To the rescue
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Breaking down is certainly no fun, but with the recovery services that operate these days, it is not quite the calamity it used to be. David Wilcox has been surveying the scene and he's come up with some interesting comparisons between the bodies that want to take you in tow
THE HISTORY OF the UK commercial vehicle recovery services in their present form is fairly short — five years to be exact.
If your lorry broke down on the road before 1977, it was odds on that you were on your own. It was usually up to the driver or his depot to arrange for the local dealer for recovery specialist to come out.
This posed problems for both parties. The driver or owner had the job of contacting someone who would come out to attend to the vehicle — not easy at the best of times but particularly difficult at 2am in the morning when Sod's Law dictates that you break down.
And once you had found someone willing to come to your rescue you were entirely at their mercy; you didn't know how much they would charge you or how well they would do the job. A bad recovery job can cause more problems than it solves.
It was just as much a risk for the recovery operator who came to your rescue. He didn't know who he was coming out to and whether or not he would ever get paid for the job. This sometimes lead to the demand for cash before starting the job which understandably caused problems and bad feelings.
With the AA and RAC leading the way in 24-hour car recovery and breakdown the market for a similar type of service for commercial vehicles was wide open. until 1977 when, within weeks of each other, two organisations came on the scene.
The first, on March 1, 1977, was National Breakdown Recovery Services of Bradford, already established in car recovery. Two months later BRS Rescue appeared.
The firm responsible for setting up National Breakdown's commercial service, Bob Clarke, subsequently left and started his own commercial vehicle recovery organisation, Octagon, in September 1979.
Since then other smaller commercial vehicle recovery services have appeared and disappeared and National Breakdown, BRS Rescue and Octagon are still the three organisations that share the majority of the commercial vehicle recovery market. (Recovery is taken to mean roadside assistance and/or a lift or tow.)
Ignoring vans, which are a grey area and covered in some instances by the car organisations, there are approximately 550,000 commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross in the UK. BRS Rescue claims to have around 150,000 commercial vehicles registered with it, while National Breakdown covers a further 50,000 vehicles. Octagon has some contracts with manufacturers that are rather open — so its figures include all vehicles (including some vans) that are entitled to use Octagon's switchboard but are not necessarily registered with Octagon; its total is therefore relatively high at 125-150,000, In short, these figures mean that 50-60 per cent of the 3.5 tonnes-plus commercial vehicles are covered by these three organisations.
Each of them offers slightly different services, some in their own name and some on behalf of a vehicle manufacturer, but the principle behind them is the same. They each run a 24-hour switchboard (normally with Freephone numbers) to receive drivers' calls for assistance and will arrange for the nearest appropriate dealer or agent to attend.
This single procedure overcomes the problems that existed before. Firstly, there is a 24-hour switchboard to receive calls. Secondly, there is a list of dealers and pgents in the area and the means of contacting them. Thirdly, membership of the organisations includes a credit guarantee (usually £200£250) so that the driver does not need cash and the recovery agent knows he will get paid. Fourthly, the recovery agents are vetted and so should do a satisfactory job. And lastly, there is a scale of laid down charges so that the vehicle owner knows in advance the hourly rate he will pay.
That is the underlying principle behind the organisations. One joins by paying an annual subscription which is linked to the number of vehicles in the fleet. This is normally about £5 for less than 10 vehicles, down to £2 per vehicle for fleets above 50.
Unlike the AA/RAC membership this is only an annual subscription — you still have to pay the agreed charges for the actual roadside assistance. The exception to this is that Octagon offers a comprehensive service where the subscriptions are much higher but the recovery is free, With all the recovery services it is stipulated that only roadside assistance and recovery is included in the agreement — if the vehicle has to be towed into workshop what happen thereafter is between th workshop and the vehicl owner.
How good is the service prc vided by the recovery organise flans? This depends on two fac tors; how well the organisationF. telephone controllers deal witl the breakdown call, and subse quently, how well the dealer o recovery agent responds.
an agent. This response tim varies in the majority of case between three and 15 minutes BRS Rescue should be able t offer a fast service in most case because it has the most ac vanced telephone equipmen and because the details of it agents and its customers are a computer records. In this waN customers' credit ratings and thl agents' details flash up on a vdi icreen in front of the controller nore or less instantly.
