Bajaj Allianz General Insurance plans to roll out ‘roadside assistance' services for commercial vehicles subject to regulatory approvals. The company currently offers the product for private vehicles, according to Mr Vijay Kumar, Head-Motor Insurance of the company.

The company is in talks with fleet owners and other stakeholders in the commercial vehicle industry to understand the needs of the market. “We are working on a slightly different kind of product for the commercial vehicle segment. We hope to come up with something concrete within the next six-seven months,” Mr Kumar told Business Line .

Roadside assistance provides support to customers at the event of immobilisation of a vehicle after a breakdown or an accident. For instance, it comes in handyin case of battery failure, flat tyres, lost keys or key locked inside the car and vehicle running out of fuel. It also includes towing services. A customer faced with such a situation can call on a toll-free number on a 24x7 basis.

Insurance companies either provide this service as add-on cover to its customers or by way of specially designed products at a higher premium, Mr Kumar said.

Bajaj Allianz launched roadside assistance service for private vehicles last year and 10-15 per cent of its existing customers have already taken it as add-on cover. The service comes as a part of ‘Drive Assure' product.

The company has a tie-up with Allianz Global Assistance for this service. Allianz Global Assistance provides roadside, travel, emergency medical or home assistance globally.

Different needs

“The exact nature of roadside assistance required by commercial vehicles will be very different from that of private vehicles.

“Majority of the service sought by private vehicles relate to tyre assistance or lost keys, while commercial vehicles might look for mechanical breakdown and other repairs arising out of accidents,” he explained.

The product, therefore, has to be tailored to the needs of the commercial vehicle segment. “We have to take several factors into consideration, such as the geographies covered by the vehicle, whether it is inter-State or intra-State,” Mr Kumar pointed out.

Bharti AXA General Insurance and ICICI Lombard also offer roadside assistance to private vehicles. However, both these general insurance companies have no immediate plans to roll out the service for commercial vehicles, according to the senior company officials.

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