Privacy policy

Who we are

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited (‘we’ or ‘us’ or ‘our’) gather and process your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and in compliance with the relevant data protection Regulation and laws. This notice provides you with the necessary information regarding your rights and our obligations, and explains how, why and when we process your personal data.

This Policy explains how we use any personal information we may receive about you when you use our websites or when you use or are a recipient of our services.  Our services are provided to you in conjunction with our network of delivery partners.  For the avoidance of doubt, our delivery partners are independently owned businesses that are licensed to use our services and trade using the ‘APC’ brand mark.

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited’s registered office is at National Sortation Centre, Blakeney Way, Kingswood Lakeside, Cannock, Staffordshire, WS11 8LD and we are a company registered in England and Wales under company number 2855735. We are registered on the Information Commissioner's Office Register registration number Z714570X, and act as the joint data controller and processor in relation to data supplied to us to effect a delivery.  In respect of personal data contained within any packages sent through our network, The Alternative Parcels Company Limited is neither a data processor nor a controller.  Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at privacy@apc-overnight.com

Information that we collect

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited may collect personal information about you when:

• you use our services through the network of collection and delivery partners
• you use our websites
• you contact us
• you are a recipient of our services

We will never collect any unnecessary personal data from you and do not process your information in any way, other than as specified in this notice.

We may collect the following types of information:

• Your name
• Address
• Email address
• Landline Telephone Number
• Mobile Telephone Number
• Proof of delivery photo or signature
• IP address

 

Why we collect this information

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited takes your privacy very seriously and will never disclose, share or sell your data without your consent; unless required to do so by law. We only retain your data for as long as is necessary and for the purpose(s) specified in this notice.

The purposes and reasons for processing your personal information are detailed below:

• To collect and deliver goods (parcels) that you have requested from third parties
• To enhance and improve your experience of our services
• To send you service related emails and text messages relating to your consignment delivery
• To request feedback about your delivery experience 
• If you call our customer service centre, we may record your call if you give us consent to do so.  These recordings are used for training and quality control purposes.

 

How do we collect this information

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited collects personal information:

• From our delivery and collection partners.  e.g. when you (or someone who has your consent) order goods from a third party, that party will pass your information on to a local APC Overnight delivery partner in order to ship your parcel.  The delivery partner will pass your information on to The Alternative Parcels Company Limited for further processing.
• From parcels that pass through our sortation systems – we may collect information from the outside of parcels e.g. name and address information so that we can route parcels through our network for delivery to the addressee.
• Directly from recipients. e.g. If you submit a customer service enquiry through our website, or contact our customer service centre via. email or telephone.
• When our services are provided together with a business partner – the information is collected by the business partner in order for us to provide you with the product or service.
• Directly from job applicants e.g. if you submit a job application to us directly via. email or through our recruitment partners.
• If you send a parcel online using the APC Direct website or mobile app then please note that this service operated by our third-party partner, Parcel2go.com Limited under the APC Overnight brand.  This means that you are contracting with Parcel2go.com Limited rather than The Alternative Parcels Company Limited.

 

Sharing and disclosing your personal information

We do not share or disclose any of your personal information without your consent, other than for the purposes specified in this notice or where there is a legal requirement.

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited uses selected third parties to provide our services and business functions; however, all processors acting on our behalf only process your data in accordance with instructions from us and comply fully with this privacy notice, the data protection laws and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

Your personal information may be provided to:

Our network of delivery partners – a full listing of our delivery partners can be found here

Selected third parties – a full listing of our business partners can be supplied on request.

Other third parties – this includes the police, law enforcement agencies, fraud prevention agencies for the purposes of crime detection, prevention and/or legal proceedings.

If you are not available to sign for your package and where instruction has been given, we may deliver to a substitute recipient for your convenience, e.g to your neighbour

In such cases, any information contained on the label of your parcel may be seen by the onward recipient.

Safeguarding measures

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited takes your privacy seriously and takes every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data. We work hard to protect you and your information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have multiple layers of security in place.

How long do we keep your data

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited retains personal information for only as long as is necessary and we have strict review and retention policies in place to meet these obligations. We are required under UK tax law to keep details of your delivery for a minimum of 6 years after which time it will be destroyed.  We destroy the personal information element of your delivery three months after your parcel has been delivered, this personal information includes:  

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your telephone number(s)

 

Legitimate interests

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited and our network of delivery and collection partners may occasionally process your personal information under the legitimate interests’ legal basis. Where this is the case, we have carried out a Legitimate Interests’ Assessment (LIA) where necessary to ensure that we have weighed your interests and any risk posed to you against our own interests, ensuring that they are proportionate and appropriate.

We use the legitimate interests’ legal basis for the following:

• Sending marketing post and/or emails to business contacts where we have identified our services of being a benefit to a potential business customer.  Our communications comply fully with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.  Such communications will be relevant, non-intrusive and you will always have the option to opt-out/unsubscribe at any time.
• Network and information security – we may process your data for the purposes of detecting and preventing unauthorised access to our systems and IT Infrastructure for identifying acts of criminal activity
• We may contact you by email or telephone to ask you to complete a survey or a feedback form. We do this in order to improve customer service and to develop the products and services that we offer. We may nominate a representative to obtain feedback on our behalf. You are under no obligation to respond to such requests. 

 

Your rights

You have the right to access any personal information that The Alternative Parcels Company Limited processes about you and to request information about:

• What personal data we hold about you
• The purposes of the processing
• The categories of personal data concerned
• The recipients to whom the personal data has/will be disclosed
• How long we intend to store your personal data for
• If we did not collect the data directly from you, information about the source

If you believe that we hold any incomplete or inaccurate data about you, you have the right to ask us to correct and/or complete the information and we will strive to correct it as quickly as possible; unless there is a valid reason for not doing so, at which point you will be notified.

You also have the right to request erasure of your personal data or to restrict processing (where applicable) in accordance with the data protection laws, to exercise your data portability rights, and to be informed about any automated decision-making we may use.

If we receive a request from you to exercise any of the above rights, we may ask you to verify your identity before acting on the request; this is to ensure that your data is protected and kept secure.

Consequences of Not Providing Your Data

If your information is not passed on to us then we will not be able to effect delivery of your goods.

External links

This website has some hyperlinks to external websites. The Alternative Parcels Company Limited is not responsible for the content of any of these sites, and the content of these sites does not represent the views of The Alternative Parcels Company Limited nor does this imply our endorsement of the linked websites or any association with their operators.

Changes to our privacy policy

Any changes to our privacy policy will be posted on this page. This policy is version 1.4 was last updated February 2024.

Contacting us

The Alternative Parcels Company Limited only processes your personal information in compliance with this privacy notice and in accordance with the relevant data protection laws. If, you wish to exercise your rights as specified in this notice, raise a complaint regarding the processing of your personal data or are unsatisfied with how we have handled your information, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@apc-overnight.com

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority