Phone emergency center ANWB is red hot: 15,000 calls a day

Starting problems

About 15,000 times a day the ANWB emergency center has to go into action.
Especially cars and campers are having a hard time on foreign roads.
The warning lights are on all over Europe this summer. France leads the list when it comes to reports of car trouble.
But also in Germany and Belgium, many Dutch vacationers have to deal with starting problems, flat tires and other technical defects.

Campers

A striking trend this year is the increasing number of breakdowns involving RVs.
More and more Dutch people are heading out with their own home on wheels, and that also leads to more problems on the road.
With now 620,000 caravans and campers on yellow license plates, a record number in the Netherlands, it was inevitable that the number of breakdown reports would also rise.

Medical problems

ANWB not only comes to the rescue if your vehicle lets you down.
Vacationers can also contact the emergency center for medical problems.
Sometimes it is difficult to assess whether or not you need to see a doctor, and then a phone call to the ANWB offers the solution.
Especially from Turkey, Spain and France, many medical requests for help are received, often involving heart problems, fever or stomach ache.

August: busy, busier, busiest

The ANWB expects it will only get busier in August, the month when all of Europe goes on vacation en masse.
Garages abroad are then often closed or running at half capacity, which means that the chances of getting help from the local roadside assistance are reduced.
ANWB has anticipated this by deploying extra staff and even repairing cars remotely.
Over the phone, ANWB employees often guide stranded vacationers through simple repairs.

Also see: TEST: Mid-summer vacation to the south of France with the fastest-charging electric car