Spare Seat

Got a spare seat? Share it!

    About Spare Seat

    Got a spare seat? Share it.

    What is Spare Seat?

    Spare Seat is a free, community-run notice board that helps neighbours share car journeys. If you're driving through your village and have space, you can offer a seat. If you need a lift, you can request one. No fares, no platform fees — just neighbours helping neighbours.

    How it works

    For drivers

    Post a ride with your route, date, and how many seats you have spare. Passengers can request a seat and you choose who to accept. You can ask for a contribution towards fuel costs, as long as you don't profit from the journey.

    For passengers

    Browse available rides in your community and request a seat. Once the driver accepts, you'll receive their contact details to arrange the final details. It's always free to request.

    Trust & safety

    Spare Seat is designed for established communities where many residents already know one another. Every driver confirms they hold a valid licence, appropriate insurance, and will not profit from the journey. Contact details are only shared after a request is accepted — never publicly. Read our full terms of use.

    Find your community

    Spare Seat runs for individual civil parishes. Select yours from the map or list on the home page to sign in and get started.

    Available rides

    Offer a ride

    minutes
    Your via stop is outside the community — let passengers know how long you plan to be there (e.g. 30 min at a supermarket).
    Saved to your profile and revealed to a passenger only once you accept their seat request.

    Before posting, please confirm:

    Why do these declarations matter?

    Under Association of British Insurers (ABI) guidelines, sharing the cost of a journey with passengers — without making a profit — does not invalidate a standard car insurance policy, provided no more than eight passengers are carried.

    You can also check your driving licence and your vehicle's MOT and tax status via GOV.UK.

    Blocked passengers

    Blocked drivers

    Rides from blocked drivers are hidden in your browse view.

    Terms of use

    Last updated: June 2026

    1. Definitions

    1. “Account” means the account registered to a User on the Platform;
    2. “Community” means a defined local parish or geographical area within which a Journey can be made or requested;
    3. “Content” means any listing, request, or other information uploaded to the Platform;
    4. “Driver” means a User who offers a Journey;
    5. “Journey” means any transport arrangement between Users facilitated and arranged via the Platform which begins or ends in, or travel via (including a designated stop) the Community;
    6. “Rider” means a User who requests a Journey;
    7. “Platform” means the Spare Seat website, available at https://spareseat.co.uk/, as further described in paragraph 2.1 (“About Spare Seat”);
    8. “Spare Seat”, “we”, “us” or “our” means DRMSITE LTD, incorporated and registered in England and Wales with company number 17151917 whose registered office is at 40 Elm Close, Witchford, Ely, England, CB6 2JH;
    9. “Terms” means these terms of use; and
    10. “User” means any person that has registered an Account on the Platform.

    2. About Spare Seat

    1. Spare Seat has developed and provides a free online platform which enables Users within a Community to offer and request shared journeys. The Platform is intended to operate as a local notice board for informal, non-commercial journey sharing between Users who may already know, or may reasonably expect to recognise, other Users. The Platform is not a taxi service, private hire operator or commercial ridesharing platform. For the avoidance of doubt, Spare Seat does not verify the identity of Users or whether Users know one another.
    2. Any Journey is a private arrangement made directly between a Driver and Rider, who are solely responsible for agreeing the terms of that Journey and complying with all applicable laws and regulations. Spare Seat is not a party to any agreement made between Users and has no responsibility for its formation, content or performance.
    3. Nothing in these Terms creates any agency, partnership, joint venture or employment relationship between Spare Seat and any User, or between Users.
    4. Spare Seat acts solely as a passive intermediary. In particular, Spare Seat does not:
      1. own, operate or control any vehicles used for Journeys;
      2. provide any transport services;
      3. arrange, manage or control Journeys;
      4. participate in or control any interaction, communication, request or agreement between Users;
      5. select, match or vet Users;
      6. control, endorse or verify the identity of Users, driving licenses, insurances or vehicle condition;
      7. control, endorse or verify the accuracy, validity or completeness of any Content;
      8. control, endorse or verify the accuracy of any listings made on the Platform or any other information provided by Users;
      9. guarantee the availability, suitability or safety of any Journey; or
      10. monitor or verify compliance with any Driver Obligations under clause 6.1 or Rider Obligations under clause 7.2 and Users are solely responsible for ensuring that any arrangements made via the Platform are appropriate, lawful and safe.

