If you have a breakdown cover policy you should check what the process is, should you put the wrong fuel in your car. A recent example was a diesel vehicle partly filled with around £15 worth of petrol, luckily around 1 mile away from home. The phone call to the AA suggested that they preferred to fix the car at the roadside rather than towing to a garage or in this case back home only a mile away.
It was Christmas eve and the person on the phone contacted the local patrolman, who agreed they would tow the car back home, if the owners could wait an hour or so (the owners were back at home as the vehicle was so close). The AA breakdown cover patrolman would ring just before attending the vehicle.
He did and the owners arrived at the car, which was then towed back hone with no extra charge, a good service. But during the phone call and the arrival of the patrolman, the charge to deal with a miss-fuel at the roadside was £160. In short in questioned whether getting the car home was part of the relay service, and it may have been because it was Christmas and the car was so close to home, the in this car the AA helped the driver out.
It maybe that the AA will help all drivers whatever they want to do, but the refuel service was pushed a bit and maybe it would have been easier just to pay the money, than trying to fix the problem on the drive, but there was a question mark of how far the relay service will go for mistakes that are made by the driver and clearly cost the AA to put right.
If you have a breakdown cover policy you should check what the process is, should you put the wrong fuel in your car. A recent example was a diesel vehicle partly filled with around £15 worth of petrol, luckily around 1 mile away from home. The phone call to the AA suggested that they preferred to fix the car at the roadside rather than towing to a garage or in this case back home only a mile away.
It was Christmas eve and the person on the phone contacted the local patrolman, who agreed they would tow the car back home, if the owners could wait an hour or so (the owners were back at home as the vehicle was so close). The AA breakdown cover patrolman would ring just before attending the vehicle.
He did and the owners arrived at the car, which was then towed back hone with no extra charge, a good service. But during the phone call and the arrival of the patrolman, the charge to deal with a miss-fuel at the roadside was £160. In short in questioned whether getting the car home was part of the relay service, and it may have been because it was Christmas and the car was so close to home, the in this car the AA helped the driver out.
It maybe that the AA will help all drivers whatever they want to do, but the refuel service was pushed a bit and maybe it would have been easier just to pay the money, than trying to fix the problem on the drive, but there was a question mark of how far the relay service will go for mistakes that are made by the driver and clearly cost the AA to put right.
It achieved a 80% satisfaction score , deemed as best in the industry.
Steve Dewey from the AA stated that they make substantial investment in training and equipment to deliver the best possible service.
The AA also delivers car make branded breakdown cover, this survey and award included those policies. Awards like this offered from a trusted and recognised source such as “Which”, can give confidence when buying AA breakdown cover, especially as the information came from over 7300 drivers.
The AA have discovered that 12% of drivers would not stop no matter what, although when this information is broken down, only 10% of over 65’s would definitely not stop where 18% of women and 16% of under 25’s wouldn’t.
It is not just about ages, but also where you live with Londoners being the worst when it comes to Samaritan help, where Scotland, North East and Northern Ireland the most likely to stop.
The main reason for not stopping is deemed to be personal safety with many drivers believing that most people would now have a mobile phone and would make that necessary phone call. It is interesting how older drivers are more likely to stop, even though they could be the demographic with the greatest chance of being a victim of a con trick.
Of course purchasing an AA breakdown cover policy, is one way to be assured that there will be someone stopping to assist you no matter where you are, that will be a good Samaritan.
OK we admit it no posts for 6 months, so it is time to make it back up with a story for the summer stated by the AA that not having breakdown cover could be deemed as roadside roulette.
Lets start with the figures being quoted here.
The AA claim that last year and average call out fee would be over £172, compared with their roadside assistance policy which could have been bought online for £28. Then when you factor in 12% of drivers will in fact breakdown, they you can see how the comparison to roulette comes in.
There are more distressing figures in that the call out garages would only have fixed 24% of vehicles by the road, compared with the AA’s impressive record of around 80%, which of course saves stress and inconvenience and lets be honest probably contributes to the average 3172 bill.
