The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland Limited is a motoring club and mutual organisation, providing roadside assistance, insurance, travel, finance and other services to its Queensland members. It is a member of the Australian Automobile Association. The RACQ Insurance, its insurance arm, is one of the largest providers in Queensland. Its bimonthly magazine, The Road Ahead, has the highest circulation of any magazine in Queensland with 887,630 paper subscriptions and 165,000 online subscribers.
History
Eighteen motorists formed the Automobile Club of Queensland in 1905 at a meeting of "almost all the motorists in Brisbane" which was held at the School of Arts, in Ann Street. Of the eighteen founding members, ten were medical practitioners. Their belief that "autos" could be a reliable means for visiting patients was used to leverage a more positive image of cars in the public consciousness.
Dr. George Hopkins was voted to be the President, and Dr. Charles Marks was the first Vice-President. One of the foundation members was a woman, Dr Lilian Violet Cooper, noting that the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria did not permit women to be members at that time. The club received its Royal Charter in 1921. The club was formed as an advocacy group, styled after the successful Royal Automobile Club of the United Kingdom. At the time of formation there were only 16 registered privately owned motor cars in the whole of Queensland. RACQ was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in 2014.
Services
As of 2017, The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland provides the following services:
The RACQ sponsors the Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth program run by the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. In addition, the RACQ sponsors the RACQ Community Helicopter Rescue Network through its charitable trust fund. RACQ also sponsors the All Schools Pedal Prix, RACQ Technology Challenge Maryborough, Older People Speak Out, Queensland Road Safety Awards, RACQ Historic Motoring Council Rally and RACQ Insurance International Women's Day Fun Run Free2go is a youth program designed to help learner drivers to get their licence and includes roadside assistance. Together with the online learner logbook. Queensland learner drivers can record their required 100 hours of supervised on-road driving electronically.
Locations
The RACQ headquarters are in Eight Mile Plains, on the southside of Brisbane, with hubs at Tingalpa, Fortitude Valley, Virginia, Murarrie and Southport. Its branches are mostly owned outright; however, some are franchised or contracted out, particularly in the road service division with the use of contractors outside of Brisbane. In 2013, RACQ released one-of-a-kind The Mobile Member Centre that functions as an ordinary branch, and is used for exhibitions and trade shows, and to assist in large-scale disasters in helping communities.
July 2015 controversy
In July 2015 the RACQ was the subject of a report on the Australian Channel 9 program "A Current Affair". Reporter Tracy Grimshaw outlined how the RACQ dismissed tow truck driver Murray French for breaking a road rule when he towed a wheelchair-bound handicapped person's car on a tilt-tray tow truck while the person was still seated in the car. The event was earlier reported by the Logan Reporter and BigRigs.com.au. Thousands of RACQ members and the general public signed a petition calling for the RACQ to reinstate French. On 9 July there was a protest at the RACQ office asking for French's reinstatement. The RACQ issued a response on their Web site disputing the information in the Channel 9 report and defending the decision to dismiss the driver. In a statement the tow truck driver cited the 5 people killed on the M1 while waiting minutes in their car after RACQ had been called.
