The AA

AA Limited, trading as The AA, is a British motoring association.

Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. The association demutualised in 1999, to become a private limited company, and from 2014 a public limited company (PLC). In 2002 the AA Motoring Trust was created to continue its public interest and road safety activities.

In 2021, a consortium led by Tower Brook Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus completed the acquisition of AA Limited (formerly known as AA PLC).

The Automobile Association was founded in 1905 by William John Bosworth, to help motorists avoid police speed traps, in response to the Motor Car Act 1903 which introduced new penalties for breaking the speed limit, for reckless driving with fines, endorsements and the possibility of jail for speeding and other driving offences. The act also required drivers to hold a driving licence (which was obtained without a test on payment of five shillings at a post office) and to display a registration plate on their vehicle.

By 1906, the AA had erected thousands of roadside danger and warning signs, and managed road signage until responsibility was passed to local authorities in the early 1930s. By 1926, the organisation had installed 6,500 direction signs, and 15,000 village signs, most of which were removed during the Second World War. In 1908, the organisation published its first AA Members' Special Handbook containing a list of nationwide agents and repairers.

In 1910, in a legal test case (Betts vs. Stevens) involving an AA patrolman and a potentially speeding motorist, the Chief Justice, Lord Alverston, ruled that where a patrolman signals to a speeding driver to slow down and thereby avoid a speed trap, then they would have committed the offence of 'obstructing an officer in the course of his duty' under the Prevention of Crimes Amendment Act 1885. The organisation then introduced a coded warning system, used until the 1960s, whereby an AA patrolman would salute the driver of a passing car which showed a visible AA Badge unless there was a speed trap nearby, on the understanding that their officers could not be prosecuted for failing to salute. The AA Handbook stated that "It cannot be too strongly emphasised that when a patrol fails to salute, the member should stop and ask the reason why, as it is certain that the patrol has something of importance to communicate."

In 1910, the organisation introduced AA Routes and in 1912, began inspecting hotels and restaurants, issuing AA Star Classification to those deemed to be of sufficient quality and introduced pre-purchase and post-accident repair checks in the 1920s. In 1920 members were issued with keys to wooden roadside telephone boxes which could be used to call the organisation for assistance (the boxes had been erected from 1912 as shelters for watchmen or patrolmen). There were almost 1,000 boxes in their heyday, and they remained in use until the 1960s.

After the war, the AA led protests against petrol rationing, which was repealed in 1950. 1949 saw the launch of a night-time breakdown and recovery service, initially in London only, then extended nationwide. The AA Insurance brokerage service was started in 1967. The organisation campaigned for the compulsory wearing of seat belts, and for the introduction of unleaded petrol. Seat belt legislation became law in the United Kingdom on 1 January 1983 with the Transport Act 1981. The AA has lobbied successive governments over what they describe as 'unfair motoring taxes'.