Advice on breaking down in France

[petrolhead]

Hi, I heard if you breakdown on the motorway in France you have to call a "special French breakdown agent" first who will take you somewhere where your own breakdown cover agents will deal with you thereonin.

Anybody got any advice/experience on this?

thanks!

 

[Beak Freak]

Luckily no experience, but did need to look into the situation on a recent trip

Your information is correct. As I understood it, if you break down on any roads other than the Autoroute then your breakdown company will arrange collection as per the terms of your agreement. If you break down on the Autoroute then their own company will collect you and take you to a depot from where your regular company can collect you.....at extra cost of course.

 

[Wapping]

As with many things in life, France's motorways (just like their breakfasts) are different to ours in the UK.

1. They are private, in effect state owned, for which the (often) levy a toll.

2. Yes, the motorway operator levies a charge to collect your broken down vehicle from the hard shoulder.

http://www.autoroutes.fr/en/breakdown-service.htm

3. Will your regular UK / continental breakdown and / or motor insurer (depending on cause) step in to guarantee the payment on your behalf? Yes / maybe / no.

http://www.rac.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?5353-Procedure-to-get-assistance-on-French-motorways

 

[thornley]

My post under you don't want to do this in this section covers this and was only a few days ago.

I hit a large piece of wood at 130kph wrecking the front wheel. The security autoroute were with me in minutes and after talking to my insurer telephoned a recovery vehicle. The recovery driver then spoke to my insurer who sent a fax to his office guaranteeing to cover the costs (184 euro).

I was at the garage, luckily only 20ish kilometres away within 30 mins.

1, Have your insurance details in your pocket not in luggage

2, Make sure your phone is fully charged

3, Have sufficient credit on your phone

4, Fresh undies a must

With Footman James (AXA) superb back up with French speaking operatives

 

[petrolhead]

thanks for the info here. I called 2gether for some info and yes they said they would not pay for the interim journey from your breakdown to a garage that could fix it.

Thornley, is sounds like you DID get your agent to pay for the 'get you to a garage' trek , I keep hearing good things about Axa and one of their UK agents Vehicle Rescue Direct, a lot of people have really raved about them.

 

[Ex-Call Centre Chimp]

I was unfortunate enough to break down on the motorway in France on my way back from Italy a few weeks ago.
As the bike is still in warranty I rang BMW's agents who confirmed that they couldn't arrange assistance on the motorway & that I needed to call 112 who would arrange for the bike to be picked up by the agency responsible & take it to their depot, for which a fee would be charged.
BMW assist asked me to call them when the breakdown truck arrived & they would arrange payment with the driver directly.
They were then going to arrange for the nearest BMW Motorrad dealer to go to the Agency's depot to pick up the RT.

In the end the bike started so I rang 112 & cancelled but it was an interesting lesson learnt.

 

[thornley]

thanks for the info here. I called 2gether for some info and yes they said they would not pay for the interim journey from your breakdown to a garage that could fix it.

Thornley, is sounds like you DID get your agent to pay for the 'get you to a garage' trek , I keep hearing good things about Axa and one of their UK agents Vehicle Rescue Direct, a lot of people have really raved about them.

The agent did pay and was efficient and bi-lingual so there were no problems, literally 5 minutes to send a fax confirmation to the recovery company.

The agent called me back to ensure that I was at the garage and the bike was being attended to. The cost of getting to the garage from the hard shoulder is almost the same as a year's premium on the bike. Not the cheapest insurance available but 184 euros would cover the difference between any other quote.

This is the second time I have had a break down on a motorway the previous one being at Maidstone. Excellent service both times.

 

[petrolhead]

I'm thinking of getting Vehicle Rescue Direct breakdown cover for Europe, but already have a policy with 2gether, does anyone know if you can have 2 breakdown policies running at the same time, I heard you can only have 1?

cheers

 

[Wapping]

You can have as many as you like, for separate vehicles... or on epolicy covering several vehicles.

Quite why anyone might want two breakdown policies covering one vehicle is a mystery.

 

[petrolhead]

thanks for that info Wapping

the reason I want 2 is :
the 2gether one cost me £99 for 3 years , so bargain at £33 a year, but it doesn't cover you if you breakdown on a French motorway and have to pay 185eu to get taken to a place where they will sort you out.
Upshot is, it's cheaper to pay £50 for VRD [AXA] for 3 weeks and get this little area of immense frustration/cost covered fully, than the world of hurt if I breakdown under the 2gether one.

Yeah I know...it would have been better to get VRD in the first place...but didn't know about them till now, ya live and learn eh?

 

[Crapaud]

You can have as many as you like, for separate vehicles... or on epolicy covering several vehicles.

Quite why anyone might want two breakdown policies covering one vehicle is a mystery.

I got recovered home last week in my Hymer by the AA. The driver told me that he advises people to have two policies ie one with AA and one with RAC. That way you can continue your journey and carry on with your holiday. For example, if I had broken down on the way to Brands, I could have had AA take me to the circuit and then RAC bring me home. Sounded a bit unethical to me but he assured me that lots of people do it.

 

[thornley]

At this time of year with temperatures in the mid 30's here in the south always carry water. You can be stuck on the hard shoulder with out any where to go for some time. Might seem a silly tip but if you've had an accident and the adrenaline is still flowing you will have a mouth like the bottom of a parrot's cage.

I made all the silly mistakes and I do a return trip from the North west of England to provence 4 times a year for over 10 years.

I couldn't find my insurance (recovery bit) it was in my luggage
My phone was almost flat, I'd forgotten to charge up at the hotel
I had too little credit on my phone, calls to UK based recovery eat credit
I had no water with me as I'm used to stopping off at the superb French service areas.

I was very lucky to control a bike with a front wheel blow out and get to the hard shoulder without dropping the bike.

 

[Steptoe]

I got recovered home last week in my Hymer by the AA. The driver told me that he advises people to have two policies ie one with AA and one with RAC. That way you can continue your journey and carry on with your holiday. For example, if I had broken down on the way to Brands, I could have had AA take me to the circuit and then RAC bring me home. Sounded a bit unethical to me but he assured me that lots of people do it.

That always been my plan when on the bike going to any UKGSer event

If i break down I'll use carol nash free breakdown cover to get me to the event, and my AA breakdown cover to get me back home.

No ruined weekend

 

[JPR]

Broke down just north of St Tropez,and itsSunday
Had two breakdown covers,each would either allow a hire car,or hotel,but not both.Used one for hotel,one for hire car.