The Pitstop

At Agero, we support 12 million roadside events a year. This means we’re helping a driver get their day back on track every three seconds, all year long. Imagine a bustling crowd filling every seat in Chicago’s iconic Wrigley Field, the entire student body of a large university, or the residents of a typical suburban neighborhood. That’s how many roadside events Agero supports each day. Each individual event is unique, representing a moment where someone, somewhere needed our combined assistance. 

Collectively, all these roadside events reveal patterns, like puzzle pieces coming together, into broader roadside trends, driver behavior, vehicle performance, and industry changes. We use this data in a variety of ways – to innovate, test new features and services, and power machine learning algorithms.

Clunkers and rust buckets beware: the older The vehicle, the more likely it'll need roadside service 

No surprises here: as cars get older, they’re more likely to experience a roadside incident. In 2023, the average vehicle needing assistance was around 12 years old, and the most common vehicle age that needed support was 9. 

Not only do older vehicles require help more frequently, but their needs are also different. They experience mechanical issues at a higher rate compared to simpler roadside problems like flat tires or dead batteries. As you know, mechanical issues often require towing, resulting in a relatively more complicated service event for customers. 

Further, we're seeing that more vehicles need support for mechanical issues than for dead batteries, flat tires, lock outs, and out-of-fuel, combined. This is true for cars, and even more pronounced in other types of vehicles, especially RVs and motorcycles.  

In 2024, the rate of flat tires requiring a tow increased by 6% compared to 2023, likely due to many newer vehicles–including electric vehicles—no longer including a spare tire to reduce weight and improve fuel efficiency. 

The roadside misnomer: Fewer ‘roadside’ events are happening on the side of the road 

Looking at incident locations, events on the side of the road have fallen 11% as a share of all roadside locations in 2024 compared to 2023, a trend that holds true across all roadside issue types. In 2024, with events on the side of the road decreasing, parking lots and residences are taking up a greater share of disablement locations. 

While the overall number of vehicle issues on local roads is decreasing, we're seeing the need for tows on local roads rising slightly, with a 3% increase in tow requests in 2024 compared to 2023. 

The months with the most incidents are the ones with the most vehicle miles traveled 

Many people take vacations and road trips in Q3, leading to increased vehicle miles traveled—and naturally, more roadside incidents. Q3 (July, August, and September) has the most roadside events of any three-month period (27%), while Q1 (January, February, and March) has the fewest (23%). The significant difference in roadside incidents highlights the impact of seasonal travel patterns. 

This is especially true for RVs and motorcycles, which experience the majority of their incidents between April and September, likely because most people save their road trip for the warmer months. 

Implications and importance of shifting roadside trends

Just as cars are evolving, driver habits and patterns are also changing, leading to noticeable trends in the types of assistance drivers need. As cars age, mechanical issues become more prevalent, highlighting the importance of routine check-ups, and roadside assistance isn’t just breakdowns on the side of the road. In fact, most incidents don’t occur on the roadside, a trend that has become more pronounced in 2024.