We are committed to protecting your personal data and being open about how it is used. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it and how you can exercise your rights under UK data protection law.
Who we are
Express Travel Kent is the data controller for personal information collected through this website, our telephone and email bookings and our online booking system. We provide pre-booked journeys in licensed hackney carriage and private hire vehicles throughout Kent, United Kingdom.
We are committed to complying with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
If you have any questions about this policy or the data we hold about you, you can contact us directly:
- Telephone: 01843 247247
- Email: booking@expresstravelkent.co.uk
- Operating area: Kent, United Kingdom
Data we collect
We collect personal information only where it is needed to provide our services, carry out a booking or respond to your enquiries. We do not collect sensitive personal data (such as health records, biometric data or financial credentials) through this website.
The types of data we may collect are:
- Booking and journey data: full name, contact telephone number, email address, pickup and drop-off address or location, journey date and time, flight number (for airport collections), number of passengers, luggage requirements and any special requirements or instructions.
- Contact and enquiry data: the name and contact details you give us by telephone or by email, and the content of your messages.
- Technical data recorded in standard server logs: IP address, browser type, device type and operating system, the pages requested and the referring website (if any).
How we use your data
We use personal information only for the purposes for which it was provided. We do not use your personal data for unsolicited marketing unless you have explicitly agreed to it, and we will never sell, rent or trade your personal data to any third party for commercial purposes.
Specifically, we use your data to:
- Process and confirm your booking
- Allocate a driver and vehicle to your journey
- Contact you about your booking, including confirmation and driver details
- Monitor flight arrival times for airport collections
- Comply with our legal and licensing obligations as a private hire operator
- Respond to enquiries or complaints
- Improve the reliability and quality of our service
Online booking system
Our online booking form is provided by Dever Software Ltd (dispatch.deversoftware.com) and is embedded on the home page and the booking page of this website. When you submit a booking through it, your booking data is processed by Dever Software's dispatch platform on our behalf.
Dever Software acts as a data processor under our instructions and is contractually required to handle your personal data in line with data protection law. Data submitted through the booking form is stored and managed within their dispatch system.
We encourage you to read Dever Software's own privacy notice for full details of how they handle data. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party platforms beyond our instructions to them as processors.
Payment data
Express Travel Kent mainly takes payment at the time of the journey or afterwards, by cash or by bank transfer arranged with the driver or with us. We do not currently process card payments through this website, and we do not collect, transmit or store payment card details through any page on this site.
If we start taking card payments online, this policy will be updated to name the payment processor, its security standards (such as PCI DSS compliance) and the data involved.
Data retention
We keep personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law. After the relevant period, data is securely deleted or anonymised.
Our general retention periods are:
- Booking records: kept for at least 6 years to meet HMRC and accounting obligations.
- Driver journey logs: kept in line with private hire licensing requirements.
- Contact and enquiry data: kept for up to 12 months from the date of your last interaction with us.
- Technical log data: normally kept for no more than 90 days.
Your rights
To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details under "Contact and data requests" below. We will respond within one month. In most cases there is no charge for exercising your rights.
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.
Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights over your personal data:
- Right of access: you can ask for 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 personal data, subject to our legal obligations.
- Right to restriction: you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
- Right to data portability: you can ask for your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Right to object: you can object to certain types of processing, including any direct marketing.
- Rights related to automated decision-making: you have the right not to be subject to solely automated decisions that significantly affect you.
Lawful basis for processing
We process your personal data under one or more of the following lawful bases set out in Article 6 of the UK GDPR:
- Contract: processing is necessary to carry out a booking or service agreement with you.
- Legal obligation: processing is required to meet our legal responsibilities as a licensed private hire operator.
- Legitimate interests: we may process data for operational purposes where these do not override your rights, such as improving the quality of our service and keeping accurate journey records.
- Consent: where we send you any optional communications or use non-essential cookies, we will ask for your explicit consent, and you can withdraw it at any time.
Security
We take the security of your personal data seriously and use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect it against unauthorised access, disclosure, loss or destruction. No method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure, but we take all reasonable steps to protect your information. If a data breach affects your rights and freedoms, we will tell you and the ICO as the law requires.
Our measures include:
- Secure HTTPS connections on every page of this website
- Access to personal data limited to staff and contractors with a legitimate need
- Data held by Dever Software, our booking system provider, is secured within their infrastructure in line with their own data protection commitments
- Prompt review of, and response to, any suspected data breach in line with ICO guidance
Contact and data requests
To ask a question about this Privacy Policy, exercise your data rights, or ask us to correct or delete your personal data, contact us using the details below. We will acknowledge your request promptly and give a full response within one month. If your request is complex, we may extend this by a further two months and will tell you if we do.
We may update this policy at any time. Material changes will be shown on this page with an updated revision date, so please check it from time to time.
Contact details:
- Email: booking@expresstravelkent.co.uk
- Telephone: 01843 247247
- Subject line: Data Privacy Request