Britannia rescue Article

LV= Britannia Rescue has grownconsiderably over the last coupleof years and is now the fourthlargest recovery company.

Britannia Rescue was established 31 years

ago and originally offered recovery services

exclusively to members of the Civil Service

Motoring Association (CSMA). However,

Britannia Rescue was acquired by LV= in 2007,

which allowed it to develop its customer base,

enhance its capability and broaden its range of

services.

LV= Britannia Rescue now offers recovery

services to a range of customers, through var-

ious affinity schemes and partnerships, as well

as directly to customers either by phone or

online. As a result, the company has seen an

increase in the number of customers it helps.

However, the company’s focus still remains on

offering its customers excellent service with

value for money cover.

Although LV= Britannia Rescue has evolved

from its civil service roots, it is still located in

Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The award-win-

ning business currently coordinates a nation-

wide network of around 300 independent

regional agents who oversee the work of

more than 3,000 roadside technicians who all

enjoy unique local knowledge and experience.

Since joining the two brands together and

creating LV= Britannia Rescue, the company

has gone from strength to strength and has

more than doubled the number of customers

it helps. In fact, during 2013 the number of

policies increased by around 30%, and the

company is hoping to be able to continue this

growth in 2014.

Commenting on the company’s growth,

Mike Hawcroft, LV= Britannia Rescue

Network Manager, said: “LV= has brought

Britannia Rescue’s service excellence, expert-

ise and extensive network capability to a much

14 TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS MAGAZINE www.tandlonline.com

RECOVERY: LV= BRITANNIA RESCUE

KEEPINGYOUMOVINGProud of their excellent service and fastresponse times, LV= Britannia Rescue hasbeen helping get their customers back onthe road for 30 years

britannia rescue _feature 2 16/06/2014 11:41 Page 14


www.tandlonline.com TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS MAGAZINE 15







wider marketplace. LV= is one of the largest car

insurers in the UK and boasts a good reputation

across the broker market. The acquisition has

opened doors to Britannia Rescue in the broker

world, as well other partnership opportunities

through LV=’s already established relationships.”

Since the creation of LV= Britannia Rescue,

the breakdown company has achieved some sig-

nificant milestones. It is particularly proud of its

top rating by the independent financial research

company, Defaqto, which awarded both LV=

Britannia Rescue’s UK Recovery & Home Assist

cover and UK & European Assist cover its high-

est five-star rating in April 2014. In addition to

this, LV= Britannia Rescue was also named as the

second best breakdown provider in the 2013

Auto Express Driver Power survey.

MANAGING THE NETWORKLV= Britannia Rescue uses a network of recov-

ery agents called COBRA (Confederation of

Britannia Rescue Agents) to provide roadside

Although LV=Britannia Rescue has evolved from its civil service roots, it is still located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.


and recovery services to its customers. It values

its relationship with each agent it works with

and believes it’s the company’s close relationship

with these agents that has enabled it to create

and maintain the high level of service it provides

for its customers.

The breakdown company recognises the

importance of ensuring agents regularly refresh

their knowledge and keep abreast of changes in

the industry. This is why it supports agents with

an array of different training opportunities. For

example, it provides customer care and team

management training; it helps agents become

certified in the safe recovery and storage of

contaminated fuel; subsidises discounted train-

ing courses; and funds certification costs.

For example, last year new legislation was

introduced for people who drive vehicles over

3.5 tonnes, which means they now need the



LV= Britannia Rescue offers a wide rangeof breakdown cover, from basic roadsideassistance to UK and European assistancefor customers who drive overseas.

Over the years, LV= Britannia Rescuehas extended the range of cover that itoffers customers. Previously, it offered achoice of three cover levels, but this hasbeen increased to five as it recognisedthe need for flexibility and choice, givingcustomers the opportunity to tailor theirbreakdown cover according to their individual needs or circumstances.

