AA Breakdown Cover Blog Information

We often think of a vehicle breakdown being a permanent thing, with expensive repairs being the norm. The reality is most car breakdowns are avoidable and tend to focus pm the basic parts for the car. The AA have released their figure on top breakdowns over the summer, so you can see where the opportunities are.

The top result relates to tyres, either flat or damaged, then it is the old car battery thing, most likely flat batteries. Starter motors and alternators come next until we start to see something a bit more serious, the clutch.

The final reason on this top 10 breakdown call outs, is the cylinder head gasket, with equated to 7000 call outs during the summer. The AA state that up to half of breakdowns could have been avoided with correct maintenance.

Some advice is also offered in this news item to help you avoid being one of these statistics. Even if you do have an AA breakdown cover policy, there still will be some inconvenience waiting for a dedicated patrol. Most can be repaired by the roadside, but better to be safe than sorry.

The AA has always been close to the main concerns of the motorist and in current climes, nothing has effected the motorist as much as the constant rise in fuel prices. A glimpse through the AA press centre and the fuel concerns of the AA dominate the news from last year right into 2011.

The government needs the extra tax on fuel to help deal with the defecate, but combined with higher oil prices, we are at the point where many feel we should not be adding the extra 1p on duty this April.

The December fuel update AA news item , suggests that even then we were spending £8m more per day than a year previous and this was before the VAT rise in January.

Technology gets in the way of everything or makes our lives better depending on your point of view, so it should not be surprising that the new fad of mobile phone  Apps would eventually be connect with car breakdown cover. The AA has announced the release of an App for the iPhone that will use the GPS function of the phone to help locate where the motorist is stranded. With one touch of the App the motorist can also contact the AA call centre to speed up response.

If this was not enough, the App will also show AA traffic information, as well as a reminder service for insurance and other motoring key dates. For non members the App can be used to buy AA car breakdown cover, making this a handy download from I Tunes.

Of course the download is free and brings car breakdown cover into the 21st century, where sales are based around the internet, but the call out around the call centre. You can read the full AA iPhone App story at their press centre.

Would you believe back in July the AA press centre published information on the winter resilience review of the previous winter, very apt considering the high snow falls we are having early this year.

The report focuses mainly on salt supplies, something that has not been mentioned much this year, so we have to assume that lessons have been learned. The failing salt supplies affected business and household throughout the country There is recognition that highway authorities worked hard throughout the cold spell, but strategic supplies of salt should be sought.

What is also mentioned is those with car breakdown cover and how the AA dealt with those call outs in areas where the roads had not been salted. It was the busiest time ever and some calls were not attended due to the road conditions.

Trying to keep up to date with the AA news and features has been just too much of us recently and so  we are aiming to play catch up  for a while whilst the snow slows down the North Of England and Scotland.

As the snow has caught us out again (even though we were warned) here are some winter driving tips from the AA. The guide covers antifreeze, vision, electrics and tyres. To be honest it is all common sense for those who have been driving for some years, but as humans we tend to wait until the snow is on the ground before we think about it.

So as the cold snap intends to stay with us this week, be careful out there and follow the AA’s advice.

AA patrols are coming up with raising funds for Help for Heroes, and they will be taking part in a rally across Europe that hopes to raise around £100,000 for the cause. This would be an eleven day event and The Help for Heroes 4X4 European Rally 2010 (19-29 June) and it would cover 1800 miles across six countries. At the starting point, it will be waived by BBC Radio 2’s Lynn Bowles near Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, before they would be crossing Normandy from Portsmouth. After that the routes take to other significant places like Arnhem, Holland, and Bastogne in Belgium, where from they would be heading towards Alsace, France. Finally, they finish in Bavaria in Germany.

For the purpose of raising funds for charity, there are great peoples like Tony Knott of Sandhurst, Berkshire, Kevin Jones of Wittersham, Kent and John Foster from Shrewsburry, will be giving their hands for any kind of technical issues. Further, carrying on with the cause, they will move to two Land Rovers- one is the Defender 100 and the second one is Discovery that they bought and had done painting in AA colours. After the event of the charity these would be sold. Tony Knott, one who would be helping with any of the issues technically, said “Help for Heroes is a great charity for those special heroes who are serving in the reserves. There are many other people at AA breakdown family and there are much more friends there. The total number of vehicles would be 49 and to keep everyone on road, we all have our own portion of work cut out. We are totally focussed on doing our job with determination and this will help us in raising good fund for the cause.”

There are two more organizations that are supporting AA with the real cause of raising Funds for Heroes, and these are AA’s partners: Land Rover that is supplying vehicles for the organisers and O2, which is helping in providing mobile communication. Tony, Kevin and John have done a step forward action by creating a web page and they are accepting any kind of donations that would be given for the cause. The Help for Heroes 4×4 European rally 2010 website would be soon updated with all the blogs, pictures and events included in it. There are four of the vehicles in the event that would be fitted with tracking function so that they could be easily followed in their progress. One of those vehicles is Tony Knott’s Land Rover, team 45. If you are also eager to follow the event then you can also follow them on Twitter.

