TOWING
The call is a stranded person on the shoulder. The office should already know where.
Towing is dispatch under pressure, at two in the afternoon and two in the morning. We connect emergency intake, location capture, dispatch, driver assignment, ETA updates, destination records, and payment so the dispatcher runs trucks instead of repeating addresses.
A day that will sound familiar
A Friday night with three wreckers out
The dispatcher has a caller on the shoulder of the interstate who can only say they are near an exit with a gas station. The second line is a motor club job with a reference number that has to be typed into a portal before the truck rolls. The third is a police rotation call for a two-car accident that needs a flatbed and a wrecker, and both flatbeds are already loaded. The driver on the interstate job is texting to ask for the caller’s number again because the address he was given was a guess.
By midnight one vehicle has been dropped at a body shop that closed at six, with nobody sure whether the keys went in the drop box or stayed on the truck. A private-property tow from the afternoon has no photos attached and the owner is calling to dispute it. Two cash jobs have not been rung up because the drivers are still out. The trucks are busy all night. The paper is what falls apart.
Five workflows
What changes for towing companies.
-
01Emergency intake
TodayThe dispatcher asks the same eight questions on every call while the caller is upset, and writes the answers on a pad.
ConnectedVehicle, problem, whether anyone is in danger, whether it drives, and where it needs to go are captured in order, from the call or from a text link the caller taps. The job record exists before the dispatcher hangs up.
-
02Location capture
TodayThe caller describes a landmark. The driver searches for it and calls back to ask again.
ConnectedThe caller shares their location from their phone with one tap, or the dispatcher pins it from what they say. The driver gets the pin, not a description, and the ETA is built from where the truck actually is.
-
03Dispatch and driver assignment
TodayThe dispatcher calls drivers one at a time to find who is closest and free.
ConnectedThe board shows which trucks are free, loaded, or en route, and what equipment each one carries. The job goes to the right truck with one tap and the driver gets the full record, including the pin and the caller’s number.
-
04ETA updates
TodayThe caller calls back to ask how long. The dispatcher calls the driver to find out.
ConnectedThe caller gets the ETA when the truck is assigned and a message when the driver is close. If the truck is held up, the update goes out without the caller having to ask.
-
05Destination records and payment
TodayDrop-off details, photos, and payment live on the driver’s phone and a paper ticket until the end of the shift.
ConnectedPickup and drop-off photos, mileage, the destination, and who received the vehicle are attached to the job from the driver’s phone. The customer pays on the spot or from the link, and the motor club or account job is billed from the same record.
Where it breaks
Four places the process usually fails.
- THE ADDRESS THAT WAS A GUESSA wrong location is a truck driving the wrong direction while a customer sits on the shoulder counting minutes.
- THE CALLBACK LOOPCaller asks dispatch, dispatch asks the driver, the driver asks for the caller’s number. Three calls to answer one question.
- THE DROP-OFF NOBODY CAN PROVENo photos, no signature, no record of who took the keys. The dispute is decided by whoever remembers louder.
- THE CASH TICKET IN THE TRUCKJobs done at night get rung up in the morning, if the ticket survives the shift.
One handoff, before and after
A breakdown on the interstate at 11:40 pm
- The caller says they are past the exit with the truck stop. The dispatcher writes it down and asks for a callback number.
- The dispatcher calls two drivers before finding one who is free. She reads him the description.
- The driver drives to the wrong side of the exit and calls the customer to find them.
- The customer calls dispatch twice to ask how long. Dispatch calls the driver each time.
- The vehicle is dropped at a closed shop. The ticket and the cash are settled the next morning.
- The caller taps a link and shares their location. The job record has the pin, the vehicle, and the destination.
- The board shows the nearest free wrecker. The dispatcher assigns it with one tap.
- The driver gets the pin and the number. The caller gets the ETA and a message when the truck is close.
- At the scene the driver takes the pickup photos on his phone. They attach to the job.
- At drop-off the photos, the location, and the signature are recorded. The customer pays from the link and the job is closed before the truck leaves.
What to track
The numbers that tell you whether it is working.
We do not promise a percentage. We show you which numbers to watch, and we measure them before and after.
- Calls where the location had to be confirmed a second timeEvery one is minutes on the shoulder and miles on the truck.
- Time from call to truck assignedThis is the number the customer feels and the motor club measures.
- Customer callbacks asking for an ETAEach one is a dispatcher pulled off the next call and a driver pulled off the road.
- Jobs closed with pickup and drop-off photos attachedA job without photos is a dispute you cannot win.
- Jobs paid before the truck leaves the drop-offMoney that waits for the end of the shift is money that sometimes never gets rung up.
- Trucks sitting loaded with no destination confirmedA loaded truck that cannot drop is a truck that cannot take the next call.
Questions towing companies ask us
01How does this work for a towing company that already uses a dispatch board?
It removes the parts around the board that are still by hand: getting a real location from the caller, sending the ETA, collecting photos at the scene, and closing the job with payment. Your board stays. The dispatcher stops being the phone relay between the caller and the driver.
02We run motor club and police rotation calls. Does this handle those?
Each source has its own intake and its own paperwork, and the job record carries what that source needs: the reference number, the required fields, and the billing path. The dispatcher works one board for all of them and the right information goes back to the right party.
03Our drivers are not going to fill out forms on the side of the road.
They should not have to. The driver taps a stage, takes photos, and the rest of the record is already there from intake. A pickup at the scene is two taps and a photo. That is less than the ticket they write today.
04What about after-hours calls when there is no dispatcher?
Calls are captured with the location and the vehicle even when nobody picks up, and routed to the on-call driver or the owner by the rules you set. The caller gets a reply saying the request was received. Nothing waits until morning to be seen.
05Can this help with private-property and impound records?
On the record-keeping side, yes. Photos, time stamps, location, the reason for the tow, and who released the vehicle are stored on the job so the record is complete when someone asks. Local rules on notices and fees are yours to set; the record just follows them the same way every time.
START WITH ONE PROCESS
Bring us the dispatch call where the address was a guess.
We will map how it works today, find where it waits or gets repeated, and tell you whether fixing it is worth the effort.
- The mapOne process in your business, drawn end to end on a single page
- The waitEvery place it stalls or gets repeated, and who is carrying it today
- The answerWhat fixing it would take, or a straight answer that it is not worth fixing