    3. Eligibility and accounts

    1. By accessing or using the Platform (including by creating an Account or otherwise interacting with any functionality of the Platform), you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Platform.
    2. The Platform is intended for use by consumers only. By agreeing to these Terms, you confirm that you are acting as a consumer, meaning an individual acting wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession.
    3. You must be 18 years of age or over to use the Platform. In using or registering an Account on the Platform, you represent and warrant that you are 18 years of age or over.
    4. By using the Platform and registering an Account, you confirm that:
      1. all information you provide is accurate and not misleading; and
      2. you will keep your information up to date.
    5. You are responsible for:
      1. maintaining the confidentiality of your login and Account credentials; and
      2. all activity carried out using your Account.

    4. Use of the platform

    1. Drivers may create and post listings on the Platform by entering information about the intended Journey, including details of the route, dates and times, collection points, and available seats.
    2. Riders may browse listings and request a seat on a proposed Journey.
    3. Drivers may accept or decline requests at their discretion.
    4. Until a request is accepted the only information Users will see about other Users is their name and profile photo (if one has been uploaded).
    5. Where a Driver accepts a request, contact details may be shared between Users to enable them to arrange the Journey directly.

    5. Acceptable use of the platform

    1. You must:
      1. comply with all applicable laws and regulations when using the Platform;
      2. use the Platform for its intended purpose only (as described in clause 2 (“About Spare Seat”)); and
      3. use the Platform in a manner that does not harm other Users.
    2. You must not:
      1. use the Platform for any commercial transport activity;
      2. attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Platform;
      3. interfere with, disrupt or impair the operation of the Platform;
      4. provide false or misleading information;
      5. impersonate another person;
      6. engage in abusive, unlawful or inappropriate behaviour;
      7. use the Platform to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, share, post, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards set out in clause 11;
      8. use the Platform to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation;
      9. use the Platform to promote unrelated services or activities;
      10. misuse any contact details or other details about Users obtained via the Platform;
      11. reproduce, modify, adapt, distribute, publicly represent or disseminate the Platform or its content, unless it is expressly authorised by Spare Seat in writing;
      12. decompile or reverse engineer the Platform;
      13. misuse the Platform by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful, or otherwise harmfully interacting with the Platform or any part of it;
      14. attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Platform, the server on which the Platform is stored or any server, computer or database connected to the Platform or any other equipment or network connected with the Platform;
      15. interfere with, damage or disrupt any software used in the provision of the Platform or any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party on which the Platform relies in any way;
      16. attack the Platform via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990; or
      17. conduct, facilitate, enable, authorise or permit any text or data mining or web scraping in relation to the Platform, including using (or permitting, authorising or attempting to use):
        1. any "robot", "bot", "spider", "scraper" or other automated device, program, tool, algorithm, code, process or methodology to access, obtain, copy, monitor or republish any portion of the Platform or any data, content, information or services accessed via the same; or
        2. any automated analytical technique aimed at analysing text and data in digital form to generate information or develop, train, fine-tune or validate AI systems or models which includes but is not limited to patterns, trends and correlations.

    6. Driver obligations

    1. If you act as a Driver, you undertake:
      1. to hold a valid driving licence at all times;
      2. to hold appropriate motor insurance which (among other requirements that may be imposed by your insurers):
        1. permits you to share journeys for the purposes of ridesharing;
        2. permits you to accept contributions towards fuel costs; and
        3. considers Riders as third parties in your vehicle (therefore being covered by your insurance);
      3. to act in a private, non-commercial capacity;
      4. not to generate any profit via the Platform;
      5. to ensure your vehicle is roadworthy and compliant with the applicable legal provisions and customs;
      6. to ensure that all information provided in any listing is accurate, complete and not misleading;
      7. not to take more Riders than the number of available seats indicated in the relevant listing;
      8. not to offer seats to or carry any passengers under 18 years of age;
      9. not to post any listings relative to:
        1. a vehicle you do not own;
        2. a vehicle that you are not authorised to use for the purposes of ridesharing; or
        3. a Journey you had no intention to make;
      10. not to take any risk when driving and not to do anything which may impair your attention and ability to drive safely; and
      11. to promptly inform the Rider(s) of any holdup or delay (if and when it is safe and legal to do so).

    7. Rider obligations

    1. Riders are responsible for deciding whether to request a Journey or travel with a particular Driver.
    2. If you use the Platform as a Rider, you undertake:
      1. to behave respectfully and responsibly, so as not to hinder the concentration or driving of the Driver;
      2. to promptly inform the Driver of any holdup or delay;
      3. to ensure you can be contacted by your Driver; and
      4. not to compromise the safety of any Journey.

