Good afternoon Resident, 

Do you know if you have breakdown cover for your vehicle and if so, how to contact them if your vehicle does break down?

Recently when attending these types of calls,  a large majority of drivers are found stood at the roadside, frantically trying to get signal to search up their policies and how to get in contact to arrange recovery. That's all well and good if the vehicle is in a safe place but on a busy, fast road, when it's freezing cold and with the stress of being late etc, it makes a bad day even worse.

If you own or drive a vehicle, please take 5-10 minutes as soon as you can to ensure you're aware of the process should you break down as some companies require you to call a certain number (if so, save this to your phone and in a note, ensure you have your policy number) whilst others require you to contact them via an app or live chat (again, download the app in advance or add the page for contacting the company to your favourites).

If your vehicle breaks down in a dangerous place also contact the Police on 999. ‘Dangerous’ is quite subjective but that may include fast roads, roads where there is less visibility or breaking down near to junctions or blind bends. In this situation I'd advise to call Police first and then a recovery agent.

Other things to also consider:

- Ensure your vehicle is as obvious as it can be, this includes putting hazard lights and vehicle lights on.

- If getting out of your vehicle, try to avoid stepping out into a place where traffic could be. If that means climbing over to get out a passenger side of the vehicle, please do that.

- If safe to do so (as every incident will be different based on where it is and where the vehicle breaks down), then get as far away from the road as possible. This might mean going up a grass verge etc. Standing behind some hard cover (barriers, walls, etc) is also a plus.

- Do not try to repair your vehicle in an unsafe place. We've seen people trying to change tyres at the side of the M2 before, inches away from live lanes of traffic!

For more information and advice, click here

Please stay safe and feel free to use the ‘share’ button to forward this on to others.

Kind regards,

Ashleigh