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A vehicle roadside rescue service that travels to stranded car drivers and replaces their faulty batteries has seen a spike in the demand for its services from users in central Abu Dhabi.
Figures released by Dial-A-Battery, a service founded by vehicle accessories and aftermarket parts organisation A-MAP, reveal that it has experienced a 200 per cent increase in calls over the past four months, a phenomenon its operators attribute to the Abu Dhabi government policy of moving vehicle service stations from the centre to the outskirts of the city.
“Since the beginning of the year, we have had a huge increase in callouts for our Dial-A-Battery service from central Abu Dhabi – four times the amount of our previous figures from the close of 2012,” said Asad Badami, managing director of A-MAP. “This spike coincides with the Abu Dhabi government’s directive that vehicle service centres will no longer be given a licence to operate inside the city. Instead they are now being instructed to work from premises in the industrial areas away from the capital’s built-up, residential environments,” he added.
The shifting of vehicle service centres was announced by the Abu Dhabi government in 2010 and affects garages and other workshop facilities, including building materials shops, carpentries, equipment maintenance outlets and glass and aluminium manufacturers. The policy is tied in with the capital’s drive to become a major global economy within two decades, as outlined in its Strategic Vision 2030 policy.
There are around 1,970 such workshop premises in Abu Dhabi and the mandatory requirement for them to shift is aimed at improving the city’s aesthetics and delineating areas of habitation from those of industry. The facilities have either moved or are in the process of moving to areas outside of the centre, meaning that those who live and work in central Abu Dhabi are now likely to be several kilometres from their nearest garage.
“Our customers have informed us that what often happened in Abu Dhabi city centre when their vehicle experienced a battery problem is that they could take a short walk to service centre across the street and request a mechanic to accompany them back to their car, which they were more than happy to do,” revealed Badami. “Following the enactment of the new Abu Dhabi government directive, which has seen these centres move out of town, this is no longer an option. It seems that drivers are now requesting Dial-A-Battery to step into the breach,” he added.
Dial-A-Battery works by providing the customer with a toll-free number to call in the event of their car battery experiencing problems, whether this happens at the roadside, in a parking lot, or the customer’s own driveway. The customer’s order for a new battery is relayed by the operator to a mobile dispatch team, who will replace the item in less time than it would take to have the vehicle towed to a service centre.
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