4 Roadside Service Programs – Here’s the Unpopular Truth
The Dirty Details your Towing Service
& Roadside Assistance Provider won’t tell you!
I’m a tow truck driver. I own a small towing company, All Roadside Towing, which provides Roadside Assistance San Diego, California. Personally, I prefer you didn’t get a roadside service plan. I charge retail for motorists that aren’t covered by a program. When I work for the “Networks” that provide Roadside Assistance Policies to you, I take a 30-35% haircut. I make better money with less headache, when I work with individuals that haven’t bought into these programs. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s start with some basics.
Roadside Protection Plan
Emergency Roadside Assistance Coverage falls into a couple of categories for me. Roadside Service San Diego, which includes dead battery jump starts, tire changes, fuel delivery, and lockouts (locked your keys in the car. The second category would be towing, general towing, when your car
Roadside Assistance Coverage falls into a couple of categories for me. The first category is Roadside Service San Diego, which includes:
- dead battery jump starts,
- tire changes,
- fuel delivery,
- and lockouts (locked your keys in the car).
The second category would be towing, general towing when your car breaks down on the highway, emergency towing when you’re in an accident, and vehicle recovery when your car needs to be recovered from a ditch, a lake, or anything else that requires special equipment to retrieve your vehicle.
Let’s get through some of the details of the Best Roadside Assistance Service Plans.
Table of Contents
How do YOU get Roadside Assistance Coverage?
I classify Roadside Service Plans into four main offerings. Service Plans are sold by:
Auto Clubs
Auto clubs are organizations that have been established to aggregate large numbers of motorists into a group. With a large member base, clubs are able purchase goods and services in bulk. They pass these savings on to their members. AAA is the most well-known Auto Club. They own a disproportionate piece of the of Local Roadside Assistance business. Good Sam’s Club – oriented more to owners of recreational vehicles – is another notable example. AARP also provides a great program for their members. These clubs have millions of members and can leverage that purchasing power into greater discounts. Discounts for automotive needs, hotels, restaurants, vacation packages, etc.
Automobile Manufacturers
Auto Manufacturers seem like an obvious choice. GM has offered OnStar for years. Many luxury car manufacturers have also offered Roadside Protection Plans as either standard on certain models or an optional package that can be added to the purchase amount. Every new car manufacturer offers Roadside Protection at a discounted price as an option for some part of the warranty. If you’re buying a new car, it’s worth checking this out.
Car Insurance Providers
All the large auto insurance carriers offer Roadside Assistance as an add-on to your auto insurance policy. Allstate, Farmers, Progressive, Nationwide, Travellers all offer Roadside Services for a couple of extra bucks every month. Several of the smaller providers offer plans through the larger providers. There’s something for everyone in these plans.
Apps
Yep apps! Applications you can download onto your smartphone. Several vendors are providing app based roadside protection plans as a service on your cellphone. The major cellular networks, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile all have plans they offer. Other companies like Honk, Mach1, Urgent.ly, etc. offer apps that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. I’d imagine these apps appeal to folks that realize a major issue will happen or has happened and they are in a rush to get Roadside Service.
The apps are slick. They have features like instant dispatch to local service providers, customers exact locations is provided based on GPS from the phone. They’ll have “Uber” like apps that show the closest truck. It’s all very cool for the consumer.
But understand… these companies sell the protection plans. Not one of these companies actually provide the service. All of them work with contractors like me. Allstate won’t come and pick you up when your car breaks down. They’ll call a service provider in the area (like me) to perform the service. We have renegotiated rates, terms, etc. and all that work gets subbed out to us. Tow truck companies like mine, are the authorized “service providers” that respond to 95% of their calls.
Which Emergency Roadside Service Near Me Plan is the Best?
I prefer that you don’t have a plan. I get paid more and work a bit less. A 10 mile tow with my company will cost you $125 – $145. My standard service call is $75 – a lockout (locked your keys in the car), jump starting a dead battery, fuel delivery, or tire change.
For that money, you get my priority service, which means we will get someone to you within 30 minutes or less. We’ll offer a free ride along, we’ll greet you with a cold bottle of water, and do everything in our power to accommodate you when you are stuck on the side of the road. You also get text messages from us updating you on drivers position and ETA, an Uber like interface so you can see the drivers in real time, automated payment processing with digital receipts, and more.
As a roadside service provider, I take anywhere from 20-30 calls per day from companies like AAA, Allstate, Honk, Farmers, Tesla, etc. That’s about 1/3 to 1/2 of my business in call volume. I get the same number of calls from people that don’t have a Roadside Assistance Plan. Then another 1/3 of my business comes from sources not associated with Roadside Assistance (Private Property Towing, Vehicle Transportation, Fleet / Corporate Accounts, etc.)
