Aaa hotel discount

AAA Office Park Expanded

To paraphrase a former automobile ad, it's not your father's auto club anymore. Now over 100 years old (founded in 1900), the American Automobile Club (AAA) has been around since the curved dash Olds was the latest thing in transportation.

Founded as an aid to stranded motorists, it was largely an organization that obtained emergency services for disabled vehicles, and provided insurance at reasonable rates to its members. But the past 25 years or so has seen the club expand into a many faceted services giant, with brand new central Jersey offices located just off Route 130, north of I-195, Robbinsville.

For many years after moving from West State St. in Trenton, AAA operated from a nicely appointed office building on their Robbinsville site.

But this spring the club completed and occupied a new 34,000 square foot operations center on the same grounds where about 200 of the 250 employees handle telephone inquiries about the club's long list of services and products and provide in-person advice and assistance to the public in a spacious state-of-the-art building that is as functional as it is handsome.

The sprawling two story structure employs a striking red, white and blue exterior motif-, with the bottom half of the brick fade red, the top half white and the attractive low pitched roof blue. Several small, decorative gables relieve the sameness of the expansive blue roof that is as eye catching as the other parts of this unique structure.

An arcade type entrance is decorated with window displays of travel offers, and a case of sample automobile club badges from countries around the world that provoke interest. A large reception area to the left provides visitors with information and other services; passageways to the right lead to offices and other facilities. There is ample parking in front of the building.

A small auditorium honors the late Max Winget who handled AAA public relations for many years and was well liked by club members and many others who knew him as a good friend and fine human being. Films and tapes of interest to the public are shown in this room.

To give you an idea of what AAA members have available today, consider this: The club can book you on a cruise, insure your car, help you plan a trip, obtain discount rates at hotels and stores, sell you insurance on just about anything, arrange a trip to Disney World that includes transportation, hotel accommodations, tickets to the park and to all activities and see to it that everyone in the family enjoys their vacation. The club will issue you a check on the Internet to buy a car, arrange your honeymoon, set up a golfing weekend, send you on a land tour, reserve and arrange a great trip to Europe or Australia, sell you a CD or money market account, buy some shares of your favorite stock and, oh yes, send out a wrecker when the old buggy has a flat tire or dead battery.

Although the new operations center handles customers who come in person to ask questions or obtain services, the original building, on Triple A Drive, will continue to operate as a service unit only, according to Executive Vice-President Dwayne Patterson.

The new building is just north of the original headquarters and fronts on U.S. 130. There are other structures in the AAA tract including one that currently houses Selective Insurance, but Patterson said that Selective will shortly move to a new headquarters in Yardville. This building is not owned by the auto club, but it does own a third building in the office park that it has "primarily for investment purposes."

Currently, there are two tenants in that building: Pars Environmental Services and Ortho Safety Systems. The latter makes components for seat belts.

The Robbinsville operation is a regional headquarters for the club that is headquartered in Philadelphia. A recent merger with Mid-Atlantic AAA brought an additional 3,000 employees into the fold.

"Among the many things we offer are automobile insurance through our partnership with Liberty Mutual, we offer home owners coverage, financial services with our partners, People First Bank, an Internet banking solution, and our credit card partner is MBNA Bank. We make equity loans, tuition loans, mortgages, in fact, we offer a huge financial umbrella," Patterson explained. (To access People First on the Internet, enter peoplefirst.com).

In partnership with AAA, the California based Internet facility makes borrowing for a car, for example, an easy task. After filling out the credit application, the customer gets an approval in just 15 seconds! A blank check with an approved credit limit is expressed overnight to the borrower's home or office. This allows the buyer to shop several dealers before deciding, using the flexibility provided by what amounts to cash in his or her pocket. Patterson said the current new car lending rate is under seven percent.

With 42 million members in North America, the club has been around almost as long as automobiles. Its new facility proves that although more than a century old, the club remains as modem as tomorrow.