It has been a while since Breakdown Cover Net had a quick review of the pricing of the main roadside assistance polices available today from the 3 big suppliers and we can clearly see it is a competitive world.

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

We reported on our last blog about how good it was to see the AA on TV campaigning for us motorists, but what we failed to mention, is that this breakdown cover organisation does report on motoring issues via its website.

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.

It has been a while since it has been seen but it was good to see the AA (who are the biggest provider of breakdown cover in the UK) come on to TV and campaign that although oil prices have dropped, the price we pay for our petrol does not seem to have reduced by the same level.

For us here at breakdown Cover net it was a refreshing sight, something would have occurred much more in the past, when these emergency recovery services were more of a motoring club than the insurance organisations they are today.
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The Green Flag has hit the screens with their now ageing “Boring Breakdown Cover” ad. No, that is what they call it, where different couples are stranded in their cars after breaking down and quite clearly the husbands had not bought breakdown cover from Green Flag. The adverts message is about speedy response times and the fact you can buy breakdown cover online for £25, which I have to admit is some deal. It seems that bring couples waiting a long time for another recovery service, lay with horns and sing songs to keep themselves occupied.
The problem is, I find the advert equally boring. It sets the scene well, but by making us feel bored, does that not make us switch off? Well it does me and I would rather see a toy Green Flag recovery vehicle jump over the Tower Bridge in London, than watch 2 boring couples.
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For generations even during the golden age of motoring there seemed to be a difference between the breakdown services options for personal use say for cars and that of commercial vehicles. The suggestion that van breakdown cover would become popular was not on the horizon as the adverts sent out a message about getting the stricken housewife who knows nothing about car mechanics home.

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.

There was a lively discussion the other day between myself and a friend talking about where breakdown cover services will go in the future. It started with the huge rise in petrol costs that eventually will have an impact on what fuel we may choose in future years. Take the current hybrid cars, the Toyota being the most popular at the moment. What would the chances be that a breakdown could be caused by an electrical motor fault rather than a fuelled engine?
Well maybe not so high at the moment, it as hybrid cars are becoming more popular it only makes sense that eventually the fuel driven options will be reduced and electrical increased, meaning the breakdown cover patrol guys will probably need a new set of skills.
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It doesn’t matter what you watch, what you read the news of the day, month and possibly year is the credit crunch that is going to take away our homes and reduce our pensions. It doesn’t matter about the typhoon in Burma or the earthquake in China the credit crunch is here and everyone is going to be broke.
This obviously affects our buying habits and products or services we don’t need start getting put on the shelf. An example of this is breakdown cover, yes it is an insurance policy, but no, it is not compulsory by law and it is very easy to assume that next year your car, bike or van will not have a mechanical failure whilst on the road. (more…)

If you have decided not to call out the breakdown cover man because you ahve a flat tyre and think you can do it quicker than wait for the recovery vehicle to arrive, here is an instructional video to get you started.

It is not accreditated by any UK based breakdown cover organistation, but does seem to offer a very simple explaination of everything to do with changing that tyre. Of course there is a second point, in that if you don’t understand this video or can’t be bothered to watch, then maybe you should take out that breakdown cover policy today. At least you will have someone to ring, should you need to.

The competition for breakdown cover is fierce with every organisation trying to one better on the competition to get those extra sales. At the moment, you still can get a Green Flag breakdown cover policy for £25 online, which is amazing value and clearly is this price to get the quanities in.

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.

One of the most popular reasons for calling out that breakdown cover man is because you have locked yourself out of your car. You can see you keys dangling from the dashboard and of course you have somewhere to go now, or in fact you are stuck somewhere away from home. (more…)

It seems that those guys from the RAC guys down under. It gives the message, that if you do need help it is better to ring your breakdown cover man or roadside assistance they call it down there, than freind or member of the family.
It is only 17 seconds long, but enough to get the message across, although I have to say I needed to watch it a few times to get the point.
Probably the UK side not quite understanding the humour down under.

Watch the video here

An update on Green Flag, shows basic Rescue service from only £25, amazing value. Even their recovery service options start from £46 today.

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.

Well it seems they are competing with each other again as the AA are also offering offering 25% off their breakdown cover policies when you buy online.

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.

The latest on the RAC promotion offers is that they are offering 25% off, if you buy online. That means that you can get a roadside policy from £33, for a years cover, that is down from £44.

The cheapest option that offers nationwide recovery is now £69 down from £92 and is called solution 1. There are even better options that curently all offer 25% off.

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?