Doing contract work for Roadside Assistance companies is a difficult experience. They pay me 30-50% of my standard rate. Their pitch is they make up in quantity what they lack in quality. That’s true, but it should really comes down to dollars and cents… I have a business to run and it’s not cheap being in the tow industry. Fuel alone for each truck is over $3000 per month. Add insurance, cost of the trucks $100-150k each, maintenance, employees, etc. – well, you get the picture. When I get a call from insurance or auto club, my standard ETA is 1.5-2.5 hours.
That’s right, you’ll wait for 2 hrs on the side of the highway, because your insurance provider will only pay me $45 for a 10-mile tow. It’s more expensive for me to tow your car, than loose $45.
That’s right, you’ll wait for 2 hrs on the side of the highway, because your insurance provider will only pay me $45 for a 10-mile tow. It’s more expensive for me to tow your car, than loose $45.
You’re going to be ignored by the Roadside Service Provider!
Many of you will get ignored by the Service Providers while your insurance, auto club, manufacturer calls dozens of us begging and pleading to pick up their customer. When we do get there, you won’t get the cold bottle of water (I can’t afford it), you won’t have the option of riding along in an air-conditioned tow truck, and you’ll miss a lot of the benefits we’d give to other customers. There’s another caveat. If you must go a distance further than you’re covered for… you’ll get a “BIG BILL” from me!
Once you’re out of your covered mileage, I’m also out of my contracted rate. That means that I can charge whatever I want for those extra 6 miles. What are you going to do, the car is already strapped onto my truck. So you’ll pay me $10-12 per mile for additional mileage. But don’t worry, I know guys in the industry that charge $20. Ironic, isn’t it? You pay a premium to have coverage, but you won’t get treated as well as the guy without coverage.
This isn’t the case with every Roadside Assistance Program. There are a
couple of good ones.
There is a fundamental problem in this industry. The folks offering the Roadside Assistance Programs are trying to make as much money for their shareholders as possible. That means they charge you as much as they can get away with and they pay me the least amount of money possible. On top of that, I have a bunch of other hurdles I need to jump through. Most of the companies start to deduct from my earnings if I’m more than 5 minutes late.
Some of them choose to pay me by credit card but won’t include the standard card processing fee. The ones that do ACH or direct deposit, usually do so on net15-30 terms. The bookkeeping is a nightmare since I’m getting paid 15-30 days later. If I have a problem with a service call, I can get a representative on the phone in 5 minutes.
If I have a problem with billing, well, they only accept emails or faxes (yes you heard it – fax machines). I haven’t used a fax in 20 years prior to the tow business. Then I need to wait till someone responds by email or sends a fax back to me.
If they don’t respond, then I keep sending emails till someone does respond. The few companies that do have telephone support for billing make it impossible to get anything done. Yesterday, I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a certain company over a $25 dispute. I kept asking to speak to a supervisor, they finally said they would transfer me, and the phone went dead. Will they ever call back? No. So, I get to call again, go through another 45 minutes. Finally, I just hung up.
It takes 1.5 hrs for $25. Not worth it. The problem is this happens multiple times per day. I would estimate that I have $40-85 per day in discrepancies with the Roadside Providers. Each one makes it more difficult than the other. That’s a lot of money for a small company to lose.
One more thing. We sign our contracts and establish our rate sheets once a year. That happens in January for me. Guess how much I was paying per gallon in January? I signed a contract when I was paying $3.50 for unleaded and $4.00 for diesel. In July when fuel prices started rising, I was seeing $6.50 for unleaded and $7.00 for diesel.
I don’t get to renegotiate my contract rates mid-year. Some of the Emergency Roadside Service companies were ok with a fuel surcharge, but many of them wanted to stick to contracted rates. We took a big hit financially, and I stopped working for several providers, since I’d lose money on each call.
Why do you pay a premium for a service, but don’t always get the best service? I think it’s because the service operators get paid less than half their normal rates, get dinged for being a few minutes late, spend hours trying to get paid, and will lose money on the call anyway.
That’s the dilemma. I got into this business because I want to help people. I have a wife, 7-year-old, and twins that are 20 months old. I always think that it might be my wife and kids broken on the side of the freeway. I do my best to respond expeditiously, be polite as possible, and interact with honesty, integrity, and ethics. It’s not always easy.
The Programs that Work and the Ones that Need Improvement
I’ll reiterate this is my opinion based on my experience. There are a few companies I enjoy working with. There are also a couple of companies that are problematic. I hope this doesn’t hurt my business relationships with any of these groups! I’d prefer to be honest. Maybe it’ll influence your buying decision going forward. You’ll know what type of service to expect ahead of time and you’ll understand why.