At first we got the news that the AA were going to strike over the Bank Holiday weekend, then there was a message that not all members would be supporting the strike, so it would be “business as usual”. Earlier this week, messages are delivered stating that the AA would be still delivering a reduced service over the weekend, but today we heard the good news; the strike by AA Patrolmen is off.

The Independent Democratic Union who represent the AA patrolmen have agreed to call off the strike whilst they re-ballot their members on new proposals. This is good news for the motorists who have decided to get away this Bank Holiday weekend, now knowing that their AA policies for breakdown cover can be fully enforced.

The May Bank holiday is traditionally a busy time for motorists, although the weather doe not look as good as most would like. It is also a busy time for retail parks and DIY stores, so the roads are still likely to be busy this weekend.

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According to twitter and other sources there appears to be a 2 days strike planed for the 2nd and 3rd of May by a small amount of AA patrolmen. The information available suggests the main reason for the strike is regarding the pension scheme and in recent ballots run by the independent democratic union, most AA patrolmen opted not to strike.

Andrew Strong, CEO of the AA has raised a statement suggesting that the strike will not affect its members and a contingency plan is in place, with normal AA breakdown cover options in  place. Andrew goes on to say, he does not believe there is a dispute between AA patrolmen and the company and have agreed to out in 40% more funds than before.

You can read more about The AA’s version of events on Threatened AA Strike.

What a show of respect to the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan as 10,000 bike riders rode through Wootton Bassett to show respect and appreciation of the work they are doing out there. The AA was there to give support to the riders should there have been any mechanical problems with bikes. This all happened on Mothers Day and was fully subscribed, just showing how much support our troops have from us all.

The campaign was arranged by afghanheros.org and got national press coverage, it certainly was a sight to see, even if it was just on TV.

It is hard to imaging that the AA has been around for 105 years, although back then it was called the Automobile Association.  When you look back through British history there are not many companies that have stood the test of time as well as this. Of course it is not the same organisation as back them (arguably) with finance and travel (not just motoring travel)  also part of the business services offered by the AA.

It has had to adapt to the changing motoring trends, at the same time offering the AA breakdown cover service many have come to trust generation to generation. Its latest adventure is moving into home breakdown cover. No this is not a home car breakdown cover service, but a service for domestic emergencies, such as burst pipes or broken boilers.

The cover is less than £10 a month for existing AA members and a bit more for no members, and will cover you up to a certain value should things go wrong in the home. The AA have the infrastructure to take calls and get the right people to your home asap, but will people take this service out, or wait until things go wrong in the home?

Probably the same as car breakdown cover, get burnt once and that is it, a policy every year for a lifetime.

It is atonishing that at a time where the AA is pushing the boundaries and attending more breakdowns in its history, that we just did not write a word about it during December and January. So here we are on the last day to January playing catch up. It is ironic that the snow came again today, but not at the levels we say just befor Christmas right through to January. On teh 20th January the AA announced it had rescued a half million motorists since the hard weather struck on the 17th of December. Can you believe that breakdown calls were comming in at 1000 an hour, truly amazing. There is a sober message here. Imaging not having AA breakdown cover when your found yourself caught out in these freezing conditions, to buying a simple roadside assistance policy for less than £30.

We could argue we know the snow was comming, but lets be honest we did not think it would last this long or be his severe. A bit like breakdown cover really, you know there may be a time you may need it, but when and for how long, it is impossible to predict. So by iinvesting abit now, you can be safe later. it is a shame the councils did not do the same with their grit levels.

We have all heard of the wonderful work the resuce and emergency teams have done in Cumbria but what hasn’t been mentioned much is the support the AA have offeref during this difficult time. The AA put in place 4 flood bursting Land Rovers as part of its Sort’s team (Specialist Operations Response team) its aim to rescue drivers within the flood areas.

These specialist Land Rovers work alongside the normal breakdown cover vans helping drivers in areas where normaly recovery vans would not be able to drive. These Land Rovers are equiped with all the right gear for such weather conditions or work within an RNLI enviroment and 2 trainied engineers.

This is not your normal breakdown cover stuff, but you can read the SORT Team in Cumbria story here

In 2008 the AA asked from 11,000 to nearly 17,500 people certain questions about safety and now want to create a saety manifesto based on answers of the questionaires.
The questions related to speed cameras, do we need tighter regulation and what the 3 E’s stand for, education, engineering and enforement.

Surprisingly most people were in some sort of supprt of speed cameras. If you inlcude the very acceptable and quite acceptable answers to speed camers you end up with 70% of the vote, somthing many of us are surprised to see. Over 11,000 people were asked these questions.

Nearly 14,000 people expressed an opinion about tighter regulations of which nearly 60% were in favour, for tighter regulations to reduce road deaths.

