Hi all, hoping you good folk might be able to help me out here, are any of the members on here that are AA recovery drivers or have been in the past, or do any of you good people know a AA recovery driver that you could put me in touch with ?.
The reason ? lets just say if I could contact / speak to, a currently employed AA recovery driver it may well be to my advantage.
(The newer to the job the better)
Regards,
The Soulman.
Well that seems a dodgy post if ever I saw one■■? Newer the better!
The reason ? lets just say if I could contact / speak to, a currently employed AA recovery driver it may well be to my advantage
Mmm My mate works for them but I’ll not be passing info on, I like him!
Rick B:
Well that seems a dodgy post if ever I saw one■■? Newer the better!The reason ? lets just say if I could contact / speak to, a currently employed AA recovery driver it may well be to my advantage
Mmm My mate works for them but I’ll not be passing info on, I like him!
Got a job interview with the AA next week for the said recovery driver role and would like to quiz anyone with experience (The more recent the better) of the likely questions / any tips / advice to take with me.
My original post was made before I received pm and should be ignored. Talk about both feet 
Rick B:
My original post was made before I received pm and should be ignored. Talk about both feet
No problem Rick. 
I hope the mods don’t mind me mentioning another forum. I’m a moderator on vehiclerescue.net which is a forum for recovery agents and associated occupations. Pop over there and you will probably get an answer to your query.
The Highway Man:
I hope the mods don’t mind me mentioning another forum. I’m a moderator on vehiclerescue.net which is a forum for recovery agents and associated occupations. Pop over there and you will probably get an answer to your query.
Registered and posted, thanks The Highway Man.
About 9 yrs ago i was working for the AA out of South Mimms on the recovery.
Great job at first, then we got a new FSM (Field Service Manager) who was an utter ■■■■. We were working 4 on 4 off and regularly doing 2 days as OT…everyone was happy. Then they went and changed the contracts (you will learn with the AA people are on about various different contracts depending when they started) which meant we had a choice of doing 7 on 3 off or Mon-Fri one week days, one week nights. We lost shed loads of OT money because of that, i mean almost £6-7k a year on average.
I went on the Mon-Fri and about that time was approached by my colleagues to see if i would consider standing as our Union rep…see where this is going?
Anyway…we had some little Renault slide beds which really had a top payload of about 1.7-1.9 tons, and didn’t really do well with high vehicles like Range Rovers and other 4x4’s…they tended to lean quite heavily in corners etc. The normal trucks were 13t Renault’s or Dafs, more than capable of the bigger stuff. Well, one afternoon, i logged on and got sent a lwb Frontera to go across london somewhere…with 3 of the 13t’s logging on the same time. So i rejected it due to the weight/size…they sent it back to me…i rejected it again…this went on a couple more times…then i got a phone call asking why i kept rejecting it to which i explained that i felt it was beyond the vehicles capacity and they had 3 other vehicles who were better suited to the task. I got told we think it will be ok…i said, i am the driver, surely it is my responsibility if anything goes wrong as i am responsible for the load…unless they wanted to fax me down something in writing saying they will take full responsibility should the thing tip off the back or anything of that nature…they took it off me and gave me something else.
Fast forward a couple of days…i’m booking on and my FSM comes over, gets in the truck and starts to have a go about me refusing work…i explained the situation and he said “i am going to go fishing and see what i can get on you now…”.
For the next week or so, i am given mostly long distance stuff with no return loads…then i am called for a “performance review” where my FSM states that i am lowest utilised driver in his team (worked out by miles worked with a job)…i explained that this was obviously because being sent to places like Manchester loaded one way, tends to eat into your figures…not interested…just said he was going to be placing me on special monitoring!
