The terms we work to, in plain English

These terms apply when Ufirst Services Limited (“Ufirst”, “we”) provides passenger transport to you. They apply alongside the details in your booking confirmation, which sets out the specifics of your journey.

If your journey is arranged under a contract between us and an NHS body, local authority or other organisation, that contract takes precedence over these terms where the two differ.

Nothing in these terms removes or limits your statutory rights as a consumer, or our obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

A booking request — by phone, email or through this website — is a request, not a confirmed journey. A journey is only confirmed when we have told you so, in writing or by phone, having checked vehicle and crew availability.

• We will confirm the collection time or collection window, the vehicle type, and the fare or invoicing arrangement.
• If we cannot cover a requested journey we will tell you as soon as we know, so you can make other arrangements while there is still time.
• Where the information given at booking turns out to be materially different from the reality on the day - a substantially different wheelchair, more passengers, an inaccessible address - we may be unable to carry the journey. We will always try to find a way through first.
• You must tell us if the passenger's mobility requirements change between booking and travel. This is a safety matter, not an administrative one.

We match the vehicle to the passenger's mobility requirement using the information given at booking. To do that accurately we need the wheelchair's make and model, or its width, length, total seated height and the combined weight of chair and occupant.

• Wheelchairs are secured using a four-point restraint system attached to the chair frame, together with a separate occupant belt anchored to the vehicle. Both are used on every journey.
• Our crews will not carry a passenger in a wheelchair that cannot be safely secured, or in a chair whose condition makes securing unsafe. Where that happens we will discuss alternatives with you rather than simply declining.
• Class 2 mobility scooters are not designed as vehicle seats. The passenger must transfer to a passenger seat and the scooter travels secured separately.
• Passengers remain responsible for their own wheelchair, mobility aid or scooter and its condition. We are not liable for pre-existing damage or for mechanical failure of a passenger's own equipment.
• Assistance dogs travel with their handler at no charge and require no notice, though telling us allows us to allocate floor space.

Our crews provide door-through-door mobility assistance: from the door of the property to the vehicle, boarding and securing, and the equivalent at the destination.

What we do

• Assist with boarding and alighting, including ramp and powered lift operation.
• Fit and check wheelchair restraints and occupant belts.
• Assist with a transfer into a passenger seat where the passenger wishes and it can be done safely.
• Accompany the passenger to a reception desk, clinic entrance or ward door.
• Assist with reasonable personal luggage and shopping.

What we do not do

• Provide clinical care, monitoring or treatment of any kind. We are a non-emergency transport provider, not an ambulance service.
• Administer or prompt medication.
• Provide personal care such as toileting, washing or dressing.
• Act as a chaperone during an appointment, or take responsibility for a passenger once handed over at the destination.
• Carry stretcher patients, or passengers who require care or monitoring in transit.
• Enter a property to lift or carry a passenger where doing so would be unsafe for the passenger or the crew.

Where a passenger needs support beyond the above, they should travel with an escort or carer. Escort and carer seats carry no additional charge.

We quote a collection time or a collection window. Road traffic, weather and the time a previous passenger needs are outside our control, and we would rather give you an honest window than an exact minute we cannot hold.

• Where we expect to be significantly late, we will contact you. We will not leave you waiting without explanation.
• Where a passenger is not ready at the confirmed collection time, the crew will wait a reasonable period and remain in contact with our office. Extended delays affect passengers booked after you, so we may need to re-plan.
• Where you have booked a journey on which the driver waits, the waiting allowance included in the fare will be stated in your confirmation. Additional waiting time may be chargeable at the rate set out there.
• If your appointment overruns, contact us. We will hold the driver or re-time the collection. We cannot re-plan around a delay we have not been told about.
• We cannot accept liability for a missed appointment, connection, flight or event resulting from delays outside our reasonable control. Where a delay was our fault, tell us and we will put it right.

Private journeys are quoted as a fixed fare, confirmed before travel. There is no meter, and there is no additional charge for ramp or lift use, for escorts and carers, or for the time it takes to board a passenger properly.

• A quoted fare is based on the information given at booking. If the journey changes materially on the day - a different destination, additional stops, significantly longer waiting - we will tell you what that means for the fare before proceeding wherever possible.
• Card payments are made through our payment provider's secure hosted checkout, using a link we send once the journey is confirmed. We never accept card details by phone, by email or through this website.
• Recurring journeys may be collected by Direct Debit, set up through the standard Direct Debit process with the protections that carries.
• Account customers are invoiced on the terms agreed at account setup. Purchase order or cost centre references supplied at booking will be carried through to the invoice.
• We may charge interest on invoices paid late in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, though we would always rather resolve a query than apply it.

A note on payment fraud

We will never contact you to say our bank details have changed and ask you to pay a different account. If you receive such a request, treat it as fraudulent and telephone us on 020 8058 9879 using the number published on this website to verify before acting.

Plans change, appointments get moved and people become unwell. Tell us as early as you can and in most cases there is nothing to pay.

Refunds on card payments are returned to the original payment method through our payment provider. Account customers are credited rather than refunded, on the same invoice cycle.

Our crews are entitled to a safe working environment, and other passengers are entitled to a safe journey. Both are non-negotiable.

• Seat belts and wheelchair restraints must be worn as fitted by the crew. Our crews will not set off until they are.
• Smoking, including vaping, and consumption of alcohol are not permitted in our vehicles.
• We may refuse to carry, or may end a journey at a safe location, where a passenger's behaviour presents a risk to themselves, the crew or others. This is a last resort and we will contact whoever arranged the journey.
• Where a passenger's needs mean they should not travel unaccompanied, an escort must travel with them. We will tell you at booking if we believe this applies.
• Please tell us at booking about anything that may affect the journey or the crew's ability to keep everyone safe. We would far rather plan for it.

We hold public liability and passenger insurance appropriate to contracted passenger transport, and we will supply certificates on request.

• We are liable for loss or damage caused by our negligence or by our failure to carry out this service with reasonable care and skill.
• We are not liable for loss or damage that was not foreseeable, or for delays and failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.
• We are not liable for pre-existing damage to, or mechanical failure of, a passenger's own wheelchair, scooter or mobility aid.
• Personal belongings remain the passenger's responsibility. Please check the vehicle before leaving it.
• Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

If something goes wrong, tell us. We would rather hear it from you than not know, and most issues are resolved in a single conversation.

• Call 020 8058 9879 or email info@ufirstservices.co.uk with what happened and your booking reference if you have it.
• We aim to acknowledge within one working day and to tell you who is looking into it.
• We aim to give you an outcome within ten working days, including what we have changed where relevant.
• Where a journey we were paid for was not delivered, it is refunded or credited.

For contracted work, complaints may also be raised through the commissioning organisation's own process, and we will cooperate fully with it.

This website is provided for information and for requesting transport. The content is intended to be accurate at the time of publication, but vehicle specifications, availability and prices change, and the confirmed detail for your journey is what appears in your booking confirmation.

• You may not use this website or its forms to submit unlawful, abusive or deliberately false information.
• The Ufirst name, logo and brand assets are the property of Ufirst Services Limited and may not be reproduced without permission.
• Any personal data you submit through this website is handled in line with our privacy policy.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from them.

We may update these terms from time to time. The version applying to your journey is the version current when your booking was confirmed. The version number and date are shown alongside this document.

If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the remainder continues to apply. Where we do not enforce a term on one occasion, that does not prevent us from doing so later.