AAA Officially Changing Its Name to Just That
Say goodbye to the American Automobile Assn.
The group is changing its name to AAA.
The former name “doesn’t represent what we do now,” spokesman Bill Jackman said Tuesday from Washington. “It isn’t just automobiles. It’s banking and insurance and travel.”
The American Automobile Assn. was founded in 1902 by early purchasers of automobiles to lobby for roads in an era of horse-and-buggy transportation.
Since then, the nonprofit club has grown to 40 million members and 99 clubs in the United States and Canada, where the group will continue to be known as the Canadian Automobile Assn.
These days, in addition to providing roadside assistance for broken-down cars, the AAA also provides property and casualty insurance, travel agencies for leisure travelers, and banking services through an agreement with PNC Bank Corp.
“Everybody knows what AAA is,” Jackman said. “We’ve had problems with people knowing what American Automobile Assn. is.”
AAA plans to continue operating as an advocate for travelers. Last year, for instance, it began lobbying for better roads and bridges and an updated system of air-traffic control.
It also supports more than 500,000 school-safety-patrol members in more than 50,000 schools.
The formal announcement of the name change--and a new logo--is to be made by AAA President Robert Darbelnet at a news conference today in Orlando, Fla.
