TheAA no longer prioritising lone women for recovery

[Imayhaveerred]

A woman tweeted this “ hi @TheAA_UK I am a lone woman whose car has broken down at night in the dark. Your call handler has told me you treat lone women and lone men as exactly the same priority in such circumstances because “that’s equality”

TheAA reply: “Hi Helen, you've been advised correctly. We don't prioritise based on gender, we do consider the location so as an example we would prioritise someone on a motorway over someone in a supermarket carpark”

twitter.com/theaa_uk/status/1483867262373220356?s=21

Surely lone women are always at higher risk than lone men? And that’s before the egregious use of gender when they mean sex…

If that was the case surely they’d scramble whenever someone who couldn’t leave the car broke down or ban you from driving on the motorway?

‘Lone woman priority’ was an advertising point for the AA many years ago, and may have been the only recovery company having that as part of the policy

There have been other policies that firms have such as I think the AA & RAC having the largest fleets and one of both of them at some time pledging to only use their vehicles - which is either reassuring that you will only get their staff arriving in properly marked vehicles, or not because even if you are a priority then you are still getting supported by a fixed number of vans in your area.
A potential problem could have been that the guaranteed priority was the motorbike or the little van, the bike was quickest but could only do a simple quick fix, but would have to call someone else if recovery was needed, the little van could do more but only simple toes, a full van or flat bed would be needed for bigger recovery.
An alternative that I was with for many years was Green Flag who advertised that they didn’t run their own fleet but used approved local recovery garages. The benefit of that being more vans to draw upon

It’s right that a lone woman may not be priority over everyone else, but she may still be priority depending on other circumstances

Anything on a motorway needs to be sorted fast.
I had a blow out once, and was able to pull across to the hard shoulder safely and close to an emergency phone. Rather than the advice hammered out all of the time to get out and past the barriers they asked if I had my spare etc and told me to change it. - With my car edged as tight as possible to the barrier, and me knelt on the hard shoulder changing my rear driver side tyre, feeling the air blasting as every car passed.

I'm sure nobody wants to be attacked or murdered no matter their gender. Also why put anything about height and weight, no matter the gender people will be different heights and weights doesn't make it not 'normal'

I do feel at the moment sometimes we want equality for women until it doesn't suit.

OMG do you remember hard shoulders? They took them all away round here. #not a safety worry at all

@5zeds

Google says over 200,000 cars break down on motorways in the uk every year and over 100 people lose their lives. I can’t see how that equates to a life expectancy of 15 mins when the vast majority survive the experience.

You’re forgetting that most people exit their vehicles and move behind the barrier, at which point they are no longer at risk. If you remain in the vehicle, your risk of death is extremely high. You must cross the barrier. I have seen horrendous accidents to families who got out and waited next to their car but hadn’t crossed the barrier. And never stop if you have any other option. I’ll never forget a mother and child wiped out in front of her other kids when she got out to let the toddler pee 😞

Regardless of hard shoulder stats, a lone woman is as always far more likely to be raped or assaulted than a man. When the number seven up the response can even up. Very poor policy by the AA. I will look around before I renew.

Sorry my previous message was a reply to another wasn't sure how to copy in the users post

That’s not really helpful if you can’t leave the vehicle @MissLucyEyelesbarrow

Just reading and seem to remember from years ago that lone women often didn't get out of car hard shoulder wait on verge due to being seen and targeted.

Whether that's a reasonable statistical assessment I don't know. However it's pretty obvious why a woman would make that call.

Hundreds of cars going past to see, does massively increase chance of dodgy man passing. Plus v vulnerable position no one around etc. Easy target.

At one point there was a blow up man shape sold for women to put in other seat. So even if stay in car would not be thought of as easy target.

@5zeds

That’s not really helpful if you can’t leave the vehicle *@MissLucyEyelesbarrow*

You don’t think I should give safety advice because there may be occasions when it can’t be followed? 🤷‍♀️

(A) that’s really stupid and (B) I don’t give a fuck because, if I can make one person think twice about stopping, it will be worth it.

Best would be a wider vulnerability metric.

Vulnerabilities/ more urgency eg
Elderly frail / various illnesses etc
With baby/small kids whether lone or couple
Gone into labour!
V young like 17 -20 either sex lone
That sort of stuff.

And plus where of course.

Motorway. Roads with no pavement and pitch dark.

I mean there's s load of stuff.

In practice prob bit complicated BUT that would be ideal.

