Roadside assistance in Australia is very much a requirement for most people around Australia. There’s big business involved in yearly fees to NRMA, RACQ, RACV etc. but what if you didn’t have to pay a yearly fee to get help when you need it? This is what gotU is offering.
gotU says that according to their recent research Australians only require roadside assistance approximately once every three years. This makes the whole yearly fee thing a bit rich if you’re wanting to save a few dollars. gotU is where roadside assistance gets interesting with their product the first fully app-based, pay-as-you-go solution for roadside assistance.
gotU is a product of Allianz Global Assistance, who also supply the roadside assistance. There’s over 100 roadside assistance vehicles in each of the markets gotU is trialling the service in, so you shouldn’t have too long to wait. Allianz Global has been providing roadside assistance services for over 20 years, so they know what they’re doing.
The gotU app has been designed by Urgent.ly, who also run a pay-as-you-go roadside assistance service in the US, with many of the same features, but in Australia it’s an Allianz Global product.
The app is pretty good, it just takes a few taps to get started. The gotU app is platform agnostic, available for both Android and iOS users (sorry Windows Phone). There’s no joining or ongoing fees, just a one-off cost, that’s the whole idea.
gotU wants transparency in their costing too, so you know exactly what each service costs. As an example, the top 5 types of callouts are:
- Jump start: $89
- Tow: $99 (Up to 10km)
- Tyre change: $89
- Re-fuelling: $99 (includes $10 of fuel)
- Unlocking of vehicle: $99
Towing costs per km after the 10km mark, getting cheaper per km until you get to $3.50 for distances over 36km.
Simon Wilson, gotU Head of Innovation, says
We’ve launched gotU to offer consumers more choice, freedom and independence without expensive annual fees. We believe you shouldn’t need a membership in order to get professional roadside assistance.
To request help you simply open the app, which will then locate you using your devices location services and sends someone to help. The gotU app lets you track where your help is in real time, no more 2 hour windows. Sounds simple.
Being app based also allows for interesting options like the ‘Family View’. The Family View links you to other members of your family with the main account holder getting an instant alert if a friend or family member needs help. They can then watch help arriving and receive an alert when the job is done.
The service is still being trialled, with service only available in metropolitan areas and even further refined to selected suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. They are looking to go national in 2017 though so that could be a great move.
