Hello all,
I’m trying to get into towing, I’ve been contacting many a company in my hometown but I’ve either been denied because I’m not 25 (I’m 22) or just not called back. I have a clean license and driving record. I’m not sure what the issue is at this point. These are companies openly advertising their need for drivers. If anyone works in this area and knows of open companies or any tips to help me get hired, please let me know. Any help is appreciated.

Pune people — would you actually use this? 🚗🛻

Imagine your car/bike breaks down somewhere in Pune and you need a towing vehicle urgently.

What if there was an app where you could:

📍 Share your location

🚛 Find the nearest available towing service

💰 See the estimated/fixed price upfront

⏱️ See the ETA

📱 Track the towing vehicle

⭐ Rate the service afterward

Basically, something like Uber/Ola, but specifically for towing.

I’m exploring this as a possible startup idea and I want honest feedback, not promotion.

Pune folks:

1. Have you ever needed towing in Pune?

2. How did you find the towing service?

3. What problems did you face (price, availability, waiting time, reliability, etc.)?

4. Would you use an app like this? Why/why not?

Even if you think this is a bad idea, please say so 😅

Trying to understand whether this is a real problem worth solving before building anything.

Hey Everyone,

My name is Trisha, and I'm currently writing a comprehensive training manual for towing dispatchers designed for both the US and Canada market. I grew up in a towing family, have worked the dispatch desk for years, and my husband has 13 years of damage-free recovery experience in the field.

The goal of this book is to bridge the gap between the desk and the truck. I want to show owners, managers, and new dispatchers exactly why missing a tiny detail at the desk creates a dangerous expensive nightmare for the operator on the asphalt.

To drive these points home, I am putting a "Real-Life Scenario" case study at the end of each chapter. I am looking for raw, real-world examples of how a bad intake or a pushed dispatcher set an operator up for failure.

Everything will be kept completely anonymous. I don't need any names (such as dispatchers, owners, your name, or even company name) I don't need to know the state or anything identifying you or your company information. No one will ever know it was your story.

If you have a story drop it below! I'm specifically looking for scenarios like:

• The Wrong Truck: Dispatcher fails to check the drivetrain/trim, and you get sent to an AWD, EV, or low-clearance vehicle with the wrong equipment, resulting in massive transmission or fascia damage.
• The Fatigue Trap: You tell dispatch you're exhausted and hitting a wall, they pressure you into "just one more run," and a fatigue-brained mistake causes a wreck or property damage.
• Property Damage Disasters: Dispatch sends you off-pavement onto a wet lawn or unmarked area without warning you about hidden septic tanks, drain fields, or underground utilities.
• The Blind Corner: Dispatch sends you into a live highway lane or blind curve without calling law enforcement for traffic control, putting your life on the line.

What is the worst situation a bad dispatch desk ever put you in, and what was the financial or mechanical fallout? Thank you all for your time, stay safe out there!

Don't some people get those days where your car is broken down we can help and assist you with your car.

Base in south africa gauteng. Roodepoort we do all distances like hangover Durban potch Pretoria and if lucky Capetown pe

What kind of stuff do you guys have on your tow-call bucket list?

I'm on year five now (I think, it all starts blending in together. What day is it? Where am I? Am I supposed to be empty right now or did I lose the car? Where the hell is my tow-light? Who knows!) and I've gotten most of the big calls I'd dreamed of doing when I was starting out. The really looooooong winch, the rollover, the burned cars, the totally-buried-in-snow, and the how the hell did you ever get a car that far in the woods?.

I was thinking about it today and realized I'm still missing a couple. Ive never gotten a call for any kind of boat launch mishap, despite there being plenty around my area, and I've never gotten a call for a really good vertical recovery, despite my area having plenty of roads cut into the sides of mountains.

You guys hit all your items? Any dream calls you're still waiting for? Anything on your list, that once you actually did, realize shouldn't have been on there? For me that'd be burnt cars- if only because the smell lingers on you and the truck ends up filthy.

Any great calls you couldn't think of starting out, but absolutely go down in the books as one of the good ones? Mine's gotta be the Honda Fit that went for a drive in oil change, fell in the pit, and was impounded for DUI.

Dual axle trailer with one tire having odd wear, the other tire on this axle wears normal. I have a lawn business so no crazy weight being towed just a zero turn and 2 small mowers. Hopefully anyone has any insight on this.
Things I checked
- the wheel bearing
- loose bolts

Ok so I’m looking at moving my 76 F250 high boy to a different location from where it is now, and I don’t want to drive it, wanna keep miles off. However i am confused at how the ratchet strap system works for larger things. I regularly pull lawn mowers and side by sides and building materials for both work and personal. All of these things I use my set of 1000lb working load ratchet straps. But no matter the size of the strap I am wondering if ratchet straps stack, like if I use all 4 of my 1000WLL straps does that mean I can move something that’s 4000lb? Or would I need 4 4000WLL straps. So basically will I need 4 8K straps? Or can I just get 4 2K ones?

