Methodology
Cover Route is a reference map of UK breakdown cover. It records what providers publish about their cover, and shows each specification value with the wording it was read from and a link to that page. It publishes no scores, rankings or recommendations.
Where the data comes from
A crawler reads each provider's public web pages daily. It captures published prices and the wording each provider uses for its terms, such as callout limits, recovery distances, vehicle age limits, cooling-off periods and renewal. Google ratings come from the Google Maps listing named on each provider page. A provider page shows a company record only where the provider's own site prints the company's registered number, and quotes that wording with a link to the page; the status and incorporation date shown come from the Companies House register entry for that number. The same daily crawl reads the pages banks publish about packaged current accounts, and paid add-ons to a current account, that come with breakdown cover (see “Bank accounts” below).
Who provides the cover
A provider page's “Cover provided by” row names the company that a “provided by” statement on the provider's own pages names, as the page prints it, and quotes that statement with a link to the page. Each statement is read by hand before it is shown, to check that it is about the provider's own breakdown cover and not a partner's or another product's, and a changed statement is not shown until it has been read again. The name is not checked against Companies House. Where no such statement has been found and read, the row reads “Not stated”: that means not known, not that the provider delivers its cover itself.
Bank accounts
The bank accounts pages record what banks' own pages state about the breakdown cover that comes with a packaged current account or a paid add-on to a current account: the monthly fee, the company the bank's page names as providing the cover, the parts of the cover it lists, who and which vehicles are covered, and who qualifies. Each value is shown with the bank's wording beside it and a link to the page it was read from, in the table on the bank accounts page and on an account's own page. A provider page lists the verified accounts whose bank's page names that provider, quoting the bank's wording.
Only an account verified in the latest check shows values. An account the latest check could not verify, because a page could not be read, did not mention breakdown cover, did not state enough about it or said the account is no longer available, is listed apart by name and product type, with no values and no statement about its cover. Values from an earlier check are not carried over. Accounts are listed alphabetically by bank, and the bank's policy document sets the conditions of the cover.
Where the crawler cannot read a bank's own pages, an account's values can come instead from the product listing the bank publishes as Open Banking Open Data. Those values are credited to the bank's Open Banking product data, never to its pages: each is shown with the wording the listing gives, or the field name and value where the listing gives only a field, and a link to the listing. The date the bank last updated its listing, which can be weeks older than the check, is shown beside the values with the check date, and pages showing them note that the product data is published by the bank under the Open Banking Open Licence. The listing does not give a call-out limit, a vehicle age limit or a policy document, so those read “Not stated” for these accounts.
The evidence rule
A specification value is shown only together with the wording it was read from and a link to the provider's page. The same applies to bank accounts: each value is shown with the bank's wording and a link to the bank's page beside it, or, for an account read from the bank's Open Banking listing, the listing's wording or field and a link to the listing, in the bank accounts table, on an account's own page and on provider pages. A value with no captured wording is not shown.
Not stated
“Not stated” means the latest crawl found no evidenced value for that provider or bank account. It describes this dataset, not the provider's or the bank's terms. Their own policy documents are the authority.
Values held back
Some captured values apply to only one tier, product or region, or did not match the provider's page when checked. These are held back and shown as “Not stated” until the capture is corrected. A held value is never replaced with a figure typed in by hand.
Prices
Only a price captured in the latest crawl is shown as current. Provider pages and comparison pages give the date it was captured. Where providers are compared or ordered by price, a monthly price is multiplied by 12 and labelled that way. A list ordered by price or by date says so. Every other list of providers is alphabetical.
Offers
Where a provider's page advertises an offer, its provider page quotes the offer's headline in the wording it was read from, with a link to that page. An offer found to be about something other than breakdown cover is not shown. Prices are shown as the provider prints them: Cover Route does not work out a price after an offer.
Feature mentions
Features such as home start or onward travel are recorded as “Mentioned” when a provider's pages name them. A mention does not confirm that every tier includes the feature.
What the data is not
It is not a quote and not a summary of a policy document. Each provider sets its own cover terms, prices and eligibility, and these can change between checks.