🔒 Privacy Policy

Last updated: 28 September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Drive My Way collects, uses and protects personal data. It covers two different relationships, which matter under UK GDPR:

• Instructors and driving schools who sign up to use Drive My Way, for this data, Drive My Way is the data controller.
• Pupils whose lesson, contact and progress data an instructor manages in the app, for this data, the instructor or driving school is the data controller, and Drive My Way acts as their data processor, processing it only on their instructions.

If you're a pupil with a question about your own data, your instructor is the right first point of contact, they control what's held about you. If you're an instructor or driving school, this policy (plus your own agreement with your pupils) governs how you use the platform.

1. Who we are

Drive My Way is the software platform. Drive My Way is a trading name of Dale Willetts, a sole trader based in Gloucester, England.
Email: admin@drivemyway.co.uk

2. Data we control directly (instructor & driving school accounts)

For instructors and driving school administrators who use Drive My Way, we collect and control:

• Name, email address and phone number
• Account and login details, driving school/team structure
• Billing information: your Direct Debit is set up and collected by our payment provider, GoCardless, and we don't store your bank details ourselves. We keep a record of your plan and of each payment (amount, date and whether it was successful)
• Bank details for pupils to pay you (account name, sort code, account number, bank name and payment reference), only if you choose to add them. They're shown only to your own pupils, and only while "Show to pupils" is switched on. Your driving school's administrator, if you're part of one, and Drive My Way's administrators can also see them to support your account. They're never used for anything else, and you can change or remove them at any time.
• Help for pupils booking their driving test, only if you switch it on. Your own pupils can then see your ADI personal reference number and/or the times you can't do a test (the dates and times of your other booked tests with your chosen travel time either side, and your holidays and the times of your appointments if you choose, never what they're for). Nothing about your other pupils is shown, and you can switch it off at any time.
• Basic technical information (IP address, device type, browser)
• Refer a friend: if you refer someone, or sign up with someone's referral link, we record who referred whom and whether the reward has been earned. The person who referred you sees your first name, that you've signed up and when their reward is earned, never your payments. To stop someone claiming a reward for their own second account, we check whether the two Direct Debits come from the same bank account (GoCardless tells us whether they match; we don't see the account details)
• Feedback: if you send us feedback from the Control Centre, we keep your rating, your comments and whether you're happy for us to contact you, together with your name, email and plan. We use it to improve Drive My Way, and only reply (by email) if you said we could. It's deleted with your account.
• Notices: the app and Control Centre show automatic notices to instructors and driving school administrators about their pupils or account, for example a pupil's account about to close, a pupil's birthday, a new enquiry, a cancelled lesson, or account and billing messages. They're shown only to the instructor or administrators the notice is for.
• Usage information: we record simple counts of how instructors use mock test sheets (printing a blank sheet, printing a filled-in sheet, or entering a result in the app or Control Centre). We may also ask paying instructors a one-off yes/no question about a possible new feature and record the answer. We use this only to help decide what to build, and it isn't shared.
• When you open the app: the date and time, the app version, and whether it's an iPhone or an Android phone. We use it to see whether the app is actually being used and which version people are on, so we know when an old one can stop being supported. Each open is kept for 90 days; the date you last opened it stays on your account. Signing in has been recorded in the same way since August 2026.
• News you've read: when you open the News screen we record that you've seen each post, so whoever wrote it, Drive My Way, or your own driving school for its own posts, can see who has read it and who hasn't. Nobody else sees it.
• Unsent messages: if you start writing a message, a Send to All or a News post and leave without sending it, what you typed is kept for 10 minutes so you can carry on where you left off, on any device you're signed in to. It's deleted as soon as you send it, start again, or the 10 minutes are up.
• Road Sketch: this screen shows an aerial map of where you are so you can draw on it during a lesson. Your position is used to place the map while the screen is open, and is sent to Google, whose maps it uses. Nothing you draw is saved, and no position is kept.

