Doing free jobs for charities - any legal pitfalls?

As I understand it, under UK law a contract is only valid if both parties gain from it, which means that if you do a freebie for a charity (I’m thinking of small van stuff, but could apply to bigger vehicles?) there can be no legal contract for it because there’s no payment.

On the face of it this shouldn’t be a problem, but could there be implications for insurance cover, especially GIT? And what happens if you carry a load that turns out to be badly packed and causes damage to you or other people - if there was no contract would it be difficult to apportion liability?

And if these are potential problems, would it be sufficient to quote say £1 to do the job, then if everything goes OK don’t invoice for it?

Broadly correct. For a Contract to exist there must be an “Offer”, an “Accpetance”, and “Realization”.

Realization generally meaning the provision of a Service, or the transfer of items having Value.

Regardless of the existance of a Contract or otherwise, the Driver will always be responsible for the vehicle and the safety of the load in respect of other persons.

Remember that charitable work will NOT count towards the WTD and will normally be covered under the terms of Social, Domestic and Pleasure motor insurance.

What scenario do you have in mind that prompts the question?

regarding ‘insecure loads’ the driver is always the one who gets it in the neck, sorry, what I meant to say was ‘has absolute liability’ and therefore gets it in the neck.
If the vehicle (or combination) has a permitted weight over 3 500kg then tacho rules apply; the tacho legislation simply states carriage of goods by road, there is no mention of ‘for hire and reward.’

Thanks for the replies so far on this - not really truck related but I assume the law’s the same.

Krankee:
What scenario do you have in mind that prompts the question?

Some couriers have done jobs free of charge to transport goods in the UK on their way to the Asian disaster area, and I know some people offer free collection and/or delivery services to charities.

The security and safety of the load is obviously the driver’s responsibility (I should have realised that bit) but suppose the load is damaged in transit and the courier tries to claim on their GIT insurance - wouldn’t the insurance company want to see evidence of a contract being in place before they would pay out?

Sorry to be late in replying.

I’ll answer by putting it another way. If a private person offered to take it in their own car, or a Rep that was going that way, or a Taxi driver with a regular Airport contract, was to do the same, what would their position be?

For any claim to be successful, the claimant would need to establish Negligence. Simply that the goods were damaged/lost whilst in the custody of another person is not sufficient. It would require evidence that the person transporting the goods understood any risk associated with their actions and deliberately chose to ignore those risks. For example, leaving the vehicle unlocked, or parked in a secluded location, whilst at an MSA.

Having the vehicle broken into when parked at a high pedestrian volume location would not normally be considered Negligent, although I could name a few locations where even visiting that area would be almost negligent. :smiley:

I do not see that GIT insurance would apply, and my attitude, if put in that position would be, “So, sue me.”

Hope that helps.