“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.”
Most of us are aware of the breakdown cover deals that are offered for our private cars to ensure we get from A to B as quickly and safely as possible. The situation can be much worse if you are a business and when you car is off the road your business grinds to a halt. An example fo this, is a driving instructor training school as so much of the course is based in the car, within the same enviroment as they will be in when they have finished their training.
Many of these car are expected to do a high mileage, even when they are on a leased contract over 3 years. High mileage means there is a higher chance of a car breakdown down and every day that car is not moving is a day lost for training. A solution is to first check that your car leasing contract includes breakdown cover and they know the car is doing business miles. If not it may be sensible to consider buying business breakdown cover even though sometimes it is called fleet breakdown cover. Sometime we assume the word fleet means a hugh amount of cars, when in most cases it just means business use.
If you are keen to keep your driving instructor training business moving no matter what, then you should look at a breakdown recovery service, which will get your car back to your local dealership or garage to be repaired in the quickest time. Of course the breakdown cover service would do its best to repair the vehicle at the roadside first, so we are just talking worst scenarios here.