Can I use the SOS to request roadside assistance?

Just Googled for this topic again. Found the same info that I found 5 years ago. There's that same video with the roadside assistance call - in a blizzard.

The actual slides say the same thing as this KB article: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/general/top-questions-triggering-an-sos-on-an-inreach-device/

Use your own judgment. Use SOS when "you feel uncertain of the outcome of your situation."

All of this did remind me that IERCC has whatever information is on your inReach profile. This includes things like emergency contacts, your medical notes, and so forth.

Well this 10.24.22 blog post from Garmin states that this scenario is actually the 2nd most common situation for which people trigger an SOS.

"Interestingly, the next highest number of SOS triggers (12%) comes from driving incidents, proving that you don’t have to be stuck on a rocky cliff or lost at sea to hit the SOS button. Many of the driving incidents involve people simply needing help while on the road and outside of cellphone service. Seemingly normal situations can become worrisome quickly depending on the location and if supplies are lacking or weather conditions are worsening.."

Nothing in the blog suggests that this is inappropriate.  The user would need to have that basic insurance information ready to provide to IERCC/GEOS though.  Is there a way to store this on the device somehow such that IERCC/GEOS could have access to it without the user having to provide it?  Otherwise just writing it on a piece of tape, etc. on the device with permanent marker might suffice?

Did not run across that one. There's that "can become worrisome" thing again, though. It's not like this is a blanket "press SOS when you get hangnail..."

You can put this information in the Emergency Notes section on the Account tab at explore.garmin.com. I think IERCC will have access to that when you trigger an SOS. They certainly have access to the emergency contacts. 

OTOH, it's not clear that you can record every possibly useful thing here. You could put in your roadside assistance information. Or your medical information. Or whatever. But sooner or later, you run out of room. Plus the information may get stale...

Good points.  I can certainly see why Garmin doesn't want to open a Pandora's box that will overload their service with "hangnails" etc.  On the other hand, it's a little hard to imagine them taking some kind of "hard line" on this either.  Are they really going to drop or deny someone service if somehow they determined that someone used SOS in a roadside assistance situation that didn't mean some benchmark of "worrisome"?

It's also interesting/maybe revealing that as I'm logging into explore.garmin.com, I'm getting a little survey popup asking "How do you typically use your inReach?"  Lots of the kinds of answer choices you'd expect, but among them "Rural Driving or General Safety" and two options for "Travel."  The survey prompts you to provide three choices/top three priorities, and "Rural Driving or General Safety" would certainly be in my top 3--and I would guess plenty of other folks live in areas with spotty cellular coverage.

I doubt that IERCC would ever NOT send help. If nothing else, they'd be afraid of a lawsuit. I think they're just dancing around it trying to make sure that people are using it sensibly. From a PR standpoint, they can't say something blunt like "Don't be an idiot"

I received this reply back from SAR/SAT Support.  Good to have this confirmed!

-----

Thank you for contacting our SAT Phone Support Team, my name is Shy. Yes you are able to use your Inreach Mini for this purpose! You would just need to enter the information in the Emergency Notes field in your Garmin account. These notes are automatically provided to the IERCC upon SOS activation, so when the IERCC reaches out to you, you would be able to advise the emergency is vehicle related and to follow the Emergency Notes.

Reach out with any questions!

Kind regards,

XXXXXXXXXXX

SAR/SAT Phone Support Team

Phone: 1-888-460-4554

Office Hours: Mon-Fri, 8a-5p Central

twolpert said:

You can put this information in the Emergency Notes section on the Account tab at explore.garmin.com. I think IERCC will have access to that when you trigger an SOS. They certainly have access to the emergency contacts. 

yes, I tested this, and yes those infos are presented to the operator together with emergency contacts and they will follow what ever is written there.

In my case, there is an advise to contact emergency contcats by email as well and yes, they do this.

On the other side, they are not here to arrange some help as this is not what they are paid for. Their duty is only inform emergency contacts. That is what we pay for in the basic charges for an account.

However one can buy an additional insurance and then IERCC will do more and call also SAR or other means of help. This is then all covered by this extra insurance fee. Advertizing you can see on the explore website.

skyeye said:

On the other side, they are not here to arrange some help as this is not what they are paid for.

This is incorrect information.

The Garmin IERCC will of course coordinate all the emergency communications needed for the client/device contacting IERCC.

That is what the whole SOS service is for.

did you try?

I did, we had 3 emergency calls in our org. They will try to contact one of the emergency contacts and will inform that em call was received  from this unit and from which position. At this time, their duty is completed and the task is now with the emergency contact.

In case they are not able to reach one of the emergency contacts, they try to contact embassy of the country of which citizenship is indicated in the profile. In one case, this was not even possible, so they contacted the dealer who did sell the device originally and left further action with him.

They simply try to call until they get hold of someone who will now be the responsible for further action.

BTW: the phone contact does not work in some cases, this is why I put now in the 'emergency notes' also an advise to contact some emails, which does really work and they will do this. Earlier, emergency contacts had email address included, this was now removed from the em contacts mask.