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david and julie
Yes it is common practice (and there are good reasons why)to have a free recovery service on the motorway during roadworks. this service is paid for by the highways agency. The company involved tenders for the duration of the roadworks on a fixed price basis, not per job. They don't get anything like the normal motorway rates, it is much less.
As we all know any motorway incident causes terrible tailbacks, more so on less or narrower lanes, which also effects the recovery trucks, being at the start of the works avoids this and clears the traffic quicker.
If you breakdown on the motorway most police forces allow you up to 2 hours to have your car removed(unless it is dangerous or dark) by your recovery agents (AA etc) after that they arrange to remove it and charge as per my above post. This is why the recovery is free, people would rightly complain if they had to pay when the law says they have 2 hours.
For the same reason it also prevents repairs being done in the roadworks.
You then have people who have no money or credit cards or can't speak english and it avoids delay's and traffic jams, whilst they sort these problems out.
A word of warning though about these free services. They are for the length of the roadworks only, they always have a sign where it starts and stops. They are only for that area and don't usually go outside it.They will drop you on the hardshoulder,a junction if easier or near their base. You then revert back to the 2 hour rule and having to sort yourself out, or what we said earlier. Free services are not there to take you home, to a garage or off the motorway. Sometimes if their base is local they may (at their discretion) take you back for repairs if you ask and agree to pay.
As we all know any motorway incident causes terrible tailbacks, more so on less or narrower lanes, which also effects the recovery trucks, being at the start of the works avoids this and clears the traffic quicker.
If you breakdown on the motorway most police forces allow you up to 2 hours to have your car removed(unless it is dangerous or dark) by your recovery agents (AA etc) after that they arrange to remove it and charge as per my above post. This is why the recovery is free, people would rightly complain if they had to pay when the law says they have 2 hours.
For the same reason it also prevents repairs being done in the roadworks.
You then have people who have no money or credit cards or can't speak english and it avoids delay's and traffic jams, whilst they sort these problems out.
A word of warning though about these free services. They are for the length of the roadworks only, they always have a sign where it starts and stops. They are only for that area and don't usually go outside it.They will drop you on the hardshoulder,a junction if easier or near their base. You then revert back to the 2 hour rule and having to sort yourself out, or what we said earlier. Free services are not there to take you home, to a garage or off the motorway. Sometimes if their base is local they may (at their discretion) take you back for repairs if you ask and agree to pay.
