AA deals a blow Annual testing reviewed
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to recovery men
by Juliet Parish • Recovery operators are furious that a company they helped finance to bid for police road rescue contracts has been acquired by the Automobile Association.
Members of the Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators started holding regional emergency meetings this week to decide how to respond to the AA's purchase of Bailey Toon. BT was funded by a loan of about £28,000 from AVRO and two other trade bodies.
Bailey loon managed seven police contracts, allowing it to allocate recovery jobs to local firms in exchange for a fee. These contracts will now pass to the AA, angering many operators who wanted to keep the contrails from motoring clubs. Operators benefited from cheaper fees from Bailey Toon—typi cally compared with the AA's
However, the AA hopes to win over the 800-member strong association by forming a "strategic alliance" with AVRO. It is offering a subsidy of £46,665 to 183 of its regular contractors to join AVRO. But operators CM spoke to believe the proposal is a move by the AA to help it win more contracts: "The AA is good at repairing and collecting broken down cars, but when it comes to rescuing vehicles upside down that's what they need AVRO for," says Kent operator Michael Lambert.