Last updated: 8 November 2026.
About this notice
Andrew James Forwarding Ltd (AJF) is responsible for the personal information it uses to manage enquiries, customer relationships and its freight and logistics services.
Most of our customers are businesses. This notice covers people acting for those businesses, including employees and other business contacts, as well as sole traders, private customers and website visitors. Business contact details can still be personal information. The protections described here apply to individuals regardless of whether they contact us for business or personal reasons.
This notice covers AJF's corporate website, customer enquiries and retained WordPress blog, including comments and public accounts approved by AJF. The linked My AJF portal is a separate system; contact us for information about the processing and cookies applicable to your portal use. This is not an employee or recruitment privacy notice.
Contacting us about privacy
To ask about your information or exercise your rights, email ajfpriv@gmail.com, telephone +44 (0) 1469 571220 or write to:
Andrew James Forwarding Ltd, Unit 3, Block 4, Kiln Lane Trading Estate, Stallingbrough, DN41 8DY, United Kingdom.
Please mark correspondence Privacy request. You can also use our contact page. We may need proportionate information to establish your identity before releasing personal information.
Information we handle and where it comes from
We receive information from you through enquiries, correspondence and service arrangements. Depending on the enquiry or shipment, this may include:
- Your name, work role, organisation and contact details.
- The service you require, loading and unloading locations, and shipment details you give us.
- Correspondence, quotations, booking information and related customer records.
- For AI-assisted enquiries, the declared AI system/provider and model if known, a request reference, and the declaration that the customer authorised the enquiry and use of their contact details. These declarations are not independent verification of identity or authority.
- Names and contact details of collection or delivery contacts, supplied by you, your employer, a customer or a logistics partner.
- Registration details and comments you submit to the blog. Public accounts require AJF approval; published comments and the associated public display name can be seen by other visitors.
Please only give us information about other people where you are entitled to do so, and make this notice available to them. Do not include payment-card details, identity documents or sensitive personal information in a general website enquiry. If additional documents are needed for a shipment, agree an appropriate way to provide them with AJF.
Our web hosting and security systems may also process technical information such as IP addresses, requested pages, timestamps and browser information. The enquiry forms use a session identifier and IP-derived and email-derived identifiers to protect against forged submissions and repeated abuse.
Why we use information and our lawful bases
The basis depends on the purpose and our relationship with the individual:
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to business enquiries, preparing company quotations and managing business relationships | Legitimate interests in providing freight services and communicating with business customers, taking account of the individual's interests and rights |
| Taking steps requested by a private customer or sole trader before a contract, or carrying out a contract with that individual | Contract, where the processing is necessary for that purpose |
| Coordinating shipments and communicating with employees, collection contacts, delivery contacts and other people who are not personally a party to our contract | Legitimate interests in arranging and delivering logistics services |
| Meeting applicable tax, accounting, customs or other statutory duties | Legal obligation, where the relevant law requires the processing |
| Securing the website, preventing misuse and dealing with disputes | Legitimate interests in protecting our services, users and business, subject to necessity and balancing people's rights |
A contract with a limited company does not automatically make contract the lawful basis for processing its employees' personal information. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we consider the purpose, necessity and impact on individuals. An enquiry does not give permission for unrelated marketing.
Providing enquiry details is generally voluntary. Without the contact or shipment details needed for a response, quotation or booking, we may be unable to provide it. We will explain if particular information is required by law or for a contract.
Sharing information
Freight services may require relevant details to be shared with carriers, overseas agents, collection and delivery providers, warehouses, customs authorities or other parties involved in a shipment. Hosting, email and other business-system providers may also process information on our behalf. Advisers, insurers or authorities may receive information where necessary for a legal obligation, dispute or claim.
AJF keeps its main business records locally. Website and email information is also processed by the providers used to operate those services: the website is hosted through Liquid Web, and our privacy-request inbox is a Gmail address operated by Google. Information sent to that inbox is processed through the email service. Access to customer information is limited to people and providers who need it for the relevant service, security, legal or business purpose.