When you consider that around a third of breakdowns are simple things like batteries or tyres you may have to ask why more call out garages cant fix more by the roadside, maybe that is not their priority. Again the AA called for more maintenance on your vehicle to prevent car breakdowns in the first place.
Only 1% of aa breakdown cover members thought that road conditions had improved, AA President Edmund King said:
We have to keep up the battle against this blight which damages cars and risks road safety, especially for those on two wheels.
"An emergency pothole fund is urgently needed to help cash-strapped local authorities to patch up the roads. However a more coherent maintenance strategy and long term increased funding is required to stop the rot."
When broken down by region Scotland, Yorkshire & Humberside and the North West had worst public opinion on road. 92% of drivers in Scotland said that they thought roads had definitely declined in condition.
Londoner’s were the happiest with their roads however 74% of motorists still said they had noticed deterioration.
Repairs to road however may be a long time coming as figures have shown that a number of councils have reported reductions in their road maintenance budget. Of the 20 councils surveyed 8 have revealed they are cutting funding for repairs.
Recovery firms have also logged a 25% increase in the number of call outs as a result of potholes or damage to highways. Wheel and tyre damage was the most common damage reported.
The poll comes 6 months after a harsh winter with the government pledged £100 million extra funding for road repairs, however estimated have shown that the total cost to repair all of the damage to Britain’s roads would be around £9 billion.
The average motorist will save £300 a year thanks to rewards and offers sent out to members who have aa breakdown cover with the firm.
Membership is automatic when you join the AA for vehicle insurance or breakdown cover and is valid for the entire duration of your policy.
Competitions are also ran regularly and give members the chance to dine at the chef’s table in a Michelin Star restaurant before taking in the view at the City of Manchester Stadium in a Manchester City VIP match package.
It might seem like it’s worth joining just for the perks but primarily you receive second to none breakdown cover at a reasonable price from the firm that has been helping British motorists for well over 100 years.
As of 2010 the AA has over 15 million members and as of 2007 a value of £3.35 billion.Not bad for a group formed by a few London based motoring enthusiasts in 1906.
Car breakdown cover specialists The AA have welcomed new government plans for road safety.
The new strategic framework requires any driver charged with wilfully dangerous and reckless driving to sit a test before being allowed their license back and pay and increased penalty of up to £100.
Reckless driving cost the AA millions of pounds every year in breakdown recovery both for offenders and victims of the crime. Edmund Kind, president of AA insurance and aa breakdown cover said: “It has long been a major concern that uninsured drivers are fined less than the cost of the premium they have not paid.
“The AA welcomes the decision to review fines and fixed penalties for this offence and this should help deter the uninsured drivers who add tens of pounds to every legal driver’s premiums.”
AA offer some of the most comprehensive breakdown cover on the market and attend to over 3.5 million breakdowns a year all fixed within 30 minutes. This works out to a vehicle being fixed once every 12 seconds, whatever the weather.
Which? also recently named the firm the best breakdown cover service on the market thanks in part to the release of an application for mobile phones that using GPS technology allows users to submit their precise location when they have broken down
As we have mentioned earlier we are playing catch up, so lets go back to an important story back in July where the AA took 2 slots in the Which (the magazine) carmaker breakdown assistance survey.
This award is for offering breakdown cover to Jaguar and Honda customers and is based on speed of service and customer care whilst there and got satisfaction scores of 84%. Auto aid did deliver a score of 86% but with a much smaller response and allowing a 15% error rate, it is assume that he AA got top score.
There was a response rate of 4156 for AA members and only 46 from Auto Aid, which is why the AA are claiming top spot. Many car manufacturers offer AA Breakdown cover as part of the package of buying a new car and satisfaction scores like this can make a difference to their sales as well contracts being renewed with the manufacturer.
The arm is stretched out to get you views on motoring so the AA have created the AA Populus panel, which gives you the option to vote on certain aspects of driving such as , road pricing, road congestion and emission issues.
