If your car conks out and you call for roadside assistance, what level of service are you going to get? Stranded motorists help us to rate the main rescue firms
Claire Evans Claire.Evans@haymarket.com
IT’S BAD ENOUGH if your car develops a fault and comes to a halt at the side of the road, but this situation can become a major issue instead of a minor blip in your day, depending on how well you’re looked after by your breakdown service provider.
There are two crucial elements to providing a high level of service: how quickly help arrives in the form of a mechanic in a breakdown truck, and whether they can fix your car, either permanently or temporarily, so you can carry on with your journey.
To find out which breakdown provider serves its members best, we asked 14,334 drivers if they had used a roadside rescue company in the previous two years. Only 10% of respondents said they had, but for each of those who did, we questioned them about how long it took for help to arrive and how satisfactory the outcome was. The best companies were on the scene in 30 minutes or less; the worst took more than two hours to arrive. The best outcome was for the car to be permanently fixed at the roadside. The next best was a temporary fix, or, failing that, recovering the car somewhere for the owner. The least happy outcome was if the breakdown provider didn’t fix the car or tow it anywhere.
According to our owner data, the speediest rescue service was Green Flag, which reached 28% of stranded motorists in less than 30 minutes, beating the AA, which got to 22% of its members in this time. Although Start Rescue reached the lowest number of cars in less than 30 minutes, it gained the highest score overall for response times, because it reached 77% of those seeking aid in 30 minutes to an hour and didn’t leave anyone waiting for more than two hours. At the other end of the spectrum, Emergency Assist had the lowest response score of the six providers, only reaching 56% of people in an hour or less and taking more than two hours to get to 22% of its customers.
However, Emergency Assist takes the top spot for providing a permanent fix for cars at the roadside, with 44% of vehicles repaired. It’s almost matched by the AA, Green Flag and the RAC, all of which fixed more than 40% of vehicles, demonstrating that they are also good options for those who want to be able to get on with their journeys.
When it came to performing temporary repairs that let people carry on with their journeys, Start Rescue scored the best, achieving this for 31% of its stranded members. However, its overall scor
