Privacy Policy

Last updated 28 September 2026

How ShipSherpa collects, uses and protects personal data, and the terms on which it processes customer data.

These terms bind everyone who uses ShipSherpa, in any role.

Part 1

How ShipSherpa Handles Personal Data

1.1 Who We Are#

Ship Sherpa Limited is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. That means we decide why and how it is used. We are registered in England and Wales with company number 17131128, and our registered office is The Sharp Project, Gold 157, Thorp Road, Manchester, England, M40 5BJ.

For anything to do with your personal data, including the requests described in section 1.8, contact us at support@shipsherpa.co.uk. Put "Privacy" in the subject line and we will route it to the right person. We accept requests by any other channel too, including support chat and post, but email reaches us fastest.

1.2 Who This Policy Covers#

This policy applies to everyone whose data passes through ShipSherpa:

customers with an account, individual or business
guest customers, who book without creating a password
recipients, whose name, address and phone number are given to us by the person sending the parcel
drivers, during onboarding and while working
anyone who contacts our support team or fills in a quote enquiry

If you are a recipient, we hold your details because the sender gave them to us so we could deliver to you. You have the same rights over that data as anyone else, set out in section 1.8.

1.3 What We Collect#

Identity and contact. Name, email, phone number, and the password or Google sign-in you use.
Delivery. Collection and delivery addresses, recipient contact details, what you are sending, instructions, and the history of the job.
Location and proof.The driver's location while a job is active, timestamps, delivery photographs, and the codes used to confirm collection and delivery.
Payment. References held by our payment provider, amounts, refunds and receipts. We do not receive or store your full card number or security code.
Driver verification.Licence details, DBS and right-to-work documents, insurance documents, the vehicle's registration number and photographs of the vehicle, and a photograph of the driver's face taken during onboarding. We do not ask for the vehicle's registration certificate (V5C) or other proof of ownership. Section 1.5 explains how that photograph is used.
Business verification. Company details and the evidence submitted to support them, where a customer applies for a business account.
Security. IP address, device and session information, sign-in events, and records of actions taken on an account.
Support. Messages you send us and our replies.
Site usage. If you accept analytics cookies: the pages you visit, where you click and scroll, your device and browser, and recordings of how you use a page. Section 1.6 names who provides this.

We also receive information about drivers from the checks we carry out during onboarding: right-to-work checks with the Home Office, driving licence checks with the DVLA, VAT checks with HMRC, and the public MOT and tax records for the vehicle. We run these using the codes and details the driver gives us.

1.4 Why We Use It, and Our Legal Basis#

We need a lawful basis under UK data protection law for each thing we do with your data. These are ours.

What we use it for	Our legal basis
Pricing, booking, collecting and delivering, and supporting you while we do it	Performance of our contract with you
Delivering to a recipient whose details the sender gave us	Our legitimate interest in carrying out the delivery the sender asked for
Taking payment, refunds and chargebacks	Performance of our contract, and legal obligation for the records we must keep
Invoices, VAT and accounting records	Legal obligation
Live tracking and location history, for dispatch, safety, proof and disputes	Performance of our contract, and our legitimate interest in proving what happened to a parcel
Handling a driver application	Steps you ask us to take before we enter into a contract with you
Emailing you reminders to finish a driver application you have started	Our legitimate interest in helping you finish an application you chose to start
Planning where we need more drivers, using the postcode drivers give us	Our legitimate interest in having enough drivers in each area to carry out deliveries
Checking that drivers are entitled and insured to drive	Legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in the safety of customers and the public
Assessing a business account application	Our legitimate interest in managing commercial risk. This is our own check, not one the law requires of us
Preventing fraud, securing accounts, and keeping audit records	Our legitimate interest in protecting customers, drivers and the platform
Defending or bringing legal claims	Our legitimate interest in establishing, exercising or defending claims
Marketing emails and texts	Your consent, which you can withdraw at any time
Analytics, session recordings, advertising measurement and other optional cookies	Your consent, given through our cookie banner

Messages about a booking you have made are not marketing. We send those whatever your marketing preference, because you need them to receive your delivery. Turning off marketing never stops them.