A favourite trick of students was to use their parents membership…i was called to a job at 2am on the M11 which was listed as going to home address in Battersea…when i get there it’s a student using parents membership…straight away he says he wants to go to Norwich not Battersea! i say “sorry mate, jobs going to Battersea”…he’s ok with that…as i’m strapping it down, the student is in the truck, the breakdown patrol wanders up and we have a brief chat and said something like “the cheeky ■■■■■■■ wanted to go to Norwich”…he laughs…we all depart…think no more of it.
Next day, i get called in, suspended and find out that the breakdown patrol has reported me for using abusive language in front of a customer! I ask if the customer has been contacted to see if he has a complaint, and they say no, he never heard anything! Still got suspended though. Turns out the other patrol was a good mate of my FSM!
The union in the AA are bought and paid for by the management, at least they were then…all the main reps had company cars etc…they just said it was best for me to resign…and not knowing any better then, thats what i did.
Hopefully things have changed on that front…
Sorry about the long post…bought back some long suppressed feelings of anger!
Sound like a bunch of ■■■■■■■■■■ That case would of stood up nicely in a tribunal.
DonutUK:
About 9 yrs ago i was working for the AA out of South Mimms on the recovery.Great job at first, then we got a new FSM (Field Service Manager) who was an utter ■■■■. We were working 4 on 4 off and regularly doing 2 days as OT…everyone was happy. Then they went and changed the contracts (you will learn with the AA people are on about various different contracts depending when they started) which meant we had a choice of doing 7 on 3 off or Mon-Fri one week days, one week nights. We lost shed loads of OT money because of that, i mean almost £6-7k a year on average.
I went on the Mon-Fri and about that time was approached by my colleagues to see if i would consider standing as our Union rep…see where this is going?
Anyway…we had some little Renault slide beds which really had a top payload of about 1.7-1.9 tons, and didn’t really do well with high vehicles like Range Rovers and other 4x4’s…they tended to lean quite heavily in corners etc. The normal trucks were 13t Renault’s or Dafs, more than capable of the bigger stuff. Well, one afternoon, i logged on and got sent a lwb Frontera to go across london somewhere…with 3 of the 13t’s logging on the same time. So i rejected it due to the weight/size…they sent it back to me…i rejected it again…this went on a couple more times…then i got a phone call asking why i kept rejecting it to which i explained that i felt it was beyond the vehicles capacity and they had 3 other vehicles who were better suited to the task. I got told we think it will be ok…i said, i am the driver, surely it is my responsibility if anything goes wrong as i am responsible for the load…unless they wanted to fax me down something in writing saying they will take full responsibility should the thing tip off the back or anything of that nature…they took it off me and gave me something else.
Fast forward a couple of days…i’m booking on and my FSM comes over, gets in the truck and starts to have a go about me refusing work…i explained the situation and he said “i am going to go fishing and see what i can get on you now…”.
For the next week or so, i am given mostly long distance stuff with no return loads…then i am called for a “performance review” where my FSM states that i am lowest utilised driver in his team (worked out by miles worked with a job)…i explained that this was obviously because being sent to places like Manchester loaded one way, tends to eat into your figures…not interested…just said he was going to be placing me on special monitoring!A favourite trick of students was to use their parents membership…i was called to a job at 2am on the M11 which was listed as going to home address in Battersea…when i get there it’s a student using parents membership…straight away he says he wants to go to Norwich not Battersea! i say “sorry mate, jobs going to Battersea”…he’s ok with that…as i’m strapping it down, the student is in the truck, the breakdown patrol wanders up and we have a brief chat and said something like “the cheeky [zb] wanted to go to Norwich”…he laughs…we all depart…think no more of it.
Next day, i get called in, suspended and find out that the breakdown patrol has reported me for using abusive language in front of a customer! I ask if the customer has been contacted to see if he has a complaint, and they say no, he never heard anything! Still got suspended though. Turns out the other patrol was a good mate of my FSM!
The union in the AA are bought and paid for by the management, at least they were then…all the main reps had company cars etc…they just said it was best for me to resign…and not knowing any better then, thats what i did.
