In line with the increased goods traffic to Eastern Europe, Continental has extended the ContiBreakdownService for commercial vehicles.

ContiBreakdownService customers holders can now benefit from an extension of the Europe-wide service into the Ukraine.

Tyre failure is undoubtedly one of the most inconvenient occurrences the transport industry, with 13% of all trucks and coaches being affected each year. As well as unscheduled downtime, if a breakdowns occurs abroad there is also the potential language barrier when calling for assistance.

The ContiBreakdownService from Continental has been in operation since 1978 and its service network provides swift, reliable assistance to get trucks and coaches mobile again after a tyre failure. Over the years, the service has been extended and adapted to meet the changing requirements in road traffic. For example, given the increase in business in Eastern Europe, the breakdown service is now available in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, and now the Ukraine.

In the event of a tyre breakdown, regardless of location, the driver can make a short call in his/her own language to the respective national service number to call for assistance. The call centre then contacts one of over 5,000 service partners. In Central Europe, the average processing time before the vehicle can drive away after a tyre failure is under two hours.

The assistance provided by the ContiBreakdownService is charged at guaranteed fixed prices and the price list specifies what costs are to be expected in which region and under what circumstances.

To ensure the process runs smoothly, Continental settles the payment initially which means the driver does not have worry about payment. Once Continental has verified the invoice issued by the local service partner, the customer receives an invoice in their own language, which can then be paid by bank transfer.

Having dealt with over 10,000 cases of tyre failure, ContiBreakdownService is the leading service for tyre failures in Europe and consistently outperforms other breakdown services.

"ContiBreakdownService is one of the most important value-added services that we provides for our customers," commented Rebecca Shedden, ContiBreakdownService Manager. "Fleets can benefit from the reassurance of fast, reliable, local breakdown assistance 24 hours a day, every day of the year."Debbie Norris

Account Manager

AccessPlus

Thistle Way

Gildersome Spur

Wakefield Road

Morley

Leeds

LS27 7JZ

Switchboard 0113 252 9922

Fax Number 0113 252 2864