You're stuck, a sudden flat tire, or engine trouble. You call the tow truck company and sit and wait for hours.
That's what the founders of Urgent.ly wanted to change, as they sat at a Washington, D.C. coffee shop. What they came up with was a way to "uberize" roadside assistance.
The Urgent.ly app is simple and easy to use.
You download it, for free, plug in your email and phone number and then you select the service you need and the app does the rest.
"A flat tire, jump start, tow, you've locked your keys out of your car, you need your keys replaced," Co Founder Chris Spanos said Urgent.ly provides just about any service you could need on the road.
Spanos says this is the future of roadside assistance.
"Our basic ten mile tow is $99, for a jump start, a lock out it's $69, for all of those what we call soft services," Spanos said this is cheaper than a yearly roadside assistance membership, citing these kind of incidents only occur about once every three years.
The company and app came into existence quickly, "in under a year we had the idea we pulled together the team, we pulled together the technology and we launched in our technology in our starter market in 2013," he said.
They went nationwide a few months later and are worldwide now, linking drivers everywhere with reliable, fast service, according to Spanos.
The drivers must pass Urgent.ly's standards, including a background check. On the app, some drivers have their photo, and all have a phone number you can call, while you wait.
Tow truck drivers have the app live in their vehicle so the company knows their location, availability and what equipment they have.
The app is available in the app store andGoogle Play.
