Partner Terms & Conditions

1.Your application and appointment

Submitting an application does not appoint you as a partner. We review every application and may approve or decline it at our discretion. If we approve it, you become a partner when we send you an appointment letter and a sign-in invitation for your branch.

On approval, these terms, your appointment letter, the Rate Card and our standard operating procedures (“SOPs”) together form the agreement between us. If the appointment letter conflicts with these terms, the appointment letter prevails for the point in conflict.

2.Eligibility and KYC

• You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a contract, and, if you apply for a business, authorised to bind it.
• Everything you submit must be true, complete and your own: your name, mobile number, address, bank details, Aadhaar, PAN, photographs and the live photo taken during the application.
• You authorise us to verify your details and documents with issuing authorities, your bank and references you provide, and to contact you at the mobile number you verified.
• You must tell us within 7 days if any of these details change during the partnership.
• False, borrowed or altered documents are grounds for declining your application or ending the partnership immediately, and may be reported to the authorities.

3.Your consent to our use of identity documents

You provide your Aadhaar voluntarily, as proof of identity and address for our partner verification. We do not use it for Aadhaar authentication and do not share it except where the law requires us to.

Your Aadhaar, PAN and bank account numbers are stored encrypted. Document images are kept in private storage that only authorised head-office staff can open, and each time the partner applications are opened is recorded in our activity log.

How long we keep these records, and your rights over them, are set out in our Privacy Policy at vswitch.in/privacy. You may withdraw this consent at any time; if you do, we will no longer be able to consider your application or continue the partnership.

4.Nature of the relationship

• The appointment is non-exclusive. We may appoint other partners in the same area.
• You act as an independent business on a principal-to-principal basis. You are not our employee, and nothing in these terms creates employment, a joint venture or a partnership in the legal sense.
• You may book and deliver consignments on our behalf only through the System and only on the terms we publish. You have no authority to make any other promise, contract or payment in our name.
• Any fee, deposit or security amount payable for the appointment will be stated in your appointment letter. Nothing is payable under these terms alone.
• You may not transfer the branch, or subcontract its operation, without our written consent.

5.Premises, staff and conduct

• Keep the branch premises clean, secure and suitable for storing consignments safely from theft, damage and weather.
• Keep the branch open during the business hours agreed with us, and display only the signage and branding we approve.
• Your staff are your responsibility. Make sure they are trained in our SOPs, behave courteously and honestly with customers, and do not misrepresent our services, rates or delivery times.

6.Using the VSWITCH System

• Every consignment must be booked in the System and issued a System-generated LR (consignment note). Manual, handwritten or duplicate LRs are not permitted.
• Sign-in credentials are personal. Do not share them, and turn on two-factor sign-in when we ask you to. Tell us immediately if you suspect an account has been compromised.
• Actions taken in the System, including sign-ins, bookings, arrivals, deliveries and collections, are recorded against the account that took them, with the time and the device's network address.
• We may suspend System access for a branch or a user at any time to protect customers, goods or money, and will tell you why.

7.Accepting consignments

• Record the consignor's and consignee's names, mobile numbers and addresses accurately, together with an honest description, the number of packages, the actual and chargeable weight and the declared value.
• Where GST law requires an e-way bill for the consignment, do not accept it for dispatch without a valid e-way bill number. Check the tax invoice or delivery challan that travels with the goods.
• Refuse any prohibited goods (see the next clause), and any consignment that is inadequately packed for road transport.
• Charge only what the Rate Card and the LR show, and hand the consignor their copy of the LR.

8.Prohibited and restricted goods

You must not accept, knowingly or through carelessness:

• explosives, flammable, corrosive, radioactive or otherwise hazardous materials;
• arms, ammunition and their parts;
• narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances;
• currency, bullion, precious stones, jewellery and negotiable instruments;
• live animals and plants, and human remains;
• counterfeit, pirated, stolen or smuggled goods;
• anything whose carriage is banned or requires a licence that has not been produced.

Perishable, fragile and high-value goods may be accepted only where our SOPs allow it and the value is declared on the LR.

9.Custody, arrival and delivery

• Goods in your custody are your responsibility until they are loaded onto our vehicle or handed to the consignee.
• Confirm a vehicle's arrival in the System promptly. The consignee's contact details become visible to a destination branch only once arrival is confirmed; do not try to obtain them any other way.
• Release goods only after the consignee's delivery OTP has been verified in the System, and record the name and relationship of the person who actually receives the goods, with a photograph where the System asks for one.
• Collect the “To-Pay” amount shown in the System at delivery, before releasing the goods.
• If goods cannot be delivered, record the reason in the System and follow our SOP for undelivered goods.

