We are in the States this week in what is supposed to be sunny Florida. But although warmer than the UK, it is as hot as it should be. Anyway this is not a holiday, but research for another vehicle based sites and business, we are helping with. Of course this is excellent territory to research the USA breakdown cover business and how they market their services.
We have said this before, that the Americans do not use the term breakdown cover and tend to describe it in a different way. It looks like the term Roadside Assistance is the most popular, but I suppose what is surprising is the lack of internet rankings for national companies looking for this service.
He most popular or top of Google is the GM Motor Club which at first glance gives the impression it is a roadside assistance club for the owners of General Motors cars. A bit more reading and you realise that the service is open to anyone and in fact competes directly with the other national roadside assistance companies.
Another interesting point is that you are covered for driving in to Canada, which in the UK you would have to increase to European breakdown cover to move from country to country.
We are so used to our brand names here in the UK, that we are probably unaware that there is a Royal Automobile Club down under in Australia also. It is also called the RAC and offers pretty much what we do over here, but with some strange additions.
For example have you ever heard of a breakdown cover organisation offering flights ? It seemed strange at first until you remember that even the UK, has a recommended hotel section, which came from the motorists wanting to go on driving holidays. So the holiday theme works, but the point of flying rather than driving doesn’t so much.
They call their emergency services in Australia as roadside assistance, which is what we do for the cheapest service out, and every thing else seems pretty much the same, except there are some pretty remote areas in the outback, so we would have to assume the RAC Australia would have to use a lot of garage agents on in the wilds, to ensure a fast call out time.
According to the site they have been around as long as the UK RAC, so there certainly is some history and we have mentioned their Free To Go service for young drivers in an earlier blog, without realising it was the RAC that delivered it.
The cover is presented as Ultimate, Classic and Standard, 3 different levels of breakdown cover just like here in the UK.
You would think for such a small place there would be little need for that metal box called a car. The first thing you notice is that all the registrations begin with the letter G and even though they are a UK colony with British army, British police forces, you still drive on the right, rather than the left back in the UK.
For such a small place, it is hard to drive around. Get one street wrong, and you are on a detour with no where to turn around. It is here you realise how many cars there are on this small rock of an island.
As far as breakdown cover is concerned, you have got to think that any car failure would just bring this place to standstill and you could probably push the car home if it weren’t for the steep banks.
So no small national breakdown cover organisation here then, but don’t underestimate just how many cars seem to navigate this small area not including the scooters and mopeds. I just can’t understand the BMW’s and the four by fours who with a G number plate clearly live there, but would never get out 3rd gear.
Even the breakdown cover van would probably only do 2000 miles a year, even working overtime. In short, if you are panning to go. Leave your car on The Spanish side and get the bus in. I wish I had!
After completing a USA car salvage site it became apparent that when it comes to car breakdowns, that GMC, (General Motor Company) the largest motor company in the world probably has the most amount of breakdown cover callouts each year and the need for car parts is probably bigger than anyone else in the world.
Of course in America where GMC tends to be known by its corporate name rather than Vauxhall here in the UK and Opel in Europe, breakdown cover is called other names such as emergency roadside repair. GMC owns a whole range of USA branded companies, one wonders why? Just call them selves GMC.
After compiling the manufacturers that when you condense all the makes down to one, there are less makes on sale in the USA than here in the UK not counting all the joint ventures of course.
So I would imagine that when the breakdown cover man goes out, he will have to carry less different types of car parts than here in the UK
I maybe should have added this video of the NRMA a national Australian roadside assistance or breakdown cover company to my TV adverts page. But with little tile I thought I would add it to the international breakdown cover section of the blog. Otherwise what else can I add to the international section. It pretty much does and say what any breakdown cover advert would in the UK, everyone is smiling and the breakdown cover man, obvioulsy loves his job. the fact he is an actor ois another ubject. Nice smoothing music and that is that. So here it is NRMA roadside assistance.
There are nice helpful people around even if they tend to record everything that happens. Do they want to be a TV presenter, I wonder. Here the presenter has stopped to help a motorist that has broken down in Austria at the side of the road, a very busy road and what looks like an unsafe place. Follow the story as he waits, buys something, then waits and then drives away somewhere through a border. So deoa anyone know a good breakdown cover company in Austria, or is it all european policies
Did the breakdown cover man come? Was the car repaired? I have no idea. What was this all about?
They have shut the road down, the police take him on to the road, sure signs that this recovery job is related to a fatal accident. The breakdown recovery guys have to collect these cars just like any other at scenes that have runined peoples lives. There is no blood or gore but it is a sobering scene and these breakdown cover recovery guys are part of it as their job.
I would just would not do this job. The news at the end of the clip states the driver was driving up the wrong way of the highway. The passengers survived, only they will know why.
Obviously a joke call as a man is upside down sitting in his car and makes a phone call to his breakdown cover company in the USA, in this case the breakdown cover company is TripleA.
He tells Triple A that his car is upside down and on fire and will they come and give him a tow. he breakdown cover company just does not flinch and asks for his membership number. I suppose what is missing is he fails to tell them he is still in the vehicle.
he must have good hairspray as his hair stays in place right through this and the answering system of Triple A is terrible. So you wonder if he rang the emergency number or the main switch board. Anyway another attempt of being funny on the subject of breakdown cover.
Well you would not expect the AA, RAC or any other national breakdown cover Guide comapny to be able to do this. A vehicle recovery over a bridge in Cresent city above the river. A huge crane is needed well above the river to haul the truck out if the water.
It doesn’t show how the vehicle got there and is probably just as well, becasue if it went off the bridge, I can’t see how anyone could have survived that kind of fall. They have used some awful guitar music that just does not suit the proceedings, you may want to turn this down. The recovery is succesfull though and obviuosly the film was cut down to the high lights.
Anyway, recovery over a high bridge above the river, here it is.
I have filed this under international breakdown cover, because I din’t know where it is from, i am guessing Canada.
We see our break down cover specialists important to get us on our way to work, holiday or destinantion. But there are other types of breakdown cover service, this is a video regading the heavy side of the business, recovering heavy vehicles.
This is a sugar tanker that had rolles over and then caught fire in Cananda, the video shows the process to some awful music, that was supposed to improve the watching experience. There is nothing much left of the tanker and I have no idea if there were any casualties from this accident.
It does show what recovery vehicle are faced with when attending accidents like this. It is not just an anoyed driver wanting to get on their way, there could be serious accidents with even deaths involved and may mean a road being closed waithing on you before it can be reopened. There is something different when dealing with this type of call out.