Agero Insights

At Agero, we’ve been partnering with service providers for more than 50 years to support our clients and their customers with their vehicles. We’ve seen lots of changes in the towing industry, from new technologies, to the growth of complex multi-state provider operations to the challenge of rising costs and hiring. During the pandemic and the challenging period that followed, some providers chose to exit the business due to hiring and retention challenges coupled with inflationary pressures. 

Economic conditions also stimulated a new crop of providers who found opportunities to supplement or pivot into roadside support. These unconventional providers have come into the industry as dynamics changed in their primary markets and have found success and satisfaction. The robust onboarding structure, training and network support combined with easy-to-use digital tool kit has enabled Agero to welcome these new entrants.

From transport to rescue services: How a pivot led to a new opportunity

CLONE Towing is a leading service provider in the South Eastern Massachusetts area, servicing customers from Boston to New Bedford. They are relatively new to roadside but quite familiar with supporting customers with their transportation needs. In 2016, CLONE's business centered around providing non-emergency medical transportation services to customers in Massachusetts. They established a strong local reputation, providing hundreds of patients and their families with rides everyday. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and nearly all elective medical appointments were canceled, CLONE's business was in jeopardy. Looking to leverage their current fleet of vehicles, they recognized a new opportunity in car rentals. CLONE started renting vehicles to the community, offering a local affordable alternative to the large national rental chains. They quickly learned that the car rental business required them to regularly contact local tow companies to move and manage their fleet. With this in mind, CLONE Rental invested in their first tow truck to support cost effective in-house towing, and drive overall business profitability. In an effort to drive utilization beyond their own rental car business, they connected with Agero.

The entrepreneurial spirit and flexible nature of Joe, the owner, has been the driving force behind their evolving business. He eagerly leverages technology to streamline his operations and carefully monitors key performance metrics to ensure the success of his team and his business. He is largely self taught, leveraging YouTube, Blueprint and training resources at tow shows. CLONE consistently works with Agero’s Network Management team to optimize their business, and they are rapidly growing. 

Seasonal fluctuations create new opportunities for a lobster truck

For those in coastal and vacation communities like Cape Cod, they know there are two seasons - summer and not-summer. During summer, business is booming, tourists are everywhere and just about every industry is operating at full capacity just to keep up. This is particularly true for restaurants and the vendors that support them. 

Outside of the peak season, many locals are looking for opportunities to supplement their income. For NES Lobster Truck, this was exactly the case when a friend recommended roadside. With experience in transport and familiarity with the area, roadside was a great fit to supplement his business. He purchased a flatbed truck and uses roadside to balance his business during the off season.

Using Swoop, Agero’s industry leading roadside assistance software, NES owner, Manny, was able to limit the services, region and hours his business operated so that he could support both his new part-time provider efforts without disrupting his lobster transport business.  

Agero's Investment in Effective support for new service providers 

At Agero, we are thrilled to support these new entrants and have a robust toolkit to ensure high level quality and performance from all members of our network. This begins with recruitment and onboarding where we ensure every provider adheres to our insurance requirements, background checks and code of conduct. We then leverage our network management team and our technology platform to configure rates, geographic region and business hours that meet the providers business objectives. Finally, we leverage real time data to keep providers informed on their performance and opportunities. This toolkit enables us to support providers who have grown up in the business and new entrants like CLONE and NES Lobster Truck.

Our robust network, servicing 100% of zip codes, ensures that our clients and their customers are supported with unmatched scale and capability, wherever they go.