Terms of Service

AXE USA is a website operated by Leo Alatus LLC ("Leo Alatus LLC", "we", "us"). It is a marketplace and directory for the forestry industry. It connects landowners, timber companies, logging crews, equipment sellers and renters, repair shops, and service providers so they can find each other and deal with each other directly.

By using AXE USA - browsing it, creating an account, posting a listing, or contacting another user through it - you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site.

AXE USA is a brand and website. The company behind it, and the party to this agreement, is Leo Alatus LLC.

We are not a party to any agreement, transaction, contract, or payment between users. When a landowner hires a logging crew, a company buys a machine, a shop takes a repair job, or a crew signs a subcontract, that deal is between those people. We are not in it.

Leo Alatus LLC is not your:

• agent or broker,
• employer, contractor, or subcontractor,
• insurer, surety, or guarantor,
• lender or financing provider,
• safety supervisor or compliance officer.

We do not negotiate terms, set prices, guarantee performance, guarantee payment, hold funds in escrow, inspect work, or supervise anyone on a job site. We do not promise that a job will be completed, that a bid will be honoured, that an invoice will be paid, or that anyone you meet here is worth doing business with.

Your contracts are yours. So are your insurance, your licensing, your permits, your safety practices, your tax and payroll obligations, and your compliance with every law that applies to your work. Put your deals in writing with the other party. We are not that writing, and we will not be standing behind it.

As a rule, we do not verify, review, monitor, or confirm anything a user tells us. Business licences, insurance certificates, workers' compensation coverage, professional certifications, uploaded documents, coverage amounts, policy numbers, expiry dates, crew capabilities, equipment lists, and every other detail shown on this site are entered and certified by the businesses themselves.

We do not check them - not once, not on a schedule, not for a sample of records, and not for the ones that look wrong. Nothing on this site is a statement by us that a business is licensed, insured, bonded, qualified, competent, solvent, or safe. A record appearing here means one thing only: a business typed it in and said it was true.

There are two exceptions, and both are narrow. The first: documents confirmed for Contract Network bidding. Before a logging crew may bid on subcontract work, and before a timber company may post subcontract work, we require a fixed set of documents and we record what we looked at and when. Where we have done that, the business's page carries a panel headed "Documents confirmed by AXE USA" listing each document, who issued it, and the date. The requirement applies to every business in that group, without exception and without a sample: a business that has not supplied the documents does not bid.

That panel is a statement about a document on a date. It means we looked at the document, or at the public register named on it, and that it existed and had not expired on the date shown. It isnot a statement about the business, the people who work there, their competence, their safety record, their equipment, their solvency, or their honesty. It is not an endorsement, a recommendation, a certification, a rating, or a guarantee, and it is not a promise that the business will perform. We do not inspect work, visit job sites, contact references, or investigate complaints as part of it, and confirming one business's documents says nothing whatsoever about any other business, listing, or record on this site.

Documents expire, and coverage is cancelled without notice. A confirmation is accurate as of its date and no later. We remove a line from the panel once a recorded expiry date passes, but we do not learn about a mid-term cancellation, a missed premium, a revoked licence, a change of ownership, or a claim against a policy, and nothing here should be read as us monitoring any of that. A confirmed document does not mean coverage exists today.

A confirmation is not for sale and cannot be bought from us. Membership fees buy placement, access to bidding, and the routing of enquiries. Confirming these documents is a condition we impose before granting that access - a rule of entry, not a service you purchase. We may decline to confirm a document, decline an application, or withdraw a confirmation at any time and for any reason, and we are under no obligation to give reasons or to reconsider.

If we make a mistake in a confirmation - we misread a document, record the wrong date, or are shown a forgery - that mistake does not make us a party to your transaction, your guarantor, or your insurer, and it does not transfer your own obligation to check. Our responsibility for any confirmation, and for any reliance you place on one, is limited as set out in Limitation of liability below.

