Log in

You are logged out

Frequently asked questions - Carriers

General Questions

1. How can I propose my vehicles via your reservation system?

You can work with us using two principal options: direct online reservation and quotation system.

Direct online reservation

You can propose your vehicle to our customers via our direct reservation system i.e. you vehicle can be booked by our customers automatically without interference of our operator. When your vehicle is booked the order is sent directly to you. This is convenient as your order is already confirmed by the customer and you will not need to spend any time on communication with us or the customer to calculate your price and agree your offer details. The customer already knows your tariffs and service conditions beforehand and agreed to them. All you need to do is just to confirm to us by email or by sms that you received an order and will carry it out. This option is particularly suitable for the situations when the probability that you may not be able to carry out an order is very low. For example, you operate a fleet of similar vehicles or, in case of an individual carrier, have one or more replacers with a similar vehicle or better. Note that our system will allow you to exclude your vehicle from our direct reservation system at any time for any time periods that you need. Our system will also allow you to independently and at your convenience modify your price and service parameters, utilise our order simulator (for example, to calculate the price of your itinerary) and use other useful functionalities of our system. If this is what you need simply register in our online system and set up your vehicles, prices and service parameters in our web space specifically dedicated to carriers.

For direct online reservation, when configuring your vehicle parameters, you should choose the option "This vehicle can be booked online on site 1CARES.com". If you choose the option "This vehicle can be booked only on request" this means the customer can only book this vehicle via the quotation system.

Note: When you sign up a unique vehicle or you do not have a replacer you should enter such vehicle into the quotation system as below.

Quotation system

Each order opportunity will be individually discussed with you by our operator before we will be able to confirm the order to our customer. Obviously, in this option our offer will only be out to the customer after your prior agreement. However, there are also drawbacks in terms of the time spent on communication to agree the order and, not least important, that in the meantime the customer may choose another carrier from our system or outside. If you would prefer to offer your vehicles via our quotation system then when you configure your vehicle parameters, you should choose the option "This vehicle can be booked only on request". Alternatively, download this file from our website, indicate the requested data and send it to our email address provided in the file.

In some cases it may be justified to use both systems. If you are in doubt as to what option to choose simply describe us your particular situation and we will be happy to help you with your choice.

BackTop

2. What are your membership conditions?

In order to be a member of our service a carrier must respect our terms and conditions. We should note that in order to be able to provide passenger transportation services you should be properly licensed and insured under the laws of your jurisdiction. Your vehicles should undergo a timely technical control.

BackTop

3. What vehicles can be signed up into the system?

You can sign up the vehicles dedicated to the transport of passengers, in particular: cars, limousines, vans and coaches. Follow this link to view the examples of vehicles we propose to our customers.

BackTop

4. How can I sign up my vehicle?

First of all, please register in the system if you are not yet registered. Login into your member area and enter your vehicle's data in the section vehicles. Then enter the parameters of your services (price per kilometer, price of waiting time per hour, etc.) in the section parameters. Once these steps are completed your vehicle is activated in our system and becomes available for booking by our clients.
Note: The column "Activ." in the area my vehicles of the section parameters contains the status of your vehicle. "Yes" means that your vehicle has been activated in our system.

BackTop

5. How many vehicles can I sign-up?

Each carrier account allows to register with us up to ten vehicles. Make sure to sign up only those vehicles, which you plan to use to render your services.
Please note that each vehicle activated in the system can be reserved by our clients. Therefore, if your vehicle in some period of time is not available for online reservation you need to block that period of time for this vehicle in the system. Read more information on how to manage the schedule of your vehicle.

BackTop

6. Can I sign up the same vehicle in different categories?

No. You should not do that as the system takes care of that itself. For example, if you have a signed up a van the system will automatically also include your van in the search for a big size car of the same class.

Please note that you should not enroll the same vehicle in different categories also because multiple enrollments can provoke multiple orders for the same vehicle at the same time, which can potentially put you and us in an embarrassing situation.

BackTop

7. How do you attribute the orders?

The orders are attributed to vehicles based on the requirements of our customers. The better the parameters of your vehicle and service meet a customer's order the more chances you have to get the order. There are no other criteria. It is our commitment to treat all our carriers fairly.

BackTop

8. How can I increase the number of my orders?

Adapt your offer to the maximum number of potential customers. All other conditions being equal, the critical factors are normally price and conditions of your offer, for example, a shorter cancellation period. Also your flexibility can be an important factor, for example, a shorter notice period, provision of the "meet-and-greet" service, a longer maximum order mileage, a longer maximum order duration, аs well as such parameters as accepting credit card payments and knowledge of foreign languages.

