Man and Van in Thanington

The newest roads here are frequently newer than whatever map a driver is working from, and a van circling an estate hunting for a close that does not appear is a poor start to a day you are paying for. We settle the route before the morning rather than during it.

The fix is easy enough. Send the postcode with a street or a landmark nearby, and if the estate has more than one way in, say which entrance actually reaches your door. On one or two of the newer layouts the obvious turning is not the one a long vehicle should take.

At the city end the housing is older and the streets are narrower, and parking behaves much as it does in Wincheap proper. Frontages are tighter, kerbside space is fought over through the day, and the nearest legal stop is not reliably the one outside your door.

We plan that end the way we would plan a city street: stopping point chosen in advance, load ordered so the heavy pieces travel the short way rather than the long one. If suspending a bay would genuinely help, we will say so early enough that you can arrange it with the council.

West of the houses the ground falls away towards the Stour and the water meadows, and a handful of addresses sit on lanes that suit a car rather better than a Luton. Where that is the case we bring the van that fits the lane instead of the largest one on the fleet.

Moves out along the Ashford road towards Chartham and past it are regular work from this side of the city. Those are priced door to door, so the mileage is inside the figure from the beginning rather than appearing at the end.