INTERNATIONAL RESCUE
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• A truck recovery outfit is to offer international hauliers the same breakdown service in Bucharest and Bilbao as they get in Birmingham or Bradford.
AA-BRS Fleet Rescue is linking with sister organisations throughout Europe and hopes to have a commercial vehicle network covering the whole Continent, including Russia, by 1995.
AA-BRS, which rescues 45,000 brokendown trucks in Britain each year, has already signed-up 15,000 hauliers for its European service. The network currently includes EC countries (apart from Greece), Austria, Switzerland and Norway. Operators do not pay any extra for Continental cover. All they are charged is their basic UK membership, which goes from 50p a vehicle for hauliers with a fleet of 500, to £22 for owner-operators.
As in Britain, hauliers pay only when they break down. If they need help, they phone a Birmingham number and AA-BRS calls its corresponding body on the Continent. It sends a recovery truck to the stricken vehicle, and bills the owner.
An international haulier's biggest fear is being ripped-off by a foreign garage-owner who knows he will pay anything to get on his way, says AA-BRS managing director Ray Combs. The new service will charge locally-competitive rates, he says, so although recovery is more expensive in some countries such as Austria, hauliers will know they are paying the same as locals. AA-BRS will charge an extra 230 administrative cost each time a recovery agent is sent out.
The Birmingham telephone number solves the language problem drivers often face when contacting foreign breakdown services, adds Combs. And he believes the scheme will encourage more hauliers to go abroad. Until now, operators with trucks not covered by manufacturer's warranty have been reluctant to take older lorries to the Continent.
"If you go to the docks, most of the vehicles you see are F and G-regs. This is mainly because of the fear of breaking down abroad," he says. He expects the numbers enlisting for the European service to double each year. He has already run a pilot scheme last year with removals firm Pickfords and coach operator Wallace Arnold.
AA-BRS is part of a European group of recovery organisations called Europe Net. The Strasbourg-based body is the basis of the venture, which will offer recovery to hauliers of all member states while they are abroad. So if a Spaniard, who has joined the association in his country, breaks down in Britain or France, he will be helped by the rescue service there. Europe Net handled 250,000 breakdowns last year and has 8,000 recovery agents on its books.
Extending the service to Eastern Europe will be difficult as standards there are well behind those in the West, admits Combs. But he is adamant that the quality of recovery associations there will have to be the same as their Western counter
parts before they are allowed to join. He expects Hungary and East Germany to become part of the network this year.
AA-BRS was set up in 1982 as a joint venture between the motoring association and the NFC subsidiary. Combs claims that 180,000 trucks, or 36% of all those in the UK, are registered with the organisation, making it the biggest recovery network in the country. It uses 1,000 independent recovery agents, including 145 BRS garages, throughout the country.
Between lour and 12 telephonists are on duty at its Birmingham control room 24 hours a day. Drivers ring to say where they have broken down, the location is given a grid reference on a computerised map and the nearest recovery garage is contacted. They say what time they think they can be at the vehicle. If it is too long, AA-BRS will phone another operator.
The breakdown industry in this country has always had a poor image, but this is changing through the efforts of the Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators, says Combs. AA-BRS now has specialist agents which can handle breakdowns of trucks carrying hazardous loads. It is fussy about the operators it uses. If a garage continues to refuse awkward jobs, its contract is cancelled.
"We have to be choosy," says Combs. "We're one of the few companies which never sees our customers."
Oby Murdo Morrison