Terms of Service

Flat Out Digger Hire, flatoutdiggerhire.com

Last updated: 30 July 2026

These terms cover how you use our website and how you book equipment through it. Please read them before you book. By using this website or placing a booking, you agree to them.

1. Who we are

This website is operated by Flat Out Digger & Equipment Hire Pty Ltd ACN 681 988 689, ABN 76 681 988 689, trading as Flat Out Digger Hire. In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean that company, and "you" means the person or business using the website or hiring equipment from us.

Our online store runs on Shopify, which supplies the platform we use to take bookings and payments.

2. The documents that apply to your hire

Three documents work together. If they ever conflict, they apply in this order:

• The Equipment Hire Rental Agreement you sign before you take a machine. This governs the physical hire, your obligations while you have the equipment, and who carries the risk. It sits above these terms on anything to do with the equipment itself. You can read it at flatoutdiggerhire.com/pages/equipment-hire-rental-agreement.
• These Terms of Service, which govern your use of the website and the booking process.
• Our Refund and Bond Policy and our Privacy Policy, linked in the footer of this website.

Placing an online booking does not replace the Rental Agreement. You will still sign it, and you will still complete a handover check with us, before the machine leaves our possession.

3. Using this website

You must be at least 18 years old to book equipment. If you create an account, you are responsible for keeping your login details secure and for everything done through your account. You must not sell, transfer or share your account with anyone else.

You agree that the information you give us at booking, including your name, phone number, email, licence details and delivery address, is accurate, current and complete. We rely on it to reach you, to deliver, and to identify who has our equipment.

4. What we hire, and what we do not

We are a dry hire business. That means you get the machine and you operate it yourself. We do not supply an operator, we do not quote or perform excavation work, and we are not the contractor on your job.

Our fleet is limited to small machines: the Micro 1.0 tonne, the Kubota 1.7 tonne and the Kubota 2.5 tonne. Every hire includes the trailer, a bucket and a ripper in the advertised price. Augers and auger drives are included on the machines that say so on their product page, and are not available on the others.

We service the Gold Coast and immediate surrounds. Machines must not be taken outside the area agreed with us at booking without our written approval.

Licensing and competence

A specific plant operator's licence or ticket is not required by law to operate machines of this size on private property, and we show you how the machine works at handover. That is not the same as us saying you are competent to operate it. You are responsible for satisfying yourself that you can operate the machine safely, and for any licence, ticket, permit or approval your own site, workplace, principal contractor, body corporate or council requires. If you are hiring for a workplace, you carry the work health and safety duties of the person conducting that business or undertaking.

Towing

Our machines travel on a trailer. If you are collecting, you are responsible for making sure your vehicle is legally and mechanically able to tow the loaded trailer, that you hold the correct driver's licence, that your towing capacity and tow ball rating are adequate, and that the load is properly restrained. If we have any doubt about the towing setup at pickup, we can refuse to release the machine.

5. Making a booking

A booking placed on this website is an offer to hire. It becomes a confirmed hire only when we accept it, and we may decline or cancel any booking at our discretion, for example where the machine is unavailable, the dates clash, the site or job is unsuitable, the requested area is outside our service zone, or we cannot verify who you are.

If we decline or need to change a booking, we will contact you on the phone number or email you supplied and refund anything you have paid for that booking.

Where you cannot complete checkout online, a member of our team may create a draft order for you. The same terms apply to that booking.

6. Prices, GST and payment

Prices are in Australian dollars. Where a price is shown on a product page as excluding GST, GST is added at checkout, and the total payable including GST is shown to you before you confirm payment. That total is the price you pay.

The hire fee must be paid in full before the machine is released, either online in advance or by card at the yard on the day. Delivery and collection fees, where they apply, are charged in addition to the hire fee.

Prices, rates, deals and promotions can change at any time without notice. The rate that applies to your hire is the one shown in your order confirmation. Where a promotion has its own conditions and those conditions conflict with these terms, the promotion conditions apply to that promotion.

Additional amounts can become payable after your hire ends, including late return fees, refuelling, cleaning, and repair or replacement costs for damage or loss. Those are dealt with under the Rental Agreement and may be charged to the card used for the booking or to the bond.

7. Bond

A bond of $200 applies to every hire. It is refunded in full once the machine and trailer come back on time, undamaged, clean and refuelled.