Auto-Clubs
IT Works!
There is a newish company called Better World Club. I don’t have much experience with them, and they don’t have a large presence in Roadside Assistance San Diego, but they were an absolute pleasure to work with. I’m not on contract with them so the pay is better, but they offered me near retail rates. They were super helpful and stayed connected with me and the customer for the entire service call.
They Need Work!
AAA is the elephant in the room. I’m an AAA member, but the way they pay the Service Providers is at the bottom of the barrel. They have a few established providers in each geography. These are big companies with 100’s of trucks. These guys get paid a minimum but a hefty quarterly bonus for hitting certain metrics.
There is a lot of overflow work that goes to little guys like me and the pay is crap. We also have to live with unrealistic ETA’s they set for the customer so if we show up late, we are the ones looking bad.
Manufacturers
The manufacturers now subcontract the roadside service contracts to companies like AllState or Urgent.ly, or Agero.
Most Companies Have Programs that Really Miss the Mark.
Everyone else on the list unfortunately. All the manufacturers subcontract Roadside Assistance to other providers like Allstate, Urgent.ly, and Agero. None of these guys pay well. None of them are great at dispatching. Often, they give us the wrong address, wrong phone number, wrong vehicle information. When the customer contacts the insurer through the App or via telephone, you’re speaking to a dispatcher, in a call center, on the other side of the planet. When I call for support, it’s the same thing.
A Few Companies are Awesome to Work With!
We Get to Follow their Example! One company in particular stands out? I bet you’ll never guess? Here’s a hint, the CEO just bought Twitter and owns Space-X. When Tesla calls, we drop everything to assist their customers. They are simple and brilliant. When they call, they ask what our normal service rates are. Then they usually add 10-20%. Why? This is brilliant. They believe, if they pay us better than the market rate, we’ll take better care of their customers. What a brilliant concept. When Tesla calls, they want us to provide excellent service to their customers. Guess what… we do.
Car Insurance
This also is a difficult category to pick the Good Guys in.
But a few Companies Stand Out.
Progressive, Geico, USAA, Travelers – I put all these companies on the good guy list. I’m not sure how much of the roadside contracts they maintain and how much they out source. But at least they pay a reasonable amount and maintain mostly local call centers. Calls from these insurance companies we always answer. There rates are better than the insurance average, plus we get to speak to live people, in this country for our job support issues.
A Couple of Companies are Really Disappointing.
I’ve mentioned Allstate a couple times already. They advertise that “you’re in good hands.” But those hands are difficult to work with. These guys are huge, so they pay much less than any other group out there. 15-20% of the calls have incorrect information. I’m wasting time trying to find you and you’re getting angry because I’m late. They also contract for a lot of other companies like GM, Hertz, Esurance, and a bunch of others.
Apps
This is a newish category and I’ve only had experience with these companies this year 2022. The three companies I have contracts with are Honk, Urgent.ly, and Mach1. I don’t believe Mach1 is really represented well in Southern California, so I haven’t towed for them yet. Honk is a newish company and I’m happy to work with them. The pay is a bit better than average and there’s lots of volume. The pricing structure is simple, and the app is easy to work with. The app is smart and sends jobs to the closest drivers.
Urgent.ly is another app-based provider. They are contracted by a lot of big companies like Mercedes, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and others. Some jobs are priced low, and some are priced right. They are the ones that pay me net15-20 or sometimes 30 so keeping up the books on my end is tough. I hear the customer side of the app is exceptional.
A Couple More Winners!
There are several top-notch companies that provide roadside service for fleet vehicles and logistics (trucking/shipping companies). They would be Allied Dispatch and Roadside Protect to name a few. They pay well, provide great customer service, are used to dealing with dispatch situations, always have live local operators, and provide the right information to get the job done quickly. If you have a fleet of vehicles or commercial vehicles – you should consider working with these guys.
A Few More Tips from the Tow Truck!
If you do get stuck and are waiting longer than you need to. Call a tow truck company like me. Tell them you are covered but need assistance now, so you don’t have a problem paying for better service. When we provide the service make sure you get a receipt. My company sends them digitally via text or email so you can forward them on to your Insurance Company, Automobile Club, etc. Those companies will reimburse you 100% or at least the amount you’re covered for.
Understand, you will have to pay for my services, but you will be reimbursed by your insurance provider. That’s a win for both of us. I get close to my rates, and you get the 30-minute service with the cold bottle of water and free ride.
If you do go through the auto club or insurance company, you’ll generally get notified with contact information of the provider that will be providing the service. Call them immediately to confirm that they have the correct information. A lot of time we don’t. You may also subtly suggest that you’re open to leaving a tip for the tow operator if the service is good.
