WEX Roadside Service specifically offers roadside assistance services for businesses and fleets as part of its suite of services.
As a company, WEX offers three main services: Employee Benefits, Fuel Cards and payment tools for large fleets and small businesses, and payment processing tools. Their roadside services are linked with your drivers’ use of their WEX fuel cards.
WEX’s website promotes that they have been in business for over 40 years and have 800k customers worldwide. And they highlight their company standard of diversity in culture, identity, thought, and background. They also state they believe in making a positive impact in the world.
WEX Roadside Services
With WEX, roadside service benefits are provided to your drivers through the use of their WEX fuel card. They can use their card to pay for roadside services on an as-needed basis. This is intended to eliminate potential out-of-pocket costs to drivers and ensure they have service in the event of roadside breakdowns or emergencies.
Roadside services included are towing, winching, tire change, fluid delivery, jump starts, and lockout service.
WEX also offers the WEX Connect App which provides real-time information to your drivers and identifies open gas and charging stations. This can be beneficial especially if your business relies on drivers who must be out regardless of inclement weather.
WEX roadside service is provided through the National Automobile Club (NAC) which has support from over 75,000 service providers nationwide. They have 24/7 service and claim an average 60 minute service response time.
What’s Different About WEX
As noted above, the main difference with WEX, is that their roadside assistance service is not a plan with a set annual fee either per vehicle or per driver, like most services.
Instead, they provide your drivers with access to essential roadside assistance services through the use of their WEX fuel card. The aim of this is to eliminate potential out-of-pocket costs to drivers and ensure they have service in the event of roadside breakdowns or emergencies.
The costs of these services are charged to the driver’s fuel card and billed to your business at a (presumed) discount. WEX provides “Easy-to-read reports” where roadside charges appear in the “non-fuel” section of your vehicle analysis report with “NAC” listed as the brand. With their “streamlined billing schedule” roadside charges may take up to 45 days or two billing cycles from the service date to be reflected on your account.
Benefits and Drawbacks
The benefits of this setup are having a streamlined payment solution if you have a significant number of drivers or need a better system for purchasing fuel and other incidentals while on the road. Your business just pays specifically for services used, which if you have well maintained vehicles and limited issues, may provide a cost savings. Their more advances reporting may help you better manage fuel costs across your business as well.
This will be a drawback however, for those who already have a fuel and/or payment solution and need only roadside assistance for their drivers. It also means that roadside service costs can vary across time, since services are paid a la carte, rather than are covered under a prepaid plan. Not receiving billing for up to two business cycles can be a benefit for businesses who need more time to payt, or potentially leave them surprised with a larger than anticipated bill for services they didn’t know occurred!
Also, you won’t find any extra benefits like travel interruption reimbursement with this plan.
Summary
If you want to keep costs predicable and affordable, and don’t want to be locked into one company for fuel costs and roadside service, or if you have a smaller business, this may not be the best solution for you.
If you want to consolidate your driver’s ability to pay for fuel and incidentals at a potentially discounted rate, have specific reporting on those costs, and give them access to pay for roadside services on an as-needed basis, this may be a great solution for you.
