Who Really Provides Your Roadside Assistance? Who comes to the rescue when your car breaks down? Most drivers have some form of roadside assistance coverage, through a car manufacturer, a car insurance company, or the American Automobile Association (AAA). Surprisingly, though, the same tow truck could come to help someone covered by any of these polices. That’s because car manufacturers and insurance companies typically buy roadside assistance programs from third-party companies. These third-party companies buy contracts from individual towing companies across the country and then act as one-stop shops for companies looking for roadside assistance programs for their customers. Agero—formerly the Cross Country Automotive Group—is such a company. It has contracts with towing companies all across America, which allows it to negotiate lower rates. Agero is the biggest roadside assistance provider in the industry—90 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the United States are covered by a rebranded Agero roadside assistance service. GM, Ford and Lincoln, Mazda, Toyota, Chrysler, USAA, and Progressive all use Agero to provide roadside assistance to their customers. For example, a Ford car sold today has five-year/60,000-mile roadside assistance coverage. Ford buys the contract from Agero and bundles it into the purchase price of the car. Agero then pays local towing companies to do the actual labor: mounting spares in the case of a flat tire, jump-starting or unlocking the vehicle (though they do not cover the cost of making keys), bringing 2 to 5 gallons of fuel for free, and towing a disabled vehicle up to 35 miles to the nearest qualified Lincoln or Ford dealership. The customer need interact only with Ford. But even though the same truck might be coming to get you no matter what, it matters which assistance package you have. (Think of the truck that comes to save you like a hospital; it tailors its service based on what your insurance/roadside...
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:21:24 +0000
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