Water Ingress Warnings: How to Protect Your Car This Monsoon

As Allianz Partners, we are the largest diversified assistance company in the country. We have been in the roadside assistance business for 18 years, which is close to our heart, especially during the monsoon season. We also work in travel, mobile device services, and insurance, making us a large diversified company focused on services. Our goal is to provide peace of mind to customers through our various lines of business.

During the monsoon season, the most common reasons for vehicle breakdowns are primarily linked to water ingress. When water enters the car through areas like the air intake or low-lying spots, it can cause serious issues such as electrical failures and even lead to a hydro lock, which essentially immobilizes the vehicle. If your car experiences water ingress, the crucial first step is to absolutely avoid attempting to restart it. As a result of water ingress and related electrical failures, we end up seeing a significant surge in breakdowns, which in turn leads to a higher demand for towing services because we steer clear of jump-starting to prevent further damage. Additionally, the monsoon period sees a rise in accidents, largely attributable to vehicles having worn-out tires with inadequate tread depth – less than three millimeters – which becomes particularly hazardous on waterlogged roads. So, our consistent advice to customers is to ensure their tires are healthy to mitigate these risks. In the most extreme scenarios, where cars become completely submerged due to severe flooding, the only feasible solution is often immediate towing to safety. Collectively, these factors contribute to a notably higher frequency of vehicle breakdowns during the monsoon season compared to drier periods.

We have been in roadside assistance for 18 years, so we are really experienced in handling flood situations. To adapt, we prep our fleet and contact center for monsoon, ensuring our fleet is monsoon-ready with prior check-ups. We mobilize our fleet to low-lying areas where breakdowns are likely, using data from our vast experience – we handle over 8 billion cars and 60,000 assistance cases monthly. We also use special equipment like wheel mobilizers for hydraulic locks and train our team to avoid jump-starting to prevent electrical damage. For vehicle owners, our tip is to keep your tires healthy and drive cautiously in heavy rain to prevent breakdowns and stay safe.

Technology really boosts our response times through our omnichannel approach, meaning customers can contact us via multiple channels like phone calls, our customer web app, WhatsApp, or even OEM apps. This approach helps them reach us faster during critical monsoon moments. We also leverage our extensive experience and data analytics to anticipate flooding patterns, even in newer areas of the country. With 19 depots covering 27 locations, we are able to mobilize our manpower effectively, and in severe cases, we set up command rooms on the ground to ensure we are responding as swiftly and efficiently as possible to keep our customers safe.

Cities like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai areas like Sion and Andheri, Chennai spots like Tambaram and Velachery, Kolkata near Bypass and Park Street are hotspots. Gujarat, especially Suburb and Ahmedabad, also sees flooding. We map these locations closely and place our teams nearby because when your car breaks down during monsoon, you need super fast support – and we have got the trends to anticipate where it will happen most.

Our future roadmap is centered around a high tech and high touch approach. On the tech side, we are partnering with firms like CI Metrics to get detailed climate data, which helps us predict rainfall trends and potential breakdown hotspots across smaller regions in India. This allows us to use predictive analytics and heat mapping to position our fleet strategically in vulnerable areas for quicker response. Given the unpredictability of climate change, we are building agility and resilience into our operations so we can handle disasters at any time. On the human side, we will continue investing in our own fleet, depots, and contact centers to ensure we are close to our customers when they need us most, providing that personal touch during emergency situations. Ultimately, our goal is to leverage AI and digital tools to reach customers faster and anticipate their needs more accurately, all while maintaining that essential human connection.