Green Flag from £25: Although this depends on car and mileage factors. You need to fill in the form to find out the correct price.

RAC: They offer cover from £29

The AA: If you buy online they have cover from £29, not the £35 they advertise on TV.

This is clearly not a marketing video and aimed at the membership rather than out side it, but it does give an inside to AMA membership and how being a part of a group can give benefits, beyond a magazine.

The benefits also include discounts from several retailers relating to motorcycles products, when you subscribe to AMA champion. The real benefit is that this can also be breakdown cover for family members for other vehicles including RV’s. The amazing price for the ideal is only $39 a year. Sometimes we wish we were born on the other side of the Atlantic.

Just like Green Flag, their call out system is based on local garages and recovery agents that will answer calls as and when they are required. Often this can mean quicker call out times, rather than waiting for an employed breakdown cover patrolmen sitting in his van 20 miles away, or someone who is already on call.

In this case Britannia claims on its homepage to have been awarded a best buy status from Which, the consumer magazine that compares all service providers and matches on certain criteria, from price to customer service. Although when we checked this out; the latest report we could find was from July 2008 and has the AA as top RAC second and Britannia third.

Even at third it was good reading, to the point of being better than Green Flag, where the research showed you were less likely to be repaired at the roadside. At the time of writing they are advertising roadside assistance from £29, which seems a competitive price. They are promoting this through press advertising including the Daily Mail.

Well here are the scores on the board on the 4th September 2008, advertised directly on the websites.

The cheapest is Green Flag with their basic Rescue package from £25, clearly they are looking to woo those who can see just how cheap this price is compared to previous years. Green Flag have market themselves at this price point before earlier in the year and now feel they needed to return to this entry point.

The next price up is quite surprising as it is the AA, who we are normally used to see being the most expensive of the 3, although this survey is only based on entry point prices. The AA is advertising prices from £29 which is based on the 35% discount you would get buy buying online. Here is a hint (you can do this through Breakdown Cover Net). The AA call their entry point breakdown cover service as just Roadside.

Finally we have the RAC who have prices from £33, although not a bad price is just not as competitive as the AA or Green Flag. The RAC breakdown cover polices do cover you as a driver or passenger in a car, rather than for one vehicle, so this should be a consideration.

We should stress however, that although these are the price entry points for these breakdown cover organisations, these polices are not identical and those difference should be the priority when choosing which policy would be right for you.

During this so called credit crunch time, breakdown cover may no seem the biggest priority with mortgages to pay and the high price of fuel to add to the financial burden. It seems these emergency roadside service providers have responded with lower than usual prices to keep you safe whilst driving your car.

The latest report dated the 1st September 2008, tells us about the stupid rules that are applied to us motorists and mirrors reports seen on the national news over the week.

The new press release by the AA is based on a guide by the Flexible Thinking Forum and is called “overcome Stupidity” and challenges stupid decisions, like yellow lines that are only a few inches long and would not apply to a full sized car. Bus lanes which go past business property, meaning anyone leaving should get a ticket. Another example is, charging for the, length of car in Norwich, irrelevant of carbon emission output.

There are many more examples found by breakdown cover net that have just not been thought through, and maybe are in place just to tax the motorist more. It is a shame that these reports are not just that bit more in your face. Of course selling breakdown cover and their insurance polices are the priority, so you have to specifically go looking for these press releases to show he work the AA are doing to promote motoring needs throughout the UK.

It is probably time that we here at breakdown cover Net, start going through previous press releases together with other motoring organisation and help spread the word.

In reality though, the inconvenience of a motorist breaking down and cost implications of a commercial van breakdown could be miles apart. Think about the wages, the unhappy customer and the real threat of having the load stolen if the van is left unattended. If the breakdown was to happen on the way home, is there overtime involved and that unhappy customer, was there more custom to come from them.

So keeping that van on the road really could eat into the business pocket, not to mention the insurance issues involved. This is not meant to scare but more like a realisation of the needs of the business owner and why van breakdown cover has become more popular and how the service providers have adapted or should I say added to their policies and agreements to keep the businesses on the road.

Commercial vehicle policies are available from most providers now and in many cases the costs versus the rewards or can be a no brainer for the companies concerned. Call out times under 1 hour and even recovery to anywhere in the mainland could save serious money in this competitive world.

When the motoring clubs spent more time of road safety and motoring issue rather than just delivering insurance options, it would be them who would encourage changing fuels to suit the pocket, economy or even morale issues. Now it is down to the green brigade knowing that all fights will be with be against the might of the oil companies, something most governments want to avoid as most economies are reliant on such organisations.
So for now the AA, RAC and Green Flag can be content with offering breakdown cover mainly to petrol and diesel drivers, the future holds something a lot more complicated, even before the space ships arrive.

Here is a video od a more extreme service that many motorists may want ot have in the future, although highly unlikely, how to get rid of other motorists on the road that get in your way. The ironic thing about this, is that the other guy will need the breakdown cover man also after the event. You will get the point when you watch this video.

It does not take a genius to compare an annual policy price against a call out charge from a recovery agent should you breakdown. In fact it makes you wonder, how they make a profit from this.

A basic annual breakdown cover policy for less than a tank full of petrol. If there was a time to consider based on price, it must be now.

The AA always tend to be more expensive than the rest of the field, probaby becase they have more patrolem on the payroll than anyone else. But in this case they are only £1.40 more expensive than the RAC, with an annual membership starting from £34.40 after their 25% discount is applied.

In fact compared to the RAC, all their prices seem pretty close.