10.Charges, collections and remittance

• Freight and all other charges are those in the Rate Card in force on the booking date. You must not add, waive or alter any charge without our written approval.
• Money you collect for consignments — at booking for “Paid” consignments and at delivery for “To-Pay” ones — belongs to us, and you hold it in trust for us until it is remitted.
• Remit collections on the settlement schedule we set, and in any case once your outstanding balance reaches the threshold shown in your partner dashboard. Keep a record of every cash collection.
• We may set off commission due to you against amounts you owe us.
• If dues remain unpaid for more than 7 days after they fall due, we may suspend your branch's booking rights until they are cleared.

11.Commission

• Commission is calculated on the freight amount of each consignment only, at the percentages in the Rate Card in force on that consignment's booking date: a booking commission for the branch that books it, and a delivery commission for the branch that delivers it.
• Handling charges belong to VSWITCH. Other charges are shared only as the Rate Card states.
• A change to the Rate Card applies only to consignments booked after the change takes effect. It never alters commission on consignments already booked.
• Your commission and balance are shown in your partner dashboard. Raise any dispute about a statement within 15 days of it being available.
• We deduct tax at source as the Income-tax Act, 1961 requires. If you are registered for GST and GST applies to your commission, you must issue us a valid tax invoice before it is paid.

12.Loss, damage and claims

• Tell us immediately of any loss, damage, theft or shortage of goods in your custody, and cooperate fully with our investigation.
• You are liable for loss of or damage to goods while they are in your custody, or caused by your negligence or breach of these terms, up to the amount we pay the customer together with our reasonable costs.
• Do not settle a customer's claim yourself without our written approval.
• Insure your premises and the goods in your custody as our SOPs require.

13.Compliance with the law

You are responsible for holding and keeping current every registration and licence your branch needs, which may include GST registration, registration under the Carriage by Road Act, 2007 where it applies to your operations, shops and establishments registration, and local trade licences. You must comply with GST and e-way bill rules, labour laws and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

Customer information in the System may be used only to handle that customer's consignment. You must not copy, export, sell, or use it for marketing or any other purpose.

14.Confidentiality

Our rates, commission structure, customer information, the System and our business information are confidential. Keep them confidential during the partnership and for 2 years after it ends, and return or destroy any copies when it ends.

15.Brand and intellectual property

The VSWITCH name, logo, LR formats and the System belong to us. While the partnership lasts, you may display our approved branding at your branch. You must not alter it or use it for any other business, and you must stop using it when the partnership ends.

16.Audit and inspection

We may inspect your branch, its records, cash collections and the consignments in its custody on reasonable notice, or without notice where we suspect fraud or loss. You must cooperate with any inspection.

17.Suspension and termination

• Either party may end the partnership by giving the other 30 days' written notice.
• We may suspend or end it immediately for fraud, misuse of collections, false KYC, handling prohibited goods, repeated breach of our SOPs, breach of law, or dues unpaid for more than 15 days after they fell due.
• When a branch is suspended or ended, we disable it in the System, and its users can no longer sign in.
• When the partnership ends, you must remit all dues within 7 days, hand over every pending consignment together with its records, and return our materials. Commission earned up to the end date is paid after any set-off. Rights and obligations that have already accrued survive.

18.Indemnity

You will indemnify us against claims, losses, penalties and costs arising from your breach of these terms, your negligence or fraud, a breach of law by you, or any act of your staff.

19.Limitation of our liability

We are not liable to you for indirect or consequential loss, or loss of profit or business. Our total liability to you under the partnership is limited to the commission paid to you in the 3 months before the claim arose. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

20.Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. We will give you at least 15 days' notice through the System or by email before a change takes effect, unless a change in law requires sooner. Continuing to operate the branch after the change takes effect means you accept it. We record which version you have accepted.

21.Notices

We send notices to the email address you gave us, through the System, or to the address in your appointment letter. Send notices to us at the support email shown at the foot of vswitch.in or the head office address shown at the foot of vswitch.in.

22.Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India. The parties will first try to resolve any dispute by discussion for 30 days. A dispute that is not resolved will be referred to a sole arbitrator under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, with the seat and venue at Chennai and proceedings in English. Subject to that, the courts at Chennai have exclusive jurisdiction.

23.General

These terms, your appointment letter, the Rate Card and our SOPs are the entire agreement between us about the partnership. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest remains in force. A delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of it. Neither party is liable for failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control. We may transfer our rights and obligations to a successor business.

24.Electronic acceptance

By ticking the acceptance box and submitting your application, you accept these terms electronically, which is valid under the Information Technology Act, 2000. We record the version you accepted, the date and time, and your network address and browser. You can read these terms at any time at vswitch.in/partner-terms.