VAT, ends it, and you can then accept a new one. We offer you a new agreement in its last 30 days, so it's reviewed at least every 12 months. Tell us straight away if you deregister for VAT, change your VAT number, or sell or transfer your business.

- Corrections: if the pay on a statement or invoice was wrong, we issue a numbered correction that refers to it and says why: a self-billed debit note for an invoice, or a statement correction for a statement. A correction never changes the original document and doesn't take money from your account; we contact you about any difference.

- Goods claims are separate: a lost, stolen or damaged parcel is never recovered by correcting your pay or reducing an invoice. It follows the steps in "If a parcel is lost, stolen or damaged" and is recorded apart from your pay and VAT.

Open the session breakdown to see each job’s time, timing difference and available notes. An excluded row is currently unpaid. A job is struck through when it was not completed on that row, or while it is unpaid because nothing records you reaching the stop; a positive timing figure is excess time, and a negative figure is time made up. A note explains why time is unpaid or deducted; a job paid as normal may have no note.

Where available in your app, use Ask about this entry in the payment breakdown to open an editable question for Live Ops. The question is only sent when you press Send. Quiver saves the payment calculation and job reference when it receives the question; that snapshot does not necessarily match an earlier offline screen. You can instead contact Live Ops in the app with the session 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 1.23, dated 27 October 2026. Sections 6 and 7 cover earnings, timing, deductions and lost or stolen parcels; section 8 covers tiers; 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.