A dad was left stranded in his car overnight after the RAC took eight hours to reach him.
Paul Fern contacted the RAC after suffering an electrical malfunction on the A511 at Boundary, near Woodville, Staffordshire.
He first called for help at 10:20pm on Monday night, but did not get any help until 6am the next morning.
Paul said he sat in his Citreon C3 becoming "disorientated and dehydrated" as he waited for his car to be towed, not realising just how long it would take, reports Staffordshire Live.
The RAC has since apologised again to Mr Fern, saying the service was under a lot of pressure that night, and has offered a "gesture of goodwill".
He called the breakdown service at 10.20pm on Monday night, October 18, and they did not reach him until 6am the next day.
He was heading home to Swadlincote after a 12-hour shift as a delivery lorry driver at United Biscuits in Ashby, when his car broke down.
He said: "I was driving home from a 12-hour shift and broke down at Boundary near the water tower.
"I rang RAC at 10.20pm and they did not get to me until 6am. I kept getting messages saying 'covid is delaying us and we are sending someone out to you'.
"They said there wasn't a person available to come to me, but it was the middle of the night. How busy is it then?
"I just had to sit there. I kept getting out to walk around a bit, but I was getting dehydrated. My wife had to come out and check on me, but if I hadn't have been local, that wouldn't have been possible.
"They also said they'd send a taxi and told me to leave my car where it was, but you can't just leave it there. You don't know what'll happen to it.
"I rang the police as well, as I was becoming stressed. At 57, I'm no spring chicken.
"I am just appalled. I have only been with the RAC since January and it was just absolutely disastrous. I couldn't trust them (again)."
Mr Fern said when the RAC operative did eventually arrive, they towed the car back to his house and he went straight to sleep. He also had to take the next day off work to recover and while his car was being mended in the garage.
An RAC spokesperson said: “We’ve sincerely apologised to Mr Fern for taking much longer to get to him than we would normally.
"While we never want to let any of our customers down, our roadside teams were unfortunately under a lot of pressure on Monday.
"We hope the gesture of goodwill we’ve offered helps restore his faith in us. We’re confident Mr Fern will get our usual excellent service the next time he needs our help.”
