Legal information
This translation is provided for information only. The French version is the only legally binding version. Read the French version
These terms apply to anyone who uses Plateau Libre: customers, carriers and authors of listings imported by our team.
Last updated:
These terms and conditions of use (the “Terms”) govern the use of the plateau-libre.com website (see the legal notice).
Plateau Libre is a marketplace that puts customers, whether motor trade professionals or private individuals, who have a vehicle or car parts to be transported, in touch with verified professional carriers (flatbeds, recovery trucks, car transporters, vans) who publish their journeys, in particular their empty return legs. Some carriers are also vehicle delivery drivers: they drive the customer’s vehicle themselves, when it runs, to its destination. Private individuals may also offer to carry car parts, bulky items or a two-wheeler during a journey they are making for themselves, on a cost-sharing basis (see “Cost-sharing transport by private individuals”); a private individual never drives a customer’s vehicle.
Plateau Libre is not the carrier. The contract of carriage is concluded directly between the customer and the carrier. The professional carrier freely sets their price, performs the transport, invoices it and collects its price; a private individual only asks for a contribution to the costs of their journey, up to a cap. Plateau Libre does not set the price of the transport, does not organise the transport in its own name and does not hold the money for the transport: it only puts customers and carriers in touch. The service is free until 31 December 2026.
You accept these Terms by ticking the box provided when publishing a request or signing up as a carrier, by confirming an imported listing, and by booking a quote.
You describe your transport without an account. To publish the request, you create your account at the last step (or sign in if you already have one). The same account gives access to the tracking of your requests, your quotes and your bookings. Two ways to create your account and sign in:
Your password is personal: do not share it with anyone. If you forget it, the “Forgotten password?” link on the sign-in page sends you an email so that you can choose a new one; you can also change it from “My account”. If you think someone else is using your account, change your password and inform support by email at contact@plateau-libre.com.
Accounts opened with a sign-in link received by email (former method, withdrawn on 8 October 2026) remain valid: their holder signs in with Google (same email address) or chooses a password using “Forgotten password?”.
Publishing a request, receiving quotes and carrier registration are free of charge. The service is free until 31 December 2026.
You can ask support to delete your account at any time, by email at contact@plateau-libre.com.
Only verified carriers receive alerts, see the details of open requests in their area and send quotes: professional carriers, described in this section, and approved private individuals, described in the next one (“Cost-sharing transport by private individuals”). An anonymised summary of open requests remains visible to everyone in the site search and may be shown on its home page (see below, “Search on the site”).
Before they are put in touch with anyone, we check the carrier’s business by its SIRET, in the public business directory (Sirene) and in the notices of insolvency proceedings (BODACC):
A private individual, without a SIRET, may offer to carry goods during a journey they are making for themselves, for example when setting off on holiday. This is cost-sharing transport (cotransportage) as provided for by Article L3232-1 of the Code des transports, the French Transport Code: the private individual only asks for a share of their travel costs.
The contributions of all quotes booked on the same journey may not exceed the cost of that journey at the per-kilometre scale adopted by Plateau Libre (€0.636 per kilometre), calculated on the length of the journey estimated by the site, stops included, but at most 1.3 times the direct distance between departure and arrival. As no amount has been set by any legal text to date, this cap is set by Plateau Libre. The private individual chooses their contribution below this cap; the site checks it when each quote is sent and again at booking, and refuses anything that would exceed it. A private individual’s quote includes neither VAT nor tolls, and proposes the date of their journey. If the private individual cancels their journey, their quotes on that journey are withdrawn.
The site accepts transport requests within metropolitan France, and between France and one of the countries served: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The accepted goods are the following: car, classic car, van, 4x4, motorbike, car parts, bulky item and house move. The vehicle may be running or not, including a bare shell or a stripped body; the customer states the handling required (for example winch or forklift).
The form asks for the type of goods and their condition, the places of departure and arrival (a municipality in France, or a town or city in a country served, chosen from the list offered), an exact date, a period or a flexible date, the number of vehicles, the weight if known, and whether you require a professional carrier who invoices. Photos are optional.
