Interview privacy

Sacha Oerlemans, Corporate Director Marketing Q-Park

"Working on mutual trust"

Careful use of customer data and closely guarding the privacy of our customers is important to us at Q-Park. This strengthens mutual trust and provides insight into each other's expectations regarding our services. For safety reasons (for our customers and our employees) we use CCTV and for some operational services we sometimes read vehicle number plates. In addition, in our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system we gather data about our private and business customers. For the various payment options we have available, customer data is also stored and processed.

All in all, we have a great deal of information about and from our customers at our disposal and we treat this with the utmost care. Q-Park therefore follows the OECD Guidelines which clearly call for respect of customer privacy and for measures to ensure the security of the data collected or processed. Furthermore, Q-Park conforms to the Marketing & Communications Code and the CCTV Code, which include specific rules and regulations regarding data protection and privacy.

In order to ensure proper security of debit card holders' data and to minimise fraud, Q-Park has introduced an extra layer of protection around payment card use and the corresponding processes. We are validated annually regarding compliance to the Payment Card Industry/Data Security Standard. Q-Park wants to encourage customers to pay with their debit card as this increases the speed of the parking transaction and improves the security aspects, for both employees and customers.

The convenience of entering and exiting the parking facility using a debit card is many times greater than paying cash at the payment machine. In addition, a debit card can be used as means of identification for reservations (or even for our season ticket holders). The customer is then no longer bound to a particular number plate (as the customer may occasionally drive an alternative car). Furthermore, payment is immediately linked, which saves time.

In the short-term we are planning to open our CRM database to our customers so they can view and modify their own data. Invoices can then be viewed and paid online, address details and preferences can be changed, and customers can ask a question directly or read the most frequently asked questions. This will also enable us to inform potential customers about promotions and/or activities concerning our parking facilities and make them an appropriate offer.