RAC Roadside Assistance patrol’s Richard Fortt is ready for anything as he starts the day with a smile.
He’s been on the job here for 15 years, immigrating to Australia from the UK with his family after finding an old newspaper with a Ten Pound Pom ad while renovating an attic back home.
“Got us thinking,” he says, explaining a typical shift is eight hours and can clock up 150-200km a day in the metropolitan area.
“Sometimes with animals, I’ve had to smash a window to get in if it’s hot and taking too long; it happened once with five or six dogs inside.”
Every breakdown has a human story.
Like the elderly man calling for help to start a dusty Mazda MX-5 sitting in the garage so he can wash it for his wife, who has dementia, because she used to drive it and it’s one of the few things she can still recognise that brings a smile to her face.
Or the person who ran out of petrol living in their car because they couldn’t afford to pay rent, even though they have a job, and probably kept the engine idling a little too long to stay warm.
The strangest?
Surely the man hiding his face while the battery was changed because, it was later found out, he was in a stolen hire car that nobody had flagged and needed to get away.
The saddest?
A woman who had just put her dead dog into the back of the car, ready to take it to the vet, only to find the battery was flat.
The unexpected?
A family of baby ducks recently rescued from a boot on a hot day.
We’re out on a sunny Tuesday morning:
+ City Beach, 9.05am. Yellow Mustang sitting in the carport for five months with a flat battery while the owner’s away with the navy. A jump start won’t solve the problem, so the best way to keep it topped up and in good nick is a smart battery charger that’s connected on the spot. Fixed.
+ Floreat, 10.15am. Toyota Kluger with a flat tyre. The owner’s just managed a school run and is running into a Teams meeting. Luckily, there’s a full-size spare. Fixed.
+ Mt Lawley, 10.40am. Ford Ranger with a flat battery. It’s three years old and needs replacing. The owner accepts his fate. Fixed.
+ Leederville, 11.22am. Mazda CX-5 diesel with a flat battery, bloated and bulging at the sides. The 74-year-old owner joined up when he was 17 and is a gold life member, packed and ready to head down south for a week with his wife only to find the car won’t start. We have to drop by the RAC’s battery cage in Subiaco to grab the right one for an engine stop-start system. There’s a magpie moth stuck under the car bonnet and it flutters its wings when I put it out on a leaf. Fixed.
+ Yokine, 12.07pm: Hyundai Accent with a transmission problem. It’s making a horrible grinding sound but the owner’s daughter managed to drive it — just — because her 90-year-old father who lives in a retirement home down the road insisted on going to bridge. He doesn’t come out to see what’s happening because he’s playing a tricky hand. Towed.
100 years of roadside assistance
RAC is celebrating 100 years of roadside assistance this month, launching in 1926 with just two patrols on motorcycles, scouring our major roads in search of people who had broken down.
A century later, the service is a statewide network of recognisable yellow patrol vans that attend hundreds of thousands of call-outs each year — from flat tyres to children and pets becoming accidentally locked in cars.
RAC Group CEO Rob Slocombe said the centenary was a credit to the organisation’s longstanding commitment to its members and the community, originally starting as The Automobile Club of Western Australia in 1905.
“Back in 1926, 21 years after the club was founded, it became clear there was a growing need to support WA’s early motorists — to give them confidence when venturing out,” said Mr Slocombe.
“In the 100 years that have followed, RAC patrols have remained devoted to helping members get back on the road safely so they can continue their travels.
“This milestone is a tribute to the generations of patrols, dispatchers and support teams who have created one of WA’s most cherished essential services.”
Through the decades
+ 1926: RAC Roadside Assistance begins with two mechanics patrolling on motorbikes.
+ 1950: A fleet of Austin A40 Vans replaces patrol motorbikes.
+ 1957: RAC Roadside Assistance becomes a 24-hour service; patrol vehicles fitted with two-way radios.
+ 1960: Free towing introduced for members.
+ 1967: Emergency phones installed along the Kwinana and Mitchell Freeways, providing direct access to RAC patrols.
+ 1970: Pick-up points established at shopping centres, where members could meet patrols and take them to their cars.
+ 1998: RAC begins sponsoring the RAC Christmas Pageant, with patrols famously towing several floats.
+ 2023: RAC introduces its first electric patrol vehicle.
+ 2026: RAC Roadside Assistance celebrates 100 years.
