Pictured above: David Almond,  one of Pinnacle's chauffeurs who took part in the Cross-Channel trip, with his vehicle

Chauffeur specialists Pinnacle Chauffeur Transport went more than the extra mile to beat the travel chaos in Europe caused by grounded air flights and return business representatives safely home.

The Sandiacre-based headquarters of the national franchise pulled out all the stops after a call from international office equipment firm Hewlett Packard which was trying to organise transport back to the UK for 17 people, including clients, 

They had been out in Israel and had managed to book a flight back to France but could go no further by plane as flights were cancelled because of the danger caused by volcanic ash from Iceland.

Hewlett Packard tried to organise a coach to bring them back across the Channel but could not do so. Late on Tuesday night Hewlett Packard contacted Pinnacle who arranged tickets for the Eurotunnel crossing.

By 8am on Wednesday morning Pinnacle had three cars and chauffeurs at Folkestone ready to board the train through the Channel Tunnel.

They drove to Paris and made their way to Charles de Gaulle airport ready to meet and greet the business representatives as they landed at lunchtime.

They then made the return journey with cars going to Heathrow and Luton airports and extra vehicles also going to Manchester airport so the representatives could then make their final journeys home.

Pinnacle managing director Trevor Langley said: "With so many horror stories of people being stranded we were delighted to step in at short notice and return these business representatives home quickly."