Legal & Reliable, 100% Guaranteed - How?

We guarantee your travel with us is safe and comfortable, guaranteeing we are legal and reliable - we do the waiting so our clients do not!

This is the third and final in a mini series about our guarantees - we guarantee that we are legal and reliable, so what’s included in this?

Let’s talk about being legal first and in what ways our executive chauffeur service stays within the law.

Yes, this really is what we aim to do, which not only applies to the way we deliver a drive as well as the way we operate the business. 

Legal

Licensing and Insurance 

We naturally have the relevant licenses for providing vehicle hire which includes an operating license for the business, private vehicle hire license for the car and finally the private hire driver’s license for the executive chauffeurs.

Without any of these licenses that are issued by Wiltshire Council, we are unable to provide our executive chauffeur services for airports, events or special occasions whether for business or pleasure. Thankfully we have an exception certificate meaning that we do not need to have these signs displayed on our vehicle, and neither do I need to have my personal licenses on display. We do however, have to have these available should we be asked to present them any time.

Each of the licenses must be renewed regularly meaning that the necessary tests have to be undergone.

Our licensed Jaguar XFS must have an MOT every 6 months to remain licensed and any damage done to the car is required to be repaired without delay.

Of course, we have all the relevant insurances, including the household upgrade to enable us to welcome clients into our home office when necessary. This is sometimes required when wedding couples or those looking to hire us for proms, want to meet us and the cars in advance.

Driving legally 

Our aim is to build the business with strong ethics and integrity based upon our core values. So naturally, we ensure all our chauffeurs, whether for our wedding car service or for our executive travel service, operate within the law and adhere to UK driving laws.

Speed Limits 

This includes the way we drive to the speed limit when it is safe to do so, and we aim to make sure we do not exceed that limit. Quite simply, this gives our clients peace of mind and helps to provide a stress free journey, helped by also keeping an appropriate distance form the vehicles in front.

Mobiles & Smoking

Continually, even these days, I see other providers on their mobile phones whilst driving with or without a passenger onboard. All our chauffeurs have their phones on silent, out of sight and disconnected from the car, so they are not used in any way while clients are onboard.

In addition, I notice other drivers smoking inside their licensed vehicle, albeit with the window down and without a passenger. For a licensed car, smoking in the car is illegal.

We provide our executive chauffeur and wedding car chauffeur services that stay within the law in every way, which provides our clients with comfortable travel knowing that we are not distracted by phone calls. Our drivers do not smoke anywhere near our cars which means that all our passengers can travel without feeling uncomfortable.

Staying alert

It has been said to me by other people, although thankfully this has not been my experience, that they have travelled with other providers who were struggling to stay awake when driving at night. Whilst I feel for both the drivers and their passengers under these circumstances, our pledge and guarantee for our clients includes that we drive safely, which means that our drivers must be ‘fit to drive’.

When we take on bookings, we consider the travel that is already booked with the same chauffeur and ensure in advance, that enough rest time is allowed before we take on the booking.

Highway Code & Qualifications

Each of our chauffeurs have a strong knowledge of the UK Highway Code and the minimum requirement for being a chauffeur for us, is that they must be qualified advanced drivers with IAM RoadSmart.

For our licensed travel service, our executive chauffeurs must also have been qualified at Master level with IAM RoadSmart. 

Reliability

So, how is this achieved with our executive chauffeur and wedding car service?

Contingency time

When we plan our route and timing to arrive for a client wherever they are, we allow time to clean and wax the car before we greet them. For airports, we plan to arrive and park before the plane has landed, knowing the client needs to go through security and often baggage reclaim. This gives us contingency timing just in case.

Trial Drives

For weddings the assigned chauffeur will conduct a trial drive of the route that is planned the week before the wedding. This gives us a good feel for the timing and ensures that we are fully aware of the various locations where we are picking up people and taking them.

For weddings, we also travel to what we have defined, as the previously identified ‘pre-location’ site, which allows the chauffeur to fully detail wax the car within a short distance from the first pick up point.

Our guarantees do not include an immaculately waxed Jaguar, although that is always our aim, so if traffic delays happen, then this is the time that is used up, instead of being late for our clients.

SMS Messages

An essential part of our planning, are the SMS messages we send around 2 days prior to meeting our clients for executive travel. These messages allow us to confirm the details of where we are picking them up from and taking them, including any flight information. This gives peace of mind to our clients so they know they have not been forgotten.

