Privacy Policy - Stratford Man And Van

Effective date: This Privacy Policy applies to all Stratford Man And Van customers in the Stratford area and to anyone who contacts us, requests a quote, books a service, or otherwise uses our moving and van services.

We are committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your personal information in a way that complies with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who we are

Stratford Man And Van provides man and van, removals, delivery, collection, and related moving services. In this policy, “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to Stratford Man And Van. For the purposes of data protection law, we are the data controller for the personal data we process about you.

2. Personal data we collect

We only collect personal data that is necessary for us to provide our services, manage bookings, comply with legal obligations, and improve our operations. The types of personal data we may collect include:

Identity data: your name and, where relevant, title.
Contact data: telephone number, email address, and address details.
Booking and service data: details of your move, collection, delivery, dates, preferred times, property access information, and items to be moved.
Payment data: transaction details and payment confirmation information. We do not intentionally store full payment card details where this is handled securely by a payment provider.
Communication data: messages, emails, call notes, and records of enquiries or complaints.
Usage and technical data: limited information about how you interact with our online forms or digital services, if applicable.
Special circumstances data: information you choose to provide that may be relevant to your move, such as access needs or fragile items. We only use this where necessary and with appropriate safeguards.

We do not seek to collect unnecessary sensitive data. Please avoid sharing personal information that is not needed for your booking or service unless it is relevant and necessary.

3. How we collect your data

We may collect personal data directly from you when you:

request a quote or make an enquiry;
book a service;
communicate with us by phone, email, message, or in person;
provide instructions, service preferences, or feedback;
make a payment or request an invoice;
report a problem, complaint, or claim.

We may also receive data from third parties where necessary to deliver the service, such as:

payment processors;
subcontracted service providers working on our behalf;
referral partners or booking platforms, where applicable;
publicly available sources where needed for fraud prevention or to verify contact details.

4. Why we use your personal data

We use personal data only for lawful and legitimate purposes connected to our business. These purposes may include:

responding to your enquiries and providing quotes;
managing bookings, scheduling services, and carrying out moves;
communicating with you about service changes, access issues, or completion details;
processing payments, issuing receipts, and handling refunds where needed;
maintaining business records and service history;
resolving disputes, complaints, and service claims;
meeting legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations;
protecting our business, staff, customers, and property;
improving our services, planning routes, and managing operations efficiently.

5. Lawful basis for processing

Under data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on one or more of the following:

Contract

We process your personal data where it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes providing quotes at your request, confirming bookings, managing the moving service, and taking payment.

Legal obligation

We may process data where needed to comply with legal obligations, such as tax, accounting, insurance, record-keeping, or responding to lawful requests from authorities.

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 can include service administration, business improvement, fraud prevention, customer support, and defending legal claims.

Consent

In limited cases, we may rely on your consent, for example where optional marketing or specific additional processing is involved. If we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw it at any time.

6. How we use and protect your data

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures are designed to be proportionate to the nature of the data we process.

Access to personal data is restricted to staff or trusted service providers who need it to perform their role. We expect anyone acting on our behalf to handle data in a secure and lawful manner.

Important: while we take reasonable steps to protect your information, no system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If we become aware of a data breach affecting your rights and freedoms, we will respond in accordance with applicable law.

7. Data retention

We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, and to meet legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The retention period may vary depending on the type of data and the reason it is held.

Booking and service records: retained for a reasonable period after the service is completed to manage queries, disputes, and operational records.
Financial and tax records: retained for the period required by law.
Correspondence and complaint records: retained long enough to handle the matter and protect our legal position.
Consent-based data: retained until consent is withdrawn or the purpose ends.

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

8. Processors and sharing of data

We may share your personal data with trusted processors and other third parties only where necessary for the purposes described in this policy. These may include:

Payment processors: to process payments securely.
IT and hosting providers: to store data, manage systems, or support communications.
Administrative service providers: to help with scheduling, bookkeeping, invoicing, or record management.
Subcontractors or moving partners: where needed to complete the service you requested.
Professional advisers: such as accountants, insurers, or legal advisers.
Public authorities: where disclosure is required by law or necessary to protect rights, safety, or property.

Where we use a processor, we ensure there is an appropriate data processing arrangement in place and that the processor only acts on our instructions. We do not sell your personal data.

9. International transfers

If any of our processors store or access data outside the UK, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law.

10. Your rights

You have a number of rights under data protection law. These rights are not absolute and may be subject to legal conditions or exemptions. Your rights 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 information.
Right to erasure: you can ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
Right to restrict processing: you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain situations.
Right to object: you can object to processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
Right to data portability: you can request your data in a structured, commonly used format where applicable.
Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office if you believe your data protection rights have been breached. We encourage you to raise any concerns with us first so we can try to resolve them promptly.

11. Automated decision-making

We do not usually rely on fully automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects about you. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy where required.

12. Children’s data

Our services are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children unless it is incidental to a service arrangement and provided by an adult customer with appropriate authority. If we discover that we have collected such data unlawfully, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, legal obligations, or data handling practices. Any revised version will apply from the date it is published or otherwise communicated. We encourage customers in the Stratford area to review this policy periodically.

14. Summary of our commitments

We collect only the data needed to provide Stratford Man And Van services.
We process data on a valid lawful basis under UK GDPR.
We keep data only as long as necessary.
We use processors carefully and share data only when required.
We respect your rights and handle your information securely and fairly.

By using Stratford Man And Van services in the Stratford area, you acknowledge that your personal data will be handled in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy is intended to provide a clear and lawful explanation of how Stratford Man And Van handles personal data for all customers in the area.