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Breakdown and Recovery

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Mash:
Hiya,

"Breakdown Clubs" can be put into 2 differant catagories basically.

In one camp you have the RAC and AA who operate their own patrols and relay vehicles.

In the other camp are all the other "clubs" Green Flag, NCI, Brittania, Equity Redstar etc etc etc. They ship all the work out to contractors like I work for.

It is in the interests of the RAC & AA to get you going as if they have to recover you then they lose money.

Third party contractors however make their money from recoverys and a token fee for roadside fixes.

The AA and RAC will only use contractors when they are really busy ! Normally they will send out a Patrol first. Even if your engine has just expired. This is done for two reasons.

1st they meat their targets and can say on average they will be with you in 45 minutes or whatever it is...

2nd Lets remember that MOST drivers have no mechanical knowledge whatsoever and therefore you telling the operator on the phone that your engine has blown up doesn't mean anything..

Heres an example... A couple of months back I went to a job that came down as a blown engine on a motorbike (I work for a Motorcyle recovery firm).. I arrived to be told by the member that it had "blown up"..

Turned the ignition key and hey presto nothing....Pulled the bike apart to find the main fuse which sure enough had gone pop...Replaced fuse and sent him on his merry way.


With regards to parts most operators only carry the bare minimun of parts..I only carry inner tubes, wire, connectors and the odd bit of hose, oh and maybe a jubilee clib or 2..

There is no way on earth that you can carry a comprehensive parts catalogue otherwise we'd have an artic following us.....

Be gentle with us please ......  :wink:

waveydavey:
I was with Tesco but haven't used them in anger. Basically Green Flag etc. setup though.
RAC as from today; M&S insurance was 30 quid more than the cheapest, full RAC included for the car and for me driving anythign else.

Lucy1978:
I'm with the RAC, through the Camping and caravaning club, no one else will cover the 101.  Been recovered a number of times, never any real problem, they do have an annoying tendency to send a patrol first though, last time was cause the wheel bearings had gone and the wheel was just about off.  The patrol turned up and left straight away.

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