I think most people know your “safety advice”, but yes it’s worth sharing though with accurate stats and advice for those who can’t follow it.

The advice is to wear your safety belt at all times and get your car as far into the hard shoulder as possible. (Ie away from the low lane)

Surely it's signifiers of gender that a predator would be using to decide whom to attack,

What utter rubbish. It’s extremely hard to discern a person’s “gender” in the dark (often it’s difficult in full daylight) and it’s much easier to tell someone’s sex. Anyway I don’t think most rapists are particularly woke. They attack women, and they don’t have a HR department making them fill a transwoman quota.

@HeronLanyon

I am absolutely astonished by this. Member here. Agree why ‘gender’ ?

Because it's a perfectly common and acceptable synonym for sex in countless contexts, used as such on a daily basis around the country, and it's only GCs who pretend to be baffled by this or have a problem with it.

Personally, when my car is broken down I have other things to worry about than justifying my transphobia via linguistic pedantry, but there you go.

@5zeds

Regardless of hard shoulder stats, a lone woman is as always far more likely to be raped or assaulted than a man. When the number seven up the response can even up. Very poor policy by the AA. I will look around before I renew.

But the risk of accidental death for stranded motorists is much greater than the risk of assault or rape. We assess the risks differently because women are forced to think about personal safety constantly, so - understandably- the risks are more prominent in our minds.

And - though I agree with the core point you are making about women’s vulnerability, actually statistically more men are killed or assaulted by strangers than women. Of course, the circumstances are usually very different but my point is that risk statistics don’t necessarily help us make a case for prioritising women. (NB I am not saying that the risks to men and women are truly equivalent, only that the stats aren’t helpful)

IMO Motorists of either sex in danger of being hit by another vehicle should be prioritised, followed by anyone in vulnerable circumstances, 90% of whom are likely to be women.

@QuimReaper

Did they ever prioritise lone women? I agree with a PP, maybe a lone woman should be rescued before a lone man, but only all other safety concerns being equal.

They did prioritise lone women but have now stopped. The RAC never did.

@CheeseMmmm

Best would be a wider vulnerability metric.

Vulnerabilities/ more urgency eg
Elderly frail / various illnesses etc
With baby/small kids whether lone or couple
Gone into labour!
V young like 17 -20 either sex lone
That sort of stuff.

And plus where of course.

Motorway. Roads with no pavement and pitch dark.

I mean there's s load of stuff.

In practice prob bit complicated BUT that would be ideal.

Do we actually know for sure that they don't?

Because the way I read the OP, the AA were saying that lone women no longer get automatic blanket priority, and there are other vulnerabilities which are also considered. That sounds like a risk matrix to me

Best would be a wider vulnerability metric.

Yes.
But the specific point in the op wasn't about all the variables which should be considered.
I am a lone woman whose car has broken down at night in the dark. Your call handler has told me you treat lone women and lone men as exactly the same priority in such circumstances because “that’s equality”

So... if all the other circumstances are the same is it true 'equality' to not consider whether a woman may be more vulnerable than a male?

if all the other circumstances are the same is it true 'equality' to not consider whether a woman may be more vulnerable than a male?

Absolutely not - and that’s why people on Twitter were so annoyed by the AA call handler’s flippant remark about equality. It’s misogyny.

Green flag

31Do you make special arrangements for vulnerable customers (lone women, elderly, with children)?
Answer: Yes we do. We prioritise those in vulnerable situations so a woman with children sitting on a motorways hard shoulder would receive priority of service over a customer sitting at their home address, for example.

more men are killed or assaulted by strangers than women more report it maybe. Most females don’t report assault because it doesn’t help them.

IMO Motorists of either sex in danger of being hit by another vehicle should be prioritised, followed by anyone in vulnerable circumstances, 90% of whom are likely to be women.

This seems very sensible to me.

That's just standard risk assessment from Green Flag. The question they need to answer would be who would get priority if it was a man on a garage forecourt at the side of the A1 or a woman in the Tesco car park?

AXA

Breakdown cover
Don’t be left stranded – AXA’s breakdown insurance will steer you back to safety.

Priority for vulnerable customers
24-hour rescue line

Ageco (despite name any age).

I feel vulnerable, do I get priority if I break down?
Yes, anyone who feels vulnerable will be given priority. Age Co Motor Breakdown Services are provided by Call Assist Ltd who will take your individual circumstances and needs into account when you contact them.