3. Data we process on an instructor's behalf (pupil data)

As a processor, we store and process what each instructor enters about their own pupils, on their instructions, typically:

• Name, contact details, address, date of birth. The date of birth is also used for birthday messages: depending on what the driving school or instructor chooses (off, ask, or automatic), the instructor is reminded to send the pupil a birthday message, or one is sent automatically
• Licence details (only if the pupil chooses to add them)
• An emergency contact, if the pupil gives one: a name, how they know them and a phone number, so their instructor has somebody to ring if something happens on a lesson
• Medical conditions, special needs and medicationbut only if the pupil chooses to tell their instructor. This is health information, so it is held on the pupil's explicit consent and on nothing else. They are asked once, plainly, and may say no without it affecting their lessons; it is never a condition of accepting their instructor's terms. If an instructor writes down what a pupil told them in the car, the instructor has to confirm the pupil agreed to it being kept, and we record who confirmed it and when. It can be seen by that pupil's own instructor, by their driving school's administrator if they are in a driving school, and by Drive My Way's administrators to support the account, and by nobody else. A pupil can have it changed or removed at any time by asking their instructor, and removing it deletes the record of their consent with it
• Lesson bookings, availability, progress notes and reflective logs
• Mock test reports: the result of a mock driving test the instructor records against the DVSA marking sheet, and a photo of the paper sheet if the instructor attaches one. The instructor can send the report to the pupil
• When the pupil accepted their instructor's or driving school's terms and conditions in the app
• Theory and hazard perception practice results (including when they tapped during a hazard clip), where the instructor has Theory & Hazard Perception switched on
• Messages exchanged with their instructor, including automatic messages when a pupil passes (a congratulations message, which may include links for leaving the instructor a review, an optional follow-up message about 7 days later, and a reminder 3 days before their app login closes)
• Payment/credit records relating to their own lessons
• When the pupil opens the app: the date and time, the app version and whether it's an iPhone or an Android phone. Their instructor can see when they last opened it, so they can tell whether a pupil is using the app at all. Each open is kept for 90 days. Signing in has been recorded in the same way since August 2026.
• A message the pupil starts writing and doesn't send is kept for 10 minutes so they can carry on where they left off, then deleted. Their instructor never sees an unsent message.
• The instructor's live location, only while an "on the way" trip to that pupil is active. The pupil is told straight away that the instructor is on the way, with an arrival time, but the location isn't shared until the instructor is within a 2-mile radius of the pickup and at least a quarter of a mile from where they set off, so a pupil never sees where the instructor started from (for example, a previous pupil's home). At that point Mapbox works out a fresh arrival time from the instructor's position. If the pickup is closer than a quarter of a mile, there's no live map. The location is wiped as soon as the trip ends.
• Pass photos: if the pupil agrees, a photo of them after they pass, the first name and month shown with it, and any few words they choose to write. We also record which places they agreed to, when they answered, and any later change of mind - that record is the instructor's evidence that they were allowed to use it.

Pass photos are the one thing in Drive My Way that can be made public. Where an instructor has bought a Drive My Way website, a pass photo can appear on it, which means anyone who visits the address can see it. It is published only to the places the pupil has ticked, and only after they have ticked them: the pupil is asked in the app, place by place, and may decline all of them without it affecting their lessons. Agreeing to one place is not agreeing to another. They can withdraw at any time from their profile, or from the link in the email we send them when a photo goes up - which keeps working after they stop using the app. Withdrawing deletes the image file itself rather than just hiding it, and the photo is removed from the website straight away. Everything else in Drive My Way is private to the instructor and their own pupils.

We don't decide what's collected or why. That's each instructor's decision as controller of their own pupils' data. We're contractually and technically restricted (see the data processing terms in our Terms of Use) to using it only to provide the service.

