Does anyone know much about this? I get the gist of the role. Does what it says on the tin.
Just wondering if anyone knows the recruitment procedure and sort of shifts / money involved and bonus scheme? Seen a couple of headings when searching but wondering if anything more recent.
Thanks
Do you mean, recovery or roadside assistance,
I looked into going back on the spanners, with this, as roadside, there’s a simple test to do, then interview, your on a rota system, basic was £24k, then there’s shift bonus, and the all important upselling of batteries and other bits, I said no thankyou, I wanted to be a roadside knight, not a glorified salesman trying to bump my wages up.
As the title says buddy. Recovery not mechanic!
htfc1984:
As the title says buddy. Recovery not mechanic!
In my experience, if you break down the AA send a van, if he can’t fix it they then call the recovery in and all he does is winch you on and take you home, or to a garage etc. I live in Wales and AFAIK they work on a zonal system, if the client is going a fair distance they will transfer the vehicle at a suitable point to a more local guy, hence no really long hauls or nights away.
Can’t help you on the pay/conditions side but both the guys I dealt with when my bike broke down said it was a decent job.
Sidevalve:
htfc1984:
As the title says buddy. Recovery not mechanic!In my experience, if you break down the AA send a van, if he can’t fix it they then call the recovery in and all he does is winch you on and take you home, or to a garage etc. I live in Wales and AFAIK they work on a zonal system, if the client is going a fair distance they will transfer the vehicle at a suitable point to a more local guy, hence no really long hauls or nights away.
Can’t help you on the pay/conditions side but both the guys I dealt with when my bike broke down said it was a decent job.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
join the rac…as soon as the truck comes to lift you.theres no messing,he goes straight to your door.
ive had 1 hits from glasgow and as far as south mimms back to glasgow.
no messing with relay type crap.
for ireland north and south,then they put you and off the ferry then get recovered again with 1 hitter…cant fault their service in any way whatsoever and never waited as long as 2 hours to be attended to.
Thought the AA did diagnostics and recovery with the same vehicle fitted with a spectacle lift. I have only used them with a motorcycle and they take you home, the worst part he told me was stood outside motorway services touting for business on bank holidays
Hi, I worked for the AA both as relay driver (recovery), and as a patrol (repairing cars roadside) for 17years. Two years recovery then they found I was a fitter. Left 10years ago but still got mates there so I’m up-to-date.when I was there it was the bees knees dead men’s shoes etc. When I left on early retirement I couldn’t wait to be gone. My friends tell me the reason for the recruitment is because once again they changed the rosters and 150 yes that’s right 150 drivers walked. Hope this helps the beardedone
dieseldog999:
^^^^^^^^^^^^
join the rac…as soon as the truck comes to lift you.theres no messing,he goes straight to your door.
ive had 1 hits from glasgow and as far as south mimms back to glasgow.
no messing with relay type crap.
for ireland north and south,then they put you and off the ferry then get recovered again with 1 hitter…cant fault their service in any way whatsoever and never waited as long as 2 hours to be attended to.
Wouldn’t use the RAC again if it was free. They claim to offer a recovery service if you’re involved in an accident, then wriggle out of helping you in the small print. Plus they hide their automatic renewal thing, you don’t realise till it’s taken out of your bank then you have a helluva job getting it back.
I’ve had to use AA 3 times, twice when my bike broke down (2008 in France and 2015 in the UK) and once when my wife fell off her bike. Every time, the service was exemplary. Should add that all 3 times were through my insurers, who offer breakdown as part of the policy.
In the time that I have been involved in the mess called the recovery industry, there have been 3x significfant times I recall where the AA moved the goal posts & lost a large number of recovery/roadside personnel who simply walked away from significantly worse terms & conditions.
Make of that what you want, but the rest of us call it a race to the bottom.
It can still be a great job & it can still be your ideal job. But given their track record, they tend to find a level that attracts replacement frontline operatives into the job . . . Then change it for the worse.
If you sign up you’ll know if it hits your spot within a few weeks, just bear in mind that once they get comfortable with their staffing levels then they tend to change their T&C’s to hammer you.
Good luck, there’s a lot better recovery firms to work for after the AA have trained you 
The AA was once a Mutual Society, and as such treated members and employees with respect.
It ‘demutalised’ in 1999, when that was fashionable and taken over by British Gas parent co Centrica.
Centrica flogged it to some venture capitalists, who merged it with old-peoples’ travel/insurance co Saga.
The venture capitalists floated it on the Stock Exchange in 2014. The boss man who led the flotation was kicked out last year for ‘gross misconduct’.
the above history is probably why it’s not such a good employer as it once was: its moved from having a primary goal of ‘member service’, including both helping them at the roadside and campaigning for better roads to ‘shareholder profit.’
Hence mechanics as salesmen etc.
I worked as a Recovery driver out of South Mimms, around 18 yrs ago…was a cracking job when I started…4 on 4 off, with O/T available if you wanted it…most of us did 1 or 2 of our RD’s as O/T.