    8. Non-commercial use / cost-sharing

    1. As described in clause 2 (“About Spare Seat”), the Platform is intended solely for cost-sharing Journeys between Users.
    2. Any financial contributions made between Users must:
      1. reflect a reasonable share of Journey costs; and
      2. not amount to profit or a commercial fare.
    3. Drivers are solely responsible for ensuring that:
      1. their insurance permits cost-sharing arrangements; and
      2. any applicable limits or requirements that may be applied by insurers are complied with.
    4. Spare Seat reserves the right to suspend, restrict or remove any User where that User has used, is using, or Spare Seat reasonably believes that such User is using, the Platform for commercial transport activity and/or profit-making purposes.
    5. Failing to comply with the provisions of this clause 8 could impact your insurance.

    9. Trust, safety and disclaimers

    1. Spare Seat relies on Users acting honestly, responsibly, and in compliance with these Terms at all times.
    2. Spare Seat has no control over the conduct or behaviour of Users, or the performance of any Journey (see “About Spare Seat”).
    3. As a User of the Platform, you acknowledge that your use of the Platform is at your own risk and you are responsible for assessing whether to travel with another User.
    4. Spare Seat will not share your personal data (other than your name and profile picture) with other Users. Do not feel pressured to share your personal data with other Users unless you feel comfortable to do so.
    5. You are never under any obligation to make Journey. If you do not feel comfortable, do not go through with the Journey even if it has been agreed.
    6. You can check someone's driving licence information or share your driving licence information with someone else.

    10. Platform operation and availability

    1. The Platform is provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis.
    2. Spare Seat does not guarantee that your use of the Platform will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.
    3. Spare Seat may modify the Platform at any time without notice to you, provided such modification does not materially and detrimentally alter the functionality of the Platform. If any modification of the Platform is expected to alter the functionality in a material and detrimental way, we will, where reasonably possible, notify you a reasonable time in advance. Circumstances where we may not notify you in advance include where any modifications need to be made immediately: (i) to comply with any applicable laws, rules or regulations; (ii) in the event of an emergency; (iii) if there is an event outside our reasonable control; and/or (iv) to prevent injury or damage to persons or property.
    4. Spare Seat may suspend or withdraw the Platform at any time. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.
    5. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Spare Seat excludes all warranties, conditions and representations (whether express or implied) relating to the Platform, including as to accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose.

    11. Content and moderation

    1. The Platform may include Content uploaded by other Users. Users are solely responsible for all Content they submit on the Platform and Spare Seat does not verify the accuracy, validity or completeness of such Content. The Content is not approved by us and the views expressed by other Users on the Platform do not represent our views or values.
    2. As a User, you warrant that any Content:
      1. is accurate and not misleading;
      2. complies with applicable law; and
      3. does not infringe the rights of any third party.
    3. User Content must not:
      1. be defamatory of any person;
      2. contain the personal data of any other person;
      3. be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
      4. be threatening, abuse or invade another's privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
      5. be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person; or
      6. advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act.
    4. Spare Seat is under no obligation to, and does not undertake to, monitor Content or User activity. Spare Seat shall not be responsible for any failure to identify or remove unlawful, inaccurate or inappropriate Content. However, Spare Seat may remove or restrict Content at its discretion.
    5. Any rights granted in respect of such Content are set out in clause 13 (“Intellectual Property”).

    12. Suspension and enforcement

    1. Spare Seat may suspend or remove Users at any time where we reasonably believe that a User:
      1. has breached these Terms;
      2. poses a risk to others; or
      3. has used the Platform unlawfully.

    13. Intellectual property

    1. Subject to any Content provided by Users, Spare Seat is the sole owner of all intellectual property rights relating to the Platform, its contents and all related software and databases.
    2. Spare Seat grants you, the User, a non-exclusive, personal and non-transferable licence to use the Platform for personal, non-commercial purposes. You are prohibited from any other use or exploitation of the Platform and its content without the prior written permission of Spare Seat.
    3. You, the User, grant Spare Seat a non-exclusive, transferable, irrevocable, worldwide licence (together with the right to grant sub-licenses) to use, copy, host, store, reproduce, modify and make available any Content you provide on the Platform for the purposes of operating, improving and/or promoting the Platform.
    4. You also grant to other Users a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence to use your Content for their purposes forever. Once you delete Content, other Users will no longer be able to see or use your Content, however, this will not prevent any use of your Content by other Users who saw your Content before you deleted it.