We may apply the bond against amounts you owe us, including cleaning, refuelling, late return fees, damage, loss, or recovery costs. If what you owe is more than the bond, you remain liable for the difference. If it is less, the balance is refunded. Our Refund and Bond Policy sets out the detail and applies as part of these terms.

8. Collection and delivery

You can collect from and return to our Burleigh Heads yard at no charge, including outside office hours where we have arranged 24/7 access with you.

If you would rather we brought it to you, delivery is charged by zone, plus GST: within 26km of the Gold Coast, $200; Coomera through to Brisbane city, $500; north Brisbane, $650. Delivery is free on hires of seven days or longer. Rates are current at the time of writing and can change.

Delivery windows are estimates, not guarantees. We will always give you as much notice as we can if something moves, but we are not liable for losses caused by a delivery running late, including standing time for your own crew, unless we have failed to take reasonable care.

You are responsible for telling us about site access before delivery: gate widths, gradients, soft ground, overhead lines, and anywhere safe and legal for us to unload. If we cannot safely unload when we arrive, the delivery fee is still payable and a second attempt is charged again.

Ownership of the equipment never passes to you. You hold it as a hirer only, and risk in it sits with you from the moment it is delivered or collected until we take it back, as set out in the Rental Agreement.

9. The hire period, extensions and late returns

Your hire period is the one shown in your order confirmation. Standard options are daily, weekend, five day and weekly. Weekend hires run from 4pm Friday to before 7am Monday and are charged at the weekend rate.

If you need the machine for longer, contact us before your return time. Extensions depend on the next booking and are charged at the applicable rate.

Returning late without approval affects the customer booked behind you. Late returns are charged at the applicable daily rate for each additional day or part day, and you are responsible for reasonable costs we incur as a result, including recovery.

Returning a machine early does not entitle you to a refund of the unused part of the hire fee.

10. Your responsibilities while you have the equipment

The full set of obligations sits in the Rental Agreement. In short, while the equipment is in your possession you must:

• Operate it safely, sober, within its rated capacity, and only for the purpose it is designed for.
• Not let anyone operate it who is not competent to do so, and not let anyone under 18 operate it.
• Keep it at the site or address you gave us, and not sublet, lend, sell, pledge or part with possession of it.
• Not modify it, remove safety guards or decals, or attempt repairs yourself.
• Comply with all work health and safety, environmental and local laws that apply to what you are doing.
• Locate underground services before you dig. Free plans are available through Before You Dig Australia at byda.com.au, and where the plans are unclear you should have services located on site. You are responsible for damage to underground gas, water, sewer, power, NBN and telecommunications assets, and those repair bills are large.
• Return it clean, with the fuel topped up, on or before your return time.
• Tell us straight away if it is damaged, stolen, bogged, involved in an incident, or stops working. Do not keep operating a machine that has broken down or been damaged.

11. Damage, loss, theft and breakdown

Under the Rental Agreement you are responsible for loss of or damage to the equipment during your hire, however it happens, with fair wear and tear excepted. That includes theft, vandalism, water damage, damage while towing, and damage caused by someone else you allowed to use it.

If the equipment breaks down through no fault of yours, stop using it and call us. We will repair or replace it, or refund the hire fee for the part of the period you could not use it, whichever is reasonable in the circumstances. Do not arrange your own repairs.

Insurance requirements are set out in the Rental Agreement. Check them before you book, particularly if you are hiring for a commercial site, and talk to us if what is required does not match your cover.

12. Changes, cancellations and refunds

Talk to us as early as you can if your dates move. We will do what we can to shift your booking, subject to availability.

Cancellation and refund entitlements are set out in our Refund and Bond Policy, which forms part of these terms. Nothing in that policy limits the rights you have under the Australian Consumer Law.

13. Website content and intellectual property

Everything on this website, including the text, photographs, machine listings, logos, layout and the Flat Out Digger Hire name and branding, is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by Australian and international intellectual property law.

You may use this website to browse and to book. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, scrape, resell or adapt any part of it for your own commercial purposes without our written permission. Shopify's name, logo and branding belong to Shopify. Other names and logos belong to their respective owners.

14. Reviews and feedback

If you send us a review, photo, idea, suggestion or other feedback, you give us permission to use, reproduce and publish it, including in our marketing, without payment to you. You confirm the content is yours to give, is accurate, is not misleading, and does not infringe anyone else's rights. We are not obliged to publish, keep or reply to feedback, and we can remove anything we consider unlawful, offensive or misleading.

