Terms of service

1. What Monarch Animal Shipping does

Monarch Animal Shipping Ltd. ("Monarch Animal Shipping", "we", "us") operates ShipMonarch.ca, a platform that helps approved shipper organizations book overnight parcel shipments of live animals with participating carriers, buy packing supplies, follow carrier tracking and resolve exceptions. We are not a carrier.

2. Eligibility comes first

• A carrier rate is never permission to ship a live animal. A shipment can be booked only after it passes our eligibility checks: species policy, your organization's approval, the carrier's written live-animal approval for the lane and service, calendar, packaging and weather policy.
• An outcome of Unknown is not eligible. Carrier prohibitions cannot be overridden.
• The first lane covers approved domestic reptile, amphibian, aquatic and invertebrate shipments where carrier contracts permit.

3. Your responsibilities as a shipper

• Provide accurate species (scientific and common names), counts, regulated status, declared value and addresses.
• Hold any permits the law requires and comply with our acceptable-use policy.
• Pack according to the packing checklist and hand off only at locations shown as accepting live animals (confirmed), before the cutoff.

4. Quotes, payment and changes

• Quotes show every price component, a currency, an expiry and an estimated arrival date. Estimates are not guarantees.
• Prices are rechecked before payment. If a carrier becomes unavailable after payment, the booking fails safely and we void or refund the payment as applicable.
• You pay for a label when it is created. We authorize your payment at checkout and charge it when the carrier issues the label. If no label is created, the authorization is released.
• Quotes rely on the details you enter. Carriers measure every package and bill for what they find. If the carrier bills more than quoted (for example the package was heavier or larger than declared, the address was corrected, or a surcharge applied), you owe the difference plus a carrier-adjustment fee and taxes, billed after the shipment.
• If you keep a card on file, it is charged automatically for labels and for these adjustments under the card billing agreement. Otherwise we send you a secure link to pay, or add the charge to your account statement if you have trade terms.

5. Tracking

Tracking reflects carrier scans and clearly labelled scheduled events, predictions and staff updates. It is not live GPS. A carrier "delivered" scan does not confirm the condition of the animals.

6. Claims and live-arrival protection

Claims are reviewed by people under the rules in our protection terms. Protection is a service guarantee, not insurance.

7. Suspension

We may approve, limit, suspend or decline an organization, and pause carriers or lanes, to protect animals, recipients, carriers or the platform. We'll give reasons where we can.

8. Liability

To be completed after legal review. Nothing in these draft terms limits rights you have under applicable consumer law.