It was a cold morning this morning, with -4c registered on my car dashboard. I already knew it was a cold one as I had spent 15 minutes just clearing the windscreen of frost and ice. As I drove out of the estate where I live, the traffic inevitably slowed down to a halt as everyone expected to get from A to B in the same time as yesterday; a warmer day.

A breakdown recovery van with flashing lights is parked next to me now with a relieved driver, driving away in her repaired car. I pulled down my window and politely said to the man "cold morning", he politely replied, "freezing night". It as at this point a bolt hit me of what these guys actually do for a living.

This particular man had been working from 10.pm the previous night with no premises to keep warm in, no toilets, and no coffee machine. He had 5 calls that night, outside in temperatures of -10c, working in little light and expectant customers relying on his every move to get themselves home to the warm while he moves on to another waiting client. Ironically all 5 breakdowns were of a similar nature, flat batteries or electrical related. He explained that in cold conditions, drivers tend to switch everything on all the time and don't give the car time to warm up before switching on heaters, don't switch off heated windscreens etc. He explained, just by being a little more careful with what electrics we use, most of these breakdowns could be avoided.

It seems that is not just cold nights that the breakdown recovery man has to endure. A story of being called out to naturists who had been locked out of their car in the nude was pretty amusing. Repairing cars in the wrong neighbour hood at night came across as being pretty scary. But getting a bride and groom to their wedding ceremony after their wedding car broke down 10 miles away, also shows how important the service is that these recovery people are. I would bet, that couple would have paid anyone anything to get them to the registrar on time. Of course I have mentioned the breakdown recovery man but we mustn't forget the breakdown recovery lady. More and more we see ladies patrolling the roads in their bright coloured vans attending a call.

So next time you see a breakdown recovery van, just spare a thought of how important their job is and you never know, you may need the services of one very soon.