Reasons Why RAC Are Called Out & Why You Should Have Cover

Sunday, 29. June 2008

Car driving in the UK can be some of the toughest in the world as a result of the spectacular differences in road conditions. Our cars and tyres have to cope with sub zero temperatures in the winter to road temperatures of 35C in the summer. Sudden bursts of rain can cause aquaplaning and the temperature can move by 10C in an hour and yet we expect our cars to cope with all this and never let us down. The sad truth is that the cars can and do let us down as was proven by a recent analysis of breakdowns carried out by the RAC on company car drivers. They also pointed out that whilst we happily blame the car it is often down to the ignorance of the driver as a result of not carrying out basic vehicle maintenance or being properly briefed about the vehicle they are driving. The cost of repairing a diesel car after it has been misfuelled with petrol can now be up to £6,000 and with so many gadgets plugged into the car’s electrical system batteries are often running flat. They estimated that 40,000 fleet call outs each year could be avoided if drivers carried out basic maintenance work and undertook some driver training, obviously many more if you accounted for private motorists. The top 20 callouts included 17 that are mainly due to drivers not carrying out simple actions. The top callout was for punctures but this is not so much down to driver training as health and safety. Most drivers, especially women, realise the dangers of changing a wheel at the side of the road or on the hard shoulder of a motorway so for their own safety drivers will now call out the breakdown services. With many cars, not just company cars, becoming either mobile offices or entertainment centres the next most common and often avoidable breakdowns is flat batteries. Current hungry gadgets such as PC‘s, Mobile Phones, IPods, DVD players, Sat Navs etc drain the batteries very quickly especially when the battery is over a year old. The top 20 reasons for call out are as follows:

1. Puncture

2. Flat Battery

3. Road Traffic Collision

4. Tyres

5. Battery (non serviceable)

6. No Fault Found

7. Engine

8. Clutch Assy

9. Diesel Contamination

10. Starter Motor

11. Flat Batt (Inter’r Lights)

12. Alternator