We have just left behind a year in which several roadside assistance companies decided to join forces to create a professional network. A year in which we have taken our first steps, established our values and made them clear because, as the saying goes, "actions speak louder than words".
The Red de Empresas de Auxilio en Carretera was set up in June 2017 when 25 roadside assistance companies with a presence throughout Spain, including the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, came together. REAC currently has 45 members and we want to keep growing.
We got things moving with a great deal of internal work. We started working on the training needs of REAC members and on creating the REAC quality seal, which had been a clear objective since the network was founded. In total we have run 14 training courses in the cities of Antequera, Barcelona, Ciudad Real, Seville, Huelva, Alicante and Palma de Mallorca. During the Course for Managers we held in Madrid, we presented the identification plaques.
Externally, we introduced ourselves to the world by committing to a digital presence. We launched the website and this blog, where every month we provide information about the organisation and issues relating to our field of work. We also created our profile on Google and on the social networks Facebook, Linkedin and G+, where we have begun to build a community of followers interested in roadside assistance and all the issues affecting the companies that work in it. We use them to tell the world that we exist, what our philosophy is, and why and for what purpose we were set up.
These first months have helped us get to know each other better. We have published interviews with the Vice-Chair, Estela Villalobos; the General Secretary, Mercedes Garcia; and the Treasurer, Marcos Carretero. We asked each of them why they backed REAC and the conclusion was unanimous: the conviction that creating a network of this kind was both possible and necessary in the market.
At REAC we offer our members a range of services: advisory, training, technical support, management services, etc. One of the areas we have focused on is legal and employment advice. In the summer we began to regularly address complex and controversial issues related to employment management, supported by court rulings that have been handed down on the subject and are (possibly) setting case law. All of them have reached REAC members through the monthly newsletter, a monthly publication available solely and exclusively to REAC members, with information about the organisation.
In 2018 we will continue working to build a stronger organisation, where member companies can find quality advice and training. But we will keep pushing to achieve synergies between our members, moving away from the concept of competition and embracing those of cooperation and coopetition.