If you were in the car breakdown cover business you should be making some serious money at the moment with emergency call outs, even though we knew the weather was coming no one expected to be so bad or last so long. But of course if you were not in the business and was a normal driver then being a member of a car breakdown cover such like Green Flag could have and probably did in many cases saved the day. The amount of calls for all the emergency services has gone off the clock with thousand of calls being received even 5 minutes at critical parts of this month. Green Flag have been no different, although their business strategy of using third party garages may have meant, these call out agents had to juggle Green Flag customers with their own.
But when you see that the basic Green Flag breakdown cover starts form £20, you can’t complain as even one call out in this weather will more than pay for your annual premium. There is more though, at the moment Green Flag are offering 2 for 1 offers, to entice to get covered with their breakdown cover service. You will need to visit the Green Flag website, just to make sure of all the details though and the conditions of sale. What is astonishing though, is that the normal time for this type of weather is still not here yet, so having breakdown cover now may ensure you have a helping hand when the snow returns.
Ok you part with your money and you expect 12 months 24/7 car breakdown cover in return right? Well it is worth while looking at some of the perks that these car breakdown cover providers offer to get you to sign up with them. Take the AA for example., if you become a member then have a members page that give you an idea of the benefits outside of the AA breakdown cover you will get if you join their service.
For example there is 10 % off Hertz rental, I presume this means when you are away from home, otherwise you would use your own car, especially if you now know you will get home if you breakdown. Then you can consider 60% off AA Auto Windscreens, virgin wine and some travel offers throughout and of course they will also want to sell you insurance with discount.
The RAC and Green Flag are a bit more shy with extra benefits you can get, or their websites do not make it easy to find out preferring to focus on the car breakdown cover angle.
The main breakdown cover providers started their life as a motoring club and then expanded (or was sold) into the finance sector. They do however try to give some advice and news on motoring in general, or what to do in certain situations. the AA did some mini videos, which we will show here in separate posts at some time, but the RAC have chosen to do “what to do if” advice pages on their website.
An example of the “what to do if” is advice on what to do in winter when it comes to driving and your car. Examples of advice are, to purchase a battery charger, use suitable screenwash that does not freeze, do not use wipers to clear heavy snow (we presume in the morning), avoid heavy braking and the ,list goes no.
It is a good idea and shows the RAC still wants to help its motorists, but the reality is most drivers will not spend the time to read such tings. They will wait until they breakdown and expect the RAC breakdown cover service, to get them up and running again.
The best way to get advice out is to sneak the advice into and entertaining TV show, or the like, so drivers get the information without even looking for it. It was also posted in January pretty mush after the worst winter in decades was over, so a bit like the horse had bolted stuff. Anyway the RAC breakdown cover service, did well to attend the callouts during this winter time.
Continuing the themes of looking at breakdown cove organisations homepage on the net, this time is is the turn of the RAC. Compared to the AA, this homepage is more dedicated to breakdown cover with only the menu buttons along the top suggesting other services are available and even this is limited to insurance only. This is quiet surprising considering the RAC is now owned by Avia a huge financial organisation that first bought out Norwich Union (who previously owned the RAC) , you would have thought they would advertise more services.
However for the customer looking for RAC breakdown cover, this is probably what they want to see, dedicated reasons of why they should take out a RAC breakdown cover policy. With messages like, helping breakdowns for 112 years and “have you broken down now” are excellent for the customer, who just wants to get on with it and buy a policy.
What is the first thing you see. Roadside assistance from £28, probably the answer to most visitors, how much will it cost me to join the RAC? All in all a good homepage, that does not distract from the subject matter in hand, even though, the add on products not advertised here, may affect bottom line profits.
We thought we would consider how breakdown cover organisations like The AA now diversify into as many financial areas as possible to increase bottom line profits. Of course many breakdown cover motoring clubs (as they were once known) as owned by insurance or financial organisations and see breakdown cover as an add on product rather than the main one.
In order to understand this more we are today looking at the homepage of the AA, to see what other services they sell and what you are likely to see in your emails, contact details and hear when talking to the sales call centre.
As far as the menu is concerned the homepage shoes the AA breakdown cover service as first, but when it comes to images the car insurance sticks out more., it is then followed by home insurance and the AA credit card. The largest area is dedicated to the new home breakdown cover service , which is probably expected with a new service. Move down the page below the fold and you start to see a whole array of other services, starting with Loans, then travel insurance, before travel themes finish off the homepage.