    14. Limitation of liability

    1. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Spare Seat shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising from any use of the Platform, including (but not limited to):
      1. any Journey;
      2. the conduct, actions or omissions of any User;
      3. the condition or safety of any vehicle;
      4. cancellations, delays or failure of Journeys; or
      5. reliance on any Content.
    2. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for:
      1. death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
      2. fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
      3. any liability which cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
    3. Spare Seat gives no guarantees in relation to the Platform or any Journey (as further described in clause 2 (“About Spare Seat”)).
    4. We only provide our site for domestic and private use. You agree not to use our site for any commercial or business purposes, and we have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity or for any indirect or consequential loss in relation to your business.
    5. We are not liable to you for losses you suffer which are not caused by our breach of contract or our negligence.
    6. We are also not responsible to you for losses you suffer (even if caused by us breaching the contract) if the loss is:
      1. Unexpected. It was not obvious that it would happen and nothing you said to us before the Agreement came into existence meant we should have expected it (so, in the law, the loss was unforeseeable);
      2. Caused by an event outside our control. As long as we have used reasonable endeavours to minimise any effects arising from such circumstances;
      3. Avoidable. Something you could have avoided by taking reasonable action.

    15. Data protection

    Spare Seat will process personal data in accordance with its Privacy Policy.

    16. Changes to terms

    1. Spare Seat may amend or update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes to the Platform, applicable law, regulatory requirements or our business practices. Where any material changes are made, Spare Seat will, where reasonably possible, notify Users a reasonable time in advance by:
      1. posting the updated Terms on the Platform; and
      2. notifying you via your Account and/or by email.
    2. The updated Terms will take effect from the date specified in the notice or, where no date is specified, when the updated Terms are published on the Platform.
    3. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Platform. Your continued use of the Platform after the updated Terms take effect will constitute your acceptance of them (see paragraph 3.2 (“Eligibility and Accounts”)).

    17. General

    1. Neither party will have any liability to the other party for any failure or delay caused by any circumstance beyond that party’s reasonable control in performing its obligations in these Terms. Such events may include: an act of God, fire, earthquakes, tidal waves, flood, storm, war, riots, strikes, terrorism, malicious damage and/or legal changes and prohibitions.
    2. You acknowledge that you have not relied on any statement or representation not expressly set out in these Terms.
    3. If a court invalidates some of this contract, the rest of it will still apply. If a court or other authority decides that some of these terms are unlawful, the rest will continue to apply.
    4. Nobody else has any rights under this contract. This contract is between you and us. Nobody else can enforce it and neither of us will need to ask anybody else to sign-off on ending or changing it.
    5. We can transfer our contract with you, so that a different organisation is responsible for supplying your service. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.
    6. Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. We might not immediately chase you for not doing something or for doing something you're not allowed to, but that doesn’t mean we can't do it later.

    18. Governing law

    That these terms of service, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by English law. We both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction, except that if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are a resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.

    Privacy policy

    1. Important information and who we are

    Purpose of this privacy policy

    This privacy policy gives you information about how Spare Seat collects and uses your personal data through your use of our website and platform (Website), including any data you may provide when you register with us, offer or request a journey via the Website.

    Controller

    DRMSITE LTD (company number 17151917, whose registered office is at 40 Elm Close, Witchford, Ely, CB6 2JH) is the controller and responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as “Spare Seat”, "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy).

    If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights (section 9), please contact us using the contact details set out in section 10.

    2. The types of personal data we collect about you

    Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified.

    We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:

    • Identity Data includes first name, last name, and a profile photo (if you choose to upload one).
    • Contact Data includes email address and telephone numbers.
    • Ride Data includes departure/destination locations, dates and times, seat availability, any notes added when posting a ride and any messages with riders when arranging a ride.
    • Request Data includes messages and other details submitted when requesting a seat.
    • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, device ID and other technology on the devices you use to access the Website.
    • Usage Data includes information about how you interact with and use our Website.
    • Profile Data includes your username and password, requests or listings made by you, your preferences, and any feedback.

    We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data which is not personal data as it does not directly (or indirectly) reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate individuals’ Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific Website feature in order to analyse general trends in how users are interacting with our Website to help improve the Website, and our service offering.

