New Truck Owner? Be Aware of Your Truck's Limits

Have An Emergency Plan In Case Of Road Trouble

3 October 2016

Christine Brooks

Not all automobile failures happen on convenient, easy-to-reach roads. If you're on a long trip across the country or deep in a woodland path, getting a towing service to the right area can be difficult. Smartphones and data network coverage have made things easier, but they can create a false sense of comfort considering the number of outage or signal deadzone areas. Before you head out on a trip to a distant or remote area, make sure to have a few emergency contact support tools and plans on hand.

Map Out Possible Outage Areas

If you can't make a call for help, towing services can't get to you. In a way, communications aren't much different from the decades before smartphones and cell phones hit the market. Some areas just haven't had coverage for a long time and won't have coverage.

These areas are called different things in the telecommunications industry. Deadzones, neutral areas, blackout spots, and signal-free areas are all places where your phone signal either won't go anywhere or will be jammed or impeded. Some are simply because there's no market reason to provide coverage, while other areas such as military installations, high-powered communication hubs for private businesses, or towns that just dislike signals are actively blocking cell communications.

You need to know if your path is crossing any of those areas. Coverage maps such as Opensignal can help you find the signal blackout areas, and can help you figure out where you can travel by foot to get into signal area or if there's someone in the area that can contact a towing service for you.

Emergency Communications Planning

Even if you're in a decent signal area, it won't help if your phone is out of power.

Smartphones are the norm these days, and they're just not as robust as the old flip phone or "brick" cell phones from years before. It's in your best interest to pack a few backup essentials to keep communications strong.

Backup Battery Charger. These chargers are basically extra batteries in a bigger case with a few extra features. The chargers usually have USB ports--just like on a computer--that can be attached to almost any kind of phone connector for an extra charge. Look up details for your charger of choice to find out how long these devices can last, and make sure they're full before your trip.

Data Plan Card. If you're on an unlimited call and data plan, you don't have to worry about running out of minutes. If you're on a prepaid plan, there's no telling what mistake could lead to a lack of data, text, or call time. Don't stack additional plans in case of overage; instead, have a card on reserve that can be added after you figure out any potential problems that could be taking up all of your data. If the emergency is severe enough, you can contact emergency services or ask your customer support representative to escalate you to someone that can help during the emergency.

All devices should have the emergency contact information you need programmed already. Make sure every phone has towing services numbers ready to dial on a single press so that you don't need to waste battery power and data on looking up numbers, and contact a towing services professional like Darryll's Towing to discuss their assistance along your planned route.

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