How we contract — Service levels
Most transport SLAs are written so they cannot be failed.
Vague definitions, sampled months, exceptions broad enough to swallow the clause. Ours is the opposite, and this page is it — how on-time is defined to the minute, the targets by contract type, what a miss costs us, the exceptions stated out loud, and what arrives with your invoice every month. If your procurement team reads one page on this site, it should be this one.
- Every run measured, none sampled
- Credits applied, never claimed
- Exit right after three bad months
The agreement at a glance
- On time means
- At the point, at or before the time, plus five minutes
- Measured on
- Every run in the calendar month. No sampling
- On-time target
- 95% to 98%, set by contract type
- Replacement
- 30 to 60 minutes in the core cities
- A missed run
- Not invoiced. Applied automatically
- Three bad months
- You may terminate without notice or penalty
The full SLA schedule is a two-page annexe. Ask and we will send it before you ask for a price.
Request the scheduleDefinitions, because this is where SLAs are won
What the words actually mean.
An on-time target of 98% means nothing until somebody defines on time, defines the run, and says which runs get counted. Those three definitions decide whether a service level is a commitment or a decoration, so ours are set out first.
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1.1
“On time” means at the point, at or before the time
Arrival at the agreed boarding or set-down point at or before the agreed minute. A run arriving within five minutes is still counted as on time; beyond five minutes it is late, in full, and we do not round it, average it away or reclassify it as a near miss.
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1.2
“Completed” means the right vehicle and a seat for everyone
The run happened with the contracted vehicle type or one of greater capacity, and every booked passenger travelled seated. A run completed by cramming people into a smaller vehicle is not a completed run — it is a failed one that also breached the loading clause.
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1.3
Replacement time runs from when we know
Not from when you call us, and not from when we finish investigating. The clock starts the moment a vehicle is reported doubtful by its driver or detected as off-schedule, and stops when the replacement is at the point. Measuring from your phone call would let us profit from being slow to notice.
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1.4
Notification is ten minutes, and it is its own target
You are told within ten minutes of us knowing, with an honest estimate rather than a reassuring one. Late notification is recorded as a breach in its own right even where the replacement then arrives on target, because being told late is its own kind of failure.
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1.5
The measurement period is the calendar month, every run
All contracted runs, not a sample, not a representative week and not the runs a supervisor happened to flag. Sampling is how a bad fortnight disappears into a good month, so we do not sample.
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1.6
The record is ours, and you get all of it
Timings come from our own operational records, and the full run-level data goes to you with the monthly report rather than a summary figure. A supplier who reports only a percentage is asking you to trust the arithmetic you cannot see.
Here you are reading the contractual instrument — definitions, targets, remedies and reporting. What actually sits behind it operationally, meaning which vehicles are held, where they wait and how a replacement is released, is set out on Standby & Replacement Cover. Procurement usually wants this page; operations usually wants that one.
The numbers that go in the annexe
Targets by contract type.
Different work deserves different targets, and a single headline figure applied to everything is a sign nobody thought about it. These are the standing targets; yours is printed in your agreement and can be tightened where your operation needs it.
| Contract | On time | Replacement | Notification | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factory shift transport Tightest | 98% | 30 min | 10 min | Per changeover |
| Monthly staff duty, core cities | 97% | 45 min | 10 min | Per run |
| Staff duty, overnight or peak season | 95% | 60 min | 10 min | Per run |
| Seasonal operator allocation | 97% | 60 min | 10 min | Per movement |
| Event or delegation day | 100% | On site | Immediate | Per movement |
| Intercity and outlying areas | 95% | 2–3 h | 10 min | Per journey |
Note that the event target is 100%, which is only honest because a standby vehicle and driver sit on your site all day — the replacement is already there. Where a target looks generous, it is because something expensive is being held to make it achievable. Where one looks loose, as on intercity routes, it is because we would rather commit to a number we can hit than publish one we cannot.
Transport does not run at four nines, and an operator offering it is relying on a definition you have not read. The usual mechanisms are a thirty-minute grace period, sampling, or an exceptions list that quietly excludes traffic. Ask any bidder three questions: how many minutes late still counts as on time, what proportion of runs are measured, and what is excluded. The answers separate the tenders far better than the headline percentage does.
What a miss actually costs us
The remedies, and they escalate.
A service level with no consequence is a statement of intent. Each step below is written into the contract, applied by us rather than claimed by you, and the last one is the one that matters most.
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One late or missed run That run is not invoicedAutomatic credit
Applied on the next invoice whether or not anyone on your side noticed it. No claim, no form, no window in which you had to have complained.
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A month below the on-time target 5% credit on that month's contract value5% of the month
On top of the individual run credits, not instead of them. The report showing the breach arrives with the invoice carrying the credit, in the same envelope.
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Two consecutive months below target 10% credit, a recovery plan and a director on the account10% + escalation
A written recovery plan with dates, and a named director rather than a coordinator answering to you until the numbers come back. Two bad months in a row is a systems problem, not bad luck, and it gets treated as one.
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Three consecutive months below target You may terminate immediately, without penaltyExit right
No notice period, no early-termination charge, no argument. We will also support the handover to whoever replaces us — routes, timings, boarding points and the run data — because a client we failed three months running is owed a clean exit rather than a hostage situation.
Because it is the only clause that genuinely changes our behaviour. Credits are a cost; losing the contract is an outcome. Putting a real exit in front of a client is also the cheapest possible way to prove we expect to hit the targets — nobody writes that clause into an agreement they are worried about.
Stated out loud, not buried
What is excluded from the measurement.
Every SLA has exceptions. The dishonest ones put them in a schedule nobody reads and write them broadly enough to cover a bad Tuesday. Ours are short, specific, and each one is evidenced in the monthly report rather than asserted in a meeting.