Also when we are at the Airport Arrivals, they receive another SMS from us, saying we are there for them along with an offer of hot drinks.

Our whole service is about providing stress free travel and peace of mind. There are many other aspects to our full service which we would be only too pleased to discuss with anyone who would like to contact us.

Executive Travel: info@dbexecutivetravel.net or call 07850 100859

Wedding Cars: info@dbweddingcars.net or call 07548 931339

Comfort Guaranteed - Who says?

I have often been asked, why Jaguar?

Why not Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Volvo or perhaps a Tesla? Why not? The list is endless, but to answer this obvious question I need to go back to our roots first of all.

While I was working for other companies, as a family we needed cars that were spacious and comfortable - the latter due to health reasons, as we were not getting any younger!

From my earlier articles on our website and LinkedIn, you will find that the years before we chose Jaguar we drove Vauxhalls, specifically the Carlton and lately the Omega. When production of the Omega ended, we then had to look to other brands for the large comfortable alternative. 

It was then that after test driving many other brands and models, that we drove our first Jaguar, albeit the smallest, an X Type that we were sold. Yes, that then led to the S Type, which we still have that is now only used for weddings, to our the current licensed car our XFS, as well as the family X Type Estate. 

You only need to read through our dozens of 5 star reviews including currently over 60 on google to find that our clients love the S Type and XFS too and find them so comfortable. 

Our social media posts refer to them both as our big cats! Using the links on our website, why not connect up and follow us on our travels?

But comfort is not only about the cars we drive, and we plan to stay with the Jaguar brand as we expand, it is also about the way the cars are driven and how we look after our clients. 

Some point soon, we will need to consider alternative fuels, so we are already keeping an eye open for electric cars that have a range of around 700 miles, which is what we consistently get out of our big cat, the XFS!

Back to our subject……….

How we appear

To quote a celebrity “Oh what a beautiful car and you are dressed so smartly. I know I will looked after and kept safe’, our aim is to ensure that from the first time clients see us, they feel comfortable and at ease. 

So we arrive in not only a clean suit and chauffeur’s cap, but we also ensure our car is looking at her best - outside as well as inside.

None of our chauffeurs smoke or use bad language which ensures no offence is caused to some of our clients who do neither of these things.

During the drive, we do not start a conversation, and only engage in a discussion should our clients initiate it. We do not ask questions during the conversation, so it is easy for clients to close the discussion down when they like. We respect our clients time and space.

Are you sitting comfortably?

When clients are onboard, we check the air con is to their preference and do not open our window. Of course, should a client wish to open a window, then they are at liberty to do this. En route at regular periods, we will also check that the air con is still to their liking.

When we have 2 or more passengers with us, before we meet and greet, we adjust the drivers seating position as far forward as is safe to drive - this maximises the leg room for clients behind us, even though the cars are already spacious.

We provide for our passengers cooled mineral water, snack bars, tissues, sanitised hand wipes, eye mask, branded mints, as well as a daily newspaper of their choice and 4 quality magazines for browsing. 

When collecting from Airport/Seaport Arrivals, we offer a hot drink of their choice and assist with luggage. For longer journeys we also provide hot drinks from the service areas.

When arriving at the car, we first open the car doors and invite our clients to take their seats and while they are getting comfortable, our chauffeurs load the luggage into the boot and if appropriate the top box. 

We also offer a charging cable for their mobile phones - we have cables for the top 3 mobiles in UK.

During longer journeys we will check at regular intervals, whether they would like to stop at the services. If not then we continue, providing we are still safe to drive, ensuring that we always stay alert. 

Road Rage

I have written many posts and articles about IAM Roadsmart Advanced and Masters qualifications, but I also need to mention here that before I drove in this way, many years ago I was guilty of throwing my passengers around, mostly family. 

The facts are that I used to drive too fast and too close to those in front of me, swerving sharply to avoid incidents that in the past, I could have planned better for.

Quite simply although I would not admit it at the time, I was a careless driver and it took a few accidents and the patient comments from my wife, that persuaded me to slow down and take corners carefully. 

Fast forward to today

Now each of our chauffeurs drive to maximise our passengers stress free experience and peace of mind which includes, driving at a speed that is appropriate to the road conditions and level of traffic, ensuring that we can slow down gradually when we see a hazard up ahead. 

