We know that getting from Point A to Point B is getting more Uber-ized by the day. But one realm of transportation that hasn't caught up yet is roadside help.
At least for now: Vienna, Va.-based Urgent.ly has developed an on-demand roadside assistance app that has gained a strong following since its launch in 2013. The app now counts more than 125,000 people across 70 cities as its users.
Now the startup appears poised to pick up its growth pace thanks to new partnerships that could help bring in hordes of new users.
Vying with AAA
Urgent.ly made a point early on of setting itself up as a different kind of service from its competitors. There's no membership or other required prerequisites to use it, which is ideal for those who aren't AAA or other auto club members. And its technology has stood out because of how it connects users to tow truck drivers in a way familiar to anyone who's used Uber, Lyft or other ride-sharing apps. Users can see where the tow truck is and how long until it should arrive. And while there's a $99 fee for a 10-mile tow, users have the option of inputting exactly where they want the car towed to get a more precise estimate. The flat $75 fee for battery jumps, fixing flat tires and so on also keeps the system as simple as possible—a real plus when you're already stressed and harried about car troubles.
The system aims to be as simple as possible—a real plus when you're already stressed and harried about car troubles.
Urgent.ly has a bigger presence than you might realize due to some arrangements with other companies. For instance, MapQuest integrated Urgent.ly into its software last year, becoming the first navigational app to offer roadside assistance. Though not the major force it used to be, MapQuest still has plenty of users—and those users can now become Urgent.ly's users too.
Then, in March, AT&T announced that it would integrate Urgent.ly into its connected-car systems. That means that cars using AT&T's technology use Urgent.ly as the default system to call for aid when there's a problem with the car. Drivers can track the tow truck on the car's screens much like other users do on the app. While connected cars are far from universal at this point, it may not be long before they become common and AT&T is likely to have a big enough share of that market to (quietly) make Urgent.ly as much a part of driving as any other kind of advanced car technology.
The latest major win for Urgent.ly and its expansion efforts came this week, when on-demand parking app ParkWhiz added a button to call for a tow truck linking to Urgent.ly's Web app. The startup is expecting to get plenty of traffic through ParkWhiz, and has already seen some results.
"Our data shows a lot of people have the car troubles while parked," said Rick Robinson, co-founder of Urgent.ly.
Expansion plans
At this point, Urgent.ly is looking to add more tow services to its partner list in order to provide more comprehensive coverage for the cities it operates in.
"We're building out our network, making it denser. We want to be everywhere the customers are when they need us," Robinson said. "We have response time down to as little as eight minutes and want to make it even better."
Urgent.ly has raised $1.7 million in funding so far, from investors including Select Venture Partners, Blu Venture Investors and CIT GAP Funds.
