European Laws are sometimes more hindrance than help.

Yesterday, I had a Seminar to go to for my business. It was called a FAB Seminar (Focus, Action, Belief), it was about two and a half hours journey time away. I was excited about going to this Seminar as it would help increase my motivation to do more with my business.

To achieve my goal of attending this meeting, I had to work for 16 hours the day before, to enable me to obtain the day off I required. I felt a sense of achievement in the efforts I had made to realise my goal.

So the day started off well. First I picked up my colleague 6 miles away. Then we travelled to another part of town to collect another colleague, only he was not motivated enough to get up at 6 am to go to the seminar. So at 7 am only 2 of us travelled in my car to Runcorn, in Cheshire (142 miles, 229 km away).

Everything was fine until I came off the motorway onto the side roads on the approach to our venue, that was when the problems began. When I changed gear, I noticed the gear lever was very stiff and sluggish. I could also smell the aroma of hot gearbox oil. Then I discovered I no longer had 5th gear!

Five minutes later I managed to lump in to the car park of our venue. I had to negotiate a very tight corner that involved me having to reverse the car, that was when I discovered that my reverse gear no longer worked either. I then called the breakdown service (RAC) for assistance.

They arrived just as the seminar started, and very quickly diagnosed that one of the shafts inside the gearbox had broken (the one with 5th and reverse) and I would need to have the car towed back home. I arranged to have the recovery vehicle arrive at 5 pm after the seminar had finished (I might as well enjoy the meeting I had come all this way to see).

After the seminar finished, I had to wait I until 17:30 before the recovery vehicle arrived and loaded it up onto its back. That was when I discovered that the Brussels bureaucrats had changed the laws concerning the working practice of the breakdown and recovery service vehicles hours and conditions.

When I first joined a motoring organisation 26 years ago, my choice between either the AA (Automobile Association), and the RAC (Royal Automobile Association) was down to only one different point. The RAC would transport your vehicle from A to B with one vehicle, no matter the distance. Whereas, the AA would only do it in stages, greatly increasing the time and inconvenience to me.

I discovered that 2 years ago, the recovery drivers are not allowed to drive outside a 100km radius of their base. So my journey home would involve at least one change of vehicle to get me home.

Because of the cold weather over Christmas, the breakdown services were at full stretch. Consequently instead of having only one transfer change, I had to endure 4 of them! Each time a transfer took place, there was a further delay of at least 30 minutes before the next vehicle arrived to carry my car on the next part of my journey home. So what should have been a simple two 2 hour 30 minute journey, ended up as an 8 hour nightmare!

Tomorrow, I will discover the painful cost of repairing the car. Then I will have to make a choice of either selling the car quickly, and hope that the next car doesn't come with new and unknown problems. Or having fixed this problem, keep the car, knowing that this kind of problem should not happen again for a very long time.

My wife will have a few choice words to say about my ability to choose a problem free car! Having had this setback so early in the year, bodes well for me, as things can only get better!
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