Drivers fume as breakdown firms create premiums and decrease help

When Jim Shirley, 76, was on his way home at a Welsh camping holiday one morning, he disappeared. Concerned friends put down from Bristol at 5am the very next day to discover him. “We saw him from half one mile away at the side of the A44,” says Mari Martin. “He had separated at 1pm the first sort afternoon as well as RAC had told him it’d send a recovery truck considering that it couldn’t repair his van. It never came. He’d spent night waiting at the roadside, five miles through the nearest town devoid of phone signal, and was extremely distressed.”

Martin known as RAC, but three hours passed before car or truck arrived. However, it had not been the promised recovery truck and might require Shirley home, so he was towed to your nearest services and told to wait patiently an added eight hours for rescue.

“That was 31 hours after his first make a call for help,” says Martin. “He had had little sleep, drink and food, and was becoming confused, but nothing I said could persuade these phones attend earlier.” The recovery truck came to 8pm and stopped working to be able to Bristol. Shirley finally reached home at midnight, 35 hours after calling the RAC. After 8 weeks and five letters, Shirley received a