Commercial and Fleet Roadside Assistance - What to Expect

Roadside assistance for rental cars and fleet vehicles is very unique. Most rental cars were built in the last 7 years and typically have less than 30,000 miles. These vehicles don't typically need towing services and rely more upon services that are not motor related. For example flat tire fix, lockout and directions are the most common services used by rental car drivers.

Roadside assistance for construction vehicles is typically more expensive due to the industrial use that these vehicles see. They are driven harder, loaded down with more weight and can have flat tires once per week from nails on jobsites. Prepare to spend almost twice as much for construction vehicles compared to regular automobiles.

Roadside assistance for service vehicles has its own nuances. While they are not driven or used to the extremes that construction vehicles are, they have usually been modified for deliveries or the particular service for instance carpet cleaning and flower delivery. These modifications make breakdowns far more likely and therefore the costs of roadside assistance increase.

The bottom line on roadside assistance for commercial vehicles is that it costs more. You can however, really save money when you cover more vehicles. Volume discounts are the only way to make commercial roadside assistance affordable. Discounts start adding up when 15 or more vehicles can be covered at once.

Be prepared to purchase after receiving multiple quotes. Each provider will need to see a list of your vehicles and will provide a price per vehicle for the entire fleet. A comparison then needs to be made to make sure that you are getting relevant services. Many companies are able to sell multiple services that a consumer would never use but the consumer buys it because of the number of services offered for the price. Make sure that you compare price to the services that are useful to your company and the employees who will be driving the vehicles.

Services most useful are towing, flat repair, lockout services, directions, connections and gas for when a person has run out.

In the case of towing there is not much to know. Typically a service that will take the vehicle to the nearest repair facility up to 50 miles is sufficient. Flat repair will consist of changing the spare if there is a problem and the driver is not able to do it, or plugging the tire so that the driver can get to a shop and permanently fix the damaged tire.

Directions and connections are just that. Call the service number and an operator will walk you through steps to get back on track if you are lost or an address to a location if you cannot find it.

The gas service is very useful in the rental car service due to the fact that people traveling clients can become distracted and run out of gas. The best use of gas delivery is to make sure that the fuel delivered is free. Who is to say when a driver or employee will have $5 to $10 cash for fuel in the time of an emergency?