    3. How is your personal data collected?

    We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

    • Your interactions with us. You may give us your personal data by using our Website, filling in online forms or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
      • offer or request a journey via our Website;
      • create an account on our Website; or
      • give us feedback or contact us.
    • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our Website, we will automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.
    • Third parties or publicly available sources. We will receive personal data about you from various third parties. For example, Technical Data is collected from analytics providers such as Google based outside the UK.
    • Signing in with Google. You may choose to create an account or log in using your Google account. If you do so, Google will provide us with certain information associated with your Google account, which may include your name, email address, profile picture and unique Google account identifier. We use this information to create and manage your account, authenticate your identity, provide our services, and maintain the security of our platform. We do not receive or store your Google account password. The information we receive depends on the permissions you grant when using Google's authentication service. You can revoke access at any time through your Google account settings but you may also lose access to your account on our Website. For more information about how Google processes your personal information, please see Google's Privacy Policy.

    4. How we use your personal data

    Legal basis

    The law requires us to have a legal basis for collecting and using your personal data. We rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

    • Performance of a contract with you: Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
    • Legitimate interests: We may use your personal data where it is necessary to conduct our business and pursue our legitimate interests, for example to prevent fraud and enable us to give you the best and most secure customer experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you and your rights (both positive and negative) before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law).
    • Legal obligation: We may use your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that we are subject to. We will identify the relevant legal obligation when we rely on this legal basis.
    • Consent: We rely on consent only where we have obtained your active agreement to use your personal data for a specified purpose, for example if you subscribe to an email newsletter.

    Purposes for which we will use your personal data

    We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use the various categories of your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

    How we use your personal data
    Purpose/Use Type of data Legal basis
    To create and manage accounts (a) Identity
    (b) Contact
    (c) Profile    		 (a) Performance of a contract with you
    (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests
    To enable users to post, view and arrange rides (a) Identity
    (b) Contact
    (c) Profile
    (d) Ride
    (e) Request     		(a) Performance of a contract with you
    (b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to recover debts due to us, if any)
    To manage our relationship with you which will include:
    (a) Notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy
    (b) Dealing with your requests, complaints and queries     		(a) Identity
    (b) Contact
    (c) Profile
    (d) Marketing and Communications     		(a) Performance of a contract with you
    (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
    (c) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and manage our relationship with you)
    To administer and protect our business and the Website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data) (a) Identity
    (b) Contact
    (c) Technical    		 (a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganisation or group restructuring exercise)
    (b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
    To deliver relevant Website content to you (a) Identity
    (b) Contact
    (c) Profile
    (d) Usage
    (e) Marketing and Communications
    (f) Technical     		Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, and to grow our business)
    To use data analytics to improve our Website, products/services, customer relationships and experiences (a) Technical
    (b) Usage    		 Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of customers for our products and services, to keep our Website updated and relevant, and to develop our business)

    Direct marketing

    We do not carry out any direct marketing activities.

    Third-party marketing

    We will get your express consent before we share your personal data with any third party for their own direct marketing purposes.

    Cookies

    For more information about the cookies we use and how to change your cookie preferences, please see our cookie policy.

    5. Disclosures of your personal data

    We may share your personal data where necessary with third parties who provide services to us such as Firebase (Google) for hosting and storage purposes and Brevo (Sendinblue SAS) for email notifications.

    We may also share your personal data where necessary to third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy policy.

    We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

    6. International transfers

    We may transfer your personal data to service providers that carry out certain functions on our behalf. This may involve transferring personal data outside the UK to countries which have laws that do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK law.

    Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK to service providers, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that the appropriate safeguards are in place, such as:

    • only transferring your personal data to countries that have been deemed by the UK to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data; or
    • using specific standard contractual terms approved for use in the UK which give the transferred personal data the same protection as it has in the UK, namely the International Data Transfer Agreement or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses for international data transfers.

    7. Data security

    We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

    We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

    8. Data retention

    How long will you use my personal data for?

    We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements.

    In particular:

    • Ride and Request Data is automatically deleted 48 hours after the scheduled journey time to minimise the amount of personal data held on the platform.
    • Personal data directly contained in and forming part of your Spare Seat account (including names, email address, telephone number and profile photo) is retained for as long as you maintain an active account. You may delete your account at any time, at which point any such account data will be deleted.
    • Personal data contained in and forming part of any archived journey summaries stored within your Spare Seat account is also retained only for as long as your account remains active. All such data will be deleted upon deletion of your account.