When we change lanes, we signal to others what our intentions are - this also gives peace of mind to our clients so that they know the lane change is deliberate. 

We increase our speed including from a stationary position gradually - again so as to 

not cause alarm. 

When we notice driving standards of other road users are poor, we do not make any gestures or comments about them, realising that this in itself could make our clients anxious. 

Our mobiles phone are both set to silent mode and disconnected from the car. In addition, we will not make any calls when a client is onboard and of course, we do not respond to any either. Our phone is out of sight.

We only put the sound system on when our clients ask us, realising that some clients find the time useful for working, planning or making business phone calls and not having to ask us to turn the radio off makes it easier for them.

When driving, we do not drink or eat anything - the aim is to make sure we are looking ahead at all times, checking mirrors and doing a 180 degree scan of the environment around us, ensuring we are always checking for hazards.

All the above helps to make our clients feel comfortable and at ease.

Next Up

The next article will be written about how we guarantee that we are legal and why should that concern our clients.

I hope you are finding this mini series of interest and to some degree, educational and look forward to hearing from you for your travel requirements whether for business or pleasure. 

We can be easily reached on 07850 100859 or info@dbexecutivetravel.net and for our wedding car services on 07548 931339 or info@dbweddingcars.net.

Safety Guaranteed - Really?

I became an executive chauffeur following the poor experiences I had in the past when I was travelling in the back of cars with other people driving, during my previous career in corporate.

This propelled me to offer a very different way of travelling where we actually guarantee that travel with us will be safe and comfortable in the knowledge that we are legal and reliable. This means that our clients have a stress free journey with us every time.

So, I thought I without trying to state the obvious, what does it mean to be safe, and then in future articles, I will elaborate into being comfortable, legal and then finally reliable. There will be some points made along the ay that are actually not the obvious, so it will be worth while checking in on these articles. I quite literally, hope you enjoy the ride of this mini series!

The Safety Guarantee

Can we really guarantee safety, when we all hear about road traffic accidents just about every day? In the news recently as I write this, is the Duke of Edinburgh who was involved in a motor accident, so none of us are without risk.

What I can say, is that as far as is in our chauffeurs control, we will drive in a way that does guarantee your safety.

Even when we walk down a street, we cannot guarantee that we will not be hit by a flying object, or anything else - so I think we have the correct perspective on the subject.

Advanced Driving

Yes, driving safely does come back to the Advanced and Masters driving qualifications that currently myself and all our future executive chauffeurs are required to have. In fact, our wedding car chauffeurs have all qualified as Advanced Drivers. Although some of this very different driving style is also common sense, it is good to describe how our chauffeurs drive, whether for wedding car service or for that which I am focussing on more in this article, our executive chauffeur service.

Fit to Drive

Whenever you agree to travel with us, you can be assured that none of our chauffeurs will have taken any alcohol at all within 24 hours of driving for you. This is more than the legal requirement, which permits driving as long as the driver is below certain limits. We believe that our clients deserve more respect and looking after so we operate a zero tolerance rule on alcohol without exception. 

Additionally, our chauffeurs will not have drinks for use by them while they are driving and they will not eat food whilst driving. We ensure that they are focused on their driving and not the crumbs they are dropping etc.

Being a chauffeur requires us to be driving at all times both day and night, so one obvious question is how to stay awake and alert when driving through the early hours of the morning at night time. I have already written an article about his entitled  “How to be fresh as a daisy when night driving”, but needless to say, we only take on work when we know we will have enough time to plan sleep before and after night driving.  

Mobile phones will not only be on silent but will also be disconnected from the car system, so they are not distracted. No phone calls will be made when they have clients on board.

Observation

One of the key training skills learnt during the Advanced and Masters qualifications is observation. This includes checking what is going on in the road at the limit point of vision (explained in my earlier article “So, What's in the Masters?”) and also in the immediate vicinity. It also, includes having 180 degree vision, so constantly scanning not only ahead but also from side to side as well as behind. This ensures that very little can take the chauffeur by surprise, if anything at all. Therefore, braking can be a gradual and planned experience instead of a sudden reaction.

Safe distances

The training our chauffeurs receive, is to learn the safe stopping distances, which are listed below from The Highway Code:

Above 70 mph, you guessed it, our chauffeurs do not do that, as the maximum speed is 70 mph in the UK!

The above stopping distances are those recommended in dry conditions, whereas wet weather requires double the above and ice significantly more!

