Privacy Policy

Finding and Matching You With a Driving Instructor

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 August 2026

SmoothDrive respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we may share it with and the rights you have regarding your personal information.

1. Who We Are

SmoothDrive provides driving tuition services in Worthing and surrounding areas and also helps learner drivers across the UK connect with driving instructors who cover their local area.

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “SmoothDrive”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to SmoothDrive Driving School.

Website: www.smoothdrive.org.uk

If you have any questions about how we use your personal information, please contact us through the Contact Us page on our website.

2. Information We Collect

When you use our website or submit a driving lesson enquiry, we may collect information including:

Your name
Date of birth
Postcode
Email address
Telephone number
Manual or automatic transmission preference
Preferred lesson days and times
When you would like to start lessons
Whether you hold a provisional driving licence
Your previous driving experience
Driving test centre, date and time if you have already booked a test
The type of driving tuition or assistance you are looking for
Any additional information you choose to provide

We may also collect basic technical information about how visitors use our website, such as browser, device and website usage information, where applicable.

3. How We Use Your Information

We may use your information to:

Respond to driving lesson enquiries
Provide SmoothDrive driving tuition where you are within our direct service area
Identify driving instructors who may cover your postcode
Match your enquiry with an appropriate local driving instructor
Contact you about your enquiry
Allow an instructor to contact you regarding lessons, prices and availability
Provide customer support
Manage bookings and enquiries
Improve our website and services
Maintain appropriate business and administrative records
Comply with legal or regulatory obligations

We will only use personal information where we have an appropriate lawful basis for doing so.

Depending on the circumstances, this may include taking steps at your request before entering into a contract, performing a contract with you, complying with a legal obligation, our legitimate interests in operating and improving SmoothDrive, or your consent where consent is required.

4. Finding and Matching You With a Driving Instructor

If you submit an enquiry asking SmoothDrive to help you find driving lessons, we may use the information you provide to identify an independent driving instructor who covers your area and may be suitable for your requirements.

Where necessary for this purpose, we may share relevant information from your enquiry with a prospective driving instructor.

This may include:

Your name
Telephone number
Email address
Postcode or general location
Manual or automatic preference
Preferred lesson availability
Previous driving experience
Driving test details, where relevant
When you would like to start
Other information you have provided that is relevant to arranging your driving lessons

We will aim to share only the information reasonably necessary for the instructor to assess your enquiry and contact you about driving lessons.

Independent driving instructors may operate their own businesses and may be responsible for how they subsequently use personal information they receive.

Once you begin dealing directly with an independent instructor, you should also refer to that instructor's own privacy information where applicable.

5. Who We May Share Your Information With

We do not sell your personal information.

We may share personal information where reasonably necessary with:

Independent driving instructors for the purpose of responding to or fulfilling your driving lesson enquiry
Website, form, hosting and technology providers that help us operate SmoothDrive
Professional advisers or service providers where reasonably necessary
Government bodies, regulators, law enforcement agencies or other organisations where disclosure is required or permitted by law

Service providers processing information on our behalf are expected to handle that information appropriately and securely.

6. Online Forms and Third-Party Services

SmoothDrive may use third-party services to operate parts of the website, including online enquiry and registration forms.

Information entered into these forms may therefore be processed by the relevant service provider on our behalf.

Where third-party providers process personal information outside the UK, appropriate safeguards should be used where required by applicable data-protection law.

7. Cookies and Website Analytics

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to operate correctly, understand how visitors use the website and improve the user experience.

Some cookies may be necessary for the website to function, while others may be used for analytics or other optional purposes.

Where required by law, you will be given appropriate choices regarding non-essential cookies.

You can also control cookies through your browser settings.

8. How Long We Keep Your Information

We will not keep personal information for longer than reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

The length of time information is retained may depend on:

Whether your enquiry results in driving lessons
Whether we need the information to continue helping you find an instructor
Business, accounting or administrative requirements
Legal or regulatory obligations
The need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims

Information that is no longer required will be deleted, anonymised or otherwise securely disposed of where appropriate.

9. Keeping Your Information Secure

We take reasonable organisational and technical measures to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

However, no internet-based system can guarantee absolute security.

10. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on the circumstances and the applicable data-protection law, you may have rights including:

The right to be informed about how your information is used
The right to request access to your personal information
The right to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information
The right to request deletion of your information in certain circumstances
The right to request restriction of processing in certain circumstances
The right to object to certain uses of your information
The right to data portability in certain circumstances
The right to withdraw consent where processing is based on consent

These rights are not absolute and may depend on the circumstances and our lawful basis for processing your information.

To exercise your rights, please contact SmoothDrive.

11. Complaints

If you have concerns about how SmoothDrive handles your personal information, please contact us first so that we have an opportunity to address your concerns.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data-protection regulator.

12. Children's Information

Driving tuition enquiries may sometimes involve people under the age of 18.

Where appropriate, we will take reasonable care when handling information relating to younger learners and will only use the information for legitimate purposes connected with the enquiry or provision of services.

Parents or guardians may contact us if they have questions about information provided on behalf of a younger learner.

13. Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to external websites.

SmoothDrive is not responsible for the privacy practices of external websites. You should review the privacy policy of any third-party website you visit.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, website or legal obligations change.

The latest version will be published on this page together with the date it was last updated.

15. Contact SmoothDrive

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, how we use your personal information or wish to exercise your data-protection rights, please contact SmoothDrive through our website:

www.smoothdrive.org.uk

Home