BackTop

Order

1. Confirmation

As soon as an order is attributed to your vehicle, we immediately send you an order notification to your email address. Also an sms will be sent to your mobile phone to inform you about your order. The order notification will contain all the necessary information about the order such as trip and customer details, price, payment and cancellation conditions, etc. You can view an example of our order notification.

Upon the reception of our notification you should confirm the order to us as soon as possible. If for some reason, we will not be able to receive your order confirmation within two hours (outside of night hours) following our notification we may be led to allocate your order to another carrier.

BackTop

2. Currency of the order and price related indicators

All price related indicators such as price per kilometer, price per hour of waiting time, minimum order price, etc. should be given in the currency of the country of the vehicle address. For example, if your vehicle is located in Germany, the currency to be used is euro. Consequently, all orders that you would receive from us for this vehicle will be priced in euro.

However, please note that not all currencies are supported by the system. If this is your case you should provide your price parameters in euro. Your order will then also be priced in euro, but the customer will be informed that he should pay you in the local currency according to the prevailing exchange rate.

BackTop

3. Order price

Order price is determined based on the parameters of your service set by you in the section parameters. The full amount of the order will be paid to you either directly by the customer or by us depending on your payment options.

You can see how an order price is determined based on your service parameters in this example.

Please note that the order price becomes known to our customer at the moment of reservation. Therefore, when you confirm the order you also confirm its price. We do not allow changing the order price except for the cases when the customer wants to prolong an order or the order execution involves supplementary costs.

Also note that the price of our service is not included in the order price and is paid by the customer separately and directly to 1CARES.

BackTop

4. Customer pick-up

Customer pick up takes place at the pick-up address indicated in the order. To facilitate the pick-up the customer is provided with the details of your vehicle (brand, colour, number of registration plates) and the chauffeur (name and mobile phone number). We also request you to display our logo (as at the top of this page), which we will send you.

Special cases: if you pick up the customer at the airport or the railway station there are two options:
1) When a customer ordered the meet-and-greet service, you leave your vehicle at the nearest parking and go meet the customer in person on his/ her exit into the arrivals hall of the relevant terminal at the airport or at the head of the train at the railway station. In this case, the customer will reimburse you the costs of your parking charge.
2) When a customer did not order the meet-and-greet service, you will wait for the customer in your vehicle at the exit from the relevant terminal of the airport or at the exit from the railway station as applicable. The customer will give you a call on your mobile phone number to tell you his exact location so you could conveniently pick him up.

In any case we will inform you about the flight or train number, as well as the city of the departure of the flight or train. We expect you to monitor the arrival time of the flight/ train so that, in case of delay, you could correct your arrival time as needed.

To enable your customer to quickly recognise you we ask you to display our logo. It is sufficient to simply print it in colour on a A4 sheet.

BackTop

5. Waiting time

In the general case, the customer has up to 10 minutes of free waiting time. All excess waiting time is payable by the customer in accordance with the tariff set by you in the section parameters. The rule for this charge is as follows. If the customer is, for example, 20 minutes late all 20 minutes of waiting time are charged to the customer.

Special cases:
1) For the categories very big size car, big executive car, limousine, van and coach the free waiting time is 15 minutes.
2) The meet-and-greet service increases the free waiting time by additional 30 minutes.

TopTop

6. Order mileage

Order mileage includes all the mileage necessary to carry out the order starting from the permanent parking (garage) address of the vehicle to the pick-up address, the mileage with the customer and the return from the customer drop-off address to the garage. Note that our system always assumes that you leave for the order from the garage and return to the garage. You can view this example to better understand the concept of the order mileage.

Note that our system calculates the order mileage according to the fastest itinerary using the toll roads when necessary.

BackTop

7. Order duration

Order duration is an estimation of time necessary to carry out the order. It includes all the steps of the order starting from the moment a vehicles leaves its garage to go pick up the customer to the moment the vehicles returns back to the garage. Order duration also includes waiting time and the time necessary for special services such as the meet-and-greet service.
The notion of the order duration is used primarily to estimate the price of waiting time in the hourly service and the price of work during night hours, Sundays and public holidays.

Note that our system calculates the order mileage according to the fastest itinerary using the toll roads when necessary.

BackTop

8. Order cancellation

Order cancellation by the customer takes place according to our standard cancellation terms and conditions. We request all our carriers to comply with these cancellation conditions.

BackTop

9. Night hours

In our system the night hours are the hours worked between 20:00 and 7:00. For example, in the order with the duration three hours from 18:00 to 21:00, there is one night hour.

