Safety policy

Our objectives

We are committed to the safety of our employees, customers and anyone else affected by our business activities. We also recognise our legal and moral responsibility to use care to select the services we feature on our website and to use care to select suppliers on the island within which we operate who are as committed to safety as we are. Safety is a management responsibility which ranks equally with responsibilities for sales, costs, and similar matters.

All our suppliers who are responsible for the operation of our services in Crete carry out their duties in accordance with our guidance and operation manuals. We are constantly striving to improve safety standards wherever appropriate.

Our Responsibility

Our responsibility is fully set out in clause 7 of our terms and conditions:

7.1 We act as a booking agent. As such, we accept no responsibility for the actual provision of services. Our responsibilities are limited to publishing information on our website about the Services the Suppliers supply passing on reservation information to Suppliers and informing you of any enforced changes to the terms of your booking. We accept no responsibility for any information about the transfers that we pass on to you in good faith. We accept no liability for any illness, injury, death or loss of any kind. Any claim for loss, injury, illness or death should be pursued with the Supplier directly or may be covered under the terms of your insurance. We only accept liability to you for claims which arise solely as a result of our own negligence.

7.2 Descriptions of transfers provided are taken from information provided to us by the Supplier and we do not accept responsibility for any inaccuracies in such information, nor can liability be accepted for changes to facilities which are not communicated to us by the Supplier.

7.3 In the event that we are found liable to you on any basis whatsoever, our maximum liability to you is limited to twice the cost of your booking (or the appropriate proportion of this if not everyone on the booking is affected). We do not exclude or limit any liability for death or personal injury that arises as a result of our negligence or that of any of our employees whilst acting in the course of their employment.

Insurance cover

We take care to select suppliers of services with their own Public Liability Insurance, so that the supplier of your service will be adequately insured in respect of claims brought against them by our passengers in the event of an accident whilst travelling with them.

How we choose our suppliers

We undertake a strict procedure for choosing the suppliers featured on our website. Audits are carried out prior to our agreeing to feature them on our site in order to assess the suitability of each supplier. Each supplier signs a contract which obliges them to adhere strictly to our policies. All contracts require compliance with the requirements set out in this document, and provision of the appropriate operating licenses and suitable levels of public liability insurance. The specific duties of the supplier are clearly laid out in our contracts, to take care to ensure that the services are conducted in a uniform and professional manner across the island in which we operate.

All suppliers agree to the following duties, amongst many others:

1) The Supplier agrees that it is under a duty at all times to act in good faith whilst acting as such an appointed Supplier.

2) The Supplier guarantees to provide fully roadworthy vehicles equipped with seat belts according to local legislation and to maintain a high level of service, also by third party suppliers. The Supplier will promptly advise us of any complaints received from clients

3) The Supplier will provide sufficient staff to ensure that the service is able to operate effectively and efficiently and will open the offices at all agreed hours.

4) Where possible the Supplier/Vehicle Company should have the facility to confirm flight arrival times in order that the vehicle is at the airport at the correct time. However if a flight is delayed or cancelled, it is the responsibility of the client to advise the Supplier/vehicle company of the delay and to make any alternate arrangements to their collection utilising the information given on the booking vouchers. In some destinations night charges maybe applicable, should your new arrival time fall within the period when night charges apply, then the client will be liable for payment of these. Failure to advise of cancelled and rescheduled flights may result in transport being provided as per the original details on the booking. In this instance our supplier cannot be held responsible and no refund will be given.

5) The Supplier agrees and certifies that all suppliers used comply fully with any national and local trade regulations or legislation and possesses all the necessary licenses and insurance policies as required by local law.

6) The Supplier agrees to ensure that we are made aware of any new local, regional or national legislation, which may have any effect on the operation of our business, as soon as it becomes known to them.

7) The Supplier agrees to guarantee that in the event of a local taxi or coach strike, all existing bookings made by us will be honoured. It is the responsibility of the local supplier to inform us of any threat of local disruption in order to agree an appropriate course of action.

Such guarantees given by our suppliers help us to take care to provide the highest level of service to our customers.

Quality control and safety audits

Full safety audits are undertaken using our forms which are developed by our legal representatives and independent consultants. Safety audits will be carried out in all the destinations in which we operate.

Regular assessment audits are carried out by all our suppliers using forms that we provide them. Representatives from our company also often carry out site visits and undertake meetings with our suppliers to take care to check that they are operating in accordance with the high standards that we set.

In depth supplier inspections will also be carried out in order to provide support and guidance in relation to meeting the standards which we set. During these visits, each supplier’s self audit forms will be validated against our findings to ensure accuracy and consistency.

We will also, where appropriate, utilise the services of third party consultants to undertake inspections/assessments and provide advice

Failure to maintain the required standards will result in removal from our list of approved suppliers.

Systems and monitoring procedures

Regular reviews of systems and procedures employed in the management of our safety policy are undertaken by appointed people including company directors, legal advisors and health and safety consultants.

Our suppliers are obliged to continually monitor developments in the law to ensure their compliance with current legislation. For example, when changes occurred in relation to the use of child seats, our suppliers were all notified immediately and procedures were put in place to accommodate the changes in the law quickly and efficiently.

We take care to see that all equipment provided by our suppliers which is available for hire by our customers, (such as car seats), conforms to appropriate standards and is regularly checked and maintained.

Procedure for emergencies

Each supplier has a designated telephone line that our customers can ring in the event of a problem or incident in relation to the service provided. In the event that the local supplier is not contactable then we supply an additional contact number to handle this emergency. We take care to ensure that there is someone on hand to deal with any serious problems that may arise, and our staff are trained in this respect.

To further promote safety whilst travelling, our suppliers, and the drivers of all our vehicles have the authority to refuse carriage to any person who poses a threat to the safety of themselves or others due to their behaviour.

For further information on safety issues, please contact us at our offices, Asteri Travel, Adelianos Kampos, Platanes, Rethymnon 74100 Crete and we will be pleased to answer any further queries you may have.

Further information for our employees in relation to health and safety at work can be found in the staff manual.