RAC recovers market rate
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• Recovery men arranging a crisis meeting to campaign against the RAC's rates (CM 26 October-1 November) have dismissed an RAC plan as "rubbish".
Under the six-point plan for its agents, the RAC outlined its determination to reduce its number of "despatch by patch" operators from 300 to 160, in a bid to ensure sufficient volume of work for the remainder.
The RAC plans to introduce computer links with the 160 selected despatch-by-patch operators, and to guarantee a £40,000 minimum annual turnover from RAC work. In return, the operators will be expected to invest in k2,000 worth of computer equipment for each recovery truck, says
RAC director Ron Hewitt.
The computer equipment will be used for automatic payment, thereby improving cash flow, says Hewitt. For the 140 recovery agents whose volume of RAC work does not warrant 'despatch by patch' status, and the remaining 900 recovery agents who work less frequently for the RAC, Hewitt says: "They will have rates moved to the market rate."
The Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators (AVRO) says it is "delighted that the RAC has acknowledged that its existing rates are below market levels and that this situation will be corrected". But it also wants a "substantial increase" in rates to around £25 per call-out.