National Breakdown (in the ase of its commercial vehicle 3ervice) and Octagon still use nand-written card indexes but both are switching to computerised databanks within the next few months.
The individual controllers will quickly memorise the details of the most frequently used agents. They are trained to run through an elementary question/answer routine with the driver in an attempt to diagnose the trouble.
Theoretically, the more agents that the recovery organisation has, the better the chance of getting the job placed with an agent that is close. Octagon has 600 agents and National Breakdown has around 700; both these totals include dealers of the manufacturers with whom Octagon and National Breakdown have contracts.
BRS Rescue's network is slightly different. There are 700 independent agents plus a further 60 BRS depots with recovery or breakdown facilities.
Many of the agents work for two or all three of the major recovery organisations (plus some of the car recovery clubs).
Once the job has been placed with one of these agents that is the last that the recovery organi sation knows about it (apart from the subsequent invoicing). The quality of service now rests with the individual agent.
Agents are vetted by the recovery organisations as far as possible but this down not mean a personal visit in all cases. BRS Rescue's system seems the most thorough; an engineer from the local BRS depot visits each of the agents in the area and these agents are assigned to that particular depot. The general opinion among the recovery organisations seems to be that the agent should be at the scene of the breakdown within an hour of the job being placed.
All three organisations record the fact that an agent refuses to turn out for a breakdown for whatever reason.
Lorries that are not members of a recovery organsiation are taking a calculated risk that they can get by without one. How big is this risk?
Among the 20,000 vehicles that are operated by individual Octagon members there is a 40 per cent call out rate, ie, the number of calls for assistance each year is roughly 40 per cent of the vehicles registered with the service.
National Breakdown has a lower call out rate — around 25 per cent. BRS Rescue claims to have the lowest rate of all at 20 per cent. So on average, there is a 25-30 per cent chance of your needing roadside assistance in the year.
One figure that all three commercial vehicle recovery organisations agree upon is that 75 per cent of all calls for help can be satisfactorily dealt with at the roadside; only one in four need a lift or tow. The accompanying list of the most common causes of breakdowns show why this is so — the vast majority of the breakdowns are of a fairly minor nature and can often be blamed on poor servicing.
Bearing in mind the likelihood of you actually needing their services, do the commercial vehicle recovery organisations offer value for money? I have already mentioned the annual subscription charges per vehicle which gets substantially lower for larger fleets.
But the major costs arise if and when you need roadside assistance. Although there are differences in the way in which charges are calculated, typical prices are approximately £20 an hour for a service van and fitter (which according to the figure above should be able to cope with 75 per cent of the calls), ranging up to around £39 an hour for a heavy lift/tow job for laden three or four axle vehicles.
If it is a night or weekend callout there is usually a surcharge of £8-£15.
These are the prices that the vehicle owner pays. How much goes to the recovery agent and how much goes to the recovery organisation for handling the call? The agent submits his invoice to the recovery organisation which adds its percentage and re-invoices the vehicle's owner. Octagon adds a straight £8.50 per job (soon to go up to £10).
National Breakdown's surcharge is on a sliding scale, dependent on the time taken. For instance, a service van and fitter during the day costs around £20 an hour of which the agent gets about £16 and National Breakdown keeps £4.
In the case of BRS Rescue, it is up to the individual agent to negotiate his own rates with the local BRS depot and the difference between these rates and the published charges is BRS Rescue's share.
Where parts are required at the roadside — fan belts or hoses for example — all three recovery organisations say they do not aim to make a profit on the parts. However, they will normally charge the vehicle operator the retail price of the parts while they may or may not have received a trade discount from the recovery agent.
As well as the 'Top 10' causes of breakdowns being fairly predictable, the recovery organisations can identify other patterns in the calls. The busiest times of day are 6.30am to 10am when most of the vehicles are setting out and the problems show up, and at 4pm-8pm when drivers tend to press on to get home again. For similar reasons Mondays and Fridays tend to be busier than other days.