The five levels of cover offered are:Roadside Assist, Roadside & HomeAssist, UK Recovery, UK Recovery &Home Assist, UK & European Assist.

The basic package Roadside Assist

provides assistance more than ¼ milefrom home and recovery up to 10 milesfrom the location of the breakdown.Further services are offered across the other products including home assistance, recovery to anywhere in theUK, hire cars or alternative transport plusovernight accommodation, and cover in

Europe. The UK & European Assist package provides all these services.

LV= Britannia Rescue breakdown covers the vehicle however PersonalCover can be added to the policy extending the coverage to any vehicle inthe UK with a spouse or partner beingcovered for free under this entitlement.

LV= BRITANNIA RESCUE PRODUCTS










TO HELP DRIVERS COMPLETE THE PERIODICHOURS OF TRAINING REQUIRED,LV= BRITANNIA RESCUE TEAMED UP WITHTHE INSTITUTE OF VEHICLE RECOVERY(IVR), AND OFFERED SUBSIDISED COURSES TO ITS AGENTS.

Driver CPC qualification. Furthermore, drivers

are responsible for making sure they have the

qualification, including covering the costs and

carrying out 35 hours of periodic training.

To help drivers complete the periodic hours

of training required, LV= Britannia Rescue

teamed up with the Institute of Vehicle

Recovery (IVR), and offered subsidised courses

to its agents. All subsidised courses have credits

that can be counted towards the periodic train-

ing needed in order to achieve the CPC qualifi-

cation. By subsidising this training, LV= Britannia

Rescue made it more accessible to its agents.

As well as offering agents regular training,

the Huddersfield based breakdown company

also supports its network by negotiating sub-

stantial discounts on industry specific products.

Mike Hawcroft comments: “Towards the end of

last year we negotiated a deal for a discounted

On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) scanner system.

We bought around 500 units at cost price and




were able to pass these savings on to our agent

network.”

The OBD scanners brought significant and

rapid advantages to operatives who use of them.

Mike Hawcroft commented: “OBD scanners

help show customers what issues are affecting

their vehicle, as well showing that the operative

has the knowledge and expertise to deal with

the problem either at the roadside or in a local

garage. The scanners help build confidence

between the agent and the customer, which

consequently builds confidence between the

customer and LV= Britannia Rescue”.

LV= Britannia Rescue is aware that the

COBRA network faces many challenges. For

example, it was one of the first companies to

increase its mileage rate, as it recognised

increases in fuel prices would negatively impact

agents. It has also looked at other ways it can

incorporate further efficiency savings into the

operation.

A couple of years ago LV= Britannia Rescue

introduced a new initiative to eliminate long dis-

tance recoveries. The breakdown company set

up a new Recovery Management Team to focus

on arranging for a customer’s vehicle to be

repaired at the roadside or locally if their

roundtrip exceeds 100 miles. Whilst customers

would still need to buy the car parts, the

Recovery Management Team would help cover






the labour costs. As well as benefitting the cus-

tomers, this initiative also benefits local agents

who carry out the customer’s repairs. Also,

LV= Britannia Rescue saves money on fuel costs,

as well as reducing its carbon emissions.

COMMUNICATING LV= Britannia Rescue covers all of the UK and

Northern and Southern Ireland. So to ensure

the level of customer service never drops, it

monitors its agents work closely. For instance, it

remains in regular contact by using Agent

Indicator and Member Satisfaction days. Not

only does this help to maintain a high level of

customer service, but it can also highlight areas

for improvement.

Mike Hawcroft explained: “The majority of

our communication is dealt with by ANS

through Turbo Dispatch utilising garage agent

management systems, such as APEX, Garage



“WE SELECT CUSTOMERS AT RANDOM TO COMPLETE A QUESTIONNAIRE ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE WITHUS. THESE QUESTIONNAIRES ARE IMPORTANT TO US AS THEY TELL US WHAT CUSTOMERS LIKE ORDON’T LIKE, WHICH MEANS WE CAN CONTINUALLYIMPROVE OUR SERVICE.”