For a vehicle that runs and can be driven on a category B licence, the form also asks whether a vehicle delivery driver may drive it: either is fine (a truck or a driver), a truck only, or a driver only. If you accept a vehicle delivery driver, you certify that the vehicle is registered, insured and has an up-to-date roadworthiness test (see “Verified carriers”, “Driven delivery”).
On publication, our matching engine compares the request with the open journeys of verified carriers. It takes into account the detour needed (within the limit chosen by the carrier for their journey, 150 km by default), the dates (plus or minus 2 days around an exact date; for a request without a date, the 14 days following publication), the spaces and payload, the acceptance of non-running vehicles, any requirement for an insured professional, the goods a private individual may carry and the area served. For a collection or delivery abroad, the carrier’s journey must pass through the country concerned.
A driven delivery journey is only offered to requests whose customer has accepted a vehicle delivery driver and certified their vehicle in the form, for a vehicle that runs, and only if the driver’s licence has been approved by our team and remains valid; a request whose customer wants a driver only is not offered to other journeys. An availability selects the requests whose collection point is within the announced radius around the departure town or city, whatever the delivery point. A driven delivery is never “partial”: the driver drives the vehicle to its destination.
Each match is rated “match”, “match with caveats” (one point remains to be confirmed) or “partial” (the journey only takes the goods part of the way). Its reasons are shown, for example “detour 45 km” or “non-running accepted”.
Each carrier concerned receives an alert by email, and by text message on their account’s mobile number, unless they have turned these off in their profile. A foreign mobile number only receives text messages in the countries served where sending them is enabled. Beyond 10 alerts in one day, further alerts are grouped into a summary sent the next morning, without a text message. A carrier who has been alerted remains free to respond or not.
In the carrier area, matching requests are ranked by result (matches, then with caveats, then partial), then by a score from 0 to 100 that combines:
Before booking, no contact details are visible. The customer and carriers communicate through the site’s messaging. Phone numbers, email addresses and messaging links typed in a message or in the conditions of a quote are hidden automatically; this masking covers common formats but cannot recognise everything.
After booking, contact details are exchanged between the customer and the chosen carrier:
Their conversation remains open, without masking, while the booking is in progress and then for 30 days after delivery. It becomes read-only as soon as there is a cancellation, and the contact details and addresses are then no longer shown. They never appear in an email.
The carrier freely sets their price. Their quote states the price excluding VAT, the VAT, the proposed date and time slot, and any conditions. A quote is valid for 7 days, or until the proposed date if that comes sooner. The carrier can replace or withdraw it as long as it has not been booked. A driven delivery quote also states whether fuel is included in the price or paid by the customer.
The VAT on a quote is one of the following:
Plateau Libre suggests to the carrier the VAT that appears to apply, based on the country of their company, the customer (private individual or business, and the country of a business customer’s company) and the journey. The carrier confirms or changes it, and it is the carrier who invoices it. Before booking, they only see whether the customer is a private individual or a business and the country of its company, never the company’s name.
For each quote, the customer sees the transport price including VAT (and excluding VAT; for a reverse-charge quote, the price excluding VAT only), the proposed date, the “SIRET verified” label (“Verified company” for a company established abroad) and, only if they have been provided, approved and are currently valid, “Liability insurance”, “Goods in transit insurance” and “On the transport register” (see “Verified carriers”), the carrier’s reviews (“New to Plateau Libre” if the carrier has none yet), the points to be confirmed and the difference from the reference price.
A private individual’s quote states their cost contribution, without VAT or tolls, up to the cap (see “Cost-sharing transport by private individuals”). On it, the customer sees “Private individual” and “Verified mobile number” instead of “SIRET verified”.
