Jobsworth AA man!
Discussion
last night there was a pretty bad RTA on the M6 just before junction 27, not going into detail but it closed the Northbound for 2 hours, all the emergency services were there in abundance. After things had got going again, there was a Paramedic 'Fast car' broken down (flat battery with leaving the beacons running) an AA van had attended to a vehicle that had been held up in the que, who had the same problem, after being asked if he would just 'jump' the battery to start the Paramedic car, his reply was "No sorry, it's not a member" subsiquently it had to be recovered instead.
If he ever needs their help, they of course won't ask for his membership card!
If he ever needs their help, they of course won't ask for his membership card!
tonyhetherington said:
I am so very surprised at that! Are you sure? How did you see/hear all this?
The area between junction 26 & 27 presently has roadworks on, still 3 lanes each way, but a temp barrier between lane 1 and H/S, the emergency phones are out of order so it's covered with CCTV cameras, the operator organises the free recovery for broken down vehicles, and is the 'eyes' for anything that happens there with a direct phone line to the Police. within seconds of the RTA happening, the Police had as much detail that could be seen from the screens.
After the event is cleared up and the motorway starts to get back to normal, there's all the vehicles with numpty drivers that have either flattened their batteries through leaving their headlights on, or the ones that overheat through constantly running the engine whilst sat in the que.
It took a further 1½ hours to get rid of those, and recover the smashed cars.
Lets just say I had a birds eye view! and afterwards the people who were not actually "Emergency services personnel" but had some involvement with it compared notes!
>> Edited by gafferjim on Thursday 10th February 23:20
>> Edited by gafferjim on Thursday 10th February 23:45
lanciachris said:
Surprising. aa helped me out before even though I wasnt a member (locked keys in car, but my car was parked next to aa van. had my rac card on me, but asked him if he could help out seeing as he was there, save me the wait.)
maybe they are all different some can think and others need a rulebook.
Very surprising...but then again..there are various things about a 4th Emergency Service (not naming it) that means I would never join or recommend to others.
As for the root cause of the problem, in our patrol cars we have a KRS button on the dashboard. (keyless running system).
Whilst the engine is running at the scene, you can press the KRS, remove the keys from the ignition and the engine continues to tick over. This means the blue/red lights etc can continue to operate at full power, and the battery wont go flat.
If some miscreant should get into the car to steal it, once a foot pedal is pressed, the engine cuts out.
Great idea.
As for the root cause of the problem, in our patrol cars we have a KRS button on the dashboard. (keyless running system).
Whilst the engine is running at the scene, you can press the KRS, remove the keys from the ignition and the engine continues to tick over. This means the blue/red lights etc can continue to operate at full power, and the battery wont go flat.
If some miscreant should get into the car to steal it, once a foot pedal is pressed, the engine cuts out.
Great idea.
Streetcop said:
a 4th Emergency Service
Sorry to be a pedant SC, and no offence intended but....
4th Emergency service = HM Coastguard. eye thang yew!
What about mine rescue? Mountain Rescue?
I was referring to a company that uses the slogan..
Yes I know you were and that use of the term by them exercises my patience as an RNLI member, but then I'm biased re Coastguard etc.
Quite willing to be corrected, I don't think Mine Rescue are contacted by 999/112.
Mountain Rescue? yes fair comment that and slapped wrist accepted
Where do we stop though? eg Bomb Disposal?
Did you know that the small print of the AA they do not have to recover you if you've had an accident.
So there you are sitting at the side of a road, shocked, cold and tired and you find out you should have read the T & C's more carefully.
Which is why I'm in the RAC, who happily recovered my front damaged Astra to my house.
I trust this fact and the whole post is enough to lose the AA a few 1000 potential customers.
I believe they call it cutting off your nose to spite your face. Hey I know lets save money by shitting on our customers. We can put it in the small print. Business goes down the pan.
So there you are sitting at the side of a road, shocked, cold and tired and you find out you should have read the T & C's more carefully.
Which is why I'm in the RAC, who happily recovered my front damaged Astra to my house.
I trust this fact and the whole post is enough to lose the AA a few 1000 potential customers.
I believe they call it cutting off your nose to spite your face. Hey I know lets save money by shitting on our customers. We can put it in the small print. Business goes down the pan.
