For a month now, no tow-truck services have been provided to RACE in this region, as it does not cover the rates required by roadside assistance companies. RACE is applying pressure to force the service, without success.
The conflict with the Real Automóvil Club de España (RACE) is not new. The provision of roadside assistance tow-truck services is starting a troubled 2023, as the crisis with insurers, assistance platforms and motoring clubs persists. RACE is one of the latter and, like other intermediary companies, is known for maintaining rates that tow-truck companies cannot sustain, as the National Roadside Assistance Alliance has been denouncing.
A month has passed since roadside assistance companies in the Basque Country refused to handle RACE jobs, leaving more than a thousand vehicles without assistance, stranded on the roads. The companies grouped in the Basque Association of Roadside Assistance Companies (ABEAC), a member of the Alliance, have apologised to policyholders of companies such as Liberty Seguros, Regal, Génesis, Qualitas Auto, Pelayo, Caser, LeasePlan and Ama. RACE acts as intermediary for these insurers, as well as for brands such as Stellantis (formerly PSA) and the Volkswagen group.
The ABEAC companies thus regret the inconvenience caused to all these users, and attribute the crisis to what they consider an intransigent attitude on the part of RACE, which has made no effort to prevent the conflict from escalating. In this respect, tow-truck companies are prioritising profitable jobs, attending only those incidents where traffic officers require them, or in cases of force majeure and serious circumstances, where there are casualties.
RACE's standoff with Basque tow-truck companies
RACE has still not reviewed the rates it must pay roadside assistance companies for each call-out. These prices make the service unsustainable, since they do not cover the operating costs that tow-truck companies must bear. A year ago it refused to comply with the legislation requiring intermediaries to index prices to fuel costs.
"If RACE insists on a standoff and will not even sit down to discuss this matter, the logical outcome, at this stage, is for the conflict to keep spreading, even to other regions and companies. The lack of social and corporate responsibility of assistance intermediaries has gone from affecting assistance companies to being a threat to the users of our roads," warned the Alliance's spokesperson, Xavier Martí.
In the Basque Country, this motoring club has chosen to send companies based in other regions to cover the jobs that Basque tow trucks are not handling. However, Basque assistance companies have found that some of these tow trucks, hired by RACE, may not hold a valid transport authorisation, under the transport regulations to which they are subject.
For this reason, according to the Alliance, Basque assistance companies are already considering filing complaints and taking action against the motoring club's executives. In the view of the organisation that brings together Basque tow-truck companies, RACE's behaviour is "desperate", since it has notified several Basque companies of the termination of their contracts in an attempt to frighten the rest of its suppliers into somehow changing their position. Something they are not achieving, the Alliance points out.
The National Roadside Assistance Alliance is made up of the following regional and national associations and business organisations: ABEAC (Balearic Islands), ABEAC (Basque Country), ASCA (Catalonia), AMEAC (Madrid), ASCALEAC, (Castile and León), ASEDA (Andalusia), ASEGA (Galicia), AGRUAXA (Salamanca), ASEXTEAC (Extremadura), GRUPO CARTER (National), CEPAS (National), FEGRUAL (National Federation) AGREGA-GRÚAS and REAC (National Group).