I have refused a few job offers because it involved traveling. I’m not so scared of traveling alone…as long as I am in my car and it is moving.
I am scared, however, if my car breaks down and I’m hundreds of miles from any friend or relative to come and pick me up.
I know if you have AAA or something, your car will be towed away…but what happens to you? Do you take a cab all the way home or what? Does your auto insurance cover those cab costs or any other means of transportation?
In my experience, I have found that most tow-truck drivers will let you ride along. If you were a family, they would probably radio for a cab, which you would probably have to pay for, get a receipt, and get AAA to reimburse you.
It happened to me once when I was driving across the country. The tow truck driver let me ride along to the garage. When I got there and they discovered that it would be overnight before the car would be ready the manager of the shop drove me to a nearby hotel where I got a room for the evening. Had he not offered I would have either walked or called a cab.
I’ve never had this happen to me, but I assume the tow truck driver takes me back to civilization, then I see about repairing my car, or renting a car to continue my trip. A friend of mine who had a car breakdown several hundred miles from home while on vacation rented a car and continued the family vacation, then family members returned for the car and brought it home on a flatbed truck.
My father was a traveling salesman in the days before cell phones, and sometimes he was way off the Interstates. Unless you’re in the desert or the mountains, there’s almost always a town, or a crossroads, or at least a home within walking distance where you can call a tow truck.
You ride in the tow truck to the nearest garage. If the garage can fix it, you wait there. If the garage can’t fix it, you get the car towed to a dealer in the nearest big town. At that point, you either wait for the car to be fixed, or get a rental.
If it’s a rental car, you call the rental company, and they send out a replacement car.
Some auto insurance policies have breakdown coverage, some don’t. Check your policy.
You spend half a day walking to a cabin, then spend the evening being driven into the nearest community. You spend the next day with the float driver recovering the vehicle. The third day you rent a car, and drive it until the new engine is installed in your vehicle.
When it happened to me, AAA towed me & the car to my destination, and then my insurance took care of the car from there (it was totaled). I was about 5 hours from home and about 1 hour from my destination.
I had to find my own way back home.
I have Farmer’s Insurance.
Whenever I call for assistance, the first question is “are you in a safe location?”.
They tell you to stay in the car (whether it be on the freeway with dangerous traffic flying by or if you are in a dangerous neighborhood) and then they send a tow truck. They offer to stay on the line with you if necessary.
So, I guess if you are in cell phone range, and don’t stupidly forget your cell phone or not have it fully charged, you should be OK in any situation.
My dad’s car broke down on the street beside a car dealership, so he walked over to the dealearship and bought a new car.
According to every joke I have ever heard about traveling salesmen, they just go to the farmer’s house. I have never, ever heard a joke that started, “There was a traveling salesman whose car broke down, so he called AAA and waited.”
On a more serious note, we were visiting family about 175 miles away from our home when we lost our transmission on a Friday night. We had the car towed to a dealership, and had our family pick us up. (We had just reached their town when the transmission went “THUNK!”)
On Saturday, I found out how much it was going to cost to repair the car, and then contacted our bank and spoke with the manager, whom we also knew from church. He authorized a line-of-credit for the amount of the repairs plus a couple of hundred extra. We rented a car on Sunday afternoon and drove back to our house. Wednesday night, I drove back to the other town, had my BIL meet me at the car rental place, dropped off the car, picked up my car, and drove home.
Major pain-in-the-butt!
And if you happen to be mired door deep in mud, within walking distance of a logging road that only sees a few vehicles a week, you walk out to the logging road, and wait only a few minutes, until a van of three cute blonde female triplets happen along, and drive you a couple of hours home. Along the way, you learn that they were from the other end of the country, but visited your locale to look at a sled dog that they were intending to adopt in a couple of years. True story.
What’s the best way to get a tow truck? Call 411? Call your insurance company? Call 911?
If you’ve got AAA, you just call them. I’ve got the level where they’ll tow you anywhere you want within 100 miles.
Took advantage of that once in a big way too. I live in an exurb way off on one side of the Dc area. One time, my car broke down when I was all the way on the other side of the area, roughly 60 miles away. AAA picked up the bill for towing the car and me to my driveway, and then I was able to get it working just enough to kinda limp it over to my local mechanic.
I always had Amoco Motor Club and they were helpful. The one time I didn’t, I called 411 and they found a gas station that had a tow truck. The tow truck drivers let you ride with them to the station.
The one time I had to stay overnight, the guy at the service center, (recommended by Amoco Motor Club) gave me a phone book and let me call for a hotel room. Then he took me over.
If you have a job that requires traveling they will (or at least should) have a plan for their staff members when their cars break down and in similar situations
This thread has me wondering this myself. In my 25 years of driving, I’ve never had, or needed, anything like AAA, but now I’m wondering what I would do if I were out on the interstate or somewhere like that and my car broke down.
And if you have towing service from your insurance company, they’ll probably provide you with a card that has a nationally-available “get a tow” phone number.
I guess 411 is the best answer so far. The only time I ever broke down on the road I was near home and knew the number for a local tow truck.
Do any credit cards include towing benefits?
In 2004 my motorcycle broke down somewhere west of the Bighorn mountains in Wyomin (1500 miles from home). I had cell phone reception, but did not have AAA membership. I started calling friends back home until I found one who answered, and had him get on the web and find me a wrecker service from the nearest town. Then I was able to call the wrecker and have them come and get me by the side of the road.
If I had not had cell service, it would have been easy enough to hitch a ride to the nearest town. Yeah, yer mom said never to hitchhike, and maybe it’s not something you should make a habit of, but once probably won’t kill ya.
I could have had the wrecker carry my bike to a dealer, but opted instead to have it towed to my final destination, a campground in Cody, where several dozen drunken friends helped me fix it that evening.
The tow was expensive (because it was so far - 70 miles), something like $240. But it’s only the second time in 20+ years of adult life that I’ve needed to have a disabled vehicle towed, and the first time was only a couple of miles, much cheaper. AAA membership for those 20 years would have cost something like $1000, so I figure I’m ahead in the game by not being a member.
If I had had it towed to a dealer, it’s not likely I would have been able to rent a bike, but I probably would have been able to rent a car from somewhere in town.
In 2007, my friend’s bike crapped out just east of Norwood, Colorado, a teeny little town not far from Telluride. With no cell phone reception by the side of the road, he parked his bike and climbed aboard the back seat of my bike, and we rode to a gas station in Norwood, where he was able to call a wrecker. They picked us up went and got his bike, and drove us back into Norwood, where my friend and I were able to fix his bike.
What exactly is it you’re scared of? Not rhetorical - I’m curious to know what it is about the thought of a mechanical breakdown that sets off your internal alarm bells.
If you car breaks down far from home and you don’t know anybody nearby, you can solve pretty much any problem you’re up against, but you need to accept the fact that you’re probably going to have to spend some money to do so, with the exact amount depending on your circumstances. If your car is damaged in a collision, your auto insurance may or may not provide for a rental during the time your own car is in the shop/disabled, but mechanical breakdowns generally aren’t covered in this way; you’d want to check your policy to see exactly what kind of coverage you’ve got. Re: AAA, my personal position (see above) is that in the long run you’ll probably be ahead financially if you’re not a member, especially if you’ve got a cell phone and can reach someone who has internet access.
Or just shoot up a red flare on the SDMB and see who in the area might be able to give you a lift and a piece of floor to sleep on until repairs are completed.