autoroute breakdowns

[joeby]

on our return journey from Spain we stopped over at a relatives in France for 4 days , and she gave me a newspaper called the French Paper ,www.thefrenchpaper.com ,and inside was an article by Ian White a former police advanced driver ,so i will type in word for word a small piece of the article , French motorways are privately owned so the only breakdown services allowed to operate are those authorised by the owners .if you are a second home owner or visitor to France you may have taken out european-wide cover with the AA,RAC,Green flag ect and thought that your coverage extended throughout France , however , it does not. the Autoroute authorities will send there own nominated breakdown truck (depaneur) even to service stations ,and for which you will be charged ,they will try and effect repairs in situ ,although for more serious problems you will be towed to the nearest exit or garage ,the good news is that breakdown callout and tow-in fees are set by the French goverment ,basically for cars breaking down between 8am and 6 pm Monday to Friday will be charged at 113 euros (inc TVA ) and for breakdowns outside these hours and all day saturday and sunday and public holidays ,the fees rise to 169 euros (inc TVA )-more for larger vehicles and if towing a trailer/caravan/boat etc , often breakdown operators will not accept credit cards /cheques etc (especially UK ones) and only take cash ,get a receipt to protect against overcharging and send it to your motoring organisation ,some of whom will refund the fee in full ,once off the Autoroute, your own breakdown recovery service can take over , this piece was taken from the December 2009 issue of the above paper ,so i would check with your your insurance ,that they will reimburse you for those costs

 

[JoannaLesley]

A couple of years ago we broke down in the service area at Reims on the A6 in France. You are right about being towed off the motorway. We had Red Pennant insurance and they told us to ring the police to get towed off - which we did. Be aware that the police may not speak English and it is unlikely that breakdown truck drivers will! Once off the motorway we rang Red Pennant again and they took over from there, dealing directly with the breakdown truck driver and his company. It was easy peasy and Red Pennant were brilliant.

So - it's traumatic and a bit scary breaking down abroad, but, with the right breakdown insurance, it needn't ruin everything.

Jo

 

[Guest]

http://www.autoroutes.fr/en/service-information/breakdown-service-rates.html
These are the rates

 

[ValA.]

My understanding was that if you take out breakdown insurance for your car in Europe that these recovery costs were always recoverable from your insurance company. We've been towed off nar Vierzon, and the AA paid the bill then without any problem.

 

[Jaydug]

Quote "We had Red Pennant insurance and they told us to ring the police to get towed off. Quote.;

With their French speakers, I would have thought Red Pennant would have contacted the gendarmerie themselves. Agreed, they are brilliant. When I lost all my hydraulic oil in a Spanish hypermarket carpark, one phonecall to East Grinstead had the car within the hour flatbedded to Malaga, repaired and taxi fares all refunded.

 

[ValA.]

In the pre-mobile phone days, if you used the autoroute phones you were put through to a call centre - where they ask you if you have breakdown cover. They then arrange the call-out for the breakdown company who deal with that stretch of the autoroute, but connect you with the appropriate telephone number for the breakdown insurers. We were put through to a Lyon office where the staff spoke immaculate English - and thereafter we didn't have to do anything at all.

That was with the AA 5 Star service - and it is some years ago now.