For bikers out there;
If you throw your bike up the road and no other car is involved, the AA will want to claim against your insurance firm to recover you!
There are occasions when a low speed spill might mean the bike is unroadworthy at that time. However, some adjustments back home, new footrest, brake lever etc and you're back on the road. No loss of No Claims etc.
However, the AA will only recover you under such circumstances with details of your insurance firm.
If you throw your bike up the road and no other car is involved, the AA will want to claim against your insurance firm to recover you!
There are occasions when a low speed spill might mean the bike is unroadworthy at that time. However, some adjustments back home, new footrest, brake lever etc and you're back on the road. No loss of No Claims etc.
However, the AA will only recover you under such circumstances with details of your insurance firm.
So we don't use the yellow vans cos they are unhelpful and try and get out of helping.
We cant use the luminous orange vans (no not Dynarod the other ones) cos they want us to fit speed limiters.
Hopefully no-one has anecdotal evidence that Green Flag are no cop otherwise I am going to have to carry a load of tools and spares in the car from now on.
Incidentally, I always thought that the pizza delivery bloke was the fourth emergency service.
We cant use the luminous orange vans (no not Dynarod the other ones) cos they want us to fit speed limiters.
Hopefully no-one has anecdotal evidence that Green Flag are no cop otherwise I am going to have to carry a load of tools and spares in the car from now on.
Incidentally, I always thought that the pizza delivery bloke was the fourth emergency service.
rustybin said:
We cant use the luminous orange vans (no not Dynarod the other ones) cos they want us to fit speed limiters.
Hopefully no-one has anecdotal evidence that Green Flag are no cop otherwise I am going to have to carry a load of tools and spares in the car from now on.
Incidentally, I always thought that the pizza delivery bloke was the fourth emergency service.
Last point first. Depends if you are baby sitting and can't find any FOOD at all in your sister in laws house.
Green Flag ? No idea but brittania rescue saved my holiday once (clutch went on Sunday afternoon, and they fixed it at side of road with new clutch (vauxhall clutches are a peice of piss)
The RAC can want 'us' to fit speed limiters, but I think they'd have difficulty retro fitting it to a 1985 Cavalier SRi with out me knowing.
rustybin said:
So we don't use the yellow vans cos they are unhelpful and try and get out of helping.
We cant use the luminous orange vans (no not Dynarod the other ones) cos they want us to fit speed limiters.
Hopefully no-one has anecdotal evidence that Green Flag are no cop otherwise I am going to have to carry a load of tools and spares in the car from now on.
Incidentally, I always thought that the pizza delivery bloke was the fourth emergency service.
Guess its a boot full of tools and spares then
Green Flag are a proud sponsor of Brake, the anti car charity.
www.brake.org.uk/index.php?p=5
d-man said:
Green Flag are a proud sponsor of Brake, the anti car charity.
www.brake.org.uk/index.php?p=5
...but they also sponsor some motorsport. www.greenflagbtcc.com for example.
Apparently BRAKE also do some quite good work in 'victim support' type stuff. I think one of the BiBs said that they have packs to give out from BRAKE to people who've had had bad shunts - shame about the rest of their attitude though.
So that's one good mark & one bad one...
I've met some of their marketing people and they're ok guys. It's just part of the game of marketing, try & appeal to the boy racers and the micra driving cardigans...
FWIW, whenever I've had to call 'em out they've been pretty ok - but they use a lot of indie garages to provide cover. Sometimes that can be bad but often you get someone with a bit more knowledge than average.
Streetcop said:
Bomb disposal? Contactable via Police...
That's the point though. To me the primary emergency services consists of organisations that are the first point of contact in a particular situation. They may then call in other specialist units and co-ordinate matters.
No question in my mind that police, ambulance, fire and coastguard are classed as "emergency services." Mountain rescue personally I think is debatable, but I'll give you that one.
However one could define emergency services in the same way as emergency vehicles. Then one gets some very oddball definitions of emergency, eg fire salvage?? RAF Armaments support?? Some Forestry Commission vehicles??
As I say if you were to ask MoP and Govt to define the emergency services I think they overwhelmingly they would come up with the four I listed. I would hope that nobody nominated those in yellow vans.
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