Breakdown Cover Articles

History of the RAC

The RAC is second only to the AA when it comes down to size of breakdown companies.

It handles over 2.5 million calls a year and has a total of nearly 2,000 trained patrols out on the roads. As with the AA, it claims its average response time is 40 minutes.

And although it is in second place to the AA, it actually started a good few years earlier in 1897, when it was formed as a motoring club by Frederick Richard Simms and Charles Harrington. It started out as the Automobile Club of Great Britain and changed its name to the Royal Automobile Club in 1907 – one year before the launch of the AA – when it gained royal approval.

Two of its earliest claims to fame was the introduction of uniformed patrols in 1901 and the first emergency telephone boxes in 1912.

The RAC always has had a strong connection with motor sport and in 1926 it organised the first British Grand Prix at Brooklands. Throughout the 1930s it organised a number of motor car rallies throughout Britain.

By the 1970s the glory that was the former RAC was beginning to fade and its long-time rival, the AA, was starting to steal the limelight with better investment and more technological advances.

Times began to get tough and some years ago the Group ended its association with the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London and was bought out by the Aviva Group, which owns Norwich Union, the U.K.’s largest general insurer.

That is has managed to maintain it’s position as the second largest breakdown company in the U.K., is testament to the strength of the original brand and the level of investment it has benefited from since the acquisition of Aviva.

Whether it will ever compete with the size of the AA remains to be seen, but in competition terms, it does offer a viable alternative for the U.K. motorist.

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