Well it had to go on to show some more parts and another video from 1986 showing how the industry was then. I can’t help think about Thunderbirds when I read National Rescue instead of International Rescue. Here we see what happens outside of the breakdown recovery trucks in offices and I am not sure why the garage schenes are in. I presume it is to show there main business is running garages. The breakdown cover organisations just focus on breakdown recovery, where national rescue have other roles is the message I guess.

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.

As a breakdown recovery agent or breakdown cover man there is often recovering cars fron an accident, sometimes when someone has died at the wheel or seriously injured. In this video, no one died but clearly it has turned over a few times and has blood inside so someone had a headache from it. You need to slow down is the message.
I would imagine they visit some terrible accidents sometimes. This one was deemed as near fatal.

It seems that the UK likes to be under water more than above it as once again floods and flood warnings cover the UK. It only seems like yesterday I was talking about breakdown cover for boats (more…)

I like driving in my car by madness is the theme music to this video recorded back in 1986 shows the life of a breakdown recovery man. Dealing with the snow accidents and even a Tesco lorry. The police are there in abundance showing the amount of work is accident realted. Not the safest of jobs being a breakdown recovery man.

There are a few more parts to go, I will add as I go along.

I have written abou this before, but the snows arrive in this country and we come to a stop, stress lvels go up and for the last few years at least it has just been after Chritmas.
I though i would look for snow related breakdown cover or recovery related stories or videos to get us brits through this time.

Here is a breakdown recovery where they forgot to put on the snow chains, (and we think we have got it bad)

It says it is from the 80s and has the music from Boon, (remember that). This is part 1 of the breakdown cover organisation National Rescue doing a rescue, hi ho silver

Not sure why this was filmed as you tube was not born yet and I can’t remember if video cameras were around either. The recovery vehicles however seem like they are from the 70’s or before, so maybe the early 80’s. Of course I will look at future parts of thes riviting (just kidding) breakdown recovery organistations story.

If you ever wonder ho they recover vehicles or what kind of breakdown cover service the Ameican Army offer in Iraq, well here it is. (more…)

Imagine your breakdown cover man turns up to reapir your car, just to establish it needs to be towed back home or to a local garage. The breakdown cover patrolman would normally have to lay long leagnts of wire between the recovery vehicle and the light board attached to the towed vehicle.

A company has come up with a solution for this issue, a wireless led system that sames time at the side of the road. Less damage to the car being towed with loose cables hanging over the top and the general safety of working at the side of the road.

A long video aimed at those in the profession, but wothy of a look if you are in to breakdown cover principles or recovery trucks.

It says that modern recovery vehicles are less than 40 years old with other recovery vehicles being used before then. Modern clean equipment is the order of the day. There is a more serious side to this, a charity trying to raise money.

It is a promotional video of a charity aimed at helping those who work within the breakdown recovery business and maybe have suffered an injury or worse, working within this industry.

This is the first I have heard of this charity and it may be I will add more information, in their words rather than mine in this short period of time.

It asks for a donation at the end. We are doing our bit by showing the video first and maybe some more information in the future. It can be a dangerous job working in the breakdown recovery industry, by the roadside, anytime day or night.

Well we have all seen that film from the 70’s called Convoy, so here we have another version, also clearly filmed in the 1970’s but this time a convoy of National Rescue recovery vehicles.
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How do I know that christmas is just about here? Well it is not the colder weather, the appearance of christmas decorations in the shops, my kids starting to behave themselves and being just that little but more respectful together with hints of what they want for Christmas . For me it is the Coke advert on TV, “holidays are comming, holidays are comming” I know it is christmas when this happens.

Breakdown Cover For Christmas

For many the iPods, the sat nav, mobile phones and i suppose the latest games consoles will be on thier shopping list, but I wonder how many will put a breakdown cover policy on their letter to santa? porbably not many, but unlike some gifts that are just for Christmas day a breakdown cover policy will be there 24hrs a day and 365 days of the following year, no matter where you are in the UK and no matter what problem your vehicle has thrown at you.

If you are like my parents they can’t give anything that can’t be touched or enjoyed on christmas day, this of course has resulted in uneeded gifts that get put away after Christmas day and sold on a car boot sale the following year.

Breakdown Cover Is Just Too Practical

There is no doubt that breakdown cover is practical over exciting, it helps you in times of need but does get the party going. It is one of things, do you want someone to enjoy their gift with many more on one day or pissibly several times in real times of need over the next 12 months? Of course even with the practicalies most will just not buy their loved one a piece of paper. for those who do, clever stuff for those that don’t, well enjoy your Christmas anyway.

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.