The second exception: lending and real-estate applications

We read every lending and real-estate application before that listing goes live. Those are the only two trades on this site where a person here looks at an application before it is published. Like the first exception, it is a rule rather than a habit: it applies to every applicant in those two trades, not to a sample, and not to the ones that look wrong.

AXE USA reads every lender and real-estate application before it goes live. That review is a check for obvious problems - it is not a background check, a license verification, or a credit or criminal screening, and it is not an endorsement. Verify any license, registration or NMLS number directly with the issuing authority before you do business.

That review looks for obvious problems in what was submitted - a business that does not appear to exist, a claim that contradicts itself, a licence number in the wrong shape. It is not an investigation, it does not make Leo Alatus LLC responsible for that member's conduct, and it creates no duty to review anything else on this site. We may decline an application, or remove a listing we previously published, at any time and without giving reasons.

Before you engage anyone, and before any work starts, confirm their coverage and licensing yourself. Call the insurance carrier at a number you look up independently and confirm the policy is in force today. Confirm the licence with the issuing authority. Ask to be named as an additional insured and have the certificate sent to you by the carrier directly. A date or a document on this site is not proof that coverage still exists.

Where staff have removed a record because somebody complained about it, that removal is an enforcement action, not a finding. It does not mean we have reviewed any other record.

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. By registering you confirm that you are, and that you have authority to act for any business you register.

• Give accurate, current, and complete information, and keep it up to date.
• Keep one account per business. Duplicate or throwaway accounts created to inflate presence, evade a removal, or post anonymously are not permitted.
• Keep your password and any recovery codes confidential. You are responsible for everything done under your account, whether or not you did it.
• Tell us at [email protected] immediately if you believe your account has been compromised.

You keep ownership of everything you post - listings, profiles, crew records, job posts, bids, messages, photos, and documents.

You grant Leo Alatus LLC a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, adapt for display, and publish your content for the purpose of operating and promoting the platform, including showing it to the users and recipients you direct it to. That licence lasts as long as your content is on the site, and it survives afterwards only to the extent needed for backups and for the records described in our Privacy Policy.

You promise that:

• you have the right to post everything you post,
• it does not infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, privacy, or other rights,
• documents you upload are genuine and unaltered, and are the documents they appear to be.

If you think content on this site infringes your rights, write to [email protected] with enough detail to identify it.

When you certify information - that a licence is valid, that a policy is in force, that a certification is genuine, that a document is authentic - that certification is a material representation you are making to Leo Alatus LLC and to every user who sees it.

We record what you certified and when. If you certify something false, or leave a certification standing after it stops being true:

• it is grounds for immediate and permanent removal of the record, and of your account, without notice;
• you may be liable to Leo Alatus LLC for the harm it causes us; and
• you may be liable to any user who relied on it, including for their losses.

Keep your certifications current. If a policy lapses, a licence expires, or coverage changes, update or withdraw the record. Do not leave a stale record on the site for someone else to rely on.

Do not do any of the following on or through AXE USA:

• post false, misleading, or fraudulent listings, profiles, or bids;
• upload forged, altered, expired-but-presented-as-current, or otherwise deceptive documents;
• impersonate another person or business, or use another business's licence, insurance, or certification as if it were yours;
• scrape, crawl, harvest, or bulk-collect listings, profiles, or contact details, by any means;
• circumvent access controls, paywalls, sign-in requirements, or the expiry and revocation of a share link, or share a link you were given with anyone it was not meant for;
• send spam, unsolicited bulk messages, or advertising unrelated to a listing;
• post content unrelated to the business this site is for - timber, land, forestry, and equipment. That includes material whose purpose is to advance a political, ideological, religious, or activist cause rather than to do forestry business, recruiting for unrelated ventures, and promotion of unrelated products or services. We do not weigh the merits of a viewpoint; we ask only whether the content is about the business this site is for;
• harass, threaten, defame, or discriminate against anyone;
• use the site for unlawful timber, land, or equipment transactions, including trafficking in illegally harvested timber or misrepresenting title or boundaries;
• reverse engineer, decompile, probe, or interfere with the site, its security, or its infrastructure;
• access the site with bots, scripts, or automated tools without our written permission.

AXE USA exists so independent businesses can find each other and do work together. That only holds if members deal with each other in good faith. The following is not advice about how to run your business - it is a condition of holding an account here.

We may pause, suspend, or remove an account for unethical treatment of another member. That includes:

• misrepresenting the quality or scope of work performed;
• misrepresenting licensing or insurance, including presenting coverage that has lapsed, been cancelled, or does not cover the work;
• misrepresenting availability - taking on work, crews, or dates you know you cannot cover;
• non-payment for work that was completed as agreed;
• retaliation against a member for raising a concern in good faith, including withdrawing work, withholding payment, or discouraging others from dealing with them because of a report.

How to report it. A member with a live or completed engagement may file a conduct report from that engagement on their dashboard. The report is tied to the engagement it came from, names the party it is about, and carries your certification that what you have said is true and accurate. A false or bad-faith report is itself a breach of this section and of section 6.

Reporting is limited to members with an engagement involving the other party. We do not take conduct reports from accounts with no dealing at stake, and we do not act as a general complaints board about businesses you have not worked with.

What happens next is our decision, not a process you are owed. We read reports. We may act on one, act on our own initiative, or do nothing, at our sole discretion under section 9. Nothing here makes us an investigator, an arbitrator, or a judge of a dispute between two businesses, and filing a report does not pause, settle, or otherwise affect the contract between you and the other party. Money owed between members is a matter between them and, if it comes to it, the courts.

We may remove any content and suspend or terminate any account at any time, at our sole discretion, with or without notice and with or without cause. That includes acting on a report from another user, a business, an insurer, or an authority.

We may also pause an account's ability to publish - for a set period or until we lift it - while leaving the account able to sign in, read the site, and manage its membership. A pause is not a finding about you or your business, and we are not required to explain it beyond the reason we state.

If we end a paid membership without cause, we refund the unused portion of the current term. If we end it for cause - including the conduct listed in section 7 or a false certification under section 6 - no refund is due, and fees already paid are not returned.

We are under no obligation to monitor the site. We do not pre-screen listings, profiles, documents, or messages, and we do not promise to look at anything. Reserving the right to act is not a promise to act, and nothing in these terms creates a duty on our part to review, investigate, moderate, or remove anything. If we act in one case, that does not commit us to act in another.

You may close your account at any time by writing to [email protected]. Sections that by their nature should survive termination - content licence for material already published, certifications you made, liability limits, indemnification, and dispute resolution - survive it.

Some parts of AXE USA are free and some are or may become paid. Where a feature carries a fee, the price, billing period, renewal behaviour, and cancellation terms are the ones presented to you at the time of purchase, and those terms form part of this agreement.

Listing a crew and being found in search are free at launch. Pricing may change; if a currently free feature becomes paid, we will say so before charging you for it.

Payments are handled by our payment processor. We do not store your full card details. Unless the purchase terms say otherwise, fees already incurred are not refundable, and cancelling stops future renewals rather than reversing the current period.

No fee, membership, subscription, or paid placement is a warranty about any user, listing, or transaction. Paying us buys access to features. It does not buy vetting, and it does not make us responsible for anyone you meet here.

Where a membership requires us to confirm documents before you may bid or post work, that confirmation is a condition of entry and not part of what your fee purchases. Paying does not entitle you to a confirmation, and a membership that lapses, is declined, or is paused because a document expired does not entitle you to a refund of fees already incurred. See What we check, and what we do not.

The site links to and displays content from third parties - other websites, equipment dealers, lenders and financing offers, insurance providers, industry associations, and service companies.