In order to give you view you must first join, but this is not like the AA Forums where you see comments straight away. The results or opinions are added up then printed on the AA website as a vote in percentage terms. This polling is not about AA Breakdown cover or any of its own services but about other issues that effect motorists and driving and so can be used to communicate these problems or concerns to the Government with real people behind them.
The lasts poll is about Hitchhikers and how three quarters would not pick one up. This could be concerning because obviously one quarter would. Do you think that is a dangerous statistic or a sad one based on today’s worry on safety?
As well as offering car insurance, breakdown cover and other financial services, the AA has a driving school which over the years has helped many of thousands to pass their driving test over the years. Their principles are in line with road safety and to find ways of improving your driving as well as just getting trough that test.
With a brand as big as the AA their can be no substitute for quality, so they make sure they only employ ADI approved driving instructors and currently have deals from £10.50 per hour for the first 2 hours(to get you in the swing of things).
The driving instructors are self employed but work under the rules of the The AA’s branding ensuring quality instructions at all times. These AA driving instructors are in pretty much every location around the UK, but to get in touch with these you would first ring the free phone number 0800 980 1834.
If you have a loved one or family member you would like to help with the expense, say for a birthday or Christmas present, you can buy AA driving lesson gift vouchers, to help them on their way.
Driving instruction can go beyond learning to drive, there are more advanced courses aimed at the corporate market. If an employee has an accident whilst driving a company car for work purposes, the company in concerned may be liable. Corporate training overcomes this short fall in learning and ensures your employees have the skills for the road, reducing the risk to your company.
Many see the AA just as a provider of breakdown insurance, but behind the website there are many other ways they go out to help the motorist, either for pleasure driving or for business needs
An effective way of explaining to its customers just how much area the breakdown cover vans operate and how, the AA can get you no matter where you are on the UK mainland is effectively shown in the Land End to John O Groats TV advert.
It shows a Google earth type map looking down on the UK at Lands End first and quickly shows an AA breakdown cover van at eths scene of a 4×4. The view then pans upwards looking down on a motorist having problems at the other end of the UK at John O Goats.
It does get the message out with of course their free phone number and price always at the bottom of the screen.
Here is the advert
Well that is what the TV crew implied when they told us they had been on the road with the AA helping stricken motorists through the heavy change in weather. Of course we wanted to believe them, but so little was shown of the AA breakdown cover man, except him turning up and being greeted by a man who then shook his hand. A brief 3 seconds we saw a jack underneath the car and the recovery van and the driver then drove away.
It is a credit to the AA breakdown cover guys who work in these types of weather; they know it will be much busier in time, the police calls went up from 2 or 3 per night for accidents to 40 a night, so we have to assume that the AA recovery call outs will increase at the same level.
It is a shame that more time was not spent with the service, although it could have been seen as a marketing ploy rather than real news. In the meantime the AA advises of hypothermia and why you should always carry warm clothes when driving in these conditions.
It probably isn’t a surprise that the AA is the largest breakdown cover organisation in the UK, when you measure the quantity of employed engineers who attend call outs and get you on your way. Because of this you are more likely to see an AA breakdown cover van on the road than any other breakdown cover company as other service providers either mix their own engineers with call out agents or in some cases, all the call out personnel are in fact a network of garages.
You can’t miss the AA vans, painted in a bright orange colour that also has safety properties when parked next to roads at night with dim lighting, the AA logo shows no doubt of who is fixing that car.
The marketing campaigns on TV leave no question of who is the largest, although sometimes the adverts are a bit cringe worthy, such as singing patrolmen. The general motorist really doesn’t care whether the patrolmen attending their car could win the X factor, all they care about is, “will this guy get my car working soon”?
This blog will be about the The AA breakdown cover organisation as a whole, even though we are not authorised to do so. Sometimes we may be complimentary; other times a bit critical, but we hope a bit fair by bring offers, videos and some history. Of course there probably will not be daily news, but we do hope there will be sufficient information to update regularly.