BackTop

10. Service "meet-and-greet"

This service consists in meeting the customer inside the airport or the railway station. When a customer orders this service, special conditions apply for the customer pick-up and the waiting time.
Note: if you wish so you can indicate in the section parameters that you do not provide this service.

BackTop

11. Supplementary costs

The execution of an order may involve supplementary costs not known at the moment of vehicle reservation, for example, parking charge during the meet-and-greet service, payment for the waiting time beyond the free period, cost of toll roads not included in the order price. Please be aware that the chauffeur should recover the supplementary costs directly from the customer irrespectively of who received the initial payment for the order.

BackTop

12. Order prolongation

When the customer wishes to prolong the order and the carrier has the ability to satisfy such a request, the customer is charged for the prolonged part of the trip as follows:

The tariffs for supplementary mileage and waiting time are indicated in the order notification and are known to the customer. Please note that the chauffeur should collect the payment for the trip prolongation directly from the customer irrespectively of who received the initial payment for the order.

BackTop

Payment

1. Payment options

The payment for the order can be settled directly by the customer in cash or by credit card or 1CARES can pay you. What payment option will be used in your particular case depends on your selection of a payment option in the section parameters. Please note that each vehicle can have its own payment option.

BackTop

2. Payment of supplementary costs

All supplementary costs not known at the moment of reservation should be paid by the customer directly to the carrier. This rule applies irrespectively of who collected the initial payment for the order (the carrier or 1CARES).

The customer is informed about this rule for the payment of supplementary costs. The customer is also informed about the means of payment accepted by the carrier.

BackTop

3. Can you help me accept payments by credit card?

Yes. At times in order get an order you need to have an ability to accept a payment by credit card. Especially it concerns servicing corporate or foreign clients. 1CARES can help you accept credit card payments. For this you need to choose one of the payment options allowing 1CARES to accept customers' payments on your behalf. This will allow our clients to order your vehicle using major credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express and some others. Read about how you will be paid in this case.

BackTop

4. If I allow you to collect customer payments, when will I be paid?

You will be paid within 5 working days following the execution of the order. The payment will be done in euro by check drawn on a bank based in the European Union (France or Luxemburg). If you are based in the euro zone, you will normally have no banking commission. If you are based outside of the euro zone please check with your bank to know if they may request you to pay a commission. Another option for you can also be to open an account with one of the major online payment systems such as PayPal so that we could transfer your payment to this account. For this service they would charge you a small commission of up to 3%. Wherever you decide to receive your payment please make sure to send us your payment details (name, address, and account details). To quickly get in touch with us with any payments related question please use our contact form.

BackTop

5. Collection of late cancellation fee

It may happen that a customer is late to cancel an order. According to our terms and conditions the customer is then obliged to pay a penalty. If 1CARES collects a customer's payment, the payment amount serves to ensure that, if need be, the late cancellation fee can be successfully recovered from the customer. To enable 1CARES to collect customer payments simply choose a relevant payment option.

BackTop

Site utilisation

1. Signing up a vehicle into the reservation system

The vehicle is signed up into the system using the following procedure:

  1. 1. Enter general vehicle details: permanent parking (garage) address, vehicle type, vehicle class, etc. in the section vehicles.
  2. 2. Enter the parameters of your service on this vehicle in the section parameters.

BackTop

2. Getting help while entering data and understanding error messages

When you enter some value into a data field, the field may become marked with red. This means that the system has detected an error in your data. The reasons for errors can be the following:

  • 1. You have entered a symbol, which is not allowed in the field.
  • 2. The value that you entered does not agree to the minimum and/or maximum values allowed in the field.
  • 3. You have entered the data that does not make sense.

Please note that most fields have interactive help, which activates when you click on or hover over the sign Help in the description of the field. More detailed help is available in the chapter site utilisation on this page. If, however, you have encountered an error, which you cannot reasonably understand and cannot find any help for, please ask the site administrator via our contact form.

BackTop

3. Profile: Mobile phone and email address

Your mobile phone number and email address are used for our working contacts with you, primarily, to notify you that you have received an order. Therefore, in case of any changes please make sure to timely update your mobile phone number and email address in the system.

BackTop

4. Vehicles: permanent parking (garage) address

Enter your vehicle’s permanent parking (garage) address following the example next to the field. The location where the vehicle "works" most of the time can also be suitable as the garage address. For example, if the vehicle works principally in Amsterdam while its garage is 25 kilometers away from Amsterdam it may be wise to indicate Amsterdam as the permanent parking address.