I promised some footage of the 2007 tow show in the uk which is a show for recovery trucks in the UK. Here is an interview, talking about the requirements of the UK recovery vehicle market in 2007.

I am sure there are a few foriegn voices in the video, so the world tow show may be an apropriate title. Not for the avaerage individual, but if you are into tow truck or in the breakdown cover game, you may want to watch.

I know scarborough pretty well with it only being an hour or so drive from where i live, so when i saw this video of a boring breakdown cover man on the seafront, I had to out it here.

Of course these guys who attend breakdowns are often run off their feet, working in all types of weather (it looks a tyical Scarborough day there) and at all times of the day and night. But obviously they get some perods that are just boring waiting for theat breakdown cover call to come in, this looks just like thats cenario.

Reading his newspaper on a quiet day, down by the caost at scarborough, with a yorkshire voice, letting us know what he is doing.
The word boring is his own, not ours, but you should watch anyway. Lets have it for the breakdown cover man in Scarborough.

You will now need ot search for “scarborough, supramat tacho break” as the feed has been stopped.

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.

Believe it or not there is a show for recovery vehicles and it is called the tow this last one was in June 2007 in the UK. Of course it is not just aimed at the national breakdown cover organisations but for garages throughout the UK who as part of their service offer a recovery service.

You will se here an example of the recovery trucks that may have appeared at the tow show as this was the promo before hand. John Coldwell Chairem of REMSA whatever that means presents this short video.

There is a focus on working trucks, again what ever that means, but you can see a couple of examples of what was going to be there.

I will lokk for the actual show video.

Imaging you have spun off the racing track and you are left relying on the recovery truck to get what is left of your racing car back to your transport truck to assess the damge or to just get home. Well would you trust them? Well I would, here is a video of one such incident. (more…)

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.

it is not the most likely place to see a recovery truck, but the Santa Pod speedway track is the location to see on ready to see how fast it can get down that run. It sits there reving its huge engine, but when the lights go out, what will it do against the hod rod it is racing against?

The answer is awful, it strolls along as if it is going to help a car rather than being a racing machine. it appears it was just a joke, to get the audience going and probably the slowest time of the day. On saying that wouldn’t it be a good idea to have breakdown recovery truck hot rods.

Instead of the breakdown cover companies quoting call out times of 35 minutes, they could slash their times say to 15 minutes. with super fast recovery machines. of course it wouldn’t do their image much goos with the safety issues they like to remind us of.

Anyway, it was worth a watch, but proably not two.

The national breakdown cover companies are pretty much prepared for most things, but I am not sure you would be covered for something like this. I can see your insurance company paying for the recovery.

It looks like the truck was parked without the handbrake and so rolled in the lake. It took a diver to locate where it was and to connect a rope and a tractor vehicle to pull it out. Anther example of where many would laugh at some ones elses misfortune. On saying that, not sure I would park next to deep water and not make sure my car was secure.

Unfortunatly we cant show the video clip as it the code has been unbedded from You tube, probably the person was too embarressed to allow it to be used on other sites.

Go to Youtube and search for Underwater truck recovery.

We have all seen the radio joke calls, where the broadcaster or a friend rings up a local company live on air and asks some silly questions to get laughs from its listeners. Well this another one, but based on breakdown recovery.

The caller pretends to have rung the wrong number stating he wants help frpm a personal breakdown, bur obviously has rand a breakdown cover company. The person on the other end of the phone, is forced to take this seriously, not knowing it is a joke and keeps saying over again, he can’t help him, but ther is someone who can.

To be honest I did not find it that funny, and I think the person recieving the phone call did a great job and acted professionally, but of course you may have a different opinion. give it a listen and make your own mind up.

Here it the breakdown cover call, it sound english an it is a garage rather than a national breakdown cover company, he rings

A nice looking Mecedes M series looks like it has broken down in a petrol station fore court. they are talking in French so I don’t understand, but you will get the idea of what is going on.

This is not staged or a TV commercial but someone who filmed their real breakdown and calling the breakdown cover recovery man.
They are put on the back of a breakdown recovery vehicle inside their vehicle and taken to a local garage, where it looks like they are forced to hire another car to get on their way and have to leave their Mercedes at the garage, a very expensive day.

There is some English a lot of swearing, this could quiet easiliy be you.

It seem like an American term but breakdown coverage seems to be taking over from the term motoring club, or have I been watching too many Columbos? (more…)

After haveing ablog for a while you notice that at certain times of the year you write the same things. Fow example i have noticed the cold night are creeping in now quiet quick and the traffic on the internet is picking up and so are breakdown cover requests.
But this is nothing new, in fact I remember talking about the same thing last year and maybe the year before, although not in this blog.