The reference price is calculated using a flatbed transport rate grid (€1.40 excl. VAT/km, minimum €280 excl. VAT) and the estimated distance of the request. It only serves to put quotes in context: it plays no part in the ranking and is not binding on the carrier. A driven delivery quote is not compared with this grid, which applies to flatbed transport, nor is a quote in pounds sterling (transport within the United Kingdom), as the grid is in euros.
The service is free until 31 December 2026. The customer and the carrier have nothing to pay to Plateau Libre.
The customer books a quote by confirming it on the site. Before confirming, they see a summary: the carrier, the date, the price including VAT to be paid to the carrier (excluding VAT for a reverse-charge quote) and the carrier’s payment terms.
The price of the transport is paid directly to the carrier, according to their terms, and it is the carrier who invoices it. These terms (payment methods and timing) are stated on their quote. Plateau Libre does not collect it.
The cost contribution requested by a private individual is paid in the same way, directly to them.
The carrier can cancel their job, giving a reason, until the end of the proposed collection day; after that, only our team can cancel it. After their cancellation:
If the carrier does not turn up or remains unreachable, contact us by email at contact@plateau-libre.com. When our team establishes their failure to perform, the booking is cancelled with the same effects as a cancellation by the carrier: the request is reopened.
Our team can also cancel a booking at the customer’s request.
After collection and as long as the delivery has not been confirmed, the customer can report a problem from their tracking page, with a description and up to 6 photos. The type of problem is chosen from: damage to the vehicle, significant delay, vehicle not delivered or delivered elsewhere, carrier’s behaviour, other. Our team may also open a report for the customer, for example after an email from them.
Plateau Libre is not an arbitrator: the outcome chosen by our team is used to follow up the case on the site and does not determine the rights of the customer and the carrier, who keep their rights of recourse. For damage, see “Liability and insurance”.
Before collection, a carrier who does not turn up or cannot be reached is reported to support (see “Carrier failing to perform”).
Plateau Libre puts parties in touch and does not transport the vehicle. Plateau Libre is not your insurer and does not offer any insurance for the transport.
Plateau Libre does not verify that every carrier is insured. A carrier displaying the label “Liability insurance” or “Goods in transit insurance” has provided the corresponding certificate, approved by our team and currently valid (see “Verified carriers”); without these labels, we do not know whether they are insured. If you require an insured professional in your request, you are only offered carriers who display both labels.
The cover (limits, excesses, exclusions) is that of the carrier’s policy: ask them for their certificate and details of their cover before the transport, especially for a valuable or non-running vehicle.
For a driven delivery, the vehicle must be insured by its owner to be driven on the road, which the customer certifies in their request. How any damage during the drive would be covered is to be agreed with the vehicle delivery driver before departure: ask them for their insurance certificate and details of their cover.
The carrier is responsible for performing the transport they have accepted.
Transport by a private individual. Transport between private individuals: no professional insurance and no legal guarantee of conformity (see “Cost-sharing transport by private individuals”).
Our team may manually record a transport listing published elsewhere (Facebook group, classified ads site). No robot connects to these sites and no message is sent there automatically.
In the event of a breach, our team may, in particular, withdraw a quote, hide a review or suspend a carrier.
The processing of your personal data, the service providers used and your rights are described in the privacy policy. In summary: your contact details are only passed on to the carrier or the customer of the booking, once it has been made.
These Terms may change; the date of the last update appears at the top of this page. The version that applies to a booking is the one in force at the time of the booking.
For any complaint, first contact our team by email at contact@plateau-libre.com.
For a company established in a country served, outside France, we check its EU VAT number in VIES, the European Commission’s VAT Information Exchange System, instead: the number must be valid there and, when VIES publishes it, the declared company name must match the one published. Its activity, its age and any insolvency proceedings are not checked. If VIES does not publish the company name, if the company is from Monaco (VAT number in the French format), or if its country is not covered by VIES, our team always examines the file and, in the last case, checks its registration number itself.