All other conditions being equal, the closer the vehicle is to a customer the more chances the vehicle has to receive the customer's order. It is also useful to know that when the system determines the order price it assumes the vehicle leaves for the order from the garage.

BackTop

5. Vehicles: type

If you are not sure as to which type belongs your vehicle, below are some examples to help you:

  • Small size car: e.g. Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Citroën C1-C3
  • Average size car: e.g. Mercedes-Benz B-Class, Citroën C4
  • Standard size car: e.g. Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Citroën C5
  • Big size car: e.g. Mercedes-Benz E-Class, Renault Espace
  • Big executive car: e.g. Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Audi 8, BMW 7
  • Limousine VIP: e.g. Baby Bentley Limousine, Lincoln Limousine

BackTop

6. Vehicles: class

The luxury class is a vehicle of expensive brand (e.g. Mercedes, BMW) with top level of internal equipment. The economy class is a vehicle of inexpensive brand (e.g. Hyundai, Fiat). The business class is a vehicle inferior to the luxury class but, at the same time, possessing much better characteristics than a vehicle of economy class. For example, a new (less than 3 years old) Ford with leather seats and good climate control system can be signed up as a business class vehicle.

BackTop

7. Vehicles: number of passengers

Indicate the number of passengers that the chauffeur of the vehicle can take. Please note that the chauffeur should not be included in this number.

BackTop

8. Vehicles: chauffeur languages

You need to specify languages spoken by chauffeur of the vehicle. The system allows selecting up to five different languages.

It is taken for granted that the chauffeur of the vehicle speaks the (principal) language of the country or region in which he operates. For example, if the account was created for Holland, it is assumed that the chauffeur speaks Dutch. If you cannot find any appropriate language choose "Not-available".
To clear all selected languages first choose any language then choose --:--.

BackTop

9. What is activated vehicle?

A vehicle has the status "activated" when all its service parameters are correctly entered into the system. You can see the status of the vehicle in the column "Activ." The status indicators can have the following values: Yes = Activated, No = Not activated, Blocked = Blocked by the system administrator.

BackTop

10. Parameters: price per kilometer

This is your price per kilometer charged for the entire order mileage. It is used to calculate the order price during the reservation of the vehicle by the customer.

Attention: Please note that in our system the customer pays for the entire mileage of the trip. This covers not only the mileage travelled with the customer but also the mileage from the garage to the pick-up address of the customer as well as the return to the garage. For example, if the mileage from the garage to the customer is 10 km., the mileage with the customer is 50 km. and the return back to the garage takes 55 km then the order mileage is 115 km. In order to verify your understanding of the price per kilometer you can a) see a price calculation example and b) use order simulation.

BackTop

11. Parameters: price of waiting time

The price of waiting time is used to calculate the order price in case of hourly service. It is also used to charge for the excess of free waiting time.

Attention: Please make sure not to confuse waiting time and driving time. Note that in case of hourly service the customer pays for each kilometer of the order mileage and, in addition, for the waiting time.

BackTop

12. Parameters: supplement for night hours, Sundays, public holidays

Our system allows you to charge a supplement for each hour of work during night hours, Sundays and public holidays. This supplement is used to determine the order price. For example, an order requires two hours work during night hours and you have set this supplement to be 5 € per hour. Then the order price is increased by 10 € (2 hours x 5 €).

BackTop

13. Parameters: supplement/discount for prolongation

The system allows you to charge a supplement/ give discount in case of trip prolongation. A positive value means a supplement. On the contrary, a negative value means a discount. This value should be indicated as a percentage e.g. 10%/-10% and applies to the prices per kilometer and per hour of waiting time. The client is informed about the prices of prolongation at the moment we make him an offer. You can see how the prolongation tariffs are presented to the customer in the simulation.
Note: this supplement/ discount applies only to the prolonged part of the trip.

BackTop

14. Parameters: minimum order price

This is the minimum order price, which you would accept. In order words, the price of your order will never be below this amount.

BackTop

15. Parameters: price of the service "meet-and-greet"

This is your price for the meet-and-greet service.
If you do not wish to provide this service, simply put 0 in this field. You will then be excluded from orders where customer requested the meet-and-greet service.

BackTop

16. Parameters: maximum order mileage

This is the maximum order mileage, which you would accept. For example, if you enter 500 in this field it would mean that you will not be able to receive orders where the total order mileage would be superior to 500 kilometers.

BackTop

17. Parameters: maximum order duration

This is the maximum order duration in hours, which you would accept. For example, if your enter 10 in this field, it would mean that you will not be able to receive orders where the total order duration would be superior to 10 hours.

