Thanet Crane Hire · Last updated: 19 October 2026
1. Who we are
This Privacy Policy explains how Thanet Crane Hire (“we”, “us”, “our”) collects, uses, shares and protects personal data when you visit https://thanetcranehire.co.uk (the “Website”), contact us, request a quote, apply for a job or use our crane hire, contract lifting, transport, traffic management and related services.
We are the “data controller” of your personal data, which means we decide how and why it is used. We comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
Our contact details are:
- Kent office: Unit 1, Stonestile Business Park, Stonestile Road, Headcorn, Ashford, Kent TN27 9PG
- Norfolk office: North Farm, Barnham, Thetford, Norfolk IP24 2PF
- Email: hiredesk@thanetcranehire.co.uk
- Telephone: 01622 858200 (South East) or 01842 790011 (East Anglia)
Any privacy question or request can be sent to the email address or postal addresses above, marked “Data Protection”.
2. Personal data we collect
Enquiry and contact information. When you use our contact form, email or telephone us, we collect your name, email address, telephone number, company name, the nature of your enquiry (for example crane and transport hire, site visits, traffic management or transport) and the content of your message.
Quotation and service information. To provide a quote or carry out a job we may collect your job title, billing and delivery addresses, site address and location, site access and ground condition details, lifting requirements, load details, site plans, purchase order details and records of our correspondence with you.
Account information. If you register for an account on our Website, we collect your username, email address and password (stored in encrypted form) and any details you add to your account.
Customer, supplier and payment information. We collect invoicing details, credit and account application information, payment records and bank details needed to pay or receive payment. We do not store full payment card numbers on our Website.
Job applicant information. If you apply through our careers page or contact us about work, we collect your name, contact details, CV, work history, qualifications, certifications and tickets (such as lifting, crane or driving qualifications), driving licence details where relevant to the role, right-to-work information and any other information you choose to provide.
Site and operational information. When we attend customer sites we may collect names and contact details of site personnel, and operator, banksman and appointed person details, and records required for health and safety compliance, such as RAMS (risk assessments and method statements), lift plans, incident reports and training records.
Technical and usage information. When you visit the Website we automatically collect your IP address, browser type and version, device type, operating system, pages viewed, time and date of visits, referring website and similar technical data. Some of this is collected through cookies; see our Cookie Policy.
Social media information. If you interact with our Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn pages, we receive information you make available to us on those platforms, such as your name, profile details and comments or messages.
We do not knowingly collect personal data from children, and our Website and services are not aimed at anyone under 16. We do not intentionally collect “special category” data (such as health or ethnicity), except where necessary, for example, to record an injury or incident, to make reasonable adjustments, or in connection with recruitment, where we will handle it with extra care and only as the law allows.
3. How and why we use your personal data, and our legal bases
Under data protection law we must have a lawful basis for using your personal data. The table below sets out the main purposes and the bases we rely on.
| Purpose | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Responding to enquiries and providing quotes | Legitimate interests (to respond to business enquiries); or steps at your request before entering into a contract |
| Providing our services, scheduling jobs, delivering equipment and operators, and managing your account | Performance of a contract |
| Invoicing, taking payment, credit control and debt recovery | Performance of a contract; legitimate interests (to recover money owed) |
| Health and safety, lift planning, insurance, accident investigation and regulatory compliance | Legal obligation; legitimate interests (to run a safe business) |
| Maintaining accounting, tax and other legally required records | Legal obligation |
| Managing website accounts and keeping the Website secure and working | Legitimate interests; performance of a contract |
| Analysing Website use to improve our site and services | Consent (for non-essential cookies) or legitimate interests |
| Sending marketing emails or messages to individuals | Consent, or where permitted by PECR, legitimate interests (for business contacts, with an easy way to opt out) |
| Sending service updates relevant to work you have booked | Performance of a contract; legitimate interests |
| Recruitment and assessing job applications | Legitimate interests (to recruit staff); steps prior to entering into an employment contract; legal obligation (right to work checks) |
| Establishing, exercising or defending legal claims | Legitimate interests; legal obligation |
| Managing complaints, feedback and testimonials | Legitimate interests; consent where we publish your testimonial |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your rights and interests and concluded they do not override our own. You can ask us for details of that assessment at any time.
Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time by contacting us or using the unsubscribe link in our messages. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before you withdrew consent.
