Sheet 08 · the Slough unit
Slough is a wholesaler’s address for one plain reason: it sits on the M4 between junctions 5 and 7, with the M25 a few miles east and the M40 reachable to the north.
Goods in arriving
Inbound vehicles reach the unit off the trunk road network rather than through residential streets, which matters for a curtainsider on a booked slot. The registered office is at 270 Spackmans Way, Slough SL1 2SE.
Goods out leaving
Outbound runs choose a direction at the first junction: west along the M4 towards Reading and the Thames Valley, east towards the M25 and the London orbital, or north to the M40 and the Midlands.
Junction 6 serves Slough directly off the M4 and feeds the town’s trading estates; junction 5 lies east towards Langley and the M25; junction 7 lies west. The M25 is reached eastbound at junction 4b of the M4, and the M40 northbound by way of the A355 and junction 2.
09
A vehicle leaving loaded does not have to cross a high street to find a motorway, and a vehicle arriving on a booked slot is not held up by one. The first mile has five stages and none of them is a town centre.
The yard
Gate, weighbridge apron, and the lane the run was staged in.
The estate road
Trading estate roads, built for articulated vehicles.
The trunk road
A4 or A355, depending on the direction chosen.
The junction
M4 junction 5, 6 or 7; or A355 to M40 junction 2.
The motorway
West, east or north, inside the first mile.
01 → 02 · off the bay
A vehicle is not released from the lane until its paperwork is complete, so the first stage of the first mile happens in the yard rather than on the road. Loads leaving in the dark get the same walk-round as loads leaving in daylight.
03 → 05 · on to the network
No journey time is quoted on this sheet, because a journey time is a promise about traffic. What can be stated is geography: three motorway junctions within the first mile, and no town centre between the yard gate and any of them.
10
From the M4 corridor a day’s run covers the Thames Valley, the western side of the London orbital, and the Berkshire and Buckinghamshire towns either side of the motorway. North of the M40 and west of Reading are reached on the same roads without a change of plan.
Suppliers deliver into Slough from the ports and from the Midlands on the same corridor the outbound runs use. A container pulled from a south coast or Thames gateway port reaches the bay that way, which is why the container fill sheet sits on the goods-in half of the front page rather than the despatch half. Catchment is described here as geography and not as a service level: delivery days for a given drop are agreed on the booking and written on the despatch note, which is the only place a date is a commitment.
11
The registered office and the trading address are the same place, and the layout of that place is the reason this site has two columns.
TAN SOLUTIONS LTD, incorporated 31st August 2026.
Which is why these sheets are written in two columns that can be read straight down. The plan itself is on the front page.