Who we are
Gloucester Road Service Station (Bournemouth) Limited, trading as GRS Recovery, is the data controller for the personal data described in this notice. Our registered office and principal place of business is Unit J Elliott Road, West Howe Industrial Estate, Bournemouth, BH11 8JR.
For any question about this notice or about how we handle your personal data, contact Becky Welch, Director, at becky@grsrecovery.co.uk or by post at the address above.
This notice explains what we do with personal data about our customers, vehicle owners and keepers, callers, visitors and website users. If you work for us, our separate Privacy Notice for Employees and Workers applies to you instead.
Who is responsible for your personal data
In many cases we are not the organisation that decides how your personal data is used, and it is important to understand the difference.
If you contact us directly and we carry out work for you, we are the data controller. This notice explains what we do with your information and you can exercise your rights with us.
If a breakdown provider or motoring organisation such as the AA, an insurer, a claims handler, a police force or a local authority instructs us to attend, recover, transport or store your vehicle, that organisation is the data controller for the information it holds about you and passes to us. We act on their instructions and under our contract with them. What they do with your information is governed by their own privacy notice, not this one, and we do not control how long they keep it or what else they use it for. If you are not sure who instructed us, ask and we will tell you.
Even where we act on another organisation’s instructions, we remain the controller for a limited set of information that we must keep for our own purposes. That includes:
- our accounting and payment records;
- records of the work carried out, including vehicle condition photographs, key and contents records, and job notes, which we keep to protect your property and to defend claims about loss or damage;
- health and safety, incident and accident records;
- recordings of calls to and from our control room;
- CCTV from our premises and compound, and footage from vehicle-mounted cameras;
- records we are required by law to keep, such as waste transfer documentation and notifications to the DVLA.
Where this notice describes what we do with information, it applies to the information for which we are the controller. Where we are acting only on another organisation’s instructions, we use the information solely for the purpose they have given us and we do not use it for our own purposes.
What personal data we collect
- Your name, address, telephone number and email address.
- Vehicle details, including registration number, make, model and condition.
- The location of your vehicle and of the incident, including location data from a call or from our despatch system.
- Details of the assistance required and the work carried out, including photographs of the vehicle and its visible contents taken to record its condition.
- Insurance, breakdown membership or policy details, and any reference or claim number.
- Payment card and bank details where you pay us directly.
- Where your vehicle is seized or removed on behalf of the police or a local authority, the information they provide to us, which may include information relating to alleged offences.
- Recordings of telephone calls to and from our control room.
- CCTV images from our premises and compound, and footage from vehicle-mounted cameras.
- Where a vehicle is stored with us, a record of its keys, contents and any personal effects.
- Technical information when you use our website, such as browser type, device and IP address, and information collected by cookies.
Where we get it from
Where we are the controller, information usually comes from you directly, by telephone, at the roadside, through our website or in person.
We also receive personal data from motoring organisations and breakdown providers such as the AA, from insurers and claims handlers, from Dorset Police and other police forces, from BCP Council and other local authorities in connection with parking enforcement and vehicle removals, and from other recovery operators where a job is passed to us. Where information reaches us this way, that organisation is normally the controller and passes us only what we need to do the job.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
We only use your personal data where the law allows. The table below sets out what we do and why, in relation to the information for which we are the controller. Where we act on the instructions of a motoring organisation, insurer, police force or local authority, the lawful basis for their processing is set out in their own privacy notice.
| What we do | Lawful basis |
| Attending a breakdown or incident and recovering, repairing or transporting your vehicle | Performance of a contract with you, or our legitimate interests where the contract is with your insurer or motoring organisation |
| Recovering, storing and releasing vehicles on behalf of the police or a local authority | Legal obligation, and the performance of a public task carried out by the police or authority on whose behalf we act |
| Recording the condition of your vehicle, its keys, contents and personal effects | Our legitimate interests in protecting your property and in defending claims about loss or damage |
| Taking payment and keeping accounting records | Performance of a contract, and legal obligation |
| Recording telephone calls to and from our control room | Our legitimate interests in training staff, resolving disputes and maintaining service quality |
| Operating CCTV at our premises and vehicle-mounted cameras | Our legitimate interests in the safety of staff and the public, the security of vehicles in our care, and evidence in the event of an incident |
| Dealing with complaints, claims and insurance matters | Our legitimate interests, and the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims |
| Meeting our duties on vehicle disposal, waste and environmental compliance | Legal obligation |
| Sending you service updates about a job | Performance of a contract |
| Sending you marketing, where you have asked to receive it | Consent, which you can withdraw at any time |
| Operating and improving our website | Our legitimate interests, and consent for non-essential cookies |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether those interests are outweighed by your rights, and we have concluded that they are not. You can ask us for more detail about that assessment.
