Recovery for Caravans not Stored at Home
If you store your caravan at a site away from home and have breakdown cover then this could be of interest. We have been members of Britannia Rescue and the Civil Service Motoring association for eight years and have never had to make a claim until last
Saturday when the clutch on our car burnt out reversing off of an awkward pitch. We waited two hours for recovery and because of the distance our recovery driver said he would take us halfway and then relay us for the rest of the journey. As we do not keep
our caravan at home we had the dilemma of either being recovered to our home or the storage site which was 24 miles further away. We opted for the latter as it was more important to get the caravan off the road and leave the car in a secure field than to
have both at home. In any event the Britannia Agent did not tell us about the pitfalls of doing this and we felt assured that if the car was not at home Britannia would recover it for a second time. How wrong we were! I managed to get three quotes and opted
for a garage local to my home. I duly rang Britannia on the Tuesday and asked them to recover my car to the garage of my choice as stated on the second driver's form. To our horror we were told that Britannia would not normally permit a second recovery but
as a goodwill gesture because we had broken down at a time when most garages would be closed they would do a second recovery but only to a garage within ten miles. When I told them that the car was booked into a garage 24 miles away they said we had to find
another garage at possibly greater cost or pay the excess recovery fee which was the difference between 20 miles and 48 miles. My car would still be there were it not or the kindness of our mechanic who offered to collect it himself for cost of the petrol.
As an aside, could the team responsible for testing for Towcar of the Year please include a test for towing the car itself as many will not accept the now common towing bar connected to the towing eye under the front spoiler.