Guide

How does delivery work when there is no depot?

Updated October 2026 6 min read Performance & Prestige

There is no depot and no branch. The car is brought to an address you choose anywhere in mainland Britain on the day the agreement starts, and collected at the end from an address you choose, which need not be the same one. Northern Ireland and the islands are outside the area served.

What does "no depot" mean?

That the address you give us is the branch. There is nothing to visit, nothing to drive off a forecourt and nowhere to queue, and the car arrives where you asked for it on the day the term starts.

It is not a compromise dressed up as a convenience. A wide, low, valuable car driven across a city to meet you arrives with more miles, more road film and more risk on it than one delivered properly, and a forecourt handover puts you in the worst possible place to inspect a car carefully.

The trade is that the address has to work. That is a real constraint rather than a formality, and it is the thing worth sorting out early.

What does your address have to allow?

Three things, none of them exotic.

Somewhere legal to stand for a few minutes. Not a red route, not a live bus lane, not a space that needs a permit nobody has.
Room to unload safely. Wide, low cars need clearance at both ends and space to open a door fully.
Somebody present. The named driver, in person, with the physical licence — not a neighbour, a concierge or a colleague.

If your street is narrow, the entrance is steep, there is a low archway or the access is a private road with a barrier, tell us in advance. It almost never means we cannot deliver. It usually means meeting a short distance away at a spot that works, agreed beforehand rather than improvised on the morning.

Where do we deliver, and where do we not?

Anywhere in mainland Britain. We publish 40 named delivery areas — thirty-seven towns and cities, plus three airports — but the list is a guide to where deliveries commonly go rather than a boundary. If your address is between two of them, that is an ordinary delivery.

Northern Ireland is not served, and neither are the islands. That is a hard limit rather than a starting position for a negotiation, and it is better known before a quote than after one. Taking a car outside mainland Britain during the term needs agreement in advance and in writing.

Delivery locations lists the published areas, each with the local detail that actually matters — clean-air zones, access, and where a car like this can and cannot go.

What happens the day before?

You get a confirmation of the address, the window, the named driver who has to be present and the documents to have to hand. Nothing in it should be a surprise, because all of it was agreed when the quote was confirmed.

That is also your last easy chance to flag a problem: a delivery window that no longer works, an address change, a driver who cannot be there. All three are simple the day before and awkward on the morning.

Have the physical licence, the DVLA check code, photo ID, proof of address and the deposit card ready. The code lasts twenty-one days and can be used once, so generate it close to the date.

Can the address change during the term?

The delivery address is fixed for the day of delivery; where the car lives afterwards is your business, within the terms of the agreement. If you move house in month three, tell us — not because the car has to stay put, but because the address on the agreement and on your licence matters to the cover position.

Collection at the end is arranged against a fresh address anyway. Delivered to a house in April and collected from an office in October is an ordinary arrangement and needs no special handling, as long as the collection address meets the same access conditions as the delivery one did.

Taking the car outside mainland Britain is the one change that needs agreement in writing in advance. Everything else is a conversation rather than a problem.

How does collection work at the end?

The same sequence in reverse, at the end of the term, from an address you choose. Somebody has to be present — the car cannot be left with a neighbour, a concierge or a colleague, exactly as at delivery.

We repeat the walk round and the photographs taken at handover, record the fuel or charge and read the mileage against the allowance. Where everything matches, the deposit is released on the timing given to you in writing. Where it does not, you know why, because you were standing next to the car when we looked at it.

Book the collection date properly rather than leaving it to the last few days. A collection arranged in advance is a fifteen-minute appointment; one arranged at short notice is a scramble.

Why is a kerbside handover better than a forecourt one?

Because a forecourt is the worst place in Britain to inspect a car. The light is wrong, somebody is waiting for the bay, and there is a queue behind you — which is precisely when a mark gets missed and a question does not get asked.

At your own address none of that applies. You can take as long as you want, walk the car in daylight on ground you know, and ask about the nose lift twice if you need to. The odometer reading taken there is the figure your mileage allowance counts from, and the photographs taken there are the baseline the end of the term is measured against.

It also removes the journey. Collecting a wide, low, unfamiliar car from a forecourt means learning it in traffic, on a route you did not choose, minutes after signing for it. Handover and your first week covers what to do with the time that buys you.

What if nobody can be there on the day?

Then the date moves, and moving it is much easier in advance than on the morning. A delivery that cannot be handed over is not a delivery — the licence check, the walk round and the signature all have to happen with the named driver at the car.

That constraint exists for a reason. It is the one moment where identity, condition and the agreement are all confirmed in the same place at the same time, and skipping it would mean handing a car of this value to whoever happened to be in.

If your availability is genuinely narrow, say so at the quote stage. The delivery window is easier to shape around you before it is booked than afterwards.

Common questions

Can I collect the car myself?

No. There is no depot to collect from, which is the point of the model rather than a limitation of it. The car comes to you at the address you nominate and is collected from an address you nominate at the end.

Is delivery discreet?

It can be. Tell us if you would rather the car arrived without ceremony, or met you a short distance from the address, and it is arranged that way. It is a common request and it costs nothing to accommodate.

Can the car be delivered to a hotel or a workplace?

Usually, provided the access conditions are met and whoever runs the site is expecting it. Check with them first — a hotel forecourt or a managed car park often has rules about transporters that are easier to resolve in advance.

Do you deliver to Northern Ireland or the islands?

No. Delivery and collection cover mainland Britain only, and taking a car outside that area during the term needs agreement in advance and in writing.