Driving home for Christmas?

Are you a victim of a Christmas traffic jam resulting in you ruining Christmas day because the dinner got cold!? Not this year… a combination of Christmas falling on a weekend, the weather and Highways England completing 400 miles of roadworks should ease the strain on Britain’s roads this holiday season. The RAC has predicted that 28million of us will make trips before boxing day as part of the Christmas getaway.

This year Christmas day falls on a Sunday freeing up more days for people to spread out their journeys. The usual Christmas Eve rush is predicted to be avoided with many planning to travel today. This will spread the number of drivers on the road but if it was me I would pick the 24th due to the mix of rush hour traffic building later today as it is the last working day for many. The madness won’t settle on Christmas day either with 3.5million trips being made up and down the country to try and make it just in time for the Christmas carving with all the family.

A white Christmas would be wonderful, wouldn’t it? Sorry to disappoint but it doesn’t look that way this year with not even a chill in the air the forecast is set to be mild, dull and drizzly; light those candles I say! On the bright side, this is good news for driving conditions with no ice or snow.

Highways England are certainly doing their bit to help this year by completing 400 miles of roadworks before the Christmas rush which are now finished and due to restart on 3rd January, just in time for that first trip back to work! This will leave 98% of a 9,534-mile network free of disruption from construction meaning more lanes will be open and speed restrictions will be lifted. They will also have traffic officers on duty throughout the Christmas period, up and down the country to assist in clearing any incidents which should be completed within the hour.

TOP TIPS:

Prep the car – petrol, oil, water, tyres etc.
Check traffic reports to plan necessary diversions
Check out the weather display for the best time to set off
Prepare for a delay with lots of water, snacks and blankets
Set out with a fully charged phone stored away whilst driving

TOP PICKS:

Dashboard cameras– ensure you don’t get bullied by intimidated drivers on the motorway and record every minute of your drive. You may also record some entertaining memories with the family sing along in the car
Speed camera warning systems– Christmas is expensive enough without a hefty speeding fine on top
Handsfree Bluetooth car kits– don’t miss an important call or risk driving whilst on the phone with a handsfree kit that works via your phones Bluetooth
Lock security– visiting family and leaving your car in an unknown area? Ensure maximum security with our slamlocks and deadlocks
Rhino roof racks and bars– us ladies do not pack light so our Rhino products will offer maximum load space
Sat nav– not great at directions and don’t have a trustworthy map reader as a passenger? Invest in a sat nav system that you can rely on
Audio– long journeys are boring and people do get tired of eye spy! An audio system will help pass the time along with the rows over what you listen to

Check out our Christmas opening and delivery times.

Beccy Little

2024-09-18

Fantastic service from start to finish. Initial Consultation was efficient, friendly and fast. The company went out of their way to suit, design and create, supplying a full Speed-liner coating onto our van and complete new caging system for carrying dogs. Would highly recommend. Thank you

Paul Randall

2024-03-14

First Class! Dave and the team are fantastic. The fit on our first Mobile Bike Service and Repair Van could not be any better. From the very beginning, through the design process, all the way to completion I cannot fault a single thing. As I write this, our second van is being fitted to exactly the same specification and the third van is on the way. Long may this partnership continue!

Tim Lees

2024-02-20

Very helpful and patient with an older guy who was a bit nervous ordering from a company I didn't know. The product I wanted wasn't on their website but I thought it worth asking and they had it at a good price. It came the next day and worked perfectly.

Richard Shepherd

2024-01-17

I highly recommend Lee, Dave and the Team at Vehicle Accessories after they did a fantastic job for a one off bespoke van fit for my business. I approached them with a rather radical high concept idea, Dave did a great job taking notes from my extensive brief. He made a great effort to listen and take notes along the way making sure he understood and made suggestions for materials which really led to a much better end product. A particular highlight was a suggestion for them to fabricate a wall mounted Steal Mesh cage system for my equipment which far exceeded my expectations of quality and engineering. During the planning stage and construction suggestions were made to change materials and systems for what they thought would work better for the project as it developed. The end product was perfect and done to a very high standard, it really turned out better than I ever hoped for. Communication throughout was excellent with regular updates, fast responses and easy dialogue when confirming details or discussing changes. Changes were managed quickly and efficiently throughout the build with a great deal of flexibility and professionalism. Even though I was just having just one bespoke build being done for myself I felt highly valued as a customer and treated with the same level of respect and attentiveness as someone ordering a fleet. The quality of work and customer service will certainly mean I’ll be coming back for my next van project.

Philip Taylor Ashby

2023-12-26

Lee and his helpful staff sorted my lock problem that made it easy to break in or steal and at there Christmas closing time🙏, friendly helpful and reasonable thank you all.

Mark Elliott

2023-05-23

Great choice of equipment to fit and all done efficiently. They have designed and fitted racking to 75 vehicle for us in the last year.

Ross Thomson

2023-05-20

I can’t recommend Lee and his team of wizards enough. They fitted the gas with all the safety requirements and modified / adapted several parts of the electrics. They went above and beyond my expectations - I won’t hesitate to use them again.

Andrew Young

2023-04-13

What can say.... the order process was simple, prices competitive and when it was realised that I had ordered 2 incompatible parts I got a call to check and recify the order. Collection was easy and the install team did a quick, neat job. Job done....until next time thank you

Annie Meadows

2023-02-28

Dave, Lee and the team at VA moved crates from my old van to a new one. Easy to communicate with, quick turn around, met all my requests, made good suggestions (such as putting in a waterproof floor) and did an excellent job. Highly recommend.