They say repetition is the mother aof all skills but maybe this is just a little to much. Breakdown cover is important this time of year as many cars don’t take too lightly the fact of colder nights, we are in our warm homes, very often our vehicles are left outside to defend themselves, and we compain if they don’t handle themselves very well. (more…)

Welcome to the campaign for cheaper breakdown cover comments page, if you have not read what this is all about then you can read the story here.
If yo have come from this page and want to let the breakdown cover service porviders know your comments about this service, please use the comments box below.

Once we have sufficient comments, we will contact the organisations direct and ask them to comment also, although we do know at least some do read our blog anyway.

If you are first to comment or one of the first, do not be shy someone has to be first. The only way we can get the message out is by student power and numbers of support.

I have talked about breakdown cover tv adverts quiet a bit in this blog so I have decided to bring Mohamad to the mountain. on the home page we now have alink to a menu page showing the latest breakdown cover televison adverts from the RAC and the AA.

If I could find the recent one from Green Flag, I would show that one too, but all I can find is an older add with no date attached. There is also an ad from the 80 and 70’s not to mention a few roadside assistance commercials from the USA and Australia.

As I find more ads and information, hopefully I can make quiet a considerable catalouge of old new and borrow tv commercials, for you to play live on your PC.

There are currenly 8 to choose from, but soon there will be more I am sure.

Every morning whether it is hot and sunny of -10 degrees below I see drivers with their windows down, elbows out of the window and a cigarette in hand. Well it seems it has now been added to the highway code as something you should not do whilst driving. (more…)

I was in my local Asda superstore a few days ago and was inetersted to find a leaflet offering breakdown cover. Of course on closer inspection theis Asda breakdown cover was actually provided by the RAC.
This got me thinking into why would someone buy breakdown cover branded as Asda, rather than RAC. To be honest I have not compared the prices against the normal RAC premiums, but I can’t see the RAC shooting themselves in the foot by allowing Asda to sell their service cheaper than they sell it themselves. (more…)

Well i’ve eaten a few Big Macs in my time, but I never knoew McDonalds were into car breakdown recovery.

It was only when i saw this TV advert that I got the connection, Car Recovery rather than breakdown. IO have no idea how old this TV advert is, but it is worth a watch even if it isn’t really motor related.

You get a replacement man not a car.

Well we never know when we might need breakdown cover and when the snow is on the ground is no exception.The problem is though, how do you get your car on to the breakdown recovery truck, if it is really slippery?

Here is an example, from I think the AA breakdown cover service.

Another example of how life can change in a heatbeat was the shocking news that ex rally world champion had died in a helicpter crash. It appears he was flying his son as their freinds when his copter came down in his own estate in Scotland where he lived.

He was known as the first British Rally World Champion and became world famous with the video games sold in his name. he influenced new motor racing fans to brave the weather and see this exciting sport first hand and in a way brought to rallying what Hamilton is bring to F1 now.

Just like the disapeaance of Steve Fossett it is difficult to get your head around how people who do dangerous things for a living either go missing or die doing something which should be relativly safe. There are no breakdown cover patrolmen for helicopters in the sky, you have to get them on the ground before you can repair any breakdown and it may be that was the cause of the crash. A mechanical failure of some sort as witnesses cliamed they heard strange noises form the aircraft.

It would have been a cripling blow for his family and the other familes who lost children on this flight. We focus on Colin beacuse of who he was but we must remember the other children that were on this flight. This is another reminder that life can change and will change everyday and you should prepare for every eventuality but not be controlled by it.

I can only say I was shocked when I heard the news, suddenly the Mclaren saga seemed less important and priorities were reset of what is important. Motor sport may appear to be ruled by money, but nature has a way of reminding us, that this is not so. You can put as much money into motor racing you like, but without the people you have nothing.

It only seems like yesterday that Colin won the world championship when in fact it was 12 years ago, it still has a place in my heart.

Well the 100$ fine rocked the motor racing world when emails found being sent within the Mclaren camp sealed their fate. the already rocky relationship between Alonso and Hamilton now seems to have spilt ove to Alonso and Dennis. It seems it was Alsonso that told Dennis he had emails on his sytem relating to the allegations and if he got number 1 status would not make them public. (more…)

The whole principle of inusrance and what includes breakdown cover is that things just happen when we don’t expect them, to people you would not expect and in a way you would not expect.

An example of this, is the sad dissapearance of Steve Fosset the man famous for breaking many world records including flying, hot air balloonng and many more. (more…)