Freight Responsibility Matrix

Version: 2026-08-legal-l4

1. Status of this Document

This Document forms part of the Marketplace Transaction Terms, the Supplier Agreement and the Buyer Terms. The delivery arrangement for an order is the one selected and disclosed before order confirmation. If there is an inconsistency between this Document and the Marketplace Transaction Terms, this Document prevails in relation to freight, risk and cold chain during transit. The Privacy Policy prevails over every other Document on the handling of personal information.

In this Document, dispatch means the moment the products leave the supplier’s premises in the possession of a carrier or of the buyer, and delivery means the moment the products are unloaded at the delivery address stated in the order.

2. Overview

This Document clarifies responsibility for freight, delivery, and cold chain management for orders placed through Protein Link’s Platform. Responsibilities depend on the delivery arrangement agreed between the buyer and supplier.

Risk of loss or damage in transit is borne by the buyer or the supplier as set out below. Any liability a carrier has under its own terms is a separate matter and does not affect the allocation of risk between the buyer and the supplier.

3. Delivery Arrangements

Option A: Supplier-Arranged Freight

Risk passes to the buyer on delivery. The supplier must insure the products in transit for their full invoice value.

Option B: Buyer-Arranged Collection

The buyer must insure the products in transit for their full invoice value. The supplier must record the temperature of the products at the point of collection.

Option C: Platform-Facilitated Freight

Where Protein Link arranges freight through a third-party carrier, the following applies:

Risk of loss or damage in transit is borne by the buyer from dispatch. The buyer must insure the products in transit for their full invoice value.

In arranging freight under this Option, Protein Link acts as agent for the buyer. Protein Link may contract with the carrier in its own name, and where it does so it contracts as agent for the buyer as disclosed principal and holds the benefit of that contract of carriage for the buyer. Protein Link is not a carrier and does not itself carry the products.

Before order confirmation, Protein Link will tell the buyer the identity of the carrier, where the carrier’s terms of carriage may be obtained, any limit or exclusion of the carrier’s liability under those terms and any time limit they impose for making a claim. The buyer authorises Protein Link to enter into the contract of carriage on those terms.

4. Cold Chain Requirements

All parties in the supply chain must maintain appropriate temperature controls as specified by the product’s storage type (Frozen, Chilled, or Ambient). Temperature abuse at any point may void claims for refund or replacement.

Each party must record the temperature of the products at the point at which risk passes to or from it, and must produce those records on request. A party is not responsible for temperature abuse occurring while another party bore risk. This clause does not limit any right a buyer has under the Australian Consumer Law that cannot be excluded.

5. Disputes

Freight-related disputes should be reported within 24 hours of delivery. Reporting within 24 hours does not limit any right a buyer has under the Australian Consumer Law, and a failure to report within that time does not affect a right that cannot be excluded by law. See our Refund and Dispute Policy for the resolution process.

6. Chain of Responsibility

Where Protein Link arranges freight, it will take reasonable steps to verify that the carrier holds the accreditations and insurances required for the transport task, and will maintain a chain of responsibility procedure covering carrier selection, scheduling, record keeping and incident reporting.

Where Protein Link engages the carrier under Option C, Protein Link is likely to be a consignor of the products, and may also be a scheduler, and so is a party in the chain of responsibility with a primary duty under section 26C of the Heavy Vehicle National Law to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of its transport activities.

The buyer is also a consignor of the products where the carrier is engaged on its behalf, and the supplier is a consignor, packer or loader where it packs or loads the products or has possession or control of them immediately before transport. Each of them is a party in the chain of responsibility in its own right.

Under the Heavy Vehicle National Law a duty may not be transferred to another person, more than one person may hold the same duty at the same time, and each of them must discharge it to the extent of its capacity to influence and control the matter, including any capacity it would have had but for an agreement or arrangement purporting to limit or remove that capacity.

Protein Link will not consent to being named or otherwise identified as a consignor in the transport documentation for an order unless it engages the carrier for that order. Where the supplier or the buyer engages the carrier, the transport documentation must identify that party as the consignor.

Before dispatch the supplier must give Protein Link and the carrier the description, gross weight and dimensions of each consignment, its storage type and any load restraint or handling requirement. Protein Link relies on that information in selecting the carrier and the vehicle, and the supplier must pack and load the products so that they can be carried within the applicable mass, dimension and load restraint requirements.

Protein Link will not set, request or accept a delivery time that could not be met without a breach of a speed limit or of a fatigue, mass, dimension or load restraint requirement, and will allow for reasonable loading and rest time when it schedules a consignment. Delivery windows shown on the Platform are estimates and are not a commitment by the carrier or the driver to a particular arrival time.

No party, including Protein Link, may ask, direct or require a carrier or a driver to do anything that would require the driver to exceed a speed limit, to drive while impaired by fatigue or otherwise unfit to drive, or to breach a mass, dimension or load restraint requirement, including in order to preserve cold chain. A request of that kind may itself be an offence under the Heavy Vehicle National Law. Nothing in this Document transfers or limits any duty a party has under the Heavy Vehicle National Law.

7. Australian Consumer Law

Nothing in this Document excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, condition, warranty, right or remedy conferred on a person by the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), including the Australian Consumer Law, or by any other law, where to do so would be void or would contravene that law. Every other provision of this Document is read subject to this clause.

8. Freight Costs and Claims

Freight costs are disclosed before order confirmation and are payable by the party identified for the applicable delivery arrangement.

Where Protein Link contracts with the carrier in its own name, the freight cost is a cost Protein Link incurs as agent for the buyer, and the buyer must reimburse it together with any charge the carrier makes for demurrage, redelivery, waiting time or a failed delivery caused by the buyer. Protein Link passes the carrier’s charge on without margin unless a margin is disclosed before order confirmation. Protein Link may recover an amount payable under this clause by set-off against any amount it owes the buyer, or on demand within 10 business days of invoice.

A party bearing risk in the products at the time of a loss is responsible for making any claim against the carrier. Protein Link will provide the consignment details, carrier terms and delivery records it holds to assist, within five business days of request.

Where Protein Link is the contracting party with the carrier, the buyer has no direct contractual claim against the carrier. In that case Protein Link must, at the buyer’s written request and at the buyer’s cost, either lodge and pursue the claim against the carrier in its own name on the buyer’s reasonable instructions and within any time limit the carrier’s terms impose, or, if the carrier’s terms permit, assign the claim to the buyer so that the buyer may pursue it directly.

Protein Link must account to the buyer for everything it recovers from the carrier in respect of the buyer’s loss, less its reasonable costs of recovery. Protein Link is not liable for the amount by which the buyer’s loss exceeds what is recoverable from the carrier, except to the extent that the shortfall results from Protein Link’s own negligence or breach, including a failure to lodge a claim within time.

9. Governing Law

This Document is governed by the laws of New South Wales. Each party submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and of any court that may hear appeals from them.