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In a winter that is already being described as the worst in 30 years, the UK has seen temperatures plummet causing roads to grind to a halt, schools to close, planes at airports be grounded and more snowmen built in any period since 1981. It has caused problems across the UK and the impact has
been felt by all of us in some shape or form. For the AA, that impact has also been dramatic and I thought I'd share the effects and how we've dealt with them.
In the period between the snow starting to fall on the evening of Thursday 17th December, 2009 to midnight on 8th January 2010, the AA saw unprecedented levels of demand for its services and dealt with nearly 340,000 breakdowns (338,000) - over double the normal amount for this period.
From 9th January, and with snow and ice continuing to affect us all, we've dealt with a further
169,000 breakdowns up to and including Monday 18th January, giving an overall total of over
half a million (507,000).
We've also had at least four record-breaking days. Monday 21st December scored the record for the busiest day and night for 10 years only to be broken two weeks later when we dealt with over 25,000 breakdowns on Monday 4th January. We also experienced our busiest Christmas Day for 20 years
with over 4,000 breakdowns. This compared to 2,400 in 2008.
As you would expect, we pulled out all the stops to cope with the increased demand and our people have been working flat out. We put additional patrols in to the worst affected areas and increased our call centre staff to handle calls for assistance. They cancelled holiday over Christmas and New Year
to help provide service to our members and we made sure we recognised their efforts by making additional payments. Our fleet of snow-busting Land Rovers was deployed and we borrowed extra
ones to get to members in the worst affected areas; clocking up around 2,500 man hours by this
team alone in rescuing our members.
Of course it wasn't only our members who were affected by the difficulties on the roads - some patrols were unable to leave or join motorways due to treacherous ice and snow and we needed to get our
staff to work to answer your calls. So we used 4x4s to get our call centre staff into work and home again and when restaurant staff couldn't get into work, our managers made sandwiches and food to ensure our staff were fed at rest breaks. We've also been campaigning for national and local government to increase salting and gritting of key roads and pavements - vital for the safety of our
staff and our members.
In our entire history we have never been as busy as we have been over the last few weeks and the sheer scale of demand has meant that we have had to prioritise those members in dangerous, freezing or vulnerable locations above those safer at home. We appreciate that this may have meant we haven't been able to get to you quite as quickly as we would in normal conditions, but we hope you understand why, and would thank you for your patience.
Our aim is always to provide the best level of service we can and we intend to keep doing that - whatever the weather.
Best wishes
Andrew Strong
Chief Executive
AA Services
Interesting,.
been felt by all of us in some shape or form. For the AA, that impact has also been dramatic and I thought I'd share the effects and how we've dealt with them.
In the period between the snow starting to fall on the evening of Thursday 17th December, 2009 to midnight on 8th January 2010, the AA saw unprecedented levels of demand for its services and dealt with nearly 340,000 breakdowns (338,000) - over double the normal amount for this period.
From 9th January, and with snow and ice continuing to affect us all, we've dealt with a further
169,000 breakdowns up to and including Monday 18th January, giving an overall total of over
half a million (507,000).
We've also had at least four record-breaking days. Monday 21st December scored the record for the busiest day and night for 10 years only to be broken two weeks later when we dealt with over 25,000 breakdowns on Monday 4th January. We also experienced our busiest Christmas Day for 20 years
with over 4,000 breakdowns. This compared to 2,400 in 2008.
As you would expect, we pulled out all the stops to cope with the increased demand and our people have been working flat out. We put additional patrols in to the worst affected areas and increased our call centre staff to handle calls for assistance. They cancelled holiday over Christmas and New Year
to help provide service to our members and we made sure we recognised their efforts by making additional payments. Our fleet of snow-busting Land Rovers was deployed and we borrowed extra
ones to get to members in the worst affected areas; clocking up around 2,500 man hours by this
team alone in rescuing our members.
Of course it wasn't only our members who were affected by the difficulties on the roads - some patrols were unable to leave or join motorways due to treacherous ice and snow and we needed to get our
staff to work to answer your calls. So we used 4x4s to get our call centre staff into work and home again and when restaurant staff couldn't get into work, our managers made sandwiches and food to ensure our staff were fed at rest breaks. We've also been campaigning for national and local government to increase salting and gritting of key roads and pavements - vital for the safety of our
staff and our members.
In our entire history we have never been as busy as we have been over the last few weeks and the sheer scale of demand has meant that we have had to prioritise those members in dangerous, freezing or vulnerable locations above those safer at home. We appreciate that this may have meant we haven't been able to get to you quite as quickly as we would in normal conditions, but we hope you understand why, and would thank you for your patience.
Our aim is always to provide the best level of service we can and we intend to keep doing that - whatever the weather.
Best wishes
Andrew Strong
Chief Executive
AA Services
Interesting,.