Looking at the pattern of breakdowns on a monthly basis, there are substantially more calls in the winter. In fact, the distribution of calls is like looking at the weather records. For example, January 1981 was fairly mild and National Breakdown dealt with 693 commercial vehicle call-outs that month. Nobody needs reminding what this January was like — and National Breakdown handled 2,154 calls. Diesel waxing and flat batteries are definitely the top winter problems. In the quieter summer months it is mostly tyre problems and overheating that cause the commercial vehicle breakdowns.
The car recovery business has an opposite seasonal trend with more calls in the summer than winter. The way in which the car and commercial breakdown seasons "complement" one another was one of the reasons that National Breakdown moved into the commercial vehicle recovery market — it would better utilise the equipment and controllers the whole year round.
BRS Rescue does not profess to handle car recovery but will do so for the fleet cars of a commercial customer. Octagon launched a fleet car recovery service to the wider market two weeks ago at the Fleet Motor Show.
If one put a pin in a blank outline map of the UK, representing each commercial vehicle call-out, the routes of the motorways and major conurbations would soon emerge. But although these patterns and trends were noted by each of the three recovery organisations I visited, they all commented that demand fluctuated; one afternoon the phones can be red hot and the next afternoon they can be silent.
Many of the vehicles on the recovery organisations' books are there because they are automatically covered as part of the manufacturers' first year warranty package. For these vehicles, the membership subscription in that year is free and any recovery charges that may be incurred are normally reclaim able under the terms of the warranty. At the end of the first year, most manufacturers' schemes offer continued membership at a reduced rate compared with the standard subscription, with the vehicle operator paying the recovery charges as normal.
This link between the vehicle manufacturers and the recovery organisations has been an important part in the development of the organisations and virtually every lorry manufacturer has a contract with one of them.
Some use the organisation purely as a communications tool (because of its 24-hour switchboard) to connect the driver of the broken-down vehicle with the nearest franchised dealer and to get an order number from the supplying dealer. In this case, the recovery organisation does not get involved in invoicing and so is paid directly by the vehicle manufacturer.
National Breakdown acts in one way or another for the following manufacturers: Bedford, lveco, Renault, Scania, Mercedes-Benz, and Seddon Atkinson.
Octagon has links with DAF, Leyland, rVIAH-VW and Foden.
BRS Rescue has only one tieup with a manufacturer (Hestair Dennis), intending to be orientated more towards the users of the service, mainly the large fleet operators in BRS Rescue's case.
As a result of these manufacturers' contracts, the man that answers the phone when you ring the Bedord Roadcall number for instance, could well be the same man that answers when you call the Renault Help number.
BRS Rescue points out that one of the advantages of being angled towards vehicle operators membership rather than vehicle manufacturer contract membership is that in a mixed fleet of vehicles every driver needs to know just one Freephone number (4151 for BRS Rescue). Otherwise, he'll have to phone one number if he is driving a Scania, another if he is driving a DAF Missing from the list of manufacturers who use the three recovery organisations are several big names. ERF launched its Freeway service about a month ago and although this also uses an outside company to operate the 24-hour Freephone service ERF does not wish to disclose which company that is. Calls for assistance are directed to the ERF distributors, each of which is asked to nominate three local recovery specialists should the dealer himself not be able to attend.
Dodge vehicles will soon be covered in a joint Renault/Dodge scheme now that Karrier Motors has been formed.
Ford's recovery service is part of the Ford Care package and works via the AA emergency service centres, therefore having the use of the AA phone boxes. The AA switchboards relay the calls to the nearest of the 140 Ford truck dealers. If the first one cannot attend, the AA controllers have instructions to try two more Ford dealers before turning to an outside recovery agent who is nominated by the nearest dealer.
With Ford's system, there is a small annual subscription plus a small charge for the card that each driver carries to show creditworthiness. There are no preagreed recovery charges but since the service primarily uses Ford dealers there is a degree of protection against extortion.