- Road closures and cordons Excluded An authority closing a road closes it to everyone. Logged with the time and the location.
- Authority instruction Excluded Including seasonal movement control around the holy sites during the Hajj days.
- Severe weather Excluded Flooding or a sandstorm that closes a route. Heat and ordinary rain are not exceptions.
- Passengers not at the point Excluded The vehicle was there on time and waited. Shown with the arrival timestamp, not asserted.
- Site access denied Excluded A gate pass not issued or a security hold at your own barrier.
- Change inside the notice window Excluded A route or timing changed by you inside 24 hours, where we ran the original plan.
- Flight delay or diversion Excluded On airport work only, and only where we tracked it and re-timed at no charge.
- Traffic Not excluded Ordinary congestion is our problem. It is why runs are timed with margin.
- Driver absence or vehicle failure Not excluded Our people and our equipment. Never an exception, whatever the reason.
The last two rows are the point of this section. Operators commonly exclude traffic and mechanical failure, which between them cause most late runs and turn a 98% target into an unfalsifiable claim. Ours are in the measurement, where they belong.
What arrives every month
You should be able to audit us without asking.
A service level you cannot verify is a service level you are taking on trust, and trust is not a procurement control. Everything needed to check our performance arrives on its own, in the same envelope as the invoice, in a format your finance team can reconcile without a phone call to us.
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Every run, with its timestamp
Run-level data rather than a headline percentage — the date, the route, the vehicle, the scheduled time and the actual one. You can recalculate our figure yourself, and some clients do.
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On-time percentage against target
Stated plainly, with the target beside it so the comparison needs no arithmetic. A month below target says so at the top of the page rather than three tables down.
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Every incident, with the cause
What failed, when we knew, when you were told, when the replacement arrived, and whether the exception clause was applied. Incidents are counted per vehicle, so a repeat offender is visible before it becomes a pattern you noticed first.
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Credits already applied
Shown as their own lines on the invoice with the runs they relate to, not held as a balance to be claimed. If we owe you a credit you should not have to find it first.
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Compliance evidence on request
Transport General Authority permits, current vehicle inspections, passenger insurance and driver records — kept ready rather than assembled when an auditor asks. Corporate and industrial clients get audited on their contractors, and that should be a two-day job for you, not a two-week one.
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A quarterly review that changes something
Routes re-cut against where your people now live or how your board now runs, and any target tightened where the data shows we can hold it. A review that produces no changes is a meeting, not a review.
Request the schedule · sent within one working day
Read the annexe before you ask for a price.
The full SLA schedule is two pages and we will send it on its own, with no quotation attached, so you can compare our terms against whatever else is on your desk. Nothing is charged and nothing is expected.
Service level schedule
About a minute. Fields marked optional can be left blank.
No quotation attached unless you ask for one
Request received
A contracts coordinator will send the SLA schedule on your preferred channel, normally within one working day, along with a sample monthly report if you asked for one. For anything urgent, call +966500000000.
Service level questions
Asked by procurement, legal and audit.
Usually in that order, and usually with a competitor's contract open on the desk beside them.
What is a transport service level agreement?
The part of a transport contract that defines what performance you are actually buying: how punctuality is measured, what target applies, how fast a failed vehicle is replaced, what happens when the target is missed, and what is excluded from the measurement. Without those five things a contract is a price list with good intentions attached.
How do you define “on time”?
Arrival at the agreed point at or before the agreed minute, with a five-minute grace period. Beyond five minutes the run is late in full — we do not round it, average it away or reclassify it. The definition matters more than the percentage, which is why it is clause 1.1 rather than a footnote.
What on-time target should we expect?
Between 95% and 98% depending on the work. Factory shift transport carries the tightest at 98% because a site spare makes it achievable; intercity work is 95% because honestly it cannot be better. Be wary of anything above 99% — in this industry that figure is usually produced by the definition rather than the driving.
What happens if you miss the target?
Four escalating steps. A single missed run is not invoiced. A month below target adds a 5% credit on that month. Two consecutive months take it to 10% plus a written recovery plan and a director on the account. Three consecutive months give you the right to terminate immediately, without notice or penalty.
Do we have to claim the credits?
No. Credits are applied by us on the next invoice whether or not anyone on your side noticed the failure, and they appear as their own lines against the runs they relate to. A supplier who only credits the failures the client catches is telling you something about the ones they do not.
Is traffic an exception?
No, and this is the question worth asking every bidder. Ordinary congestion is our problem, which is why runs are timed with margin rather than to the theoretical journey time. Mechanical failure and driver absence are not exceptions either — they are our equipment and our people.
What is excluded then?
Road closures and security cordons, authority instructions including seasonal movement control during the Hajj days, severe weather that closes a route, passengers not present at the boarding point, access denied at your own gate, changes you make inside 24 hours, and flight delays on airport work. Each exception is evidenced with a timestamp in the monthly report rather than asserted.
What reporting do we receive?
Run-level data for every contracted run — date, route, vehicle, scheduled and actual times — alongside the on-time percentage against target, every incident with its cause and timings, and the credits already applied. You can recalculate our figure yourself, and some clients do.
Can we set tighter targets than your standing ones?
Often yes, and we will tell you what it costs rather than simply agreeing. A tighter replacement time usually means holding a vehicle closer to you, which is a real cost we would rather show you than absorb quietly and then miss.
Can you work to our own SLA template?
Yes, and many clients have one. Send it and we will mark it up honestly — where we can meet it as written, where meeting it changes the price, and where we believe a clause is not achievable by any operator. That last category is usually the most useful part of the exercise.