Breakdown Services

Anyone who has ever broken down knows that an approaching breakdown patrol is about the most welcome sight on the road. However, breakdown services – or rescue and recovery services, to give them their more accurate title – are big business. Everyone has heard of:

• the Automobile Association (AA) and the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), which run a liveried fleet, operated by their own employees and sell their services direct to the public, and
• Green Flag, owned by Direct Line, which sells through other business clients and runs its service through a network of independent recovery operators.

Some other familiar names include:

• Britannia Rescue, International Breakdown and the Guild of Experienced Motorists.

All are fiercely competitive and proud of their service, each claiming to offer a better deal than the next.

The AA’s 3,600 patrols respond to over 3.5 million call-outs a year from its 15 million members, while 6 million RAC members have benefited from its services for nearly 110 years. Green Flag’s 5 million customers make over 1 million calls to a network of 6,000 independent mechanics in the UK and 15,000 in Europe. Breakdown service staff respond to calls in all sorts of places and at all times, being particularly busy on Monday mornings in winter and Friday evenings in summer. All provide cover either directly from their own fleets, or through partnership arrangements or affinity organisations, and the aim is to reach a motorist in well under an hour of being called out, usually averaging closer to 35 minutes. Considering that one in every 80 deaths in Europe is the result of a road accident and that 10 people are killed on Britain’s roads each day, there is certainly a requirement for safe and efficient breakdown services.

In addition to roadside repair and recovery, the bigger firms run other services, which include:

• call centres
• mobile vehicle inspection services and franchises
• national windscreen-fitting companies
• driving schools
• insurance services.

To support these services staff in the following areas are required:

• administrative
• managerial
• training
• on-call technical helpdesks.

Call centre staff:

• take calls from the motorist
• locate customers and patrols
• are trained to deal with distressed or frightened customers
• despatch calls to the patrol or independent recovery operator.

Patrols often need to liaise with emergency services and deal with hazardous loads. Safety is paramount, and both patrol officers and call centre staff must be good with people. In roadside repair and recovery, patrol officers are often first on the scene, dealing with frightened or angry customers. They also need to consider traffic, weather and the location before the vehicle is even assessed – but, above all, the officer must ensure customer safety. Motorway hard shoulder call-outs can be particularly hazardous.

Breakdown services in the Forces

Each sector of the Armed Forces has its own vehicle mechanics and engineering trades with highly skilled, adaptable people, trained to work and cope in adverse conditions. Trades relevant to the breakdown industry that can be followed in-Service include:

• vehicle mechanics
• vehicle electricians
• recovery mechanics.

In addition, many Service leavers hold driving qualifications that can be welcomed by breakdown services employers. These include LGVs, ordinary wheeled vehicles, motorcycles, and the whole range of tracked, articulated or passenger licences.

Qualifications and training

The Resettlement Training Centre, Aldershot, runs two-week Motor Mechanics (Roadside Patrol) courses in conjunction with the AA, which introduce Service leavers to the qualification required to become a roadside patrol officer. Candidates need to have good mechanical knowledge or a Service mechanical background. Courses cover:

• basic electrics
• batteries
• charging systems
• starting systems
• relays
• ignition systems
• fuel injection
• engine management
• ignition/charging.

Automotive Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the retail motor industry, sets the Occupational Standards for the industry, with the qualifications and training available covering a wide spectrum. Some relate to the general motor retail market – like NVQs in sales, spray painting and customer services – while others deal specifically with roadside assistance and recovery:

• Level 2

– Light Vehicle Recovery Technician

– Heavy Vehicle Recovery Technician

– Motorcycle Recovery Technician.

• Level 3

– Light Vehicle Recovery Technician

– Heavy Vehicle Recovery Technician

– Light Vehicle Roadside Technician

– Heavy Vehicle Roadside Technician

– Motorcycle Roadside Technician.

These qualifications are offered through awarding bodies like the Institute of Motor Industries (IMI), City & Guilds, the Chartered Management Institute, Edexcel and the Scottish Qualifications Authority. Qualifications, experience and training entitle people to membership of institutions within the industry. They also add weight and a recognisable measure of competence to a CV. Standards are set by Automotive Skills to maintain standards at the right levels and ensure that one employer in the industry will recognise another’s qualifications.

Institutes and associations regulate themselves and pursue high standards in an industry that takes its business very seriously. The IMI, for example, is a professional body for individuals (25,000 at the last count), not companies, within the motor industry. It offers its own courses just like any other awarding body.

