Include Emergency Support With Your Trip Planning
Posted on: 18 October 2017
Hoping for the best is a good mindset to have, but it's not a plan. Whether you're planning a long road trip or starting a new road trip that your car might not survive without heavy maintenance, you need to have a plan that protects your safety and wallet in the event of an emergency. Here are a few emergency planning points for long trips to make sure you get rescue, repairs, shelter, or whatever you need with fewer reasons to panic.
Map Out Phone Outage Areas
Many road trips go across areas that have low or no cellular service. Although the areas and intensity varies depending on the phone company you use, there are some areas where no company has coverage.
In emergency planning, there is no room to ask "what are the odds?" when dealing with something as simple as getting to a safe area with phone service. Vehicles can break down anywhere, and the steps you can take to get to safety are too easy to ignore at the risk of being stranded with no obvious way to safety.
Use cellular service maps such as Opensignal to figure out if your trip goes through communications dead zones. Outage are worth planning around as well, but these may be intermittent and not easy to track down. If the outage is there when you check the map, just have a plan for getting around it or walking to an area with coverage. It's as simple as knowing which direction to go for the shortest walk.
Turn Your Phone Into An Emergency Communications Station
Pack backup batteries, and have a phone charger in your vehicle. Backup power is one of the most vital preparation steps when traveling in the US, or any country that has robust communications. A phone without power is a lifesaver drifting out to sea, and unless you're playing games during the entire trip with the charger plugged up, there's little reason to be stranded without power.
That said, make sure that people on the trip with you understand the rules. This isn't just about children; adults can glue their faces to screens just as much if not more, and will have more reasons to justify their actions. If someone wants to use a charger to text or watch videos for the whole trip, make sure that they buy their own charger, and plan a few charging station stops on your way.
Make sure to put a tow truck service number in all phones before the trip. Don't just take all of the responsibility on your shoulders; if everyone can call, you're protected from accidental phone loss, overheating, or other situations where the phone with all of the information fails.
Making sure that someone has ample data helps as well, since local services such as hotels, repair shops, and restaurants can be researched instead of going to the first available option. It can save money and lead to greater comfort if you have options.
Contact a tow truck services professional to discuss other ways to make your trip safer in case of a vehicle emergency.
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