Highway Agencies helped me out when I ran out of petrol on a GS450. They made sure I was not run over on the 2 mile push to the station. Not much else he could do, did not have petrol on the vehicle, only diesel. He was very helpful and friendly. Did what he could. I’ve got respect for them, they do a thankless job.
HATO are there to give the public the impression that there are more police out and about than there really are.
They cruise around looking for broken down cars to “protect” . . . they sit behind them until the AA/RAC arrives then move along to the next one. They occasionally clear debris from the road. Only “power” they have is to block a road in the event of an accident or incident and even then they are still supposed to work in pairs. Strewth do we pay for this service ? :sick:
I’d rather have more proper police who have a multitude of skills and can be useful in different situations than HATOs . . . I can’t believe we actually pay for these people, still needs the same infrastructure, vehicles etc as the police, might get paid a bit less but overall the costs can’t be significantly lower.
In the future the govt will probably give them more authority and treat them like a cheaper police force, same as PCSOs. I’d put money on them being intimately involved in road pricing in some form or another.