A company that contacts customers with service providers.
The "Uber model" is spreading to more and more areas, and now a Pampas trailer company has applied it to an original one: tow trucks.
Nicolás Orueta (35) started 9 years ago with the towing service in Santa Rosa, the capital of La Pampa.
With the brand 'Remolques Nico', he entered the business through
the window that the tow trucks have
: providing the service precisely to the insurance companies.
Located in the center of the country, with the crossing of several two national routes, the company grew.
But the traditional service had many drawbacks, both for the tow truck providers and for the motorists themselves.
An example is what happened in the first week of January of last year to comedian Martín "Campi" Campilongo who lived an odyssey on Route 2, traveling to Mar del Plata: his truck broke at 4:30 in the morning. late, ended up in a 13 hour wait.
The trailer arrived at 5am the next day.
Campi told it on the networks and it went viral.
One of Campi's posts last summer, recounting his odyssey with the crane.
Giselle Prina (35), partner and wife of Nicolás, has been involved in the administration of the trailer business for four years.
“What we saw is that
the delay was what affected the service the most
.
In addition, there were other problems such as the delay in payments to the tow truckers by the insurance companies, quite a problem, ”she explains.
She also fights with the insurance company to negotiate the value of each aid.
Giselle points out that the delays have to do with the lack of cranes on some routes.
And there is the germ of the idea that occurred to the couple: to
become an "Uber" of mechanical assistance
.
Thus, they created a web page and an application that connects the providers with the users who demand a crane.
Giselle Prina and Nicolás Orueta, the pampas couple who created an "Uber of the cranes".
Photo Courtesy La Gruva
“In January 2022 we started with the first ideas.
We wanted to make a platform for
the motorist to contract the service, on the spot
”, explains Giselle.
At that time they hired the first programmer.
"We had the first draft in May 2022. Now we already have seven programmers and in
September we launched the application
," says the entrepreneur from Pampas.
The company is called La Gruva
(crane in Italian, the origin of the surname Prina).
It not only connects those who require assistance with the towing service directly: it has geolocation and the user can follow the route of the trailer that comes to carry out the hauling online through his cell phone.
They also provide tire change and battery charging service.
“Downloading the app and joining is free.
No subscription is paid, but
each service has a cost
, ”he explains.
The app connects the tow truck with the one that requires the service.
Photo Courtesy La Gruva
That cost is one liter of fuel per kilometer: it is calculated from where the crane is and to the final destination of the transfer.
The grower receives a percentage agreed with the platform.
In this way, he explains from La Gruva,
two links in the traditional service were eliminated
: the insurance firm and the company to which the assistance service was outsourced.
The gruero was the third link in that chain.
“
The objective is that the delay is not more than two or three hours.
It connects those who demand the service in a radius of 150 kilometers”, he points out.
And they warn if there is more delay because there is no closer crane.
Also for the trucker, the platform has benefits.
One of them is the possibility of providing services in the place or the vicinity where you left a vehicle.
“Once the trailer has finished an aid, it activates the application and can provide another service.
You can do it while you return to your place
”, He explains.
When the motorist pays for the service, he receives two invoices: one for the payment to the trailer and another for the payment of the service to the platform.
"This makes
transparency
what we are looking for," says Prina.
Today this "Cabify of cranes" is made up of about 200 providers for rescue, towing or mechanical assistance services.
The company already has about 15 members and its own call center with 24-hour services: although the service is provided by the crane, from La Gruva
they follow the fulfillment of the service in real time
.
Once the service is contracted (which is done from the website), the user connects to the tow truck's phone and the service delay time is reported, the tow truck can be followed by the application.
"That's real time
.
Not like other services where they report that help takes two hours and then it is longer”
,
Prina remarks.
The user also accesses the name of the group.
And she can rate it.
Prina passionately recounts the evolution of the company.
“In one of the first services we did, the crane's winch got stuck.
He couldn't get the car down.
He was late.
We experienced it with anguish, but in the end it was solved ”, he says.
Now with hundreds of cranes and users, they are ready to keep up with the growth in demand.
No delays.
The Pampa. Correspondent
ACE
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