Finally, Volvo's Action Volvo service uses Volvo employees to man a 2 4-hour Freephone number which is actually at the Glasgow depot of a security company, Group 4. This is a totally free-to-use service covering all Volvo lorries and coaches, irrespective of age. Even nonVolvo vehicles will be helped. Calls are directed to Volvo dealers who will charge for the roadside assistance given in the normal way.
To find out how important the provision of a recovery service is to the vehicle manufacturer I visited Bedford. Set up in November 1977 Bedford Roadcall was one of the earlier manufacturers' services and is run by National Breakdown. It covers Bedford trucks from TM upwards, plus coaches vans are excluded. Every new Bedford still under warranty (that's about 7,500) is covered automatically, and after warranty has expired the vehicle can be covered by National Breakdown at a reduced membership subscription.
Bedford is currently planning the 're-launch' of Roadcall and the details of membership after warranty has expired will be changed within the next few months.
The man who oversees Roadcall at Bedford is govern
ment and fleet sales manager Bob Calder who described Roadcall as "an important part of the selling package as well as a service to the operators".
Bedford, of course, foots the bill for recovery of vehicles under warranty and Roadcall guarantees payment of these charges up to £200. Bob Calder said that it is virtually unknown for the charges to exceed this figure and the average Roadcall cost for a breakdown of a Bedford under warranty is around £48.
In the agreement between Bedford and National Breakdown there is a clause "written in blood" that in response to a call from a Roadcall member the National Breakdown controller must ring the nearest of the 176 Bedford truck dealers first.
If this dealer cannot turn out, the controller can then try a recovery agent in the National Breakdown network. Note that this differs significantly from the Ford/AA agreement in which the AA controller must try three Ford dealers before calling an outside agent.
This difference in policy underlines the dual responsibility the vehicle manufacturer has to the operator who has bought the vehicles and to the dealers. Ford's system is apparently strong on protecting the Ford dealers from abstraction of their recovery business by outside recovery specialists.
Bedford's Bob Calder believes that the Roadcall policy of directing just the first call to a Bedford dealer is right, resulting in a faster recovery service for vehicle operator. Achieving this balance between allegiance to the dealers and service to the vehicle operators can be a sore point, particularly with the dealers. This partially explains why some manufacturers are not keen to talk about contracted-out recovery services and perhaps contributes towards Volvo's claim that its inhouse Action Volvo system is better than a contracted-out service.
Dealing with thousands of calls each year, the recovery or-' ganisations must be a valuable source of breakdown information. How much of this actually filters back to the manufacturers where it can be used to improve the product? The general consensus of opinion is that there is more feedback than there used to be the foreign manufacturers in particular seem to have lead the way here.
An outstanding example I heard of was one particular model where the recovery organisation records showed that 49 per cent of the breakdowns were caused by two faults. The manufacturer rectified these two faults and the breakdown rate was sig nificantly reduced.
This is the ideal situation and Bob Calder explained that information feedback is not normally that simple. Because the circumstances of a roadside breakdown are not conducive to form filling, the reasons for the breakdown that are recorded are usually fairly vague "clutch problem" for example. This is of limited use to the vehicle manufacturer and Bob Calder pointed out that warranty claims are a far better source of information for the manufacturers' engineers.
As computer systems are introduced by the recovery organisations, information can be more readily collated and so information feedback should improve. Because BRS Rescue has been using a computer-based data-bank system since October 1980 it has a lead in this respect. To capitalise on this BRS Rescue is to offer in the next few months a new service to its fleet customers whereby they will get a computer print out of their fleet's breakdown record, ie, how many electrical faults, how many fuel faults, and so on.
Initially, this will be supplied free of charge as an experiment to operators who have had more than 10 breakdowns in a year but this may develop into an extra cost service for any of its customers.
It is possible for BRS Rescue to analyse breakdown information by type of vehicle and obviously such information would be interesting to rival manufacturers.
BRS Rescue is well aware of this and will not disclose anything like this to anyone that is carrying information feedback too far.