Reminders about a driver application you have started but not finished are not marketing either. They are only about your application. We send one automatically each week while it is unfinished, and our team may also send one when something on it needs your attention. Every automatic reminder has a link to turn them off, and once you do we record that against your account and send you no more automatic reminders. They also stop when you submit your application for review, or when it is deleted under section 1.7.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether our reasons outweigh your rights, and you can ask us to explain that assessment.

1.5 Automated Processing and the Identity Photograph#

We do not make decisions about you by automated means alone where those decisions have a legal or similarly significant effect. Applications, rejections, account suspensions and privacy requests are all decided by a person.

Software supports those people rather than replacing them. Our pricing engine works out quotes and whether we can serve a route, and when a reviewer writes feedback on a driver application we use a Google service to help put it into plainer English. The reviewer decides the outcome and writes the reason; nothing is added to it.

During driver onboarding we ask for a photograph of the driver's face. A member of our team compares it with the photograph on their identity document. That comparison is the check, so the photograph is kept with the rest of the driver's verification records, for the period in section 1.7, as evidence that it was carried out.

1.6 Who We Share It With#

We do not sell personal data. We share it only where it is needed to run the service or where the law requires it.

The driver on your job receives the addresses and the contact details needed to collect and deliver, and nothing more.
The fleet business that driver works for, where the job is carried out by a fleet partner rather than a driver working directly with us. They receive the same details, only to allocate and complete the job, and they are contractually bound to handle them on our instructions.
Fresh Generation UK Limited, trading as Digital Next, a separate company that shares some of our directors, provides our technology and marketing services. It administers our hosting, analytics and advertising accounts, and is told when a driver applies so that it can help with the application. It acts only on our instructions and does not use your data for its own purposes.
Stripe processes payments and holds the card details we never see. For drivers, Stripe also receives the name, date of birth, home address, email and phone number it needs to verify them and pay them.
Google Cloud hosts the service and stores uploaded documents and delivery photographs. Google also provides sign-in, address lookup, route distances and the AI service described in section 1.5.
Twilio sends our text messages and one-time codes.
SendGrid sends our email.
CookieYes provides our cookie banner and keeps a record of the choice you make in it.
Analytics providers, where you have accepted analytics cookies. Google Analytics tells us which pages are used. Microsoft Clarity shows us how they are used, as recordings of visits and heatmaps. It does not record what you type into forms, and we mark the parts of our pages that show personal details, such as names, addresses and dates of birth, so that it does not record those either. It does not run on the pages our staff use. Microsoft decides how it runs Clarity and is responsible for the data it holds.
Advertising providers, currently Meta and Microsoft, where you have accepted advertising cookies. Meta receives a record of the pages you visit and the buttons you press, and of the sign-ups and driver applications that follow an advert. It receives none of this from our staff pages, or from pages opened through a private link, such as an unsubscribe or tracking link. Meta receives this from your browser and also through its Conversions API, which passes the same information to Meta from a server rather than from your browser, so an advert's results still count when a browser blocks tracking. Both carry your IP address and browser details, as advertising pixels do. Microsoft links your visit to its own advertising cookies through Clarity. We do not send either of them your name, your address or anything you upload.
Professional advisers and insurers, where we need advice or are handling a claim.
Law enforcement and regulators, where we are required to disclose or where it is necessary to prevent or investigate crime.

We may add or change providers as the service develops. Ask us at any time for the current list.

1.7 How Long We Keep It#

These are the periods we work to. We keep data for longer only where an open dispute, an insurance claim or a legal obligation requires it, and we record why whenever we do.

An unfinished signup: 7 days.
A quote you did not book: 30 days.
Your account details: for as long as the account is open.
Detailed driver location history: 90 days after delivery.
Delivery milestones and proof of delivery: 6 years, because they evidence the transaction. This includes the photographs, signatures and location stamps taken at a handover.
Handover verification records: 6 years. These are the records of a delivery code being issued and checked, or a label being scanned. They are what answers a later question about whether a parcel reached the right person.
Invoices, receipts and payment records: 6 years, which is the period tax and company law require. We keep these even after an account closes.
Support conversations: 2 years after an account closes.
Security and audit records: 2 years.
Analytics and session recordings: Google Analytics keeps usage data for 14 months. Microsoft Clarity keeps recordings of visits for 30 days, or 9 months for a recording we mark to keep, and heatmap data for 9 months.
A driver application that is not approved: deleted once there has been no activity on it for 30 days. Activity means you signing in or changing your application, or us making a decision on it, including refusing it. An application waiting for our review is not treated as inactive while it waits. Deleting an application removes everything on it: your details, your vehicle and licence information, the documents you uploaded and the checks recorded against them. The documents are removed from our storage within a month. If you have no other account with us, your sign-in is deleted too, and you would need to sign up again to reapply. The fact that an application was made and what we decided is kept under the audit period above.
Driver verification records, once a driver is approved: for as long as the driver works with us, and 6 years afterwards.