4. Marketing
We may send you information about our services, news and offers if you have asked for it or consented, or, for business contacts, where we are allowed to do so by law and have given you the chance to opt out. You can ask us to stop at any time by clicking “unsubscribe” in any email or by contacting hiredesk@thanetcranehire.co.uk. We will never sell your personal data to third parties for their own marketing.
5. Who we share your personal data with
We only share personal data where necessary and with appropriate safeguards. Recipients may include:
- Service providers who help us run our business, such as website developers and hosting providers, IT and email providers, telephone and software providers, cloud storage, accountants, payment and banking providers, and credit reference and credit insurance agencies.
- Subcontractors, suppliers and partners we use to deliver a job, for example specialist transport, traffic management or lifting contractors, and equipment suppliers, where they need your details to carry out the work.
- Professional advisers such as lawyers, insurers, brokers, auditors and health and safety consultants.
- Regulators, law enforcement and public bodies, such as HMRC, the Health and Safety Executive, local authorities, highways authorities, the police and the courts, where we are legally required or permitted to share information.
- Third parties in a business transfer. If we sell, merge or restructure the business, we may share data with the other party and their advisers, who must use it in line with this policy.
- Third-party content providers. Our Website may embed content from services such as Google Maps and Google Fonts and may link to social media sites. These providers may collect technical information such as your IP address when you load their content; see their own privacy notices and our Cookie Policy.
We require service providers who process data on our behalf to protect it and use it only on our instructions.
6. International transfers
We are based in the United Kingdom and mainly process personal data there. Some of our service providers (for example, cloud, email or analytics providers) may process data outside the UK. Where this happens, we make sure a lawful transfer mechanism is in place, such as a UK adequacy regulation, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, so that your data stays protected to a standard equivalent to UK law.
7. How long we keep your data
We keep personal data only as long as needed for the purposes in this policy and to meet legal requirements. Typical periods are:
- Enquiries that do not lead to a contract: up to 2 years from our last contact with you.
- Customer and contract records, quotations, lift plans and correspondence: 7 years after the end of the contract or relationship, to meet tax, accounting and limitation requirements.
- Financial and tax records: at least 6 years, as required by law.
- Health and safety, incident and training records: up to 7 years, or longer where the law requires (for example, certain records relating to injury or lifting equipment inspection).
- Marketing preferences: until you unsubscribe or ask us to stop, after which we keep a minimal suppression record so we do not contact you again.
- Unsuccessful job applications: up to 6 months after the vacancy is filled, or longer if you ask us to keep your details for future roles.
- Website account data: for as long as your account is active and for up to 12 months after it is closed or you stop using it.
- Website log and analytics data: generally up to 26 months.
When data is no longer needed we securely delete or anonymise it.
8. How we protect your data
We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure. These include secure hosting, encrypted connections (HTTPS), password protection, access controls limited to staff who need the data, and staff awareness of data protection. No internet transmission is completely secure, so you share information at your own risk, but we will do all we reasonably can to protect it. If a data breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we will notify you and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) where required by law.
9. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Be informed about how we use your personal data (this policy).
- Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification: have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected.
- Erasure: ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
- Restrict our use of your data in certain circumstances.
- Data portability: receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or ask us to send it to another organisation, where the processing is based on consent or contract and carried out by automated means.
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time.
- Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on it.
- Not be subject to solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects. We do not make decisions of this kind.
To use any of these rights, contact us at hiredesk@thanetcranehire.co.uk or by post to either of our offices. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. We aim to respond within one month. We will not charge a fee unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive, in which case the law allows us to charge a reasonable fee or refuse.
10. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please contact us first so we can try to put things right. You also have the right to complain to the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): www.ico.org.uk, telephone 0303 123 1113.
11. Cookies
Our Website uses cookies and similar technologies. For details of what we use and how to control them, please read our Cookie Policy.
12. Links to other websites
Our Website may contain links to third-party websites, including our social media pages on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and to our website developer. We do not control these sites and are not responsible for their privacy practices. We encourage you to read their privacy notices.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on our Website with the “last updated” date at the top. If we make significant changes, we will take reasonable steps to let you know, for example by a notice on the Website or by email.
14. Contact us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we use your data, please contact Thanet Crane Hire at hiredesk@thanetcranehire.co.uk, on 01622 858200 or 01842 790011, or by post at Unit 1, Stonestile Business Park, Stonestile Road, Headcorn, Ashford, Kent TN27 9PG.