I am also aware that the above guidelines were written before ABS and other braking aids, but safety is about erring on the side of caution and reducing the risk of an incident wherever possible, after all, how valuable is someones life !

Braking

The best grip on the road when braking is always going to be when travelling in a straight line, so our chauffeurs will plan to slow down to the correct speed to take the hazard, whether a corner or otherwise, before entering that hazard. This ensures that there is minimal risk of a skid happening with the potential of losing control. 

Naturally, this is even more important during adverse weather conditions. If a situation arises during mid-corner braking, our chauffeurs will brake progressively to avoid locking the wheels - this is a skill where our chauffeurs will actually feel for the moment to release the brake pressure before the wheels lock up.

Tyre Condition

Due to the amount of miles done in a month, averaging 4,000, it is necessary for us to check the tyres condition which also includes the tread depth and tyre pressures. This is done several times a week when we are very busy and at the very least every time we refuel. This ensures that the grip on the road is the best it can be, and therefore stability on the road is good.

Courtesy to Clients

Although I am sure this topic would interest our clients, how does this relate to safety I hear you ask?

Quite simply, it is about the little touches, so for instance, our chauffeurs as they welcome you, they will open the car doors and invite you to enter, while they then load any luggage in the boot. At the end of the journey, they will say that they will ‘get’ the doors, and be the first to get out of the car and check that it is safe to open the door(s) for you, avoiding any traffic that could cause an accident.

Indicators

Too often on the road, we all have noticed that some cars do not seem to have working indicators. Or could it be a functionality that many drivers are not using these days?

In any case, our chauffeurs will use indicators appropriately when switching lanes or turning off a road onto another one. This gives other road users and pedestrians the knowledge that the car is changing direction.

Even in the night and if there is little traffic, indicators will be used when changing lanes on the motorway - this at least, gives you our client, the knowledge that changing lanes was deliberate, and helps to give you confidence that our chauffeur’s attention hasn’t dropped or worse!

There are indeed many other aspects of safety, but the above are the key ones that we focus on. Nothing has been mentioned about the safety functionalities of the Jaguars that we drive. Today’s modern vehicles have many inbuilt safety features which re increasing all the time as technology develops. While our chauffeurs will use the technology available, the above mentioned are fundamental to our service and therefore, our guarantee.

Next time I will elaborate how we guarantee that you our client and passenger will be comfortable. 

It's Show Time!

2017 was our first full year providing quality Jaguar wedding cars for many happy couples, 19 in fact, and each one was so much fun. The many reviews on our website bears witness to the high level of personal service we have provided, some of which are part of our 21 5 star google reviews we have received so far.

Also in April 2017, we launched our high quality executive travel chauffeur service and during last year, we completed 44 travel jobs and have again received many testimonials and 5 start google reviews. 

Other activities in the year comprised of building relationships with hotels, local businesses as well as being part of networking groups to widen our exposure helping people and businesses to associate us with a high quality brand of chauffeur services, whether that is for weddings or executive travel.

In addition, we have attended many wedding shows in multiple venues and during the first 3 months of 2018, we continue to exhibit at a number of wedding shows in the area.

I would like to highlight the next one in particular, organised by The Whitewed Directory, the Great Western Wedding Show at STEAM, Swindon on 13th and 14th January 2018.

At this show there will be over 60 wedding suppliers exhibiting and we are taking over the whole of the museum space with such an interesting back drop with all the history that is encapsulated by STEAM. It will be amazing with live entertainment and so many people to see.

I fully recommend coming to chat about your wedding day requirements and, even if you do not have a wedding coming up soon, come along, as there are may suppliers there including ourselves, who do not just do weddings!

The days and weeks leading up to a wedding show of this nature for us as exhibitors, are full of activity such as regular social media posts, ensuring we have enough marketing material like flyers, business cards etc, and also preparing any presentations where on Powerpoint or Keynote, ensuring they are up to date and relevant. Not to mention preparing the cars for show!

Being part of the Whitewed Directory, after the show, we will be sent the Brides List comprising of those couples who have willingly made available their details, so that we can send them follow up emails based on conversation we have had with many of them during the day.

So, that said, the days before the show are spent creating the template emails that after the show, can be used to base our communications back to the engaged couples.

During the shows, we all arrive early to set up and for us with wedding cars, we arrive early enough to make sure that the cars are pristine once again even after the journey there. The stalls are set up and decorated with all our materials, making sure that the Keynote material is working well on the screens.