Marketing preferences
We send marketing emails only to people who have confirmed that they wish to receive them. Consent to marketing is separate from an enquiry or shipment booking. You can withdraw it at any time by using the unsubscribe option in a marketing email or contacting ajfpriv@gmail.com. Withdrawing consent does not prevent service messages needed to respond to an enquiry or manage an existing shipment.
Overseas processing
International shipments and service providers may involve personal information being used outside the UK. The recipients and destinations depend on the shipment or service. Where UK restrictions on international transfers apply, an appropriate transfer basis is required. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve UK adequacy regulations, appropriate contractual safeguards or a permitted exception for a specific transfer.
Contact ajfpriv@gmail.com for information about the recipients, locations and transfer arrangements relevant to your information, including how to obtain details of applicable safeguards. We do not treat every overseas shipment as automatically exempt from transfer requirements.
How long information is kept
Retention depends on the purpose and the record involved. Relevant factors include whether an enquiry becomes a booking, an ongoing customer relationship, legal accounting and customs requirements, and the need to establish or defend a claim. Security and abuse-prevention records have a separate purpose from customer correspondence.
We retain unsuccessful enquiries for five years from the last substantive correspondence and completed shipment records for five years from completion of the shipment. Records subject to an applicable legal duty or an ongoing dispute or claim may need to be kept for longer.
Financial and accounting records are kept for the applicable statutory period. Marketing consent and preference records are kept as needed to demonstrate consent and respect your choices. Blog accounts and comments are kept for the operation and moderation of those features, subject to applicable rights and legal requirements. Server logs, security records and backups are kept for the security, recovery, legal or operational purpose they serve. The five-year shipment period is not a blanket deletion rule for every type of record. Contact us if you need the retention criteria applicable to a particular record.
Website forms, cookies and analytics
The corporate pages do not include public registration, visitor comments or public file uploads. They contain no advertising or analytics scripts. The retained WordPress blog does allow comments and AJF-approved public accounts. These features are separate from the corporate pages.
The enquiry form sets the AJF_ENQUIRY cookie, restricted to /forms/. It holds a session identifier used to secure submissions and show a submission confirmation. It is configured as a session cookie, normally expiring when the browser session ends, although browser session-restoration settings may preserve it. It is used for the form's operation, not advertising.
When email delivery is enabled, the form sends the enquiry to AJF by email, with a copy to support@andrewjamesforwarding.com. Quotation requests are also recorded in a private log outside the website's public directories. Each logged quotation includes the submitted contact and shipment details, a reference and timestamp, and a separate email-status entry. A saved quotation may remain in this log even if email delivery fails; it is not confirmation of a booking.
Session data and abuse-prevention counters are stored server-side. The counters use IP-derived and email-derived identifiers and timestamps, rather than message contents. Expired counter entries are removed when the next submission attempt is processed. Quotation logs form part of our enquiry records and are subject to the retention arrangements described above, including applicable legal or dispute-related exceptions.
Signing into an approved blog account requires cookies to maintain the signed-in session. Blog and comment preferences may also use cookies where those options are enabled. Cookie behaviour depends on the feature and the choices you make; your browser lets you inspect, block or remove cookies, although blocking essential cookies can prevent sign-in or form submission. Contact us about cookies associated with the My AJF portal. Any additional non-essential tracking requires appropriate information and choices before activation.
Your rights and complaints
Depending on the circumstances and lawful basis, you may ask for access to your information, correction, erasure, restriction of its use or transfer of information in a portable format. You can object to processing based on legitimate interests. You have the right to object to use of your personal information for direct marketing. Where processing depends on consent, you can withdraw it without affecting earlier lawful processing.
These rights are subject to their legal conditions; for example, some information may need to be retained to meet a legal duty or deal with a claim. Contact AJF using the details above to make a request or raise a concern.
You can also complain to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office through ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/. You do not have to complain to AJF first.
Changes to this notice
We review this notice when our services, website features or information-handling arrangements change. The date above identifies the latest update.