Major breakdown services organisations run continuation training and offer further qualifications as an ongoing element of employment and promotion within their organisations. NVQ qualifications consist of modules, and Service leavers may already have some that are relevant through military training or personal development. Examples of modules offered by Automotive Skills are:

• ensuring that actions reduce risks to health and safety
• identifying and agreeing customer vehicle needs
• carrying out roadside diagnostic and repair activities
• removing and transporting vehicles from the roadside, and recovering vehicles after accidents.

Employment

Most companies will require good levels of general fitness and a clean driving licence for employment in a roadside patrol. The AA, for example, requires roadside patrols to have a minimum qualification of City & Guilds Motor Vehicle Technician, Parts 1 to 3, or an NVQ 3 in Motor Vehicle Technology, or equivalent experience. However, opportunities do exist to enter the organisations at a lower level of training and experience, or in a different field like administration or management. MITC offers apprenticeships generally, but not exclusively, for people aged between 16 and 24.

Experience and qualifications will determine the length of training required before starting a career in breakdown services. Many qualified people find the shift patterns and working environment unattractive and there is currently a massive shortage of patrol officers. This provides a good opportunity for the motivated Service leaver to move into this rewarding and satisfactory career area. Many Service people enjoy the fact that they provide a service to the community, and becoming a roadside patrol officer is certainly a way of continuing this.

Some companies, such as Green Flag, offer franchises in mobile vehicle inspection and diagnostics. This covers pre-purchase or sale checks, servicing, emissions testing and engine tuning. It requires a serious financial commitment by the franchisee but can be a lucrative form of self-employment, with support, training and guidance from the parent company.

The range of jobs within this sector of the employment market is wide and the industry is expanding due to the increasing numbers of vehicles on the roads. There are opportunities for technical, administrative and managerial staff as well as health and safety advisers. There is also the chance of employment within one of the linked sectors like insurance, driving instruction and windscreen fitting.

Salaries

The average wage for a roadside patrol employee working within a major company ranges from £19,000 to £22,000 but franchisees can earn considerably more if they work longer hours. Most organisations offer overtime but this is not guaranteed, and most have some form of pension scheme or access to pension advice. The package usually includes free uniforms, high-visibility clothing, footwear and, obviously, the use of a patrol vehicle.

Contact details

Automotive Skills, 93 Newman Street, London W1T 3DT Tel: 020 7436 6373 Website: www.automotive-skills.org.uk

Institute for the Motor Industries, Fanshaws, Brickendon, Hertfordshire SG13 8PQ Tel: 01992 511521 Website: www.motor.org.uk

Institute for Vehicle Recovery, Bignell House, Horton Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 8EJ Tel: 01895 436426 Website: www.theivr.com

Institute of Customer Service, 2 Castle Court, St Peter’s Street, Colchester, Essex CO1 1EW Tel: 01206 571716 Website: www.instituteofcustomerservice.com

Road Rescue Recovery Association, Hubberts Bridge Road, Kirton Holme, Boston, Lincolnshire PE20 1TW Tel: 01205 290621/2 Website: www.rrra-recovery.co.uk

Been there done that…

Mark Cairney

AA Patrolman Mark Cairney left the RAF in November 2000, after 12 years as a mechanical transport Junior Technician, for a ‘new challenge with a more settled lifestyle’. Service around the world had taught him ‘flexibility, decision making, time management, administration skills and being used to working outside in all conditions’. Other skills included ‘driving qualifications (C+E), City & Guilds Motor Craft Studies Parts 1, 2 and 3, GCSEs and word-processing packages’.

A Career Transition Workshop ‘helped with a CV’, while Certificate of Professional Competence (transport) and Potential Prison Officers’ courses provided an ‘insight into other career opportunities’. RFEA contact also helped refine his job search, and he eventually contacted AA recruiters through an advertisement in his Regional Resettlement Centre. With hindsight, Cairney wishes he had taken the RTC’s roadside patrol programme.

The job is ‘about providing a service to our members in breakdown situations,’ he says. ‘We attend to our members 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in all weather conditions. Our aim is to repair up to 80 per cent of vehicles at the roadside or recover them to a garage.’

He enjoys helping people, problem solving, being the person making decisions and being home each night, but he dislikes long hours and working shifts, although he reports that shift-working gets easier with time. He relishes greater responsibility because he works on his own, and enjoys the higher wage that comes with working longer hours.