Then they changed us all to a choice of Mon-Fri or 6 on 3 off (which matched the breakdown patrols at the time) both of which saw a massive drop in pay, mainly due to the loss of O/T. When we had a meeting with our FSM to discuss the change, I voiced my objections and was promptly asked which window I wanted to leave by! That gives you an idea of their management style!
I believe it is now 4 on 4 off again…but no idea of the pay. Another thing they brought in for us was KPI’s which we were judged by each month…two of which were jobs completed and loaded miles driven. If you were kept on locals you would easily achieve the targets set for those, however if you were given a lot of long distance relays, you had no chance of achieving them as you very rarely would get anything to bring back into your area. But no adjustments were made to take into account the type of work you had been doing, and you had no say in the matter…you had to do whatever Thatcham sent you!
My time came to an end when they tried to discipline me for refusing to do a job which would have me recovering a 4x4 vehicle which was over the maximum weight for the little Renault slidebeds we had. The union we had, GMB, were largely useless and just management stooges most of the time.
The job is not golden goose it once was i worked there when centrica took it over as a patrol but left few years later when terms and conditions were eroded as use to get a lot of time off, use to work one week a month in june/july/august if i planned it right with rest days and annual leave but like everything for working person it never lasts i was taking home £2000 a month back in 2000 s same as recovery drivers which was decent money then.
I still know people working there and been told new recruits only lasting a week then going back to main dealers garages etc and only taking home £500 a week now with more overtime/standby days/sales targets been forced on them etc.
So telephone interview staged passed. Invitation for recruitment day. 45 minute slot. Interview then an assessment drive. Small time slot so can’t imagine much of either. Any tips for me to pass on? Or type of questions?
Thanks all
htfc1984:
So telephone interview staged passed. Invitation for recruitment day. 45 minute slot. Interview then an assessment drive. Small time slot so can’t imagine much of either. Any tips for me to pass on? Or type of questions?Thanks all
I’ve got some advice…don’t bother asking any more questions and wasting peoples time when you clearly ignore the advice you asked for…you’ll ignore this advice too, no doubt…!
TiredAndEmotional:
htfc1984:
So telephone interview staged passed. Invitation for recruitment day. 45 minute slot. Interview then an assessment drive. Small time slot so can’t imagine much of either. Any tips for me to pass on? Or type of questions?Thanks all
I’ve got some advice…don’t bother asking any more questions and wasting peoples time when you clearly ignore the advice you asked for…you’ll ignore this advice too, no doubt…!
So which golden nuggets have been ignored? Don’t comment if you’ve got a problem. Moron.
htfc1984:
TiredAndEmotional:
htfc1984:
So telephone interview staged passed. Invitation for recruitment day. 45 minute slot. Interview then an assessment drive. Small time slot so can’t imagine much of either. Any tips for me to pass on? Or type of questions?Thanks all
I’ve got some advice…don’t bother asking any more questions and wasting peoples time when you clearly ignore the advice you asked for…you’ll ignore this advice too, no doubt…!
So which golden nuggets have been ignored? Don’t comment if you’ve got a problem. Moron.
I’ll have the forum filth on ya! M***n! 
If you want to have a go at each other, then take it to PM. Lets keep the thread on topic. 
Colingl:
If you want to have a go at each other, then take it to PM. Lets keep the thread on topic.
Just delete thread for me.
htfc1984:
So telephone interview staged passed. Invitation for recruitment day. 45 minute slot. Interview then an assessment drive. Small time slot so can’t imagine much of either. Any tips for me to pass on? Or type of questions?Thanks all
I still work for the AA on recovery, but have also helped in other areas.
Interview is straight forward, check all your docs (so take them) and then q&a about the job. It’s very relaxed, you may get asked about which motorways you’d use to get fro A 2 B. There were no assessment drives up to last year, though that may have changed.
As for the rest… the company has gone, and continues to go, through changes. From the top down we see restructuring, in recovery it has been a hard test. As has been said, the new rostas have caused mayhem and the new rostas come out next month. Personally I think it’s a bad move, but I have no say
Recovery work is a great job, I love it although I’ll be leaving soon. Stay on your toes and keep your wits about you, and the job itself will make you smile more than you thought it would.
Harry Kyng:
htfc1984:
So telephone interview staged passed. Invitation for recruitment day. 45 minute slot. Interview then an assessment drive. Small time slot so can’t imagine much of either. Any tips for me to pass on? Or type of questions?Thanks all
I still work for the AA on recovery, but have also helped in other areas.
Interview is straight forward, check all your docs (so take them) and then q&a about the job. It’s very relaxed, you may get asked about which motorways you’d use to get fro A 2 B. There were no assessment drives up to last year, though that may have changed.
As for the rest… the company has gone, and continues to go through change. From the top down we are see restructuring, in recovery it has been a hard test. As has been said, the new rostas have caused mayhem and the new rostas come out next month. Personally I think it’s a bad move, but I have no say
Recovery work is a great job, I love it although I’ll be leaving soon. Stay on your toes and keep your wits about you, and the job itself will make you smile more than your thought it would.
Cheers. Sent a PM