EIGHT BREAKDOWN TIPS FOR WINTER DRIVING

Although breakdown apps remain the easiest way to report your location and track your recovery waiting time, motorists should still be aware of other ways to communicate their position and increase their visibility in a winter breakdown scenario. Driver location signs, positioned along the hard shoulder of motorways and A-roads, are often overlooked, and can be used by anyone to describe an exact location to the emergency services.

Two types of driver location signs exist - the most common featured on motorways across the UK, are distance marker posts, which are short, white signs with red reflectors and a blue strip that includes two lines of numbers, installed every 100-metres. The top line of numbers explains the distance along the motorway in kilometres (km) from a given location which the emergency services will be aware of, while the lower line shows the tenths of kilometre. The marker posts' shorter side also provides a directional arrow with an image to inform of the nearest emergency roadside telephone.

In England, more visible rectangular blue signs appear on poles along the hard shoulder of motorways and some A-roads, positioned every 500-metres (550-...