When the couples arrive, all is calm with us stood by our stands, just waiting to talk to the wonderful couples and discuss their requirements.

We all so much want the day to be fun, informative and interesting for everyone. So much effort goes into making it so, and it really is exciting to chat to so many people and hear about their dreams and hopes for the coming day.

It is always amazing when we who exhibit cars, can clear down so quickly - our personal record is 5 minutes, and after a very long but enjoyable day, we are off home.

The  next few days are all about following up, which we do by means of email and then a phone call. The important thing is that the couples are contacted but do not receive any spam - we make this very clear when chatting to them and keep to our word.

So, here’s to a thrilling wedding show season once again and we look forward to seeing some of you soon!

One final word - we are also looking forward to the Whitewed Awards ceremony on 1st February 2018!

Wedding Preparation Mode

With the summer wedding season over, we now enter our autumn season with our first wedding this weekend. You would think that after many weddings this year already we might have lost some of the excitement for weddings, but this is certainly not the case.

The week before the wedding I have completed a pre-run of the route to make sure I know where in Calne it is that we pick up the bride and father, as well as checking for roadworks and potential hazards along the way. It is also a good time to check that the sat nav has the correct locations to avoid any awkward moments on the day!

The next route is to where the ceremony is to take place, so on this occasion, I drove to Chippenham and went to the location and while I was there paid a visit to a really good bridal shop, Amare Bridalwear, when we could catch up and see how we are both doing.

This is one of the great things about being self employed, is that I can put in some detours to do some networking, which helps both ways.

Next stop was to go to the reception venue in the little village of Goatacre. 

Goatacre has a very special place in our hearts as a family, as a number of our parents and grand parents were resident at Goatacre Manor Care Centre in their latter days, so it was nice to drive through the village once again. 

Before we approach the wedding day itself, the chosen wedding car, our silver Jaguar XFS is washed and waxed once again and the leathers go through the cleaning and conditioning treatment as well as carpets and all the interior spruced up once again for the brides special day. 

Thankfully, our cars are always cleaned and washed very regularly so this is not a very labour intensive task for each wedding, but they are all given that special treatment. In go the interior flowers colour co-ordinated to the brides colour scheme.

Finally on the day, the car is dressed with the chosen colour for bows and ribbons. For this particular wedding as it is a local wedding, we can do this at our base. For weddings further afield, I will make that a subject of another blog.

On the day, whether myself or one of my 4 reserve chauffeurs, dress in a black suit, white shirt and colour co-ordinated bow tie - a special touch we like to provide along with the chauffeur’s cap.

As we prepare to go to the bride’s house, we arrive close to that spot and then check that the car is still immaculate and clean any marks off the car before we arrive at the bride’s home 15 minutes before the agreed time.

It is essential that when the bride enters the car, that it is spotless so there is no risk of any dirt arriving on her beautiful dress as a result of contact with the car.

Once she is on board we progress to help make her day go as smoothly and stress free as we can on the journey, driving at advanced standard, keeping the car smooth and comfortable. 

Another happy couple begin their journey of life together and we wish them every happiness and a long wonderful life together!

Washing Day Again!

I mentioned at the end of last week’s blog since our family holidays in our blue S Type, that she has been given a deep clean and now that she is only used for weddings. This leads me to answer what many have asked me since we turned professional - how often do you clean your cars as they are always pristine?

Well, to state the obvious, they do get very dirty on our country roads especially when it is raining. Having said that, the S Type is only taken out when the roads are dry unless we are doing a wedding in her when the weather is bad. Although she is very reliable she is still an old lady and needs to be respected to preserve her!

Needless to say I do enjoy bringing both our ‘working’ cars back to their normal glory when they have got messy.

Before each wedding the car that is being used, is cleaned immaculately and new fresh wax is applied. Additionally, we clean and condition the leathers in the car and give the whole inside a full clean, including inside the doors around the hinges as well, to ensure that the passengers who enter the car need not fear about any dirt getting on their clothes, especially the brides beautiful dress!

For the silver XFS, not only is she cleaned for weddings, but also before any executive travel journeys I do in her for clients, like airport transfers, events, special occasions, or taking clients to other parts of the country for a long weekend, when driving the long distance is just too much for them.

