One of the most frustrating situations you can ever experience as driver is if you breakdown in a remote location. I mean no one wants to breakdown – whether that’s at home or in a remote location. Dealing with a car breakdown is certainly annoying even in your own garage but worrying about this wouldn’t solve the problem. Instead you should prepare for the unexpected and in this blog-post, we’ll be going over some of the things you can do to minimise your chances of breakdown or at least being stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours.
- Travel with essentials
When it comes to travelling with essentials, we all often take this for granted and often don’t even think about a breakdown situation. We all tend to always think about the positives and think less of the negatives, but it is crucial that you carry the right tools/essentials with you in case of a breakdown situation. Whether you breakdown on an endless highway or high up in the mountains, the most important item(s) to have would be food and water supplies. So our recommendation is to always have a bottle of drinking water and some tinned food in your car in case of an emergency. This will help you wait for help without panicking or going HANGRY. Also, being dehydrated and a lack of energy can hinder your ability to think and as a result, you may experience a tough time coming up with a solution to your car breakdown problem.
2. Carry important parts
Whether you’re driving in a city or in the countryside away from civilisation, you want to carry some important car parts in case of a breakdown situation. In both circumstances, you will be away from mechanics so it’s crucial to pack the right car parts that you may have to replace without having to wait for a vehicle breakdown and recovery service for hours. From a backup tyre to an additional car battery, from extra pairs of disc pads to spark plugs, an extra can of engine oil, coolant, windscreen washer fluid and gasoline, all these items should be in your car at all times in case of an emergency. Pro tip: purchase a toolbox with the right tools as well so you can do the replacements yourself if needed.
3. Carry a secondary feature phone
A feature phone is a class of mobile phone that can retain the form factor of earlier generations of phones and the best thing about them is their ability to receive signal, even when you are between mountains. This will help you so much on the day because the last thing you want to experience is a breakdown without phone battery or signal. Breaking down without battery or signal is not only the most frustrating situation but also very dangerous so do carry a secondary feature phone in your vehicle in case of an emergency. Pro tip: make sure you always carry two chargers for the phone with you in the car, one to be used and a second one for back up!
4. Keep to the left lane
Most drivers get to know about a problem their car might have before it is overgrown. This could be through warning lights or any unusual noise the car makes. This means before your car breaks down completely, you might get an indication and if so, you must try to drive in the left lane if not park somewhere on the left hand side of the road to avoid traffic behind you. However, this isn’t just to allow other road users pass, it’s for your safety as well (the middle of the road isn’t the safest place to diagnose your vehicle) so do keep this in mind when driving. To wrap up, being stuck on a road in a breakdown situation without any signs of help is certainly one of the most unpleasant and challenging experiences you can ever face as a road user. This situation isn’t certainly impossible. It can happen to any driver at any time so it’s important to think about all the possibilities prior to a journey so if things do end up going wrong, you would have at least thought about it previously and prepared for it. I hope you enjoyed reading this post and found it useful. If you ever require breakdown services or vehicle transportation, please do get in touch with us at fastlinkrecovery.com
Surrey & London Car Breakdown, Roadside Assistance and Recovery Service | Fastlink Recovery 