When it came to the 3 E’s most suggested tha engineering was the solution to safer driving where other suggested that extra driving training should be given to those with minor motoring offenses.

To get the full story and exact figures on the AA safety Manifesto you should visit the AA breakdown cover site direct.

It is right that safety should be on the agenda as well as selling breakdown cover, so the manifesto should be valueable to everyone and show what the people of the UK want, not just the government’s opinion.

So what has the AA and the old trusty bicycle got to do with other? Have they started to offer breakdown cover for our 2 wheeled friends? No the answer is the AA have been chosen to patrol the UK’s biggest cycling race called the Tour of Britain.

This is not the first time that the AA has been chosen to give AA breakdown cover to the official vehicles along the route for the whole 8 days from the 12th September to the 19th; in fact this is their 5th year. The AA patrol vehicles will be in front of the procession ready for any unplanned breakdowns, in order that full support can always be given to the cycle teams by the Tour of Britain support crew.

Over a million people will see the Tour of Britain and the AA support, so this is a great marketing opportunity as well as the largest breakdown cover provider being associated with the largest cycle race in Britain.

You can read the official AA Tour of Britain news item.

They have awarded the AA the best breakdown cover provider within the August edition of the “Which” magazine. It was awarded after a comprehensive survey of over 13000 drivers who had broken down, giving a final score of 86%. This is the third year in a row that the AA breakdown cover has been awarded the best buy from the respected magazine.

The questions included things like how polite were the staff at the call centre when you needed to ring in, how quick the response was and courtesy and knowledge. As the largest provider in the UK, this is something that normally would diminish as the company got bigger, but obviously their customers did not think so.

The score suggests that the AA have the best chance of a member recommending their service to a friend or colleague. Well done to the AA

The patrolman of the year was announced a few weeks ago in the name of Stewart Topp who has been with the AA for 13 years now. His reward is to get the chance of being the public face of the AA for the next year. He has seen a lot of changes over the least 13 years and was the first AA motorcycle patrol rider to use the new Vextric Electric Bike that is used in city centres.

Another award goes to the Recovery Patrol of the year Ken Deeley from Sheffield, who has been with the AA for 3 years now, he also will get the chance to represent the AA over the next 12 months.
We say well done to the guys and good luck with your new roles representing the largest breakdown cover organisation over the year.

There have been mixed views about the recent scrappage scheme introduced by the chancellor within the Budget this week. However the AA has published their Deals For New Wheels press release supporting the scheme, that will not only induce new car sales but may also help the environment also, with newer cars replacing older cars.

The basis of the scheme is that the Government and manufacturer will give you £2000 off a new car, if you trade in a car over the age of 10 year old of which you have owned for at least 12 months. The criticism has come from used car dealerships and other car selling factors such as car lease firms. It is clearly aimed at the new car buyer, ignoring those who would normally buy every 2 or 3 years and only focusing on those with very old cars, whom you would assume would not normally buy a new car.

It has been popular in Germany and other countries, so it is hard to be negative about certain aspects of the scheme. The AA publishes that 10 million cars may be eligible for the scheme, but this is thwarted by the fact that only £300m has been put aside for this and only for 12 months, not longer as other countries have done, this equates to only 300,000 cars, way short of estimates.

There is criticism that a fuel levy has been applied to pay for the scheme and many believe the increased VAT levy’s would have paid for itself anyway. There is a more detailed facts about the Budget, which you can read form the official AA press release.

We all can remember the huge increase in fuel prices last year that may have contributed to the way we buy and choose the vehicles wed drive. However there is confusion over fuel prices as they don’t seem to match the price of oil. Even though the price of oil had dropped to under$50 a barrel, we are still paying fuel prices as if it were just under $70 a barrel.

The AA are championing this point and commenting on the new rise of 5% at the pumps and how we need a transparent way to price our fuel for the benefit of the consumer or the business owner who has to budget for it.

Offering breakdown insurance is just part of what the AA offers to motorists this fuel issue being a point. Motoring clubs across Europe have written to the EU competition commissioner, (one presumes the AA are part of this) complaining of the lack of transparency.

Supermarkets normally seen of the first to price cut fuel are criticised as they tend to increase their fuel prices just as quick, annoying members of the public, just wanting prices to be more static.
You can read about the full fuel story direct from the AA press area here.

That is the message from the AA in relation to the lack of salt available and being scattered across the UK roads during this excessive winter period. The AA has concerns that the roads are just too dangerous to drive in these conditions and with limited salt reserves available, the argument is about road safety.

It is claimed the government is trying to improve the logistics of salt reserves, in better words where stocks are high and have had less snowfall against those areas that are clearly running out.

The AA insists that more roads should be gritted now in order to reduce insurance claims and the potential loss of life or danger to drivers and pedestrians. This became national news yesterday, broadcast especially from the ITV.

The AA has reported this lack of salt issue also from their site.