Van Hire Astley

Astley sits on the mossland between Leigh and Manchester, with the East Lancashire Road running along its edge and open, flat country behind it. Van hire Astley is collected from our Tilley Street depot at the Cockhedge Shopping Centre entrance in Warrington, where our van hire in Warrington fleet of over seventy vehicles covers everything from a compact panel van to a Luton with a tail lift.

The Run In For Van Hire Astley

The A580 East Lancashire Road westbound, then south on the A574 through Culcheth and Croft, is the direct route and a comfortable drive in anything we hire. The M6 from junction 23 is the alternative when the East Lancs is congested, though for this distance it rarely saves much. Free secure parking at the depot means your own car is looked after while the van is out.

Mossland Lanes And Soft Verges

Fog is the other seasonal factor on the moss. The flat open ground holds it longer than surrounding higher land, and visibility on the straight narrow lanes can drop sharply on autumn mornings. It rarely stops a job, but it argues for setting off a little later rather than pressing on in a vehicle you are not used to.

Agricultural traffic is part of the picture through spring and autumn. Tractors and trailers use these roads heavily at either end of the season, and meeting one on a narrow stretch means somebody reverses. In a loaded van with limited rear visibility that is harder than it sounds, so allowing extra time and taking the wider route where one exists is worth the few additional minutes.

The roads across Astley Moss and out towards Glazebury are flat, straight and narrow, with soft peat verges and very few passing places. They are perfectly driveable, but a wide vehicle meeting a tractor on one of them means somebody reverses a long way. In wet weather the verges will not hold the weight of a loaded van, so staying on the metalled surface matters more here than almost anywhere else in our area.

Van Hire Astley For Garden And Landscaping Loads

The mossland soil and the number of smallholdings around Astley mean a lot of the work is garden, fencing and reclamation rather than household. Those loads are heavy, dirty and awkwardly shaped, which suits an open bed far better than a lined panel van. The flatbed dropside van takes them properly, and you are not trying to protect an interior from soil and sharp edges on the way home.

Village Access And Older Property

Weather matters more on the moss than it does in town. The open ground either side of the lanes offers no shelter, and a high sided vehicle handles very differently in a crosswind than a car does. If the driver has not taken a large van out before, the flat exposed stretches are not the place to find out how it behaves, so a smaller vehicle in poor conditions is a reasonable trade.

The older parts of the village have narrow frontages and limited off-street parking, and some of the lanes running off the main road have no turning space at all once you commit to them. Walking the approach before the day is worth the ten minutes. Where the address sits on one of those lanes, a short wheelbase low roof van and an extra trip is a considerably better day than a Luton that cannot get out.

Crossing The A580 With A Load

Loading order helps here as well. Weight placed low and forward keeps the vehicle stable when you are joining a fast road from a standing start, and anything that can shift should be strapped rather than wedged. It takes a few minutes at the loading point and saves rearranging a collapsed load on the verge.

The East Lancashire Road is fast and busy, and the junctions along it are not all signalled. Pulling out of a side road in a fully loaded van takes longer than it does in a car, and the gap you would take in a car is not the gap to take in a van. Where a right turn across the carriageway can be avoided by going a little further and turning back, it usually should be.

Collection Requirements And Hours

If you have not driven a van before, take a few minutes in the yard before setting off. Mirrors, rear visibility and the turning circle all behave differently from a car, and the lanes around Astley are not the place to work that out for the first time. A slow circuit of the depot forecourt is enough to get the measure of it.

Bring your photocard driving licence and a DVLA check code generated online shortly before collection. All our vehicles drive on a standard category B car licence and most need no deposit. We are open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm and closed on Sunday, which is the main thing to plan a job around. Short and long term hire are both available, and European cover can be arranged on request.

Booking Ahead For Van Hire Astley

House moves cluster at the end of the month and the larger vehicles go first, so an early booking is worth making when the date is fixed. Selected vehicles reserved at least two weeks ahead carry a ten per cent discount, detailed on our van hire special offers page. Customers working along the same corridor often combine a job here with van hire Leigh, which sits a few minutes west.

Describe the lane and the load and we will recommend a vehicle that will actually get down it. Call the depot on 01925 396 222.