- Airport parking skills from the experts
- Don’t get caught out by the ‘little things’
- Apps and pictures ensure faster recovery
Paul Elliott, General Manager of Hobbs Recovery Services, members of the Start Rescue national network, has over two decades of knowledge when it comes to recovering cars from major airports like Heathrow and Gatwick. And in most cases, avoiding the disappointment of coming back from holiday to find the car won’t start is about not getting caught out by the ‘little things.’
“Most callouts to long stay airport carparks still involve the dreaded flat battery. And that’s usually caused by not taking a moment to check all interior and exterior lights are off, even if you’re only away for a short city break, that can be enough. It is easy to knock-on an internal light when unloading your luggage and we see this on a regular basis,” explains Paul.
Paul and Start Rescue’s advice is to take a moment to do a ‘car walkabout’ before heading for departures.
- Make sure sure all cabin reading lights are off and pay special attention to the boot area where it’s easy to knock a light on when unloading luggage.
- Remember to close cabin stowage areas like central armrests which may have a separate lighting feature.
- Double check all doors, the boot, windows and sunroof are fully closed.
- Health-check keyless entry devices before going away – do they need new batteries?
- For longer stays over two weeks consider leaving the handbrake off to avoid it seizing, but make sure it is safe to do so (parked on flat ground) and leave the car in gear or park.
- Slightly over-inflate your tyres to allow for additional passenger and luggage weight, but also, to account for pressure loss over time when you are away. Underinflated tyres can develop flat spots.
If the worst does happen, getting professional help as quickly as possible is also about doing the simple things right, preferably before taking the shuttle.
Taking plenty of pictures on your phone, especially of all available location signage, will make sure help arrives sooner. Paul and his colleagues also recommend using What3Words.
“Most of these carparks are huge, so we encourage customers to use What3Words which allows us to pinpoint their exact location straightaway. Parking as accurately as possible in the approved space is also a major help if we do need to load your car.”
Not all airport call-outs for Paul Hobbs or other members of the Start Rescue network are always so stressful, however.
“One of our favourite cases was coming out to a customer who said his key wasn’t working and he was locked out. After a bit of further investigation, we discovered he’d grabbed the wrong set of keys out of his hand luggage. That was one of our easier call-outs!”
Start Rescue has a 4.7-star rating on Trustpilot, a five-star Defaqto* rating and has achieved Which? Recommended Provider status for six years running. Start Rescue has also been awarded best Breakdown Cover provider in the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards 2024 (www.finder.com), scoring 4.9 out of 5 for overall satisfaction with a 94% recommendation rate.
www.startrescue.co.uk is a trading style of Call Assist Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and has been providing breakdown services on behalf of many brands for the past 26 years. Call Assist currently services more than 2 million policyholders through a large network of approved recovery agents throughout the UK and a further network in Europe.
For more insights or to learn about Start Rescue’s breakdown coverage visit: startrescue.co.uk.
