Company type | Private limited company |
---|---|
Industry | Automotive services |
Founded | 1897 |
Founder | Frederick Simms |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland |
Key people | Rob Templeman (Chairman) Dave Hobday (CEO) |
Services | Roadside assistance and insurance |
Revenue | £501 million (2015) [1] |
£95 million (2011) [2] | |
Owner | CVC Capital Partners (50%) GIC Private Limited (50%) |
Number of employees | 3,700 (2011 average) [2] |
Subsidiaries | RAC Motoring Services Limited RAC Financial Services Limited RAC Insurance limited |
Website | www.rac.co.uk |
RAC Limited (The RAC) is a British automotive services company headquartered in Walsall, West Midlands. Its principal services are roadside assistance and general insurance, and its subsidiaries include RAC Motoring Services Ltd, RAC Financial Services Ltd and RAC Insurance Limited. It was a private club owned by its members until sold in 1999, eventually acquired in 2014 and 2015 by GIC Private Limited and CVC Capital Partners.
The RAC's main competitors are The AA and Green Flag.[ citation needed ]
The Royal Automobile Club was formed in 1897 by Frederick Richard Simms, which set up an "associate section" to provide members roadside assistance and motoring services. The club incorporated the associate section as R.A.C. Motoring Services Ltd. in 1978. In 1987, the organisation introduced an "Advanced Computer Aided Rescue System". [3]
In 1991, it established the RAC Foundation as its research arm. The RAC Foundation was later turned into a charity, and received a legacy from Royal Automobile Club members when R.A.C. Motoring Services Ltd. was sold in 1999. [3] British School of Motoring (BSM) was purchased by R.A.C. Motoring Services Ltd. in December 1998. [4]
The RAC moved into a bespoke control centre at the M4 / M5 interchange in Almondsbury in 1994, designed by Grimshaw Architects. [5]
In 1999, R.A.C. Motoring Services was sold by the members of the Royal Automobile Club to Lex Service for £437m, with each of the 12,000 members receiving £34,000, and each of the 4,000 RAC Motoring Services staff receiving £1,000. [6]
Lex Service renamed themselves RAC plc in 2002. In October 2000, RAC purchased Intergraph's Computer Aided Dispatch System (I/CAD), a Command and Control system. [7] The National Customer Service Awards' recognized the system with the 'Best Use of Technology in Customer Service' award in October 2004. [8]
Aviva acquired RAC plc for around £1.1 billion in March 2005. [9] They sold some parts of the business for £500m, [9] including RAC Auto Windscreens in December 2008, and BSM to a German company in January 2009. [10] [11] BSM was later sold to Acromas Holdings, which owns The Automobile Association.
Aviva ceased providing loans under the RAC brand name in January 2008, and dissolved its partnership with The Co-operative Bank. Aviva sold the RAC to The Carlyle Group in June 2011. [12] Although Carlyle had planned a stock market flotation for the RAC, [13] in September 2014 Carlyle agreed to sell almost half its stake to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC Private Limited. [14] In December 2015, Carlyle agreed to sell its remaining stake to CVC Capital Partners, in a transaction valuing the RAC at £1.4 billion. [15]
The RAC has around 2,000 patrols that attend 2.8 million breakdowns each year, this includes overseas breakdowns with RAC Europe. The RAC covers eight million roadside assistance customers, with 2.2 million individual members and 4.5 million corporate customers. Their breakdown assistance centres operate 24/7, and deal with approximately four millions calls a year.
They have introduced, for trial, two hybrid vehicles, to cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions. [16] In May 2009, a survey by J.D. Power ranked the RAC highest in "satisfying roadside assistance customers" for the fourth consecutive year. [17] RAC Europe is breakdown cover for customers from the United Kingdom that travel to Europe.
RAC Europe covers forty seven European countries, and provides English speaking Incident Managers, available twenty four hours a day to assist. The office is based near Lyon, in Villeurbanne, France.
RAC Vehicle Checks and Examinations conduct vehicle checks that show if a car has been stolen, written off, has outstanding finance or previous plates, is at risk of being sold illegally, and that its number plate and chassis number correspond.
RAC Vehicle Checks are conducted by Experian, while RAC Examinations Inspectors make physical checks on the car to make sure it is mechanically and structurally sound. The RAC also provides travel and traffic services including online route planners, in car navigation and help with travel documents. [18]
In 2006, RAC teamed up with WSR (West Surrey Racing) to form Team RAC and to race in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) with two MG ZS cars and from 2007 onwards, two (and sometimes three) BMW E90 320si cars. The racing cars were liveried in RAC's corporate orange and have achieved a number of wins, including winning the BTCC Independent Drivers Championship with Colin Turkington in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Turkington was also able to clinch the outright win in the 2009 BTCC Drivers Championship for Team RAC. For 2010, RAC reduced their level of sponsorship with the team.
AA Limited, trading as The AA, is a British motoring association.
The NRMA is an Australian organisation offering roadside assistance, advocacy for motorists and road-users, motoring advice, car servicing, International Driving Permits, travel and other services in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. It is a member-owned mutual company limited by guarantee. It was formed in 1920.
Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 19 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general insurer and a leading life and pensions provider. Aviva is also the second largest general insurer in Canada.
The Royal Automobile Club (RAC) is a British private social and athletic club. It has two clubhouses: one in London at 89 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, near Epsom in Surrey. Both provide accommodation and a range of dining and sporting facilities. The Royal Automobile Club has a wide range of members.
The ADAC, officially the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club, is Europe's largest automobile association. The ADAC is the largest verein (club) in Germany, with around 21 million members. Its headquarters are located in Munich. Its original and most well-known service is roadside assistance.
The Royal Automobile Club of QueenslandLimited(RACQ) is a mutual organisation and Queensland’s largest Club, providing services including roadside assistance, insurance, banking and travel to its approximately 1.75 million members.
The New Zealand Automobile Association is an incorporated society that offers various services to its members. These services include breakdown assistance, vehicle repairs, driver licensing, driver training, travel maps, accommodation guides and bookings, insurance, and finance.
AA Ireland Ltd is an automotive services company in Ireland, founded in 1910. It provides rescue services, personal lines insurance, and travel, technical and information services. The company was formerly part of The AA, the British automobile association, but was separated in 2016 after AA Ireland was sold to Carlyle Cardinal Ireland, and in October 2020, it was sold on to Further Global Capital Management.
An automobile association, also referred to as a motoring club, motoring association, or motor club, is an organization, either for-profit or non-profit, which motorists can join to enjoy benefits provided by the club relating to driving a vehicle. There is most often an annual membership fee to join. A membership identification card, valid for the time period of membership paid, is typically issued to the member.
Roadside assistance, also known as breakdown coverage, is a service that assists motorists, motorcyclists, or bicyclists whose vehicles have suffered a mechanical failure that either cannot be resolved by the motorist, or has prevented them from reasonably or effectively transporting the vehicle to an automobile repair shop. Roadside assistance employees respond to calls for service to inspect the vehicle and attempt to render appropriate repairs. Roadside assistance may be provided by departments of transportation, automobile associations, vehicle insurance providers, or dedicated roadside assistance organizations.
A vehicle breakdown is a mechanical or electrical failure of a motor vehicle in such a way that the underlying problem prevents the vehicle from being operated or impedes the vehicle's operation so significantly that it is very difficult, nearly impossible, or else dangerous to operate.
Lex Autolease was created in May 2009 from the merger of HBOS-owned Lex Vehicle Leasing with Lloyds TSB Autolease, and is the currently the largest vehicle leasing business in the UK, with a fleet of about 385,000 vehicles. One in every thirty new cars sold in the UK is through Lex Autolease.
Green Flag, or Green Flag Rescue, is a British roadside assistance and vehicle recovery provider, which is part of the Direct Line Group. Formed in 1971, as the National Breakdown Recovery Club, as an alternative to the AA and RAC, it used a network of local garages and mechanics to deliver recovery and repair services, instead of patrolling mechanics.
The Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia is a motoring club and mutual organisation, offering motoring services and advice, insurance, travel services, finance, driver training and exclusive benefits for their members. As an independent voice for road users in WA, RAC is concerned with all aspects of road and community safety.
Vehicle recovery is the recovery of any vehicle to another place, generally speaking with a commercial vehicle known as a recovery vehicle, tow truck or spectacle lift.
Motability is a charity in the United Kingdom. It oversees Motability Operations Ltd, which runs the Motability Scheme intended to enable disabled people, their families and their carers to lease a new car, scooter or powered wheelchair, using their disability benefit. According to its response to a UK Government inquiry in 2019 into enhancing mobility for disabled citizens, Motability had over 620,000 customers. According to Citizen's Advice, access to the charity's support to pay for a car is dependent on eligibility relative to mobility conditions in government schemes, including: Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP) or War Pensioners’ Mobility Supplement. Motability's 2019/2020 audit document reported 94% of persons using Motability's scheme to buy a car either have a physical disability or long term health condition. In 2018, the National Audit Office praised the customer satisfaction rates for the service, but criticized the profit and reserve levels the charity held. They also noted criticized its governance and "executive remuneration." A response to a 2019 parliamentary committee to release £343 million of its £2.5bn reserve was greeted as a "first step" to making best use of its "vast sums."
The SURVIVE Group is a UK based consortium of private and public sector organisations concerned primarily with road safety. SURVIVE stands for Safe Use of Roadside Verges in Vehicular Emergencies
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Halfords Autocentre is a car servicing and repair company in the United Kingdom, specialising in car servicing, MOT testing, brakes, tyres, Exhausts, and air conditioning services/repairs. As of 2018, there are 314 autocentres in the United Kingdom.
Auto Windscreens is a United Kingdom automotive glazing company specialising in windscreen repair and replacement. It is owned by Auto Windscreens Services Limited, and is headquartered in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Working predominantly with insurers, brokers and fleet management customers, the company operates a nationwide fitting centre network that utilises a mobile fleet of trained technicians.