The AA has always been involved in travel by car, from rating bed and breakfasts to restaurants, but now all types of travel are part of its portfolio. A question we don’t know is, does these extra services support the AA breakdown cover service, in keeping costs down as economies of scale kick in. Or are they measured separately and are another way of added more money to the bottom line.
Many of the scrap car type websites that buy your cars off you when they are past their best are suddenly getting hit hard as cars are getting caught out with this very cold weather. We are now in the minus degree temperatures which is causing brake issues and cylinder head gasket issues are many do not put in their anti freeze. Those who have a home start type breakdown cover policy are keeping the breakdown boys and girls busy with cars that just do not start in the morning. If you speak to the patrolmen, they tell you they are expecting it and even though we all know it is going to be very cold, most people wait until their car does not start before preparing for it.
This can be a costly msitake even with breakodwn cover as after all any policy covers emergency work only, not the money to fix the problem if it is something like a cylinder head problem. To keep you right, we have found a video on changing your radiator fluid, which is the same for here in the UK.
“The supermarkets of yesteryear have well and truly gone, where you went to buy food in one supermarket and other goods in other types of stores. It seems that certain types of supermarkets are designed to be one stop shops from everything.
The largest retailers in the UK have also added their name to financial products, such as loans, travel insurance, car insurance and of course breakdown cover options. As a consumer it is very hard to distinguish the benefits of buying a breakdown cover policy from a supermarket rather than online direct from the supplier, with the exception that you often get store points on your store card by doing so and if in a hurry, the convenience of doing it there and then.
We have struggled to see who the AA is associated with, but it is very clear that the RAC have a deal with Asda and Green Flag with Tesco and Sainsbury’s through Esure a sister insurance company.
As we keep saying, if their are any benefits to the consumer buying from a supermarket they are not transparent and you have to ask the question why a breakdown cover provider would risk their own business, by allowing so called agents under cut themselves. The supermarkets obviously gain a commission for every policy that is sold, and with a huge amount of regular customers going through their store every week, it makes sense for the car breakdown cover providers to have access to this customer base without the marketing.”
“It is a good way to get a bit of brand awareness out by stating a few facts to keep the motorist interested in Breakdown Cover. Hey who are we to complain. But the Green Flag have done just that at the beginning of December, by announcing that the recent snap of cold weather produced the largest amount of callouts since 21st January 2007.
There is no doubt that there is a relationship between the weather and breakdown cover services, many getting caught out, because they just do not have a policy. The report comes from the Which magazine and has useful tips on winter driving and issues like that.
It seems that this once announcement from Green Flag has given content to Which and ourselves. Keep up the good promotional work, that’s what we say.”
This is an old news item, being brought back up to date
“Even the clothes retailers seem to getting into the action nowadays when it comes to breakdown cover services. As a member of this American shopping club you can be entitled to discounts off RAC breakdown cover services. You can read the full description here at the Matalan RAC offers and events page.
However the promotion page is not very descriptive and not very clear whether the roadside assistance option quoted is the price with the discount taken off or prior to. If this price is with the discount, there does not seem to be any difference in price than just visiting the RAC website direct and buying online, using the normal discounts offered there.
Get this spectacular reward card offer is the message, I am still looking and wondering what is spectacular with this offer, unless when you apply you learn more of course. The decision is to look at what other supermarkets arte offering with their connection with the breakdown cover operators and write about it here within later posts.”
It is just about everyines passion to have blog nowadays andof course the RAC had to have one, just as you are reading one now. We make no apologies here that the breakdown cover today blog is quiet personal and as it does not belong to any breakdown cover provider so can be honest with it’s views. Ironically the RAC blog seems to look like a non commercial blog. Take for example the blog post wheel changes. This was written by a RAC breakdown cover patrolman just stating an obvious fact to carry a spare wheel and the tools to change it. This is not rocket science, but th iontersting thing is the tone that it has been written. It clearly has been written by a RAC breakdown cover patrolman and not an editor somewhere back at head office.
The results are somethmie amatuerish for a huge organistion like the RAC, but in another way honest, transparent and what a blog was supposed to be, rather than a news machine written by profesional journalists ( just like us). I am not sure how this will get your car home after beraking down in the middle of the night, but is you take the time to read their information you may just get that motoring club feel. I think we will make time to visit some more posts in the future.