15. Third party tools and links

This website may include tools, embedded features or links provided by third parties, including payment providers, booking and messaging tools and mapping. We do not control them, we provide access to them as they are, and we are not responsible for their content, accuracy or availability. If you leave our website through a link, the other site's terms and privacy policy apply, not ours.

16. Our relationship with Shopify

Flat Out Digger Hire is powered by Shopify, which enables us to provide this website and store to you. Any hire you book here is a contract directly between you and Flat Out Digger & Equipment Hire Pty Ltd. Shopify is not responsible for any aspect of that hire, including any injury, damage or loss connected with the equipment. To the extent permitted by law, you release Shopify and its affiliates from claims arising out of your dealings with us.

17. Privacy

Personal information we collect through this website is handled in line with our Privacy Policy and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Because the store is hosted by Shopify, your information is also processed by Shopify and by service providers who may be located overseas. Our Privacy Policy sets out what we collect, why, and who we share it with.

18. Errors on the website

Occasionally something on this website will be wrong: a price, a rate, a machine specification, an availability window or a delivery zone. We reserve the right to correct errors and to change or cancel a booking that was made on incorrect information, including after you have paid, in which case we will refund you. We will always tell you before we act on this.

19. Acceptable use

You may use this website only for lawful purposes. You must not use it to break any law, infringe anyone's rights, harass or abuse our staff or other customers, transmit false or misleading information, send spam or unsolicited advertising, impersonate anyone, upload malicious code, collect other people's personal information, scrape or extract data by automated means, or interfere with the security of the site. We may suspend or close your account, without notice, if you do.

20. Automated agents

If you use, deploy or allow software that acts autonomously or semi autonomously on your behalf ("an Agent") to access this website, the Agent must identify itself as an Agent in the user agent string of every request, must not disguise itself as a human, must not mimic human interaction patterns or work around CAPTCHAs and similar measures, must answer truthfully if asked whether it is automated, and must not circumvent any measure we use to control automated access. We may block or limit Agent access by technical means.

21. Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law

Our services and equipment come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. Nothing in these terms, the Rental Agreement or any of our policies excludes, restricts or modifies any right, guarantee, warranty or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law where doing so is not permitted.

Among other things, that means our services must be supplied with due care and skill, equipment must be of acceptable quality and reasonably fit for the purpose we describe, and you may be entitled to a repair, replacement or refund, and to compensation for reasonably foreseeable loss or damage, if we fail to meet those guarantees.

22. Limitation of our liability

Subject to section 21, and to the fullest extent the law allows:

• Where we fail to meet a consumer guarantee and the law permits us to limit our liability, our liability is limited, at our option, to resupplying the equipment or service, paying the cost of resupply, or refunding the hire fee paid for the affected part of the hire.
• We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of contract, standing time, delay costs, or loss of data, arising out of your use of this website or your hire.
• Information on this website is general information only. Machine specifications, dimensions, capabilities and images are indicative, and product photographs may differ from the individual machine you receive. If a specific dimension or capacity matters for your job, confirm it with us before you book.

Nothing in this section attempts to exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

23. Your indemnity to us

To the extent permitted by law, you indemnify us against loss, damage, liability, claims and reasonable legal costs we incur arising from your breach of these terms or the Rental Agreement, your use or operation of the equipment, your breach of any law, or the acts or omissions of anyone you allow to use the equipment. This does not apply to the extent the loss was caused by us.

24. Suspending or ending your access

We may suspend or end your access to this website, or any part of it, at our discretion and without notice. If we do, you remain liable for any amount owing up to that point, and any confirmed hire already underway continues to be governed by the Rental Agreement.

Sections dealing with intellectual property, feedback, privacy, liability, indemnity and governing law survive the end of your access.

25. General

If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, that part is severed and the rest continues to apply. If we do not enforce a right immediately, we do not lose it. These terms, together with the Rental Agreement and the policies referred to in them, are the entire agreement between us about your use of this website and supersede any earlier version. You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our written consent. We may transfer ours without notice to you.

26. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. You and we submit to the non exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Queensland and the courts able to hear appeals from them.

27. Changes to these terms

The current version of these terms is always on this page. We may update them at any time by posting the updated version here, and the date at the top will change. If a change is material, we will take reasonable steps to notify you. Continuing to use the website after a change means you accept the updated terms. The terms that apply to a confirmed booking are the ones in force when you booked.

28. Contact us