"I had a vision of a Tuk Tuk on the M1"

Some years ago while I was working on the AA website, I got a rather strange email. It was from a gentleman in India who was asking for some advice on planning a sponsored drive across the UK in his taxi and he was wondering if the AA would also like to sponsor him.

Nothing unusual in that you may be saying to yourself, but there must be something special about the request for him to be asking the AA for sponsorship. Well there certainly was a twist, because he was going to do the whole trip driving backwards.

Apparently his reversing skills had made him into a mini celebrity in his hometown in the Punjab region and he can reach speeds of up to 50mph. However, driving like that is clearly dangerous and not something the AA would endorse. And I shouldn't imagine that the police would be too happy about it either. I replied, informing him of this and that was that. I must admit though, while I knew he had a yellow cab, I did have a little chuckle to myself imagining him driving a Tuk Tuk backwards down the M1.

David Earl, AA Management Information Team