Chauffeur coverage across the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham

A full day out of Barking and Dagenham usually runs from a breakfast meeting to an evening flight, with three or four stops in between and at least one of them moved at short notice.

Papers, coats and shopping stay in the cabin between Barking and Dagenham stops. That sounds minor until you have carried a laptop bag round Barking Abbey ruins and the Curfew Tower for six hours because the car was parked somewhere else.

Early collections in Barking and Dagenham are the easy ones. At five in the morning A13 Newham Way is empty and the car waits directly outside. At half past eight the same Barking and Dagenham address is a different problem, and the plan for it changes accordingly.

Cases go in the boot while you are still saying goodbye on the Barking and Dagenham doorstep. If the journey is to London City the route is already loaded, the traffic on A12 Eastern Avenue has been checked once more, and the car is moving within a minute of the door closing. That minute is the entire difference between a Barking and Dagenham chauffeur and a cab.

• Chauffeur briefed on the Barking and Dagenham address before the car sets off
• Water, a charger and a cabin set for whatever Barking and Dagenham is doing that morning
• A written price agreed before the car is allocated to Barking and Dagenham
• Chauffeur, vehicle and registration on the Barking and Dagenham confirmation before the day

In the forty minutes before you land, the chauffeur has already left Barking and Dagenham and is at London City. The car goes into the London City car park, the parking is paid, and the walk to the arrivals barrier is timed so the board is up before the first passengers bound for Barking and Dagenham come through. None of that is your problem, but it is the reason the London City meet works and Barking and Dagenham is reached on time.

The cabin is warm before you reach it at London City and quiet for the whole run into Barking and Dagenham. If you want to sleep for the 20-40 minutes back to Barking and Dagenham, that is the expected use of the back seat rather than an imposition on anybody.

• Return route into Barking and Dagenham chosen at the airport exit rather than in advance
• A second drop in Barking priced into the same booking
• Trains into Barking Riverside watched the same way as flights
• Private arrivals met airside at the London City handling agent, then driven to Barking and Dagenham