CEO Says Big Data Drives Towing Business Forward (AGERO)

[Tow411]

Topic originally created as News in October of 2014:

 

Technology has turned the towing business into an information business, according to Dave Ferrick, CEO of Agero.

How is technology changing Agero as a business? When you think about our business, you think about tow trucks and wrenches and grease, but technology has actually made our business very sophisticated. We are crunching terabytes of data and know where our trucks are, who they are towing, and what type of service we should provide for any particular customer.

When you buy a new car and it breaks down, you do not have a great perception of that vehicle brand. But if we are able to provide excellent service in the name of that brand, we can raise brand perception to where it was or even improve it. We are finding new ways to use data to tie together all the constituents around the value chain. We are running a very important relay race that involves the towing service, dealership and a brand's consumer affairs people. When we move the right data through that value chain, we have a positive effect on the customer experience and retain their brand loyalty.

We are also using smartphones to innovate. Years ago, we bet on in-vehicle telematics and sensors to give us information about cars and their drivers. But we now see the smartphone as the most powerful sensor you can have in a vehicle. The very devices that drivers bring into their cars can do a lot of what a very sophisticated in-vehicle telematics device can do. That was a huge "aha" moment for us. Smartphones will be the basis of much of our innovation over the next few years.

Has technology innovation created any challenges for your role as CEO? As these new technologies come out, everybody wants to try everything, so we need a robust process to boil the options down to what will have maximum impact on our customers. It's a good problem when you have too many great ideas, but I find myself saying "no" a lot more often.

We are a big company, and our technology has to work 24/7. If our systems are down, we leave our customer stranded, so we cannot get too close to the bleeding edge.

Our approach is to pick a client or call center team to try out a new technology and then make decisions about how to scale. I'd rather make a lot of small bets before making one large bet.

Has technology changed your leadership style? I find myself relying more and more on big data to inform my decisions. I spend an increasing amount of time interpreting data to understand which items really require action.

For example, last winter, we had one of the coldest winters we've had in a long time. I knew immediately that our call center volume would be historically high and that we needed to look into ways to reach an unprecedented number of motorists. We were able to quickly reach out to our end consumers and determine their immediate needs.

Out of that experience, we've developed sophisticated algorithms that will tell us how weather conditions will affect our dispatch volume. With this information, Agero can get ahead of weather patterns.

During that cold winter, we had solutions ranging from opening a new call center to giving customers self-service functions online. Through real-time customer data, we concluded that customers valued a self-service option for requesting assistance. We were able to deliver just that--quickly.

RESOURCE LINK

 

Street Jesus said:

It's obvious from their rates that Agero still thinks the world is flat. Keep letting them drive your towing business forward and you'll eventually fall right off the edge. 

 

In Memory of NationalAutow who said:

Dave Ferrick, CEO of Agero says "We are crunching terabytes of data and know where our trucks are, who they are towing, and what type of service we should provide for any particular customer."

I didn't realize that they "owned" any tow trucks!

They want to know where each and every tow truck is. They approached us years ago when we were a provider about them having access to our GPS data. We declined.

We service some motor clubs. It would not be proper for us to allow any customer to see where our trucks are as they are often serving our customers competitor. In a multi truck operation, they might could see where a truck is but still need to call us to see if we can take the call.

Does anyone else see the arrogance in Mr. Ferricks's statement?

Maybe I am being old fashioned but it seems to me that the motor club that can see where all the trucks are has an unfair advantage over the club that can't see them. Since we have multiple motor club customers, I doubt we will let that information out to the clubs.

 

goodmichael said:

Technology has not changed your leadership style, greed has, though. Motor clubs take advantage of the overbearing mindset of this industry that being, "I need to run this call or keep this contract so that no one else gets it." Never mind that I will run the call for less than what it costs me to run a call. (This means running a call for 35.00 when depreciation, fuel, insurance, salary cost 43.75 for you to bump the cam over.) I am not talking about the long standing operations who embrace profit as their best ally. You are not afraid to say no, you know your cost before you even quote a price, you maintain your equipment and pay your drivers a decent wage.

I am talking about those who burn out their drivers because they run them into the ground, not even for peanuts, but just for the husks without the meat of the nut. You cut corners in maintaining equipment that you are horribly upside down in from an equity perspective because you never let it rest as you work for peanut shells. You and your business are the ally of the motor club. The motor club depends on your mentality to stay afloat. You really should be given stock options in the motor club, as you are not working for yourself, you are investing the losses of your business to enhance the value of the motor club. your losses, blood, sweat, tears, dissension in your family relationships due to you always chasing empty peanut husks, loss of being their while your children grow up and reach milestones causes the value of the stock of motor clubs to increase. As the value of your business decreases, the value of the motor club increases. When you are sitting in the yard with a fleet of trucks with 375,000 miles average on the clock, using Gorilla tape, rubber bands and JB Weld to make repairs, the executives at the motor clubs are at home drinking wine and eating steak. Your steak.

And when you finally throw in the towel, the motor club simply moves on to the next victim. They constantly recruit to bring in new blood.

And that concludes my 500th post!

 

someotherplace said:

Peanut shells taste good. Who needs steak when you have that delicacy at hand? Better be careful what kind of remarks you make while you're in THEIR truck.  They just might cancel your contract!

Richard

(heavy sarcasm above of course!)

 

cav towing said:

And as always the COLD HONEST TRUTH from GoodMichael. You sir need to be hired as a mentor to a lot of guys

 

Randall L Dawson said:

Very Sad but Very True. Stay Safe, Randy.

 

DragNTow  said:

If their vision is so damn good then why can't they pay me my contracted rates when the invoice is processed and not make me fight them for it?

Happy Haulin.........DragNTow

 

In Memory of NationalAutow who said:

They will automatically pay contracted rates when the data tells them that is the least expensive way to go.

You must realize that they are driven by numbers to the right of the dollar sign and the left of the decimal only.

I would challenge any motor club to prove me wrong.

 

[thtdon]

What about Agero's newest policy of collecting the over-mileage directly from the customer by charging their credit card?  They charge the customer the $4.00/mile over-mileage rate that I charge.  They try to keep the higher rate, and tell us that the job is covered in full at the regular lower rate.  Every time that I catch them doing that, I tell them to take the call and shove it.  That is them stealing from us. 

[fenderbendr6]

In my area, they have gotten ridiculous with this. Most of the contractors around here won't run AGERO calls unless they have nothing else going. This results in Agero reaching out to non contracted towers who might be 25 to 50 miles away to do a one mile tow, and trying to pass the charges for extra mileage on to the customer. Most of the customers are smart enough to figure out what is happening and arrange their own tow with a local company. This costs them money out of pocket that they probably won't get reimbursement for, but it's less than the over mileage that AGERO would ding them for. Not to mention a shorter wait.