BackTop

18. Parameters: notice period

The notice period is the minimum number of hours that you need from the reception of the order to the start of the order. In order words, the notice period is how fast you can react to an order. For example, if you enter 12 in this field it would mean that you will not receive an order, which start in less than 12 hours.
Note: In our system an order starts at the moment the vehicle leaves its permanent parking place (garage) to go pick up the customer.

BackTop

19. Parameters: replacer

When you state "yes" it means that if, for some reason, the vehicle or the chauffeur are not available to carry out the order you have another vehicle of the same or superior category or another chauffeur which would be able to carry out the order.

BackTop

20. Parameters: order cancellation terms

Cancellation without penalty
This is the maximum number of hours or days before the scheduled departure that the customer can cancel his order without penalty. For example, 24 hours in this field means that the customer may cancel the order up to 24 hours before the scheduled departure. Any cancellation after causes cancellation fees, initially 50% of the order price, then 100%.

Cancellation with penalty 100%
This is the maximum number of hours or days before the scheduled departure when the cancellation of an order obliges the customer to pay the cancellation fee of 100% of the order price.

The default values are based on our standard cancellation terms and conditions. If you would like to change these default values you need to allow 1CARES to accept customer payments.

BackTop

21. Parameters: payment options

You can choose how you wish to be paid for your services. There are six payment options:

  • 1. Customer by cash: customer must settle the order directly to the carrier and only in cash.
  • 2. Customer by credit card: customer must settle the order directly to the carrier and only by credit card.
  • 3. Customer by cash or credit card: customer must settle the order directly to the carrier and in cash or by credit card.
  • 4. Customer by cash or 1CARES: customer may settle the order to the carrier but only in cash or 1CARES may accept the customer payment.
  • 5. Customer by credit card or 1CARES: customer may settle the order to the carrier but only by credit card or 1CARES may accept the customer payment.
  • 6. Customer by cash and credit card or 1CARES: customer may settle the order to the carrier in cash or by credit card or 1CARES may accept the customer payment.

If you allowed us [1CARES] to accept customer payments and we used this right we will pay you as described in the chapter payments on this page.

It may be useful to note here that if you allowed us to accept customer payments, it may give you certain advantages in some particular situations e.g. to ensure the recovery of a penalty for late order cancellation, to allow you to serve customers with a wider range of payment means than what you can offer now. Additionally, it allows you to implement your own terms and conditions for order cancellation.
Attention: these payment options do not concern the payment of supplementary costs. The customer settles such costs directly to the carrier.

BackTop

22. Order simulation

In order to see how the parameters of your service and your vehicle data impact the order price and the possibility for the vehicle to serve a particular order you can use our order simulator. To go to the simulation, click on the specific simulation banner on the right.

Please note that it can happen that the system may not be able to attribute your "order" to the vehicle that you have selected. This is a normal situation and there can be several reasons to that:

  • The order time or part of it can be already taken by a real order or a reservation, which is being placed on the selected vehicle*. Also you may have blocked this time for the selected vehicle in the section schedule.
  • Some vehicle characteristics or service parameters may not be compatible with the order. In particular, these can be type and class of the vehicle, its garage address (our system would only search among the vehicles in proximity to the departure or arrival addresses), maximum order mileage, maximum order duration, notice period, payment option, foreign language of the chauffeur.
  • The selected vehicle is not activated in the system or is blocked by the system administrator. You can see the activation status of the vehicles in the column "Activ."
  • In some regions where our network of carriers is not particularly well developed, if you do not have a replacer, the system may not accept an order for your vehicle.

* In order to verify this simply select a different order date.

If you are not able to find a reasonable explanation as to why your "order" cannot be placed on the selected vehicle, please let us know the details via our contact form.

BackTop

23. Schedule: setting up a time block

If you have signed up your vehicle into the direct reservation system and, for one reason or another, you want to temporarily exclude this vehicle from our system, you need to block time periods when the vehicle is not available for our orders. You can block a period of time from 15 minutes to several months and more if need be. For each vehicle you can keep simultaneously up to three such blocks. In order to use this tool click on "Show" in the area my time blocks in the section schedule. Then follow the instructions on the screen.
Attention:
1. You need to block time, when necessary, for each vehicle that you have in the system.
2. You can remove a block at any time by clicking on "remove" next to your time block.
3. If you have a replacer who can always help you carry out your order, the procedure of setting up time blocks may not be necessary for you.

BackTop

Test your parameters in the live system ! Member area
1CARES.com ®
Created by Effective Web Design ©