Recovery truck waiting time unreasonable?

Thrugelmir

Highways England will come and ensure your safety. That's their priority. 

Car_54

Money_Grabber13579 said:

If Highways England remove you from the carriageway, do you not have to pay for that? If so, I suspect that is why people are reluctant to do that because there is then an element of paying twice for the same service (although the breakdown service will still have to come out to rescue you from whatever safe location Highways England deposit you at).

You certainly have to pay. £150 last time I looked.

Rolandtheroadie

 Regularly see highway agency vehicles parked behind vehicles on the hard shoulders round here, a bit behind with the orange lights on.
 It's easy to say in hindsight though, but for future reference, it may be worth using one of the emergency phones as well as calling your recovery service. 

diystarter7

Did you tell them you had a baby?
I am seriously surprised that no Highway officers or police came.
TBH and no offence something does not add up.
Apologies If I've got it wrong but it does not add up.

m0t

Car_54 said:

Money_Grabber13579 said:

If Highways England remove you from the carriageway, do you not have to pay for that? If so, I suspect that is why people are reluctant to do that because there is then an element of paying twice for the same service (although the breakdown service will still have to come out to rescue you from whatever safe location Highways England deposit you at).

You certainly have to pay. £150 last time I looked.

Yikes, not cheap although depending on how much faster they were it might have been worth it.

Rolandtheroadie said:

 Regularly see highway agency vehicles parked behind vehicles on the hard shoulders round here, a bit behind with the orange lights on.
 It's easy to say in hindsight though, but for future reference, it may be worth using one of the emergency phones as well as calling your recovery service. 

The nearest phone was a bit of a walk. With the rain being as bad as it was I didn't want to go any further than I had to, I'll remember to call the number next time.

diystarter7 said:

Did you tell them you had a baby?
I am seriously surprised that no Highway officers or police came.
TBH and no offence something does not add up.
Apologies If I've got it wrong but it does not add up.

You've got it wrong. They knew we had a baby and one lady who called did try to expedite matters. Unfortunately they were very busy because there had been a lot of accidents because of the weather. We passed a few in the recovery vehicle that were more severe than our puncture.

photome

m0t said:

DB1904 said:

daveyjp said:

On a motorway dial 999 or use the emergency phones, that will get police or highway officer response.

Don't call your breakdown service.

OP do you carry a spare? 

Either way call Highways England, they'll either give you some cover to change the tyre of have you removed within 30 minutes. 

My car didn’t come with a spare, only a can of that goo stuff. 

I don’t know if using that would have helped, the tyre that went was on the drivers side next to the slow lane so I didn’t get a good look at what had happened to it.

I didn’t realise that we could get removed by Highways England. I called RAC first and the lady on the phone said they’d sort everything out with them. 

We should have had stuff for the baby with us. In twenty years of driving I’ve never had to use a hard shoulder so we were caught unprepared. I’ve bought some stuff to keep in the boot now. 

maybe get a spare wheel, could be a space saver if not room for a full size , along with a jack and wheel brace , then along with the other supplies you hopefully wouldnt end up in the situation again.  although I wouldnt fancy changing a wheel on the side of a motorway

DB1904

photome said:

m0t said:

DB1904 said:

daveyjp said:

On a motorway dial 999 or use the emergency phones, that will get police or highway officer response.

Don't call your breakdown service.

OP do you carry a spare? 

Either way call Highways England, they'll either give you some cover to change the tyre of have you removed within 30 minutes. 

My car didn’t come with a spare, only a can of that goo stuff. 

I don’t know if using that would have helped, the tyre that went was on the drivers side next to the slow lane so I didn’t get a good look at what had happened to it.

I didn’t realise that we could get removed by Highways England. I called RAC first and the lady on the phone said they’d sort everything out with them. 

We should have had stuff for the baby with us. In twenty years of driving I’ve never had to use a hard shoulder so we were caught unprepared. I’ve bought some stuff to keep in the boot now. 

maybe get a spare wheel, could be a space saver if not room for a full size , along with a jack and wheel brace , then along with the other supplies you hopefully wouldnt end up in the situation again.  although I wouldnt fancy changing a wheel on the side of a motorway

That's why you call the wombles from Highways England. 

Ibrahim5

I once changed a wheel with them 'protecting' me. They said they wouldn't help at all but I am sure they couldn't just wait hours if the driver obviously had no idea what they were doing. They would have to give some hints I think.

DB1904

Ibrahim5 said:

I once changed a wheel with them 'protecting' me. They said they wouldn't help at all but I am sure they couldn't just wait hours if the driver obviously had no idea what they were doing. They would have to give some hints I think.

No, they would call a recovery company.