4. Legal basis

Purpose	Legal basis
Providing the app to instructors and their pupils	Contract
Medical conditions, special needs and medication a pupil chooses to share with their instructor	Explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a)). Withdrawn by deleting it, which deletes the consent record with it
Account security and support	Legitimate interests
Preventing misuse of the free trial (checking sign-up email addresses against known temporary email services, and letting us know when a new account signs up)	Legitimate interests
Emails about your account: free trial reminders, billing changes and payment receipts	Contract
Refer a friend: recording referrals, checking they qualify and applying rewards	Legitimate interests
Feedback you send us from the Control Centre, and replying by email if you ask us to	Legitimate interests
Billing and tax records	Legal obligation
Improving the platform	Legitimate interests
Counting how mock test sheets are used, and asking paying instructors occasional one-off yes/no questions about possible features	Legitimate interests
Website analytics (Google Analytics and Vercel Web Analytics)	Consent

5. How long we keep data

Instructor and driving school account data is kept while the account is active. If an account is paused because no Direct Debit was set up after the free trial, it is deleted 90 days after the trial ended. If an account that has paid before is paused (it was cancelled, or a payment failed and was not sorted out), it is kept for 12 months from when it was paused, then deleted. We email a warning at least 30 days before any deletion, and you can ask us to delete an account sooner. Deleting an account deletes its pupils' records, lessons, messages, finances and uploaded files. Our internal alerts about an account (for example a sign-up, a cancellation or feedback) are deleted with the account, and otherwise 12 months after they were made. Our own records of your subscription payments are kept for as long as tax law requires. If you cancel, your Direct Debit with GoCardless stays in place until your access ends, so you can restart without entering your bank details again, and then we cancel it. It's also cancelled if your account is deleted, and you can cancel it with your bank at any time. Bank details are kept until you remove them or close your account.

Pass photos are kept until the pupil withdraws, the instructor removes the photo, or the instructor's account is deleted - whichever comes first. Withdrawing deletes the image file itself, normally within seconds and at the latest by the following morning. The record of what the pupil agreed to, and when, is kept for as long as their pupil record is, because it is the evidence that the photo was allowed to be used.

Finance records (the income, expenses and receipt photos an instructor or driving school records, including pupil payments) are kept for as long as UK tax law says business records must be kept, then deleted automatically:

• Sole traders: 5 years after the 31 January Self Assessment deadline for that tax year. For example, records for the 2022 to 2023 tax year are kept until 31 January 2029.
• Limited companies: 6 years from the end of the company's financial year. A company's car, equipment and hire purchase records aren't deleted automatically, because records for things a business owns can be needed for longer.

Deletion happens at a monthly clean-up. From 3 months before, the account holder is warned in the Control Centre so they can download a copy first. If HMRC is checking a year, or its tax return was sent late, the account holder can choose to keep that year's records until the check is finished, as the law requires.

"On the way" trips: the live location is wiped when the trip ends, and the trip record itself (when it started and ended, and the pickup point) is deleted 30 days later.

App opens: each one is deleted after 90 days. The date you last opened the app stays on your account until the account is deleted.

Unsent messages: deleted 10 minutes after you stop typing, or as soon as you send or start again, whichever comes first.

Pupils who pass: when an instructor marks a pupil as passed, the pupil's app login and messages stay open for 30 days. The instructor can keep them open for longer (giving a reason) or close them sooner, and the pupil can close them sooner themselves. When they close, the pupil's lessons (except driving tests), messages, reflective logs, progress, mock test reports, contact details, address, date of birth, licence details and app login are deleted. Their name, payment records and driving test results are kept.

Deleting a pupil: when an instructor deletes a pupil, they choose what happens to the records. Keeping the income deletes everything about the pupil except their name, payment records and driving test results, which are kept as legal and accounting records; if those are later deleted, the name is removed too. Deleting everything removes the payments and driving test results as well, and nothing about the pupil is kept. A pupil who has no payments and no test results is removed completely whichever is chosen. The instructor or driving school decides, as the controller of their pupils' data. Pupils can also delete their own details in the app while they're on the waiting list, or while their record is an enquiry, declined or passed.

Declined enquiries: when an instructor declines an enquiry, it is either deleted straight away, or the person who enquired is sent a message and the enquiry is deleted once they have read it, depending on what the instructor chooses.

Mock test reports (including any photo of the paper sheet) are kept until the pupil's account is closed or deleted.

Medical information and emergency contacts are kept for as long as the pupil's record is, and go when it goes: when their details are cleared after a year inactive, when their account closes after they pass, or when their instructor deletes them. Medical information is also kept only for as long as the pupil is content for it to be: clearing the conditions and medication deletes the consent record at the same moment, so there is never consent on file without the information, or information without the consent. A pupil only has to ask their instructor, and does not have to give a reason.