Hopefully things have changed on that front…
Sorry about the long post…bought back some long suppressed feelings of anger!
I will be honest from the start, im an ex AA patrol and FSM!! 17 years of soervise with them.
The story above is one of many, and they are all true. The AA used to be a very very good employer, not any more. A lot of the “old hands” have gone and the current crop of contracts leave a lot to be desired. Make sure you fully understand what you are committing to before accepting a job with them. It will be made out to be the best job ever but read and fully understand all of the contract before you sign.
Theres a site called www.aapeople.com but you need the code for a spark plug before you can log in and im buggered if i can remember it. If you see a patrol on your travels ask them for it, they wont mind, just tell them its because youre after a job with them, go and read some of the posts, might change your mind.
Good luck,
Mick
Does anyone know the the name and number of the agency that recruits drivers countrywide for the AA?
I know it’s run by a woman (on her own) and I think it’s based in Carlisle.
Thanks.
Soulman, any chance of updating us on here and vehicle rescue as to how you got on, cheers THM
Does anyone know the the name and number of the agency that recruits drivers countrywide for the AA?
I know it’s run by a woman (on her own) and I think it’s based in Carlisle.
Thanks.
the agency is call F1 recruitment think she’s called jane. they are based somewhere down south sorry can remember addy. will post it up if i can find it. I worked for her for 6 months on a temp contract as a aa recovery driver bout 5 years ago. It was ok, there was a training week held at carlisle.
dave
http://www.f1personnel.com
got it right now .jane hobson is the lady to speak to. very nice
Dave
That’s the one Dave - thanks very much for your help.
ANDY.
was a controller for 4 n half years for a company, and could not stand the work sent down by the AA, all the crap we got. lost keys, in underground c/p, wheels on angle, facing inwards, auto stuck in park also. cheers aa control! so can understand you as a driver getting all that sh*t from them. i had it on the phones from them also. if driver says he cant recover the vehicle on a good decent reason, then he cant. just got have common sense.
i have just started on the summer contract 4 months ago for the aa as a recovery patrol & i must say its the worst driving job i have ever had !!!went down to leister for 2 weeks training & got all the spiel about how you are number 1 & stuff, if you cant make the run its fine just put a relay ( leg ) in , the pressure driving for the aa is unreal, the controlers in b`ham have no idea about geographical areas, drivers times etc, i have been over my drive time 5 times in the last month !!! just by 5 mins or so but the first time in over 20 yrs, yes the money is good,the training is first class, but if you want my advice stay well clear of aa recovery vacancies!!!
ven:
i have just started on the summer contract 4 months ago for the aa as a recovery patrol & i must say its the worst driving job i have ever had !!!went down to leister for 2 weeks training & got all the spiel about how you are number 1 & stuff, if you cant make the run its fine just put a relay ( leg ) in , the pressure driving for the aa is unreal, the controlers in b`ham have no idea about geographical areas, drivers times etc, i have been over my drive time 5 times in the last month !!! just by 5 mins or so but the first time in over 20 yrs, yes the money is good,the training is first class, but if you want my advice stay well clear of aa recovery vacancies!!!
Ven mate stand up to them, why should you take a hit from vosa for being over your time? Tell them orriface plebs to shut the ■■■■ up next time they give you trouble.
Top tip, get a cheapo dictaphone from argos or somewhere and record every single convo as back up for when they put their foot in it. They’re easier and quicker to use than any voice recorder on your phone.
Steve-o
hi guys, i worked on aa recovery out of the bt depot in leeds back in 2005 the job was great, money wasn’t brilliant, you have got to learn to bite your tongue, you have no opiniun, when the law changed on tacho rules back in 2007, the aa management didn’t have a clue what was going on and i couldn’t deal with there lack of knowledge, it steadily got worse, my mate who had 15 years with them finally gave up last year and left… all jobs are good… just depends what you are looking for