First off I’m not a tow truck driver, and I’m not trying to be one

I have a 1947 International KB 7 (2.5 ton truck) with a Holmes 500 wrecker on the back. It’s purely hobby, I bought the truck 10 or so years ago as a chassis cab and just got the Holmes last month

I was thinking ’Gee this thing is gonna make pulling engines a breeze’ but then I thought there must be 1000 ways to use this outside of towing cars on the highway or pulling them out of a ditch

wondering what sort of ‘off label‘ uses you’ve found for your wreckers

Landlord posted that they would be replacing parking two days before and I was on vacation during the time period. I tried to call and explain but they weren’t willing to come to terms and my car got towed. On top of that, looking up the towing company shows they are permanently closed even though they are listed on the impound document.

Car is pretty old and unsure if it’s really worth trying to get back due to it being there for 11 days.

I’ll try to contact them but if that doesn’t work, or if it’s a very big fine, where should I go from there?

edit: turns out, my car was actually towed 2 days before I was notified about the parking lot construction. currently gathering all the information I can before making an argument against my property management.

Looking to buy a hitch I'll never have to replace. Was stuck between B&W and weigh safe.

Decided on weigh safe but its $90 more for the option with the built in scale. I've never seen anyone weigh their trailer so I'm curious if its worth the extra $90.

I don't plan on hauling anything extra large anytime soon, but considering its over a $300 hitch I don't want to buy another one if I started to haul trailers/campers down the road.

Question for the smaller operators here — what do you do with the phone when you're already tied up on a job?

If you're loading a car, driving, or dealing with another customer and the phone rings, what usually happens?

Do you call them back when you're free, have someone else answering, or have they usually moved on by then?

Just curious how you guys handle it.

Hello all, wondering about your thoughts on this predicament I find myself in.

I'm in need of a truck with a dump bed to remove large amounts of magic-rock-contaning siding in the near future. Unfortunately, dump trucks are quite hard to come by, and the ones I see (in my budget) are usually pretty rough.

I've been entertaining the idea of using a rollback tow truck for this purpose, adding makeshift sides of about 3ft for transporting, etc. I'm aware that the tilt angle of a rollback is usually less than 15° or so, which certainly isn't enough to properly dump.

I found a rollback on the lovely facebook for a decent price (shockingly cheap, though it needs work), and was thinking since the hydraulics look like they need a do-over, what are the chances I would be able to replace the tilt cylinders with equivalent ones with a longer stroke? I'm lucky enough to live in an area where used hydraulic cylinders are pretty cheap, so I was thinking I might be able to get 2-stage cylinders to replace the current tilt cylinders and perhaps eek out enough tilt to be at least slightly serviceable as a dump bed.

Thoughts? I know I'm crazy, but hopefully there's at least some merit here?

A friend of mine from work recently hit a curb trying to not miss his exit. He had a tow truck company that was about 10 minutes away come tow it to his place about 30 minutes away. When they presented the invoice, he did ask about the charges and they assured him that they were correct. He paid then asked me about it later on. I'm not too well versed in tow but it does seem excessive to me as well. I'd just like a few opinions.

Hey Hookit, I'm a software guy building an automated dispatcher/receptionist for a family friend who owns a tow company with 3 trucks in California. They're using it and enjoying it so far.

We've focused on getting the quoting right so the system gives accurate rates to customers over the phone. Before we expand it further, I want to make sure people besides my two partners like it.

If you used an automated system for overflow/after-hours calls, what would you want (or not want)?

Mods, let me know if this is too spammy

Hi, I inherited a trailer and wanted to ask where I can get more info on it at?

Is there a special community on reddit or is this the right one?

All I have is the name and model #.

I am trying to get rid of it because I have no use for it.

Let me know what where I can discuss without getting banned.

Thanks!

Hello everyone! I am a non trucker/Tow truck driver but I had a question! I have this building on my property that I like to park my car in as I have a different driveway where my car can make it just fine but a tow truck won’t fit. However as my mileage has crossed 200k I’ve began to worry if say my starter goes out or something how in the world would a tow truck driver get the car out? I’ve started backing in to hopefully make it easier but my question is do you think as a driver you would be able to pull the car up the hill? I’m about 99% sure a tow truck will get stuck if it tried to go down right in front of the car just because we have had trucks get stuck in other parts of my property (13 acres) so it’s kinda hard to navigate. I posted two pictures, one from my main driveway looking down to the building. And the other is from my car looking up towards my main driveway. I wasn’t sure if someone had a long ass cable and could pull the car all the way up the hill?

For the past few months I’ve been seriously considering buying a used tow truck and starting a 24/7 towing/ roadside service business. I have been making a sort of plan and have been getting excited about it and have been looking at rollback/wrecker trucks. When I Mentioned this to