When all these points are compliant, the company name of the business is public in the directory and no other carrier account is linked to the same business, the carrier is verified automatically, without review by our team. Otherwise, their file remains pending: our team examines it, checks for itself that the SIRET and the company name match the business’s public record, then approves or rejects it. No file is rejected automatically, and a file that our team has rejected or suspended is never again verified automatically.
When the carrier provides them, our team also examines their insurance certificates (compliant and currently valid) and the proof of their registration on the transport register. Our team likewise examines the copy of their Community licence, with its validity date: once approved and current, it counts as a Community licence found on the transport register when a customer requires one.
Nothing is shown for an item that has not been provided: the absence of one of these labels only means that we have not checked it. Plateau Libre does not verify that every carrier is insured or on the transport register. The verification covers the public registers and the documents provided, at the date of the check: it does not guarantee the quality of the transport.
A carrier may offer driven delivery: they collect the customer’s vehicle and drive it themselves to its destination. The vehicle delivery driver has the same status as other carriers: they are a professional whose business is checked in the same way (see “Our checks”), with the same quotes, bookings, messages and reviews.
To receive driven delivery requests, they upload a copy of their driving licence, which our team examines itself: a currently valid category B licence, in their name, held for a minimum period set by Plateau Libre. This licence is not required for the account to be verified. But as long as our team has not approved it, or once its validity date has passed, their driven delivery journeys and availabilities receive no requests, they are not offered for driven delivery in the site search, and they can neither send a driven delivery quote nor have a quote they have already sent booked. Their licence must remain valid until the proposed date of the driven delivery. The copy of their licence is never shown to customers or read by an automated tool.
Driven delivery only concerns a vehicle that runs and can be driven on a category B licence, and that the customer agrees may be driven by a vehicle delivery driver. The customer then certifies, in their request, that their vehicle is registered, insured and has an up-to-date roadworthiness test; Plateau Libre does not verify this.
The driven delivery contract is concluded directly between the customer and the vehicle delivery driver, who freely sets their price. Their quote states whether fuel is included in the price or paid by the customer and, if they specify them, the tolls included in the price.
At sign-up and then regularly, Plateau Libre automatically consults public sources on the carrier’s business: the business directory (Sirene), the register of goods transport undertakings and the notices of insolvency proceedings (BODACC); for a company established abroad, VIES (VAT number). The insurance certificates provided are also read by an artificial intelligence tool (Anthropic’s Claude API), which picks out their dates, the cover and any inconsistencies.
The business check can, on its own, verify a carrier (see “Our checks”); it neither rejects nor suspends anyone. The reading of certificates decides nothing: our team examines each certificate. After verification, any change detected by these checks, such as a business that has ceased trading or insolvency proceedings, is reported to our team.
For each carrier, customers see the number of jobs completed, the number of cancellations and the average rating of their reviews.
Transport between private individuals: no professional insurance and no legal guarantee of conformity. The compulsory insurance of the private individual’s car does not cover the goods they carry (Article R211-8 of the Code des assurances, the French Insurance Code). Before handing over an item of value, the customer asks the private individual whether and how they are covered.
Our team may reject or suspend a private individual and withdraw their journeys and quotes, in particular if they carry goods outside their own journeys, ask for more than cost-sharing, offer excluded goods or open several accounts. Plateau Libre may also close, at any time, sign-ups by private individuals, the publication of their journeys and the booking of their quotes.
The search page applies the same engine to a departure, an arrival and a type of goods. A customer sees there the open journeys of verified carriers, without their name: equipment, rating, number of transports completed; the name appears on the quote. A carrier sees there a summary of open requests, without names or contact details: municipalities (outside France: the town or city chosen from our list and its country, otherwise the country alone), dates, goods, condition, number of vehicles and whether a professional is required. Neither remarks nor photos appear there, nor requests that come from a listing published elsewhere. No price is shown there. The most recent open requests may also be shown on the home page, with at most this information.
Current quotes are ranked according to the following, in order:
Only quotes from currently verified carriers are compared. No carrier pays to be ranked higher, and the ranking does not depend on any remuneration.