An extra $10-20 bucks goes a long way. Especially, when you’re putting your life on the line. Think about how scary it is for us to change a tire on the freeway with our back to the traffic.
Finally, if we did a respectable job, it’s the tow company that did the good work. The Insurer may have facilitated that relationship, but we’re the ones that really appreciate the honest reviews on google and yelp. If we showed up late, ask why. I always give a realistic ETA, but that information doesn’t always get to the customer. Sometimes I’m not the reason you waiting for hours on the side of the road. I only had you in my books for 30 minutes.
I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I’d hate to see my business suffer for offering my opinion. Remember the opinions stated were mine and mine alone. The rant wasn’t serious, but some of the issues are. Hopefully, this was a good read. Feel free to share it or comment on it. If you didn’t enjoy it, I’ve got thick skin, so I’d be happy to take the blame.
Frequently Asked Questions
Roadside Assistance Services is a broad term that covers quite a bit depending on who you ask. Some car insurance companies offer roadside assistance plans to their customers, several different motor clubs offer roadside assistance packages, and recently automobile manufacturers have begun offering emergency roadside assistance coverage.
Roadside Assistance Providers will normally cover spare tire replacement, jump starts, lockouts, fuel delivery, and towing to a nearby mechanic / auto shop. Tow companies always perform these services.
Regardless of who offers the package the service is normally conducted the same way. Auto clubs, insurance companies, and manufacturers all offer coverage. When a customer breaks down on the roadway, the customer will call or contact the provider via an app. That call is sent to a central dispatch. The dispatchers will then contact roadside service providers (tow truck companies) that are within a certain proximity of the customer with the broken vehicle.
Dispatchers will contact roadside service providers through proprietary phone or computer apps, via the telephone, facsimile machine, etc. Details are given to the roadside provider including pickup / drop-off information, vehicle type, customer contact, etc. The emergency roadside service provider will then dispatch the call to their nearest tow truck company to the customer.
People are saying it’s great to have an emergency roadside assistance plan. It’s expensive to own a vehicle in Southern California. We pay more for gas, more for insurance, more in vehicle related taxes, a higher purchase price, etc. The last thing you want is to break down somewhere and must pay for Roadside Assistance or a Tow Service.
Coming from someone inside the tow industry, realize that you do get what you pay for. Unfortunately, you the customer pays auto clubs and insurance companies a premium to have coverage for those times when your car breaks down, you lock yourself out, or you get a flat on the highway. Unfortunately, as service providers working for the large Roadside Assistance Companies, we don’t see much of those premiums you pay. We normally get 30-50% of our retail rate. Their argument is they make up for quality with quantity. Our argument is that we are also paying the highest expenses for any tow companies in America, and we need to keep our doors open.
The best for you the consumer / customer, is to make sure that your Roadside Service Provider is equitable and provides as much support to their contractors (us) as they do their customers (you).
Dispatchers will contact roadside service providers through proprietary phone or computer apps, via the telephone, facsimile machine, etc. Details are given to the roadside provider including pickup / drop-off information, vehicle type, customer contact, etc. The emergency roadside service provider will then dispatch the call to their nearest tow truck company to the customer.
There are 4 main groups that offer Roadside Assistance Protection Plans to the consumer. Those groups would include:
- Automobile Clubs – including the largest Roadside Assistance Provider AAA. Other providers include Better World Club and Good Sam, both highly regarded in the industry.
- Car Manufacturers – if you’re buying a new car, there’s a good chance that your dealer can set you up with a Roadside Protection Plan via the car manufacturer. All the manufacturers will offer roadside protection as an option with a new car purchase, and some include them with the purchase of a new car at least through a portion of the warranty period. None of the manufacturers handle Roadside Assistance in-house, they all subcontract to other providers.
- Car Insurance Companies – renewing your auto insurance policy, there will always be a check box to include Roadside Assistance Service. For a couple extra bucks per month, you can include roadside service in your insurance premiums. All the big carriers including Allstate, Farmers, Travelers, Progressive, USAA, etc. offer Roadside Plans and most of the smaller providers offer something packaged by the larger providers.
- Apps – That’s right apps. New to the game there are several different apps you can download for the iPhone or Android Smartphone. These include Honk, Urgent.ly, Mach1, Blink. All these apps offer interesting benefits. It’s worth your time to download a few of them and see which you like best.
Anytime you break down or need some roadside assistance near me. I don’t know what the fine print in your policies say, but we get calls 24/7.
All Roadside Assistance Plans will include basic roadside service which includes tire changes, jump starting dead batteries, lockout service, fuel delivery, and tows with a tow truck (up to a certain number of miles). Some plans will also include things like winch-outs, extended tow mileage, rental car coverage, and more.