Additionally, when we have to travel a distance either before we pick up the bride or client for executive travel, the car becomes dirty to varying degrees from the road grime on the journey to the client. This means that we set off much earlier to ensure that we have the chance to clean the car again before we meet our client. 

Our intention, is that whenever we meet a client, the car is presented in a totally clean state when they enter the car. Not only is the car cleaned from any dirt when we arrive close to the pick up point for our client, but more detailing wax is applied - subject to when it is not actually raining at that time. Should it be raining, we ensure the car is clean in any case as much as is possible.

So you see, cleaning our cars is done frequently.

So very briefly, to pull this week’s edition to a close, when a car is extremely dirty, we follow the below steps, with the twice yearly additional deeper cleansing as indicated:

1. Apply snow foam with a snow lance attached to a jet wash

2. Leave to soak for 10 minutes

3. Jet wash the car

4. Wash the shampoo and a woollen mitt

5. Use a clay cloth with juice to remove the deeper road grime (twice yearly)

6. Jet wash the car

7. Dry with microfibre drying towels

8. Apply deep polish to remove swirls etc and polish off with clean microfibre cloth (twice yearly)

9. Apply deep carnauba wax to lock in the shine and give further protection and buff up with clean microfibre cloth (twice yearly)

10. Apply detailing carnauba wax to all surfaces except windows to add more shine and protection, including the stainless steel exhaust pipes

11. Apply special window cleaner and buff with clean microfibre cloth

12. Wheels are also cleaned with using specialised fluids and dried before applying tyre gloss and then finally adding the rim coating to protect from further dirt build up

I will leave to another blog describing the types of materials I use inside the car and outside, why and also where I resource them from to a later blog. I hope you find the above helpful and interesting.

Recalculating…

Several years ago, during the winter, I was trying to get back from Hull and many of the roads were so flooded they were impassable. It was just before this journey that we as a family decided to get a SatNav, thankfully before and not after! As I approached one road after another but still heading South, the roads were blocked so I had to divert and take another route, causing the SatNav to recalculate the route and we tried again. The total journey that usually took between 4-5 hours actually took 10 hours!

The SatNav managed to save me many hours on my business travels, but also on family holidays. As with most inanimate objects used by our family, SatNav was quickly given a name, Jane. We had many adventures with her, but a few have stuck with me - the ones that caused the most stress mostly!

I recall one particular holiday in Pembrokeshire with my wife, our youngest daughter and our German Shepherd Beulah. We found a beautiful beach, Cwm-Yr-Eglwys, and as it was quite late in the day, we decided to have Jane save the location as a ‘favourite’, meaning that no matter what angle we were approaching on another day, we would be able to find it again - perfect!

A few days later we decided to make a day of going to Cwm-Yr-Eglwys. As we were getting closer to the beach, Jane took us down a road that looked like a nice little shortcut through the pretty Welsh countryside. Living in rural Wiltshire, we were quite used to narrow lanes that usually open up into larger lanes, however I was a little concerned when we came across grass growing in the middle of the road. As we headed further along it, the trees got thicker overhead and the verges were closing in on us with rocks sticking out in places - not just soft grass and ferns! After coming so far, I decided it was best to keep going forwards slowly rather than risk attempting to reverse all the way back up to the main road.

The only way forward was for us to each open our windows, the road was too narrow to open the doors, and check a couple of feet ahead to see if the S Type would be able to move forward without causing damage. When I received the all clear, I moved the car another 2 feet, then we each checked again and continued until we were past that stretch.

The next hurdle was a hairpin bend which, when I was negotiating it we noticed some walkers who seemed to watch us with disbelief. As I continued to work my way round the bend so to speak, I called out to them that we were on a ‘Top Gear’ challenge!

Amazingly, we came across a house with a nice couple who told us the best form of transport in that area was, surprise surprise, boat or a very small car! They explained that Cwm-Yr-Eglwys was in fact not reachable on that road. It would come to a dead end just before the beach! Thankfully, before the dead end, there was a turning onto another road that would get us back to the main road and we could get to the beach on the original road we'd used a few days earlier. No need to reverse up that road! 

We did eventually reach Cwm-Yr-Eglwys, which Beulah enjoyed enormously after being cooped up on the back seat of the Jaguar next to our daughter for a long time. 

After many family holidays with a few similar, though not quite as bad, experiences and a German Shepherd, our S Type survived and has since been lovingly cleaned, polished and thoroughly vacuumed throughout. She is now enjoying her retirement as a wedding car!