Information about offences
Where your vehicle has been seized or removed on behalf of the police or a local authority, we may hold information relating to alleged offences, such as driving without insurance, without a licence or without tax. We hold this only where the law permits, and only to carry out the recovery, storage and release of the vehicle. It is held separately and securely, with access limited to those who need it. Our conditions for holding it and our retention periods are set out in our Appropriate Policy Document, available on request.
Who we share it with
We share personal data only where we need to. Where we have acted on the instructions of a motoring organisation, insurer, police force or local authority, we report back to them on the work carried out. Other recipients may include:
- the motoring organisation, breakdown provider, insurer or claims handler who instructed us;
- the police force or local authority on whose behalf a vehicle has been seized, removed or stored;
- subcontractors and other recovery operators where we need help to complete a job, all of whom are required to protect your data;
- garages, storage sites, salvage agents and authorised treatment facilities where your vehicle is taken;
- authorised waste carriers, in connection with the disposal of vehicles and their fluids and components;
- the DVLA, where we are required to notify them about a vehicle;
- our payment provider, accountants, insurers and professional advisers;
- law enforcement or other authorities where we are required by law to do so.
We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.
Transfers outside the UK
We do not transfer your personal data outside the United Kingdom. If that ever becomes necessary, we will put an appropriate safeguard in place first, as required by Chapter V of the UK GDPR.
How long we keep it
- Job and recovery records, including vehicle condition records: six years from the end of the job, to cover the limitation period for claims.
- Records relating to vehicles seized or removed for the police or a local authority: six years, or longer where that authority requires it.
- Accounting and payment records: six years from the end of the financial year to which they relate.
- Telephone call recordings: 12 months, unless a call is relevant to a complaint, claim or investigation, in which case it is kept until that matter is resolved.
- CCTV and vehicle camera footage: 31 days, unless retained for a specific incident, complaint, claim or police request.
- Marketing consents: until you withdraw consent, and for two years afterwards to evidence that you asked us to stop.
- Website and cookie data: as set out in our cookie information.
At the end of these periods we securely delete or destroy the data.
Where we hold information on behalf of another organisation as their processor, we keep it only for as long as their instructions and our contract with them require, and we return or delete it when they tell us to. Their retention periods, not ours, apply to that information.
Automated decision-making
We do not make decisions about you by wholly automated means, and we do not carry out profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
Your rights
You have the right to: be informed about how we use your data; obtain a copy of the data we hold about you; have inaccurate data corrected; have data erased in certain circumstances; restrict how we use it; receive it in a portable format; object to processing based on our legitimate interests; and withdraw consent where we rely on it.
To exercise any of these rights, contact Becky Welch at becky@grsrecovery.co.uk. We will respond within one month. There is normally no charge.
If we hold your information only on behalf of another organisation, we are not able to deal with your request ourselves. In that case we will tell you promptly who the controller is, and we will pass your request to them and assist them in responding to it. You may find it quicker to go to them directly. For a job arranged through a breakdown provider or insurer, that will usually be the organisation you called; for a vehicle seized or removed under statutory powers, it will be the police force or local authority concerned.
Complaints
If you think we have not handled your personal data properly, please tell us first so that we can put it right. You can complain to us by email to becky@grsrecovery.co.uk, by post to Data Protection Complaints, GRS Recovery, Unit J Elliott Road, West Howe Industrial Estate, Bournemouth, BH11 8JR, or by any other means, including verbally. You do not need to use a particular form or quote any legislation.
We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days of receiving it, and in practice within five working days. We will investigate without undue delay, keep you informed of progress, and give you our outcome in writing.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at any time. You can contact the ICO at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, on 0303 123 1113, or at ico.org.uk. The ICO may ask whether you have raised the matter with us first.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies. Cookies that are strictly necessary for the site to work are set automatically. Any other cookies, including those used for analytics or marketing, are only set where you have given consent through our cookie banner. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time using the cookie settings on our website, and you can also control cookies through your browser settings, although some parts of the site may then not work properly.
Changes to this notice
We review this notice at least once a year. Where we make significant changes we will bring them to your attention. This version was issued in July 2026.