We’ve all seen them by the side of a busy road, or perhaps you’ve been one of them. One of the poor souls standing idly by their vehicles with the emergency blinkers on, arms crossed with a cell phone up to their ear.
Anything can happen out there on the road. We at Durham Towing have a saying: avoiding Road Service is 80% prevention and 20% luck. In other words: Requiring service on the road is something that everyone should try their level best to avoid, but when the unexpected happens, it’s a good idea to be prepared, to know what to expect, and who to call.
Be Prepared
The first step in preventing a road service incident involves simply knowing your vehicle. The car manual is not just a paper weight in your glove box used primarily to hold down your title and registration information – it should actually be read and understood! Here the manufacturer’s regular maintenance schedule is included.
You Vehicles Recommended Maintenance Schedule is a great baseline to use for tracking and planning your car’s upcoming service intervals. Every car owner should use it to make sure that they’re getting the best performance and service life out of their vehicle. We personally like to transpose ours to a Microsoft Excel file to track and plan the maintenance completion tasks based on Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Bi-Annually, Annually and One-Time mileage events.
Here is what’s in our schedule plan:
- Daily: Tire Pressure Check, Front and Rear Light Check
- Weekly: Oil Level, Wipers, Air Filter
- Monthly: Engine Coolant (Check), Battery (Check), Regular Inspection (under hood)
- Bi-Annually: Tire Rotation, Brake (Check), Transmission Fluid (Check)
- Annually: Struts / Shocks, Alignment
- Regular Mileage: Oil (Change)
- One-Time Mileage: Transmission Fluid (Change), Coolant (Change), Timing Belt (Change), Air Conditioning (Refrigerant Charge)
When it happens
Despite your best efforts in prevention, sometimes the unexpected happens. If you’re in the position to safely guide your vehicle to the side of the road, what you should do next really depends on the type of road you’re on.
If you happen to become stranded on a freeway, it’s a good idea to get as far over on the shoulder as you can without going into the ditch and put your emergency lights on as soon as possible. Typically you can have half of your vehicle off of the pavement to give you more space from the roadway. Use your common sense, but you’ll want to be far enough over so that oncoming drivers have at least a full car-width of space between you and them. In an urban setting, try your best to make sure you’re stopping point is not on a major intersection and in an out of the way, yet accessible location like a side street.
Who to call?
If you happen to run into a emergency road service incident in the Durham, North Carolina area or immediate surrounding communities, consider calling a local full-service towing provider like Durham Towing Company. In addition to roadside assistance, we offer a suite of services including Wrecker Services, a full range of towing services, and because we’re local you won’t be waiting long for our service trucks to arrive.
Call us today at (919) 805-3344