    In some circumstances, we may retain your personal data for a longer period such as in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

    To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

    In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see section 9 below for further information.

    9. Your legal rights

    You have a number of rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data.

    You have the right to:

    • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. Please note that you can download a copy of certain personal data in machine-readable JSON format directly from the My Rides page (in your profile section) without making a subject access request.
    • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us. You can update certain personal data (such as your name, telephone number and profile photo) directly within your Spare Seat account.
    • Request erasure of your personal data in certain circumstances.
      • This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You may delete your Spare Seat account at any time, which will result in the deletion of certain personal data associated with that account (as set out in section 8 “Data Retention” above).
      • You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
    • Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) as the legal basis for that particular use of your data (including carrying out profiling based on our legitimate interests). In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your right to object.
    • Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
    • Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in one of the following scenarios:
      • If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
      • Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
      • Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
      • You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

    If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us using the contact details set out in section 10.

    No fee usually required

    You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

    What we may need from you

    We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

    Time limit to respond

    We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

    10. Contact details

    If you have any questions about this privacy policy or about the use of your personal data or you want to exercise your privacy rights, please contact us at annoyingmouse+spareseat@drmsite.com.

    11. Complaints

    You have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). However, before doing so please make sure you have first made your complaint to us or asked us for clarification if there is something you do not understand. The ICO will expect you to have done this before reviewing your complaint.

    12. Changes to the privacy policy and your duty to inform us of changes

    We keep our privacy policy under regular review. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us, for example a new address or email address.

    13. Third-party links

    This Website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our Website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

    Cookie policy

    Last updated: 1 July 2026

    1. What this policy covers

    This policy explains the cookies and similar technologies (such as browser localStorage, IndexedDB and cache storage) that Spare Seat uses, why we use them, and how you can control them. It supplements our Privacy Policy.

    "Cookies" are small files placed on your device. UK law also covers other ways of storing or reading information on your device, so this policy describes those too.

    We group what we use into two categories:

    • Strictly necessary — needed to provide the service you asked for. These do not require your consent.
    • Analytics (optional) — help us understand how the site is used. These are set only if you accept them via our cookie banner.

    We do not use advertising, marketing or cross-site tracking cookies.

    2. Strictly necessary (always active)

    These are essential for the site to work and cannot be switched off.

    Strictly necessary storage
    Name / key Type Purpose Retention
    spare-seat-cookie-consent localStorage Remembers whether you accepted or rejected analytics cookies, so we don't ask again Until you clear your browser storage
    Firebase Authentication session IndexedDB (falls back to localStorage) Keeps you signed in to your account Until you sign out or clear browser storage
    App-shell cache Cache Storage (service worker) Lets the app load quickly and work offline Until updated or cleared

    3. Analytics (optional — only with your consent)

    We use Google Analytics 4 to collect anonymised, aggregated statistics about how the site is used (for example, which features are popular). These cookies are set only after you choose "Accept" on our cookie banner. If you reject or ignore the banner, they are not set, and Google Analytics runs in a cookieless, consent-denied mode.

    Analytics cookies
    Name Provider Purpose Retention
    _ga Google Analytics Distinguishes anonymous users Up to 2 years
    _ga_G-9MQTDFDE1Q Google Analytics Maintains analytics session state Up to 2 years

    We do not send personally identifiable information to Google Analytics. Google processes this data as described in its own Privacy & Terms. Some analytics data may be processed outside the UK; see the International transfers section of our Privacy Policy.

    4. Managing your choice

    • When you first visit, a banner lets you Accept or Reject analytics cookies. Strictly necessary storage is always used.
    • To change your mind later, select "Cookie settings" in the footer at the bottom of any page. This reopens the banner so you can accept or reject analytics cookies again, and your new choice takes effect immediately.
    • You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings, or clear this site's data to reset your choice entirely; note that blocking strictly necessary storage may stop you from staying signed in.

    Guidance for common browsers:

    5. Third-party content

    Some pages load resources from third parties (for example map tiles, icon fonts and address look-up). These providers could in principle set their own cookies. We keep such embeds to a minimum and do not use them for advertising or tracking. If this changes, we will update this policy.

    6. Changes to this policy

    We may update this cookie policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top shows when it last changed.

    7. Contact

    Questions about this policy: annoyingmouse+spareseat@drmsite.com.

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