Yesterday I was two miles away from home on a local road in Connecticut and I had a  bad flat tire because I ran into a curb while driving at 45 mph. I will spare you other details. Unfortunately this is a road with no shoulder so I had parked it as close to the curb as possible. Still, the car was occupyting a significant portion of the lane, causing inconvenience to drivers on both sides. I was on the phone immediately to call AAA and this is about my experience through the process.

The tire sign came on my dashboard and it was pretty bad flat, so I did not want to attempt to drive it home for 2 miles. Called AAA right away. It was a bit slower to my liking and frankly they can vastly simplify the calling process if only there is added automation where by there is a mobile app that does the calling and has my card number stored and it can provide all relevant details. Including the exact location where the damaged car is! I hate the way AAA shows the number on the card. It is 16 digits and why can’t they order it as a group of 4 digits like credit cards? Instead it is 3,3,9 and 1 digit. Go figure!

All the formalities of verifying address, name etc took some time. Very pleasant person at the other end, but didn’t seem to realize my situation – I was so sorry to be disrupting trffic and was avoiding eye contact with other drivers! Finally the person at the other end was ready. I gave my exact location. 2 minutes later she blamed Google Maps!

I happen to live in a town called Higganum, which is part of Haddam. Unfortunately in some systems we show up as Haddam. The AAA person said that Google Maps showed the location I gave to be in Haddam and not Higganum. They were right! After almost 10 minutes, we were all set and I was told to expect someone in one hour! I said to myself “Oh My God!” How many folks getting back home from work are going to curse me for delaying them?

Tech was fantastic starting from here. I got a couple of texts (but, please spare so many loving Thank Yous in emails and texts, because they lose meaning after a while) informing me of when to expect a tow truck and related details. Magically, I got an immediate text from the truck driver that they will be there in 20 minutes! Awesome.

But then I got another text with a link. And this is the best part. It showed the exact location of the tow truck, just like how Uber shows where your pickup vehicle is. This was great. I was watching it carefully until the vehicle was in my sight. I got down and waved to him because he was going to make a turn into a street before where I was stuck.

I had stopped at Stop & Shop to piick up some groceries in my car. So I had called my wife to tell about this and asked her to be ready to come. Since there was no easy place to park on the road, I told her that the right time is when the tow truck is here since they will be blocking the street anyways, so it is ok for her to park behind me so I can transfer all the groceries. Based on the location of the tow truck, I called her and came down so that she would arrive roughl when the tow truck arrived. Unfortunately by the time she arrived, the tow truck driver had already loaded the car and ready to leave. Because I forgot to account for traffic delays my car was causing, so my wife got stuck for a few minutes on the opposite lane.

And then, this morning, my dealer calls me to say they found the car but not the key. So I called AAA again, but in the meantime, the dealer found the key.

I am so thankful for all enhancements I described above. And also how we take cell phones for granted now and how all of this used to work several years ago and the time it took. But, there are more things that can be done to improve:

• A mobile app (it may exist, I don’t know) that has a one click feature that sends all info the AAA without having to even call. And the app then tells us when to expect the tow truck.
• The app should give an option for us to talk to a person to escalate the issue by turning on the camera on the phone to show how my issue is affecting the traffic, or how bad the damage is etc.
• Then, when a truck and driver has been assigned, just like Uber, in addition to getting a link for locaiton tracking, we should have their phone number and name.
• This same app should continue to show progress if the request is to have the vehicle dropped off elsewhere. So, we can be sure it is going to be dropped in the right place.
• And a message from the driver that it has been dropped off and where they left the key.
• And the App should allow us to tip the driver.
• Ok, you got it – we need an Uber-like app for AAA. Simple.

I was very happy that two women pulled their car to ask if I needed any help. It was a good gesture and the pleasures of small town living, I think!