MIKE HAWCROFT NETWORK MANAGER




Eddie Hunt, Transport & LogisticsMagazine, said the support shown from the company’s suppliers wasunprecedented. It highlighted therespect they have for the company aswell as LV=Britannia Rescue’s ongoingsupport of their development and business endeavours.

“I have been running features for four tofive months now and I have never had aresponse like I have with theLV= Britannia Rescue article, it has beenfantastic! It seems that everyone wants toappear alongside LV= Britannia Rescueand show they are working with them!”

Manager and V-Track. We use these systems to

communicate electronically and monitor the

network.” Mike also explained that all agents go

through an approval process and must have

PAS43 accreditation, as well as robust insurance.

LV= Britannia Rescue check these annually.

In addition, when a customer requires assis-

tance, agents accept an instruction electronical-

ly. This is time-stamped as soon as LV= Britannia

Rescue issues it and again when it receives a

receipt of acknowledgment. The agent then

accepts it and produces an estimated time of

arrival. Agents continue to communicate during

the process to let head office know when an

operative has been allocated, when they are en

route to a customer and when they have arrived

on scene. All this information is archived elec-

tronically to create individual monthly data for

each agent.

As well as monitoring agents’ work,

LV= Britannia Rescue also conducts regular sur-

veys to gather customer feedback. Mike

Hawcroft explains: “We select customers at ran-

dom to complete a questionnaire about their

experience with us. These questionnaires are

important to us as they tell us what customers

like or don’t like, which means we can continu-

ally improve our service.”









“CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ISTHE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO US. OUR CUSTOMERS TELL US THAT THE SERVICE THEY GET AT THE ROADSIDE IS SECOND TO NONE.”

PETER HORTON MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mike Hawcroft added: “We also use an inde-

pendent telephone-based customer satisfaction

ratings company to complement our customer

questionnaires. Each month, this company will

call customers to gather even more feedback on

the service they receive.”

Peter Horton, Managing Director of LV=

Road Rescue, added: “Customer satisfaction is

the most important thing to us. Our customers

tell us that the service they get at the roadside

is second to none and we are working continu-

ally with our agents to improve on areas we feel

we need to. Our service speaks for itself.”

EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE LV= Britannia Rescue recognises excellent per-

formance and regularly rewards agents for it.

This year alone it has held six social events to

reward individual agents for their high perform-

ance ratings.

LV= Britannia Rescue also offers agents a

number of agent benefits. For example, it offers

personal accident insurance to all its network’s

employees, whether that’s the people who visit

customers at the roadside or the people who

work in the office.

The Huddersfield based breakdown company

believes that it receives high customer satisfaction



rates because of the agents it works with and

the employees who handle customer’s calls.

LV= Britannia Rescue recruits people who have

excellent customer service skills and are willing to

go the extra mile for its customers. In addition, it

offers its people regular training and all the tools

they need to help customers in any situation.

LOOKING AHEADLV= Britannia Rescue has big ambitions for the

future and is hoping to service one million cus-

tomers within the next two years. It will accom-

plish this by building upon its established reputa-

tion and continuing to introduce new initiatives

that both enhance the company’s efficiency and

the customer’s experience.

The breakdown company is planning on

growing its portfolio through a multi-channel

approach. This will include working directly with

customers, as well as with other financial insti-

tutions and insurer partners. It also has big plans

to expand its presence in the insurance broker

marketplace.

Alongside this, LV= Britannia Rescue will

continue to invest in its people and attract new

talent in the marketplace, whilst continuing to

support the loyal and highly valued network of

independent garage agents. Certainly, COBRA is

the company’s greatest asset, as it delivers a gen-

uine competitive advantage to the company’s

business endeavours.

www.lv.com/breakdown-coverTel: 0800 022 3948






CALL 01484 437300

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Britannia rescue Article

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