Pupil records: When an instructor marks a pupil inactive, the app closes to them. A pupil whose last driving test was a fail is the exception: their instructor can leave Messages and Test Booking & Resources open so they can get back in touch and book their practical test around the instructor's diary, and can close either of those at any time. After eleven months inactive, a pupil who is still using the app is asked whether they still want their account and told why; their instructor is told at the same time and can keep the record for another three months. If the pupil says they still want it, nothing is deleted and the instructor is told. If nobody answers within thirty days, their lessons, messages, progress and logs are deleted and their phone number, email, address, date of birth, licence details and other personal details are cleared. The pupil record is removed 6 years after their last payment, with the payments kept in the instructor's finances. Everything about an instructor's pupils is deleted when the instructor's account is deleted. The full rules are in the data processing terms. Everything above is also held in rolling backups (kept up to 6 months, then automatically deleted) so data isn't lost to accidental deletion or a technical fault.

Pass photos: A pass photo is only published where the pupil agreed, and they can take it down at any time using a link we email them. It comes off the instructor's pass wall immediately and the picture is deleted. While a photo is still published we keep the record of that agreement: the pupil's first name, the month they passed, the date they agreed and which places they agreed to. That record is kept even after the pupil record itself has been removed at 6 years, because it is the evidence that the photo showing on a website was allowed, and we cannot keep publishing it without that. Take the photo down and the record goes with it.

Photos an instructor holds themselves: An instructor takes the pass photo on their own phone, and they may also have older photos from before they used Drive My Way, or copies they have put on Facebook, Instagram or Google. Those are not in our hands. We can only add, change or remove what is on a Drive My Way pass wall, anything an instructor holds or has posted elsewhere is theirs, and they are the person to ask. If you are not sure who to contact, email us and we will put you in touch with them.

6. Who we share data with

We do not sell or rent personal data. We use infrastructure providers to run the platform (currently Supabase for the database and authentication, GoCardless for Direct Debit payments, Cloudflare for video and backup storage, Vercel for hosting, Mapbox for maps during live tracking, Google Maps for the aerial map in Road Sketch, Resend and Zoho for sending emails, and Apple and Google for push notifications), some of these may process data outside the UK, with appropriate safeguards in place. We share data with authorities only if required by law.

7. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask for a copy of data held about you, ask for corrections, ask for deletion (in certain situations), object to or restrict processing, and complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Pupils: please contact your instructor first, they control your data and can action most requests directly. You can also delete your own details in the app while you're on the waiting list, or while your record is an enquiry, declined or passed. If you're not getting a response, you can contact us and we'll help route the request.
Instructors/driving schools: email admin@drivemyway.co.uk.

8. Children

Learner drivers using the app are typically 17 and over, matching the UK minimum age for a provisional driving licence. Drive My Way relies on each instructor to confirm this as part of their own onboarding process.

9. Cookies & analytics

This website uses cookies. See our Cookie Notice for details.

With your consent, this website uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used, which pages are visited, roughly where visitors are (approximate location derived from IP address), and what device and browser they use. We use this only to understand and improve the website; we don't use it to identify individuals, and we don't use advertising or marketing cookies.

Analytics only runs if you press Accept on the cookie banner. Nothing is loaded from Google before that, and declining is remembered. You can change your mind at any time from the Cookie Notice page. We also use Vercel Web Analytics, which counts visits and pages without cookies and never identifies anyone; it loads on the same consent and is switched off if you decline. Google LLC processes this data on our behalf and may transfer it outside the UK with appropriate safeguards; analytics data is retained for up to 14 months. See Google's Privacy Policy and the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Whether or not you accept analytics, we keep a plain count of how many times each page of this website is opened, and how many people reach the sign-up form and complete it. That count sets no cookie, stores nothing on your device and holds nothing about you, only the page address and the campaign tag that was already in the link if you arrived from an advert. Since nothing identifies a visitor, the counts cannot be joined together or traced back to anyone, including by us. We use it to see whether our advertising reaches people and where they stop.

10. Changes

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page.