A link, a listing, or a mention is not an endorsement. We do not control third parties and we are not responsible for their sites, their content, their offers, their financing or insurance terms, their pricing, their privacy practices, or their conduct. Read their terms and deal with them on your own judgement.

The AXE USA name, logo, look and feel, text, graphics, software, and the compilation and arrangement of listings on this site belong to Leo Alatus LLC or its licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws.

We grant you a limited, revocable, non-transferable licence to use the site for your own personal or internal business purposes. You may not copy, republish, resell, or redistribute the site or the compilation of listings, build a competing directory or database from it, or use our name or logo without written permission.

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Leo Alatus LLC and its owners, officers, employees, and agents from and against any claim, demand, loss, liability, damage, fine, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:

• content you post or documents you upload;
• certifications or representations you make on the site;
• your transactions, contracts, bids, negotiations, and payments with other users;
• work you perform or arrange, including injury, death, or damage connected to it;
• your breach of these terms or of any law, licence, or regulation that applies to you.

Logging, timber harvesting, land clearing, hauling, mulching, site prep, and equipment repair are inherently dangerous activities. People are seriously injured and killed doing this work.

Leo Alatus LLC has no control over and no presence at any job site. We do not select crews, inspect equipment, set safety practices, run training, check qualifications, or supervise work. We do not know whether a crew is competent, whether a machine is safe, or whether anyone on site is insured.

You assume all risk arising from work arranged, advertised, sought, or found through AXE USA, and you are responsible for your own safety programme, your own supervision, and your own compliance with OSHA and every other applicable requirement.

Step one: talk to us first

Before starting arbitration or any other proceeding, send a description of the dispute and the resolution you want to [email protected]. Both sides agree to try to resolve it informally for 30 days from that notice. Most problems end here.

Step two: binding individual arbitration

If it is not resolved in those 30 days, you and Leo Alatus LLC agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or your use of AXE USA will be settled by binding arbitration, administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, before a single arbitrator, seated in or near Birmingham, Alabama. The arbitrator's award may be entered as a judgment in any court with jurisdiction.

Individual claims only

Claims must be brought individually. You and Leo Alatus LLC each waive any right to a jury trial and any right to bring or participate in a class, collective, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any form of class proceeding. Read that twice: it means you give up the right to sue us in court before a jury, and the right to join with others in one case.

Small claims carve-out

Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies there, and either of us may seek injunctive relief in court to stop infringement or misuse of intellectual property.

If the class-action waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim proceeds in court and the rest of this section still applies to everything else.

These terms and any dispute under them are governed by the laws of the State of Alabama, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.

For any matter not subject to arbitration, you and Leo Alatus LLC consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts serving Jefferson County, Alabama, and waive any objection to that venue.

We may update these terms as the platform changes. When we do, we post the updated version here and change the effective date at the top. Material changes are reflected in that date and in the version number.

Your continued use of AXE USA after an update is your acceptance of the updated terms. If you do not accept them, stop using the site and close your account.

Write to us at [email protected]. That address reaches Leo Alatus LLC for every purpose in these terms: questions, notices, legal service requests, intellectual-property complaints, account closure, and privacy requests.

If you want to report a listing, a document, or a user - for example, a certificate of insurance you believe was cancelled - send it to that address with enough detail to identify the record. Reports are read and acted on at our discretion. We do not promise to investigate, to respond within any period, or to take any particular action, and nothing about a report creates a duty for us to review anything.

Severability. If any provision of these terms is held unenforceable, it is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest stays in force.

Entire agreement. These terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any purchase terms presented at checkout, are the entire agreement between you and Leo Alatus LLC about AXE USA, and replace any earlier understanding on that subject.

No waiver. If we do not enforce a provision, that is not a waiver of it. A waiver is effective only if we give it in writing.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these terms or your account without our written consent. We may assign them, including to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

Force majeure. Neither side is responsible for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including weather, fire, storm, labour disruption, utility or network failure, and government action.