Mersey Reporter - #Merseybites #News

A chance meeting following a motorway breakdown has led to an AA member becoming AA Patrol of the Year.

AA patrols are renowned for turning a negative situation into a positive 1, and that was certainly the case when Manchester mechanic, Nick Powell, suffered a blowout on his Ford Fiesta ST, back in October 2017.

Nick, who then worked as a mechanic for a Stockport garage, managed to get his car onto the motorway’s hard shoulder and called the AA. Nick’s car didn’t come with a spare tyre, so he followed the safety advice offered by the AA’s call handler and waited for a patrol to attend.

AA patrol, Ben Sheridan, soon turned up and safely fitted an AA temporary wheel and followed Nick to his local tyre centre where a replacement tyre had been ordered for the next day. Once Nick’s original wheel was refitted and he’d handed his keys over to the garage owner, he accepted Ben’s offer of a lift home. During the journey home, the pair discussed the benefits of Ben’s patrol role and Nick decided that he was interested enough to apply for a job at the AA.

Over the following couple of months, after a successful interview and technical assessment, Nick was offered a job as an AA patrol, with Ben taking the role of his mentor.

Two years passed, with the pair continuing in their respective roles, but then Ben was bestowed with the honour of becoming the AA Patrol of the Year (POTY) meaning that he’d be the new ‘face of the AA.’

During Ben’s reign as POTY, covid struck and this resulted in his role being extended for more than two years; a 1st for any AA Patrol of the Year. Once Ben’s role as POTY came to an end, he went on to become a Patrol Performance Leader in a different area than where Nick worked, but the two regularly kept in touch.

As Nick continued to learn his role he began to excel in most areas of his job and in late 2022, he was nominated by his own Performance Leader, Kris Handley, for Patrol of the Year. Nick followed the nominee’s process of a series of technical and media assessments and then faced the agonising wait for the announcement of the winner.

Earlier this year, at a spectacular AA Awards evening at Vox in Birmingham, married father of two, Nick Powell, was crowned as the 2023 AA Patrol of the Year. Since being crowned, Nick has settled into the role and can regularly be seen and heard representing the AA through local and national media, in addition to corporate and local events such as a visit to Meadowbank School for the Deaf.

Kris Handley, Patrol Performance leader, said:- ”Nick joined the Manchester Patrol team in 2018 and his presence and popularity within the team was immediate. He’s the sort of lad that consistently goes out of his way to help others, and this trait has won him lots of respect from his peers and AA members alike. Nick has really grown into the POTY role and it’s great to see his confidence and stature grow as each week passes. I have little doubt that this will be the first step in a long and successful career for him, which is great because he really deserves it. It must be a million to one chance that two people could meet and both go on to become AA Patrols of the Year, but that’s how random this job can be.”

Ben Sheridan, former AA Patrol of the Year, said:- “The moment I met Nick on the hard shoulder of a blustery M61 motorway, I knew that he had a special kind of personality, so it’s great to see his efforts to give everything to his patrol role to be recognised in such a way. Of course, I feel proud to have initially recommended him for the patrol role, but he’s the one that has done the hard work and he’s repaid the faith that I placed in him in spades. AA patrols go above and beyond for our members every single day, and Nick exemplifies those values perfectly.”