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Torque News recently did a story in which we informed readers that AAA and other roadside assistance service providers were still hard at work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here in New England, and in the Boston area, in particular, the COVID cases have dropped dramatically, to under 100 new cases per day, lower than the recovery rate. Hospitals have more than enough capacity, and life is returning to normal - almost.
Related Story - AAA Will Be On the Job To Help You During the COVID-19 Crisis
However, AAA and roadside assistance providers are struggling to keep pace with the demand for towing and other roadside services. We learned this first-hand last Sunday evening when our vehicle required a tow.
Longer Wait Times
The first surprise was that the AAA helpline warns drivers that due to the COVID pandemic, wait times are longer than usual. This was hard to understand given the fact that there are fewer drivers on the road. Shouldn't wait times be shorter? Next up was the longer than usual wait time to speak to an agent. We needed to call in a few times with wait times between six and 15 minutes before an agent would answer the line. When you are home, a wait like this is no big deal. When you are on the side of the highway the wait time just to begin your discussion about getting help can feel much longer.
Related Story: All Roadside Assistance Tow Trucks Should Have Back Seats For Stranded Passengers
AAA has a great automated dispatch system that members/callers can use to get help with some services, but towing is not one of them. You need to wait to speak with a live agent. Our tow truck was dispatched from a few towns away, which we found unusual since we were in the heart of the metropolis, just 4 miles from downtown Boston. In the end, our tow truck arrived about an hour and fifteen minutes after we phoned for help. The driver was the usual from AAA - Experienced, polite, knowledgeable, and super helpful. But he could not offer us a ride.
Tow Trucks Will Not Allow You To Ride With the Driver
One big change between the pre-COVID and post COVID protocols is that you are no longer allowed to ride in the cab with the tow truck driver to the place you are being towed. So, when you are stranded, you need to not only call AAA and get help with your vehicle, you also need to arrange your own transportation from your break-down location to home or to the repair shop.
Uber May Not Be A Viable Choice
We are experienced Uber users living so close to the city. We use the ride-share service frequently. However, when we tried to summon an Uber ride on Sunday evening on July 5th, no Uber service was available. Thus, we had to call on help from family to get back from where we were stranded. Luckily, someone was within driving distance to help us and give us a ride.
Breaking down and requiring a tow is always stressful. AAA and roadside assistance companies that your insurance provider or your new car dealer offer are all viable options. Given our recent experience, and due to the COVID changes to how things work, we would also suggest trying a local 24-hour towing service if you breakdown. It may also be wise to think ahead about how you would get home if your vehicle needed to be towed far from home. As we discovered, AAA and Uber are not always reliable ways to get home from a breakdown in these unusual times.
John Goreham is a life-long car nut and recovering engineer. John's focus areas are technology, safety, and green vehicles. In the 1990s, he was part of a team that built a solar-electric vehicle from scratch. His was the role of battery thermal control designer. For 20 years he applied his engineering and sales talents in the high tech world and published numerous articles in technical journals such as Chemical Processing Magazine. In 2008 he retired from that career to chase his dream of being an auto writer. In addition to Torque News, John's work has appeared in print in dozens of American newspapers and he provides reviews to many vehicle shopping sites. You can follow John on the Torque News Facebook Page, and view his credentials at Linkedin
Image by John Goreham. Re-use with permission only.
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Comments
That may be the case for
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That may be the case for THEIR trucks, but we contractors have ALWAYS reserved the right to refuse rides. Read their message again. Pay attention to the wording.
So Towman, you would refuse
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In reply to That may be the case for by Towman 79 (not verified)
So Towman, you would refuse to give a ride to a women instead leave her on the side of the road at night or anytime of day for that matter, real gentleman, not to mention caring human being.
That's a stupid question.
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In reply to So Towman, you would refuse by mark david (not verified)
That's a stupid question. Aren't women supposed to be just as good as men? Or is that for only when it's convenient for them?
AAA advises members that they cannot ride in the trucks belonging to the private tow companies. If she chooses not to find an alternate ride, why should that be my problem?
Ignoring your casual sexism,
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In reply to That's a stupid question. by Towman 79 (not verified)
Ignoring your casual sexism, no one in their right mind is denying that women are in more danger when alone, especially at night. If you have room in your truck, it is completely unclear to me why you would leave a young woman stranded on the side of the road instead of simply taking her along with you to the place the car is already being towed. Especially when that woman is nothing but kind to you, even though the tow truck went to the wrong location and, when going to the right location, started trying to tow the wrong car. Especially when it is the middle of the night and she informs you she has no transportation due to how late it is.
Been a member for years but
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Been a member for years but now that it’s all automated we are canceling. My husband needed a tow today and machine wouldn’t understand where to take vehicle so he just called someone else and paid cash. AAA is now a joke
Recently I had aaa come
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Recently I had aaa come assist and tow me where they DID have me ride in my vehicle on the flatbed. Scary! And illegal
I have now been waiting over
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I have now been waiting over 30 HOURS for AAA to arrive to tow my car. We are just outside the Atlanta metro area. They have no information fir me. It is ‘in dispatch’. I can’t reach anyone that can tell me anything except that they are working on it. 30 hours. Any ideas how to escalate this?
I’ve been a continuous member
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I’ve been a continuous member for 38 years, but today I am cancelling. I waited almost 8 hours in the sun on the side of the road outside of San Bernardino. Hours on hold trying to reach a human, only to hear when I would get through, that dispatch was working in it. I was courteous and polite with each call but often did not even receive the requisite question of, “are you in a safe place.” What happened?
I think the entire
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I think the entire perspective of roadside assitance, what it is, and what it has been
until recently needs to rapidly change for us.
We all need to shift from needing someone to assist, to assisting ourselves. I have read lot into this recently. Called the roadside assistance plans avail, and there does not seem to be any clear cut definitve answer. They are vauge, "always, sometimes, never" .
There is considerable cost involved in these memberships, there is also the very real danger of reliance, and false expections. What we all rely on in "an emergency".
These services have grown up around this need of assistance, the insurance companies pilfer them, the clubs peddle them, and the drivers are a mix bag. Ranging from, I decide that day to its not our policy never has been, to we normally carry.
Like others I have had AAA since I got my first vehicle. Its a form of responsibility to the passengers in your car, as well as yourself. As this service has etched itself on the wall of honor during bygone days, and has now fallen from grace, along with the other tow "services" we are all left with "what happnened here".
I understand both sides, the drivers and us, the reliant ones. However, a service built on rescuing stranded drivers, should do this. As this is the entire premise of this "service". The idea that it has now shifted to rescuing "the vehicle" and stranding the driver, is antithetical to the entire sale.
The fact that AAA has been able to still collect members with this pretense, means
no one is reading the fine print, asking questions or reading reveiws.
The fact that this new shift is seen as perfectly reasonable by AAA and the tow companies theselves, "no ride alongs", is a sign of a slippage in humanity and kindness towards others.
And unfortunately, There is only one recourse.
Stop funding a "service" that has stated they will leave you stranded. And take your vehicle instead. Know how to change your own tire. How to charge your own battery, and have tools onboard to do such things. Do not lock your keys in the car.
ect.ect.
If the shift has deleted human decency, and at the same time we all saw huge increases in our AAA memberships rates, and at the same time they slashed our
covered items, and have cost us all way more, then it is high time, we go another direction, other than the one we have been traveling.
We need to be our own assistance, and stop forking over Money for service that is now that only extends to the billing notice, which is In Name Only.
Our membership is up next month. I have called around, they are all following each other. So, we are just not doing anyore roadside assistance with anyone. This is the route we are taking.