Breakdown Cover

1. Warn others

As soon as you realise there is a problem, put your hazard lights on as a warning to others. If you have a warning triangle, and it’s safe to put one out, place it at least 50 yards behind your car to tell others there’s a breakdown ahead.

2. Move to safety

Depending on where you break down, and what the problem is, moving your car to the side of the road might not be easy. If you can, get your car out of the path of other vehicles to avoid causing any accidents.

3. Leave your vehicle

If you’ve broken down at the side of the road, you and any passengers should leave your vehicle and wait for help a good distance away from it. If you’re travelling with a pet, the Highway Code states that you must leave your animals in the vehicle or keep them under proper control on the verge with a short lead and harness.

4. Wear reflective clothing

Keep some items of reflective clothing in your car for emergencies. Wearing reflective clothing makes you more visible to drivers, especially at night, greatly reducing the risk of an accident while you’re out of your vehicle.

5. Contact us

To ensure your breakdown is registered in the correct place, please refer to your policy documents to check who your breakdown provider is.

If your Breakdown Cover is provided by the RAC:

Bikes broken down in the UK: Call 0330 013 2072

If you are in the EU and have opted for EU cover:

Calling from Europe: +33 472 43 52 55

Calling from a French landline (freephone): 0800 290 112

Calling from the Republic of Ireland (freephone) 1 800 535 005

Or, register your claim digitally with the myRAC app.

If your Breakdown Cover is provided by AXA:

Bikes broken down in the UK: Call 0333 035 9367

If you are in the EU and have opted for EU cover: Call +44 (0) 1737 815 032

To request assistance in the UK online visit:

rescue.swinton.co.uk

1. Try to exit the motorway

If you are able to, try to drive to the next junction or the nearest service station.

If not, you need to get your car onto the hard shoulder: park it as far to the left as you can, and turn your wheels towards the grass verge in case it rolls.

If you’re on a smart motorway, try to drive to the next emergency refuge area (ERA), which is basically a lay-by at the side of the road for you to safely pull into. ERAs are found no further than 1.6 miles apart, and they’re marked by a blue sign featuring an orange SOS phone symbol. 

If you find yourself unable to get to the hard shoulder, keep your seatbelt on and switch your hazard lights on immediately. Don’t leave your vehicle until you’re absolutely clear it is safe to do so. 

2. Put your hazard lights on (and sidelights if it’s dark)

Leave your hazard lights flashing as a warning to others. If you’ve broken down at night, put your sidelights (or ‘parking lights’) on as well — do as much as you can to make your vehicle as visible as possible to other drivers. Never attempt to put a warning triangle out on the hard shoulder.

3. Exit the vehicle safely

Make sure all passengers exit the car through a left-side door, moving far away from the vehicle and traffic, and put on any reflective clothing you have. Once you’ve left your vehicle, wait behind the barrier and move up the embankment if you can.

Never attempt to fix your car if you break down on a motorway.

4. Call for help

Call for help using the emergency phone on your side of the carriageway. You’ll notice arrows which will guide you to the nearest emergency phone, located at approximately one-mile intervals along the hard shoulder. 

If you can, try to pull over close to an emergency phone so that you don’t have to walk far along the hard shoulder to find one. If you do have to walk to a phone, keep as far away from the carriageway as possible.

To ensure your breakdown is registered in the correct place, please refer to your policy documents to check who your breakdown provider is.

If your Breakdown Cover is provided by the RAC:

Bikes broken down in the UK: Call 0330 013 2072

If you are in the EU and have opted for EU cover:

Calling from Europe: +33 472 43 52 55

Calling from a French landline (freephone): 0800 290 112

Calling from the Republic of Ireland (freephone) 1 800 535 005

Or, register your claim digitally with the myRAC app.

If your Breakdown Cover is provided by AXA:

Bikes broken down in the UK: Call 0333 035 9367

If you are in the EU and have opted for EU cover: Call +44 (0) 1737 815 032

To request assistance in the UK online visit:

rescue.swinton.co.uk

When you choose Swinton Breakdown Cover, there’s no limit to the number of UK call outs you can make a year, but please note that call outs for a repeated fault will not be covered. We want you to feel safe in the knowledge that you’ll always be looked after, no matter how often you need it.

When you break down without cover, you’ll need to call a local garage and pay a call out charge out of your own pocket. Charges are often calculated with a standard fee with additional payments for each mile your vehicle needs to be towed. You may incur repair fees on top of that. All in all, it could cost you hundreds of pounds once everything is done.

Some Breakdown Cover policies won’t include an option for vehicles that break down at home, meaning you’ll need to pay for it to be towed to a garage. However, through Swinton At Home and European Breakdown Cover, you’re covered even if your car breaks down on your driveway.

This depends on your level of breakdown cover. With our European Breakdown Cover you can protect yourself on trips of up to 90 days within Europe. Overall claims limit of £2,500 per claim and 3 claims per policy year, limited to 1 claim per trip.

Cover is restricted to Roadside Assistance for the first 24 hours of your policy being active, regardless of cover level.

Yes — we will attempt to repair your car at the roadside. However, sometimes a vehicle can’t be repaired on the road. In these cases, we’ll cover the towing costs to get your car to a nearby garage to get the problem resolved there.