Closing an account is not the same as erasing your data. Closing it ends your access and stops us using your details to operate; the records above stay for the periods listed. If you want your personal data erased, ask us under section 1.8 and we will tell you what we can and cannot remove.

1.8 Your Rights#

You can ask us to:

give you a copy of the personal data we hold on you
correct anything that is wrong
erase your personal data
restrict what we do with it
transfer it to you or another provider in a portable format
stop processing it where we rely on legitimate interests

Not every right applies to every piece of data. Where we have to keep something, we will say which data, why, and for how long.

Marketing is different. You can tell us to stop sending marketing at any time and we will, without exception and without needing a reason. Use the unsubscribe link in any marketing message or change the setting in your account.

To make a request, email support@shipsherpa.co.uk. We may ask you to confirm your identity first, so that we do not hand your data to someone else. We will respond within one month. If a request is complex we may extend that by up to two further months, and we will tell you if we need to.

A request to erase your data is reviewed by an authorised member of our team before anything is deleted. Sending the request does not delete anything by itself, and we will write to you with the outcome, including anything we have to keep and why.

1.9 Sending Data Outside the UK#

Some of our providers process data outside the United Kingdom, mostly in the United States. They include Google, Microsoft, Meta, Stripe, Twilio and SendGrid. Where that happens we rely on UK adequacy regulations, including the UK extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for providers certified under it, or on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, together with an assessment of the transfer. Ask us if you want to know which applies to a particular provider.

1.10 Cookies#

We set cookies that are necessary to sign you in, keep your session secure and complete a booking. Anything beyond that, including analytics, session recordings and advertising measurement, is set only if you accept it. You can change your choice at any time through the cookie settings control on our site. Our Cookie Policy has the detail.

1.11 Complaints#

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, tell us first at support@shipsherpa.co.uk so we can put it right.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator for data protection, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. You do not have to come to us first, though it is usually quicker.

1.12 Changes to This Policy#

We update this policy as the service changes. The date it was last updated is shown at the top. If we start using your data in a way this policy does not already cover, we will tell you before we begin, by email or in the app.

Part 2

Data Processing Agreement

This Part applies where the customer is the Controller of personal data that ShipSherpa processes on its behalf. It does not apply where ShipSherpa acts as an independent Controller.

2.1 Parties#

This DPA forms part of the agreement between:

the Customer as Controller
Ship Sherpa Limited as Processor

ShipSherpa may act as independent Controller for fraud prevention, payment compliance, legal defence and platform integrity functions.

2.2 Processing Subject Matter#

Processing includes:

booking data
recipient data
POD data
route and tracking data
user credentials
support records
reporting outputs
API response data

2.3 Instructions#

ShipSherpa shall process personal data only on documented instructions unless required by law.

2.4 Security Measures#

Measures include:

encryption in transit and at rest
role-based access
audit logging
environment separation
credential rotation
fraud monitoring
secure cloud hosting

2.5 Subprocessors#

Approved subprocessors may include:

Fresh Generation UK Limited, trading as Digital Next, which provides our technology services and administers our hosting
Google Cloud
Google Maps Platform, for address lookup and route distances
Stripe
Twilio
SendGrid
analytics providers
approved fleet partners, where a job is allocated to a fleet business rather than to a driver contracting directly with ShipSherpa

2.6 Data Subject Rights Support#

ShipSherpa will provide reasonable assistance with data subject requests.

2.7 Personal Data Breaches#

ShipSherpa will notify the Customer without undue delay after becoming aware of a confirmed personal data breach affecting Customer-controlled data.

2.8 Deletion and Return#

On termination, Customer personal data will be deleted or returned unless retention is required by law or claims defence obligations.

2.9 International Transfers#

Restricted transfers require UK lawful transfer safeguards.

2.10 Audit Rights#

Reasonable audit support is available subject to confidentiality and security safeguards.