Marketing privacy policy

Our commitment to you as part of our “customer first” approach is that you can unsubscribe at any time from any and all of the below marketing communications via our website, by going to your preferences within My Account, or by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” button on the communication you have received. For the full privacy notice please click here.

At National Express we are committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure. When you use National Express, including visiting our website, you trust us with your personal information and we will collect and store that securely. We need to collect your personal information for a number of different reasons including our statutory functions and to be able to provide you with the full range of National Express services.

National Express is made up of a core group of companies, including National Express bus (including West Midlands and Coventry), National Express Transport Solutions, and Dublin Express, working together to help you get where you need to go, be this by using our bus or coach services. Your personal information is collected for a set of purposes and it goes on a journey just like you when you use our services. The Data Controller is National Express Limited who is registered with the Information Commissioners’ office.

We collect your personal information for the purposes of our business marketing activities. There are many forms of marketing activities we can undertake as listed below:

Email Marketing: Direct Marketing targeted at a person or persons who have positively Opted-In, (Consented) to receive products, services and advertising.

Social Media Marketing: Reaches a number of people through all of our social media platforms and websites.

Digital Marketing: Own channel marketing to reach our current and prospective customers such as email, SMS or post.

Mobile Marketing: Reaches people through SMS text messages, social media websites, email and mobile applications and we can tailor the content at all times.

Search Engine Marketing: Using the best practices of search engine optimisation to make and help our National Express and our Affiliates brand more discoverable

Event Marketing: Is the creation of a live or virtual event where we as a company may promote our products and services to an assembled audience.

Influencer Marketing: Involves working online personalities who can impact their followers’ purchasing decisions based on their actions or behaviours.

Content Marketing: Focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online.

Brand Marketing: Is to strengthen our offering to our current and prospective customers and clients.

Business to Business Marketing: Means we can approach current and prospective or likely business who may be interested in our products and services.

Marketing is governed by The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (GDPR), we follow the Information Commissioners’ Guidance.

Soft Opt-in Marketing
Soft opt-in enables us to send direct marketing emails to you without the need for prior explicit consent. Where we have collected information as part of any transactions of a sale or services when you have engaged with us. We will market to you like-for-like products and services only. We will not send marketing emails for products and services relating to third parties or where you have unsubscribed from this marketing activity.

Legal Basis of Processing Soft Opt-In, (SOI)
Data Controllers Legitimate Interest
Is where we may send marketing emails to customers using your information that we gather when you visit our website to book a ticket or show an interest in one of our products or services. This is to enable our company to identify what potential or actual customers are seeking as a product or service, to assist in our marketing planning activities and in the development of our current and future products and services.

Direct Marketing - Positive Opt-In (Consent)
Direct marketing consists of any marketing that relies on direct communication or distribution to people, rather than through a third party such as mass media. Mail, email, social media, and texting campaigns are among the delivery systems used.

Legal Basis of Processing
National Express and its Affiliates as a group of Data Controllers can rely on the Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR), to record the legal basis for processing personal data for the purposes of marketing. Not only do we rely on Soft Opt-In but we use the lawful grounds to apply when a customer has previously positively opted-in (Positive Opt-In Consent) to marketing under Article 6, para.1, (a). This remains in place for customers who have previously used this method to consent to marketing

Where we, National Express, apply our Legitimate Interest as set out under Article 6 para.1, (f) for Soft Opt-In, our legitimate interest is to keep you informed on our products, services and to support our planning and development services for our existing, new and potential customers. To inform you about new, revised or upcoming products/services and to suggest certain products/services to you on a like-for-like basis. National Express promises to be open and transparent in all of our marketing communications. You can object to the use of your email address for this purpose at any time by using the “No” button on the transaction page, using the unsubscribe link within the communication you have received, or by going to your preferences on your My Account on the National Express website or the App.

To qualify in the context of Soft Opt-In, you do not need to have actually purchased something from our company or from any of our Affiliates. It can be applied when you/we are negotiating a sale which may have occurred, meaning you must have actively expressed an interest in making a purchase and an interest in our products and services. It could be when you have been contacted asking for a quote, price of a ticket, asking for details about a product or service, and/or simply providing your personal information. National Express will not use Soft Opt-In when you show no intent to buy any of our products and services and it will not use Soft Opt-in when a person is browsing our websites. We will not use your information for the purposes of Soft Opt-In if you have unsubscribed or said “No”.

Our Data Protection Officer, (DPO) can be contacted at any time if you have any questions or if you want to exercise any of your rights under the Data Protection Act 2018, (UK GDPR) by emailing data.protection@nationalexpress.com.

The Data Protection Officer: “You can review, alongside this notice, our full privacy notice by clicking this link. I and my team are here to help and support your privacy needs - if you need further support contact me by emailing data.protection@nationalexpress.com.”