Royal Automobile Club of Victoria
 | |
| Motto | We're there for you |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1903 |
| Type | Roadside assistance, Vehicle inspection, Travel advisory, Insurance, Resorts |
| Headquarters |
Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Princes Highway, Noble Park, Victoria, Australia |
| Location | |
Membership | 2.1m Members (Club, Service and Relationship Members)[1] |
| Kevin W. White | |
Key people | Neil Taylor, Managing Director and CEO |
Budget | $443.3m |
Staff | 2,623 |
| Website | www.racv.com.au |
The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) is a motoring club and mutual organisation, providing services such as roadside assistance, vehicle, home and contents insurance, personal and car loans, driving instruction, tourism services and home security products.
The RACV runs a lifestyle club known as the RACV Club, with locations in the Melbourne CBD and at Healesville. It operates 5 resorts in regional Victoria, 1 in Tasmania and 2 in Queensland. It also produces a monthly magazine for members which covers travel/touring destinations in Victoria, interstate and overseas, motoring and mobility news and reviews, and member benefits news and updates.
History
The Automobile Club of Victoria was founded in 1903, and it held its first car rally at Aspendale Park Racecourse in 1904.[2] In 1916, the club received the approval of King George V to prefix the title "Royal" to its name.[3][4]
RACV is a member of the Australian Automobile Association which has member organisations in each state and territory of Australia.
RACV was a founder of insurance brand AAMI (previously known as Club Motor Insurance and now owned by Suncorp-Metway),[5] and both companies are now major competitors in the insurance market in Victoria with RACV's business venture with partner Insurance Australia Group.
Services
Motoring Services
RACV provides a tiered roadside assistance service across Victoria to the approximately 2.1 million Victorian members and a reciprocal service to its interstate and international affiliates. It also has a Drive School, a suite of motor products such as Batteries, Auto Glass and Parts and currently manages and operates Melbourne's Bike Share Scheme on behalf of the Victorian Government.
Home Services
RACV offers home security systems as well as home security system monitoring. It also offers the emergency home assist product.
Insurance
RACV offers a range of insurance products to its members including home, contents, car, motorcycle, boat, caravan, travel, farm and business insurance.
Financial Services
Through its finance company RACV offers its members a suite of car and personal loans as well as investments.
Salary Packaging
Through its RACV Salary Solutions subsidiary, Salary packaging management solutions and products and advice are offered.
Retail
RACV retail outlets provide tourism and travel advice-maps, venue ticketing, travel guides as well as offering advice on all other RACV products and merchandise.
Motorist Advocacy
RACV conducts advocacy activities, campaigning on behalf its members and the general public on issues such as roads, vehicle standards and safety.
Lifestyle Club
The RACV Club is the RACV's lifestyle club offering social, recreational and business facilities to Club members. It has locations in the Melbourne CBD and Healesville. The City Club was redeveloped in 2005. The Healesville Country Club was redeveloped in 2009, with facilities matching those of the prestigious City Club.[1]
RACV Resorts
All RACV members (both Club and Roadside Service Members) are provided with access to RACV Resorts, offering facilities in various locations throughout Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.
These Include:
-Cape Schanck Resort on the Mornington Peninsula
-Cobram Resort in the Murray River region
-Inverloch Resort located on South Gippsland’s Bass Coast
-Torquay Golf Club on the Victorian Surf Coast
-Goldfields Resort in the Central Goldfields Region
-RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast
-Noosa Resort on the Sunshine Coast
-Hobart Hotel in Tasmania
RoyalAuto magazine
RACV produces a magazine for its members, called RoyalAuto. It is published and distributed 11 times a year – monthly from February to November, and a combined December/January edition. The magazine's content is based on the three major topics that are of major interest to its readers as RACV members: travel/touring and associated leisure content, motoring/mobility – mainly new and used car reviews and news, and news and programs which touch on broader mobility issues including road safety, public transport and the environment – and member benefits/news. RoyalAuto has an audited circulation of 1,502,079, making it the largest-circulating publication in Victoria.[6] It is the state's most-read monthly magazine.[7]
The RACV member magazine has been produced for more than 90 years. It began in 1922 as a monthly supplement in The Australian Motorist. By the mid-1920s, it was launched as a stand-alone publication called The Royal Auto Journal. In 1936, this changed to The Radiator, a newspaper-style journal. In 1953, the magazine became a colour publication called Royalauto, and now it is formally presented as RoyalAuto. In September 2012 a digital version, for iPad, was produced for the first time, and each digital edition is produced concurrently with the print magazine. In August 2013, it was rated among the top 1% of magazine apps worldwide by app rating agency iMonitor. In November 2013, RoyalAuto was named Association or Member Organisation Magazine of the Year by Publishers Australia in its Excellence Awards 2013.[8]
Corporate
The registered office is located in the CBD of Melbourne, with its main service headquarters in the south-eastern suburb of Noble Park North.
RACV is an unlisted public company limited by guarantee headed by a board of directors. The Board comprises 15 independent non-executive directors and 1 managing director and CEO.[9] The non-executive directors are elected to three-year terms by two different classes of members: Ordinary ('Club') members (who total 29,800 but only 25,202 have voting rights[10]) who can vote for all 15 of the non-executive directors, and roadside service members who have purchased emergency roadside assistance and number approximately 1.462 million but can only vote for 6 specific non-executive directors and consequently have less representation at board level. A third large group of non-voting 'relationship' members was created in 2006 when customers with renewable products such as insurance, home security and personal loans were offered 'membership'.[11]
Subsidiaries and investments
- R.A.C.V. Finance - 100%
- RACV Salary Solutions - 100%
- Intelematics Australia – 100%
- Insurance Manufacturers of Australia (IMA) – 30% (joint venture with Insurance Australia Group owning other 70%)
- Club Assist – 25%
- Australian Motoring Services (AMS)- 24% (joint venture with Australian automobile clubs)
References
- 1 2 Unattributed (October 2010). "RACV annual report". RoyalAuto. 78 (9): 13–16.
- ↑ Land and Environment: Aspendale Park Racecourse
- ↑ RACV Annual Report 1916-17
- ↑ Priestley, Susan (1983). The crown of the road: the story of the RACV. Melbourne: Macmillan. p. 170. ISBN 0-333-35629-2.
- ↑ Smith, Simon (2002). From club to corporation: motor insurance and the rise of AAMI 1933-1999. Melbourne: AAMI. p. 271. ISBN 0-9581646-1-4.
- ↑ Circulations Audit Board March 2013
- ↑ Roy Morgan Research March 2012
- ↑ http://publishersaustralia.com.au
- ↑ RACV Annual Report 2010
- ↑ RACV Annual Report 2011 p 55
- ↑ 'RACV Makes Your MembershipCount', RoyalAuto December 2006, Melbourne, Australia, retrieved 12 July 2007.
- ↑ See Notes 28 and 30 to the Financial Statements, RACV Annual Report 2010