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45 Degrees North: Roadside Assistance Out Yonder [1]
['Donna Kallner', 'The Daily Yonder', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar']
Date: 2024-07-05
Mechanical problems, out of gas, hit a deer, stuck in mud or snow, keys lost or locked in the car… There are lots of reasons why you might need roadside assistance in a rural area, and lots of rural areas where calling for help is not as simple as it sounds. So there are some things you should know before you need a tow or other help.
The fine print. When I moved to rural northern Wisconsin, it seemed prudent to have an auto club membership – until my car died at a boat landing in an area even more sparsely populated than home. Turns out, the plan assumed my potential towing needs would be in close proximity to club-endorsed towing services and repair shops – in other words, not in a rural area. Out yonder, extra charges would apply, and they were steep. In the end, a friend came and fixed my car where it sat. After that, I kept the cash equivalent of an auto club membership tucked into my wallet ready to pay the closest available tow operator.
Closest available. Chances are, you won’t know who’s the closest available tow operator when you need one. Who does? Often that’s the person manning the 911 call center when you report hitting the deer that caused the damage that means you need a tow. So before making calls to your auto club or auto insurance provider, call 911 to report the accident.
Ask the dispatcher or the deputy, when one arrives, to request the closest available tow operator. And that’s not the same as next available. The sheriff’s department may have a list of tow operators from throughout the county. Those independent businesses all want their turn at the next available job. So in fairness, dispatch protocol may be to call whoever’s turn is next according to that list – even if there’s another tow operator closer. However, if you request the closest available tow operator, they may be able to honor that request and cut significant time off your wait.
What to report. 911 dispatchers are superheroes, but not mind readers. So take a moment to think about what information they might need to dispatch the right help. If you slid off the road into deep snow and just need your SUV winched out, a hook truck may be all that’s needed. But it could take very different equipment to retrieve the same vehicle after ripping the guts out on an exposed boulder hidden in a puddle on a two-rut trail way back in the woods. Be sure to tell the dispatcher the following:
Is anyone injured?
Your exact location including GPS coordinates, if possible.
Concerns about the roadway or road conditions (snow, ice, mud, no place to turn around).
Potential hazards to other motorists (road partially or completely blocked, nature of blockage i.e. disabled vehicle, hazardous materials load, bear injured in collision).
Special towing concerns (like a fully loaded flatbed trailer went down a 100-foot drop).
Your intentions while waiting in case you lose your connection to the 911 operator.
Tow vs. taxi. A tow operator might be able to give the driver of a disabled vehicle a ride to a destination that’s near wherever they’re towing the vehicle. But don’t expect them to have room for the whole family including infant and booster seats, a wheelchair or motorized scooter, pets, coolers and luggage. Squeezing extra passengers into my rural volunteer fire department’s trucks isn’t really an option, either. Rural deputies may help transport stranded family members. But transport concerns are something to ask the 911 dispatcher sooner rather than later.
Rogue towers. You may have heard of shady operators who show up and tow away disabled vehicles and hold them until exorbitant fees are paid. Could it happen in a rural area? Possibly. In my area one scanner junkie showed up a few times and memorably blew through our volunteer fire department’s traffic control station in an effort to beat the dispatched tower. But I’m willing to bet most rogue tow operators prefer to run their scams where the volume of traffic is greater. And to be honest, I’ve heard more stories about rural tow operators being cheated by customers than the other way around.
Nevertheless, it’s prudent to check that the tow company that appears is the one dispatched for you – just as you would with an Uber in the city. Ask for a business card with a company name, address and phone number. Snap cell phone pictures of the tow truck’s license plate number and any identifying information, and of your own disabled vehicle before it leaves the scene. Be sure terms and fees are filled in and agreed upon before signing anything.
Hybrid cars. One winter day, Bill and I saw a car stalled in a snowbank in the ditch at the end of our driveway. The driver was coherent enough to roll down his window, but was experiencing a medical emergency. We didn’t know that a Prius has to be put in neutral to tow to avoid damage to the transmission and hybrid system. So it never occurred to any of us to get the key fob from the patient’s pocket before the ambulance pulled away. The tow truck still hadn’t arrived when I left to drive the patient’s very protective Golden Retriever home. There, I swapped passengers to drive the patient’s wife to the hospital. As we approached my place, we saw the tow truck so we stopped. The tow operator had winched the car out of the snow but had not yet disengaged the drive train to tow it away. Once unstuck, the car was driveable. The wife had the spare key fob, and only had to pay for getting the car unstuck.
Mechanic on speed dial. It should not have come as a surprise when Bill broke down in his old Chevy S-10. That’s the truck the other guys on the fire department described as “You need a tetanus shot just to walk past it.” One afternoon he took the dog to go grouse hunting. When they turned off the highway, he heard and felt the tie rod break. Luckily, he was safely off the road, and he had enough cell service to call me. Being an exceptional wife with a Ph.D. in What Grouse Hunting Means To My Husband, I told him to go ahead and hunt, that I would take care of things and meet him when he came out of the woods. I wasn’t sure our regular mechanic could fix this problem, but I knew he would give us a fair price on both towing and repairs, if they were possible. (It helps to be regular customers who pay promptly when you need a tow late on a Friday afternoon.) Our mechanic sent a flatbed to where the truck was stranded. I headed there, too. While I waited for the tow, I gathered up Bill’s shotgun case, hunting gear, sunglasses, canoe tiedowns, dog dishes, maps and atlases, fire department high visibility vest for traffic control on motor vehicle accident scenes, flashlights, tools and all the other stuff that piles up in a guy’s beater pickup truck, and loaded that stuff in my car. The tow arrived, loaded, and left. Eventually, husband and dog emerged from the woods, tired but much less grumpy than if they had to sit and wait for the tow.
Preventive maintenance. That mechanic knew I was on the road a lot for work, and he knew the service history of my aging vehicle. Before a big trip, we would take the car in for him to check over “as if it were his wife or daughter driving.” It wasn’t always cheap, but it was less than car payments. Now that I travel less and drive a newer vehicle (only 10 years old), pre-trip checks are a bit more basic. But it always pays to inspect tires and check tire pressure, check lights, wiper blades and fluids, and if I’m close to needing an oil change to do that before the trip.
Rental cars. If you have ever rented a car, you’ve probably wondered whether the extra rental insurance charges were worth the expense. Me too, since my regular auto insurance has some towing coverage. For what it’s worth, I generally opt out of the extra rental insurance if I’m going to be in an urban area. But if I’m planning to be out in the back of beyond, I pay the extra. I have friends who once broke down in a rental car in a remote area. Sure, it took a while for help to come. But when it did, all they had to do was move their luggage from the broke-down car to the replacement vehicle and continue on their merry way.
Lockouts. Back when we had our whitewater paddling business, customer lockouts were not uncommon. People accustomed to locking vehicles in the city unconsciously did the same in our very rural parking lot before remembering that their wetsuits had no pockets and keys were in the car. But back then, you could unlock most vehicles with a slim-jim – a long, thin metal strip with a notched end you could shimmy along the window to catch upright lock buttons to release them. Our neighbor who owned the gas station up the road was good at opening lockouts, and a lot faster than waiting for an auto club to respond. But that was before the days of key fobs you don’t want to get wet. Nowadays, it pays to have a “door only” key with no expensive chip that you can wear on a lanyard when you might get wet. The battery on a fob might run down if locked into the vehicle for an extended time, but for shorter adventures a door only key is cheaper than roadside assistance.
Donna Kallner writes from Langlade County in rural northern Wisconsin.
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