Privacy Policy - Man With A Van Teddington

This Privacy Policy explains how Man With A Van Teddington collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal data. It applies to all Man With A Van Teddington customers in the area, including anyone who requests a quote, books a service, receives a delivery, or otherwise interacts with our moving and transport services. We are committed to handling personal information in a lawful, fair, transparent, and secure manner in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who We Are

For the purposes of data protection law, Man With A Van Teddington acts as the data controller for personal information collected in connection with our services. This means we decide why and how your personal data is used. We only collect data that is necessary for providing our services, managing our business, improving our operations, and meeting legal obligations.

2. Personal Data We Collect

We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Identity data such as your name and title.
Contact data such as your address, email address, and telephone number.
Service details such as moving dates, collection and delivery addresses, item descriptions, access details, and special instructions.
Payment data such as payment status, billing details, and transaction records.
Communication data such as messages, enquiries, complaints, and feedback.
Technical data such as limited information about how you use our online services, if applicable, including device or browser information.
Legal and compliance data such as records needed for insurance, tax, accounting, or dispute handling.

We may also receive personal data from third parties where necessary to deliver our services, for example from a person making a booking on your behalf, a property manager, a landlord, a business client, or another service provider involved in the move.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

To provide quotes and respond to enquiries.
To arrange and deliver moving or transport services.
To confirm bookings, schedule jobs, and manage customer requests.
To process payments and maintain accounting records.
To communicate about service updates, changes, delays, or issues.
To handle complaints, claims, and customer support matters.
To protect our business, staff, customers, and property.
To comply with legal, tax, regulatory, and insurance obligations.
To improve service quality, train staff, and analyse operational performance.

We only use your information for the purpose for which it was collected unless we reasonably need to use it for a compatible purpose and the law permits it.

4. Lawful Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis to process personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following:

Contract

We process personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotations, arranging bookings, moving items, sending invoices, and completing agreed services.

Legitimate interests

We may process data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include managing bookings efficiently, preventing fraud, responding to enquiries, improving services, and maintaining internal records. We always consider whether the processing is proportionate and necessary.

Legal obligation

We process data where needed to comply with the law, including accounting, taxation, insurance, and record-keeping requirements.

Consent

In limited situations, we may ask for your consent, for example where it is needed for certain optional communications or specific processing activities. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

5. Sharing Your Data with Processors

We may share personal data with trusted third parties who act as processors on our behalf. These processors are only allowed to use your data under our instructions and must keep it secure and confidential. Examples may include:

IT and software providers that support booking, communication, and record management.
Payment and invoicing service providers.
Accountants and bookkeeping services.
Storage, scheduling, or administration platforms.
Insurance providers, claims handlers, or legal advisers where required.
Subcontracted drivers or service partners involved in fulfilling a booking.

We may also disclose data where required by law, to respond to lawful requests from public authorities, to enforce agreements, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of our business, customers, staff, or others.

Where processors are used, we take appropriate contractual and organisational measures to ensure your information is handled in accordance with data protection law.

6. International Transfers

In some cases, a processor may store or access data outside the United Kingdom. If this happens, we will only transfer personal data where appropriate safeguards are in place to protect it. These safeguards may include adequacy regulations, standard contractual clauses, or other lawful transfer mechanisms recognised under UK data protection law.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting, tax, insurance, and reporting requirements. Retention periods may vary depending on the type of data and the reason it was collected.

As a general approach:

Enquiry and quotation records may be kept for a limited period to manage follow-up, disputes, or repeat bookings.
Booking and service records may be retained for as long as needed to complete the service and handle any related issues.
Financial and tax-related records may be kept for the period required by law.
Complaint, claim, and legal records may be retained longer where necessary to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

When data is no longer required, we will delete, anonymise, or securely archive it in accordance with our retention practices.

8. Data Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data from unauthorised access, accidental loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These measures may include access controls, secure storage, password protection, staff confidentiality obligations, and restricted access to records. While we work hard to safeguard information, no method of transmission or storage is completely risk-free.

9. Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal data. These rights may apply depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing.

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 – in some cases, you can ask us to delete your data.
Right to restriction – you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
Right to object – you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing, where applicable.
Right to data portability – you can request your data in a structured, commonly used format in certain situations.
Right to withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

We may need to verify your identity before responding to a rights request. We aim to respond within the time limits required by law.

10. Marketing Communications

We do not send marketing communications unless permitted by law or where you have given consent if required. If you receive optional promotional messages, you may object or withdraw consent at any time. Service-related communications, such as booking confirmations or job updates, are not marketing and may still be necessary for us to provide the service.

11. Automated Decision-Making

We do not use fully automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on customers. If this changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Policy and provide the relevant information required by law.

12. Children’s Data

Our services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is necessary in connection with a booking or service and is provided by a parent, guardian, or authorised adult. Where we become aware that we have collected data inappropriately, we will take steps to delete or correct it where required.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in legal requirements, business practices, or how we process personal data. Any updated version will apply from the date it is published. We encourage customers to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how their data is handled.

14. Summary of Our Commitments

Man With A Van Teddington is committed to respecting your privacy, using data only where we have a lawful basis, sharing it only with trusted processors where necessary, and keeping it for no longer than needed. We will continue to handle personal information responsibly and in accordance with applicable data protection law for all customers in the area.