Home

Vehicle Breakdown Engineer

Do you want to become a Vehicle Breakdown Engineer? Here is some information to help point you in the right direction:

Job Description - Print Page

Bookmark or recommend this article:

• Vehicle breakdown engineers are vehicle mechanics who attend roadside breakdowns to diagnose and repair faults.
• A control centre alerts the breakdown engineer when a motorist calls in to report a breakdown. The engineer must then find the vehicle, often in a specified time.
• The engineer finds the cause of the problem and either repairs the vehicle on the roadside, or arranges for it to be towed to a garage.

Most vehicle breakdown engineers work shifts - the hours are irregular and unsociable, and may include weekends. Most of their time is spent on the road, usually working alone.

Earnings range from £15,000 to £28,000 or more.

Vehicle breakdown engineers should:

• have excellent mechanical and technical knowledge
• have practical skills
• be good at fault-finding
• be reliable and trustworthy
• have good communication skills.

There are two main types of employer:

• large national organisations such as the AA or RAC, that run their own patrols
• smaller organisation such as Green Flag and Britannia Rescue, that contract out their services to local garages, rather than operating their own recovery vehicles.

Most vehicle breakdown engineers have previously trained as motor mechanics or vehicle technicians, and have at least five years' experience.

The majority of employers offer in-house training. Organisations such as the RAC and AA run their own training schemes.

There may be opportunities to become a team leader or supervisor, or to move into administrative, managerial or training posts.

More Useful Resources - Vehicle Breakdown Engineer:

Do you know of a useful and relevant website that would be helpful to our users? Tell us about it by emailing