Privacy Policy - Man With Van Upperclapton

This Privacy Policy explains how Man With Van Upperclapton collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data when providing removal, transportation, and van hire related services. It applies to all Man With Van Upperclapton customers in the area, including prospective customers, existing customers, and anyone who contacts us regarding a booking, quotation, or service enquiry.

We are committed to handling personal data in a lawful, fair, and transparent manner in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This policy is designed to help you understand what information we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over your personal data.

1. Data We Collect

We collect only the personal data that is necessary to provide our services, manage our business, and comply with our legal obligations. The type of information collected may include:

Identity details: name, title, and, where relevant, business name.
Contact details: address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details: moving date, collection and delivery addresses, property access information, inventory details, parking requirements, and service preferences.
Payment and billing information: payment records, invoicing details, and transaction references.
Communication records: emails, messages, booking notes, customer service correspondence, and complaint records.
Technical information: limited data such as browser type, device type, and interaction details if you submit an enquiry through digital systems.
Special category data: we do not intentionally collect special category data unless you choose to provide it. If you do, we will only process it where a lawful basis exists and where it is necessary for a specific purpose.

We may receive data directly from you, from a person authorised to act on your behalf, or from third parties involved in the service delivery process, such as payment providers or subcontracted processors.

2. How We Use Your Data

Your personal data is used only for legitimate business and service-related purposes. These purposes may include:

providing quotations and managing bookings;
planning and delivering removals, transport, and associated services;
processing payments and issuing invoices;
communicating about service arrangements, changes, or disruptions;
handling complaints, disputes, and service follow-up;
maintaining business records and accounting documentation;
meeting legal, tax, insurance, and regulatory obligations;
improving our service quality, internal operations, and customer experience;
preventing fraud, misuse, or unauthorised access;
complying with lawful requests from authorities where required.

We will not use your personal data for purposes that are incompatible with the reason it was collected, unless we have a valid lawful basis to do so.

3. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for each type of processing activity. Depending on the situation, we rely on the following lawful bases:

Contract

We process personal data when it is necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, or to perform a contract with you. This includes preparing quotations, confirming bookings, arranging service dates, completing removals, and managing payment matters.

Legitimate Interests

We may process personal data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided that your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. Examples include record keeping, service improvement, fraud prevention, customer support, and internal administration.

Legal Obligation

We may be required to process and retain certain information to comply with legal obligations, such as tax law, accounting rules, insurance requirements, and regulatory requests.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, particularly where you voluntarily provide information for a specific optional purpose. Where consent is used, you have the right to withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

Vital Interests and Public Task

These lawful bases are unlikely to apply in most cases, but if an emergency or lawful public authority requirement arises, personal data may be processed where necessary.

4. How We Share Personal Data

We may share personal data with selected third parties only where necessary for service delivery, legal compliance, or business operations. These third parties may act as processors or independent controllers depending on the circumstances.

Payment providers: to process card or electronic payments securely.
Accountants and professional advisers: for financial administration, tax, and compliance support.
IT and cloud service providers: for secure storage, messaging, and business systems.
Insurance providers and claims handlers: where required for service-related claims or risk management.
Subcontracted service providers: where additional support is needed to complete a booking.
Authorities or regulators: when disclosure is required by law or to protect legal rights.

We require processors to handle personal data securely, use it only on our instructions, and take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it. We do not sell your personal data.

5. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Retention periods depend on the type of data and the context in which it was collected.

Booking and service records: retained for a reasonable period after completion of service for customer support, dispute resolution, and audit purposes.
Financial and invoicing records: retained for the period required by tax and accounting law.
Communication records: retained as needed to manage enquiries, complaints, and follow-up issues.
Claims-related records: retained for the duration necessary to handle the claim and any related limitation periods.

When personal data is no longer required, we will delete it securely or anonymise it so it can no longer identify you.

6. International Transfers

Where personal data is stored or processed using services located outside the United Kingdom, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information. Such safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or equivalent lawful transfer mechanisms. We only use services that provide a suitable level of data protection.

7. Data Security

We take the security of personal data seriously and use appropriate measures to prevent loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, and restricted handling of sensitive records. While no system can be guaranteed completely secure, we aim to use reasonable and proportionate security controls to protect your information.

8. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply in different circumstances and may be subject to legal limitations. They include:

Right of access: you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to erasure: you can ask us to delete your data in certain situations.
Right to restriction: you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain cases.
Right to data portability: you may request your data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where relevant.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, we will respond in line with legal requirements and may need to verify your identity before acting on your request.

9. Automated Decision-Making

We do not use personal data for fully automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

10. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults and business customers arranging removals or transport services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary and provided by an adult customer in connection with service arrangements. If we become aware that we have collected such data without a valid reason, we will take steps to delete it promptly.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically so they remain informed about how their personal data is handled.

12. Scope of This Policy

This policy applies to all customers of Man With Van Upperclapton in the area, including anyone receiving quotations, booking a service, or otherwise engaging with us in connection with removals or transport services. By using our services, you acknowledge that your personal data may be processed as described in this policy.

Summary of our commitment: we collect only necessary data, use it for lawful service and business purposes, retain it for no longer than required, share it only with trusted processors or where legally necessary, and respect your data protection rights.