Car breakdown cover

What exactly is car breakdown cover? The term car breakdown cover is really only used in the UK and is also known as roadside assistance or emergency roadside repair in other parts of the world. Car Breakdown cover is a type of insurance policy that is voluntary (unlike car insurance which is mandatory with driving a vehicle in the UK) and is taken out by individuals that are concerned about their car suffering any form of mechanical failure that leaves them stranded.

The first organisation to offer this type of assistance policy was the Automobile Association otherwise known as the AA. Initially the mechanics were dispatched to the vehicle by motorbike and that was replaced in later years with the roadside assistance van that could carry an assortment of repair tools and replacement parts that could be used to fix the problem.

Breakdown Cover Roadside Rescue

Today we have the luxury of mobile phones which greatly aid a stranded motorist should a breakdown occur but as little as fifteen years ago this was not the case. Prior to the late 1990’s mobile phones were not a common accessory for the average motorist and so a network of phones were set up along roads and motorways that were used to contact emergency breakdown assistance.

In the UK it was the AA that dominated the breakdown cover industry until a decade ago. Today car breakdown cover is offered by many car insurance companies and also by general insurers as added coverage to existing car insurance policies. Some car insurance policies actually include a cover policy with the general insurance as an incentive to take out the insurance policy with that particular company.

As the name suggests the aim of the policy is to help out a driver in the short term with a car that has had some kind of failure. As well as mechanical engine failure, which is actually a less common problem for roadside assistance, other reasons for emergency call out include jump starting a car when the battery has gone flat through lights being left on, changing a flat tire, bringing fuel when the car has unexpectedly run out or even helping people get back into their cars should they have accidentally locked themselves out.