RAC Limited
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RAC Limited (The RAC) is a British automotive services
company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
headquartered in
Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...
,
West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
. Its principal services are
roadside assistance 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 ...
and general insurance, and its subsidiaries include RAC Motoring Services Ltd, RAC Financial Services Ltd and RAC Insurance Limited. The RAC's main competitors are
The AA AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association. Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. Th ...
and
Green Flag 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 ...
.


History

The
Royal Automobile Club The Royal Automobile Club 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 o ...
was formed in 1897 by
Frederick Richard Simms Frederick Richard Simms (12 August 1863 – 22 April 1944)M.I.M.E., M.I.A.E., M.I.Ae.E., M.S.E.; Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Member of the Institution of Automobile Engineers, Member of the Institution of Aeronautica ...
, which set up an "associate section" to provide members
roadside assistance 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 ...
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". In 1991, it established the
RAC Foundation The RAC Foundation (The Royal Automobile Club Foundation for Motoring) is a registered charity. It is a transport policy and research organisation that explores the economic, mobility, safety and environmental issues relating to roads and their ...
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 later sold.
British School of Motoring The British School of Motoring (BSM) is a driving school in the United Kingdom, providing training in vehicle operation and road safety. BSM has around 1000 driving instructors. RAC's parent company, Aviva, sold BSM to Arques Industries AG in ...
(BSM) was purchased by R.A.C. Motoring Services Ltd. in December 1998. In 1999, R.A.C. Motoring Services was sold by the members of the Royal Automobile Club to Lex Service for £437m, resulting in a £34,000 windfall for each of the 12,000 members, as well as a £1000 payment to each of the 4000 RAC Motoring Services staff. Lex Service renamed themselves RAC plc in 2002. In October 2000, RAC purchased I/CAD from
Intergraph Intergraph Corporation was an American software development and services company, which now forms part of Hexagon AB. It provides enterprise engineering and geospatially powered software to businesses, governments, and organizations around the w ...
to provide advanced graphical command and control capabilities. The National Customer Service Awards' recognized the system with the 'Best Use of Technology in Customer Service' award in October 2004.
Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...
acquired RAC plc for around £1.1 billion in March 2005. They went on to raise around £500m from selling some parts of the business, such as RAC Auto Windscreens in December 2008, and BSM to a German company in January 2009. BSM has since been sold to Acromas Holdings which owns
The Automobile Association AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association. Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. Th ...
.
Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...
ceased providing loans under the RAC brand name in January 2008, and dissolved its partnership with
The Co-operative Bank The Co-operative Bank plc is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom, with its headquarters in Balloon Street, Manchester. The Co-operative Bank is the only UK high street bank with a customer-led Ethical Policy which is incorporat ...
. Aviva sold the RAC to
The Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...
in June 2011. Although Carlyle had planned a stock market flotation for the RAC, in September 2014, Carlyle agreed to sell almost half its stake to Singapore's sovereign wealth fund
GIC Private Limited GIC Private Limited is a sovereign wealth fund in Singapore that manages its foreign reserves. Established by the Government of Singapore in 1981 as the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, its mission is to preserve and enhance the ...
. In December 2015, Carlyle agreed to sell its remaining stake to
CVC Capital Partners CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based French private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$133 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, E ...
, in an transaction valuing the RAC at £1.4 billion.


Services


Roadside assistance

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 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty ...
, and deal with approximately four millions calls a year. They have introduced, for trial, two
hybrid vehicles A hybrid vehicle is one that uses two or more distinct types of power, such as submarines that use diesel when surfaced and batteries when submerged. Other means to store energy include pressurized fluid in hydraulic hybrids. The basic princip ...
, to cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions. In May 2009, a survey by ''
J.D. Power J.D. Power is an American consumer research, data, and analytics firm based in Troy, Michigan. The company was founded in 1968 by James David Power III. It conducts surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for the aut ...
'' ranked the RAC highest in "satisfying roadside assistance customers" for the fourth consecutive year. 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.


Other

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.


Team RAC

In
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, RAC teamed up with WSR (West Surrey Racing) to form Team RAC and to race in the
British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA TOCA, formally trading as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, is an organiser of motorsport events in ...
(BTCC) with two
MG ZS The MG ZS is an automobile nameplate of MG used for two different vehicles: * MG ZS (2001), a small family car manufactured between 2001 and 2005 by MG Rover * MG ZS (crossover), a subcompact crossover manufactured since 2017 by MG Motor, a subsi ...
cars and from
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
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 Colin Henry Turkington (born 21 March 1982) is a British racing driver from Northern Ireland who competes in the British Touring Car Championship for Team BMW. He is a 4 time BTCC champion, winning the title in 2009, 2014, 2018 and 2019, havi ...
in
2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
,
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and
2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
. Turkington was also able to clinch the outright win in the 2009 BTCC Drivers Championship for Team RAC. For
2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
, RAC reduced their level of sponsorship with the team.


See also

*
The AA AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association. Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. Th ...
*
Green Flag 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 ...
*
Vehicle recovery 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. Recovery can take the form of general recovery, normally of broken down ...


References


External links


The RAC

Breakdown Cover
by RAC
European Breakdown Cover
by RAC
Vehicle Inspections
by RAC
Vehicle Check
by RAC
History of RAC
by Car Adviser {{DEFAULTSORT:Rac Plc Financial services companies established in 1978 Transport companies established in 1978 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Automobile associations in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1978 Emergency road services Driving in the United Kingdom 1978 establishments in the United Kingdom