Recovery Abroad

[paulgooner]

Hi All
I heard the other day that if you are abroad and breakdown on a toll road, the recovery services ie AA etc will not come out to you, despite that you may have european cover. It seems a toll road is classed as a private road, and you will need to get the local recovery services to get you off the toll and then you will be covered. Its strange that they dont tell you this when applying for european cover!!. Anyone else heard this or had experience of this.

[theaxe]

I heard this, it seems that you'll get towed to the nearest service area and then the road assistance will catch up with you there.

[paulgooner]

Thats right, however I heard that someone had two flats and it cost him 600 euros to get towed off and the tyres sorted

[ATG]

This isn't that the AA won't, it's that on certain roads they aren't allowed to. For example, if you are on a French autoroute, only autoroute staff are allowed to pick up cars from the hard shoulder. They'll take you as far as the nearest exit, and then the AA will arrange for a local firm to pick you up. I've forgotten what the autoroute operators charge for this service, but it is quite steep.

Having said that, their staff are good blokes in my experience. I managed to run out of petrol last summer in France, and rather than charge me anything, one lot of autoroute people who were driving past stopped to put out some cones to make the car more visible, and another lot gave my girlfriend a lift to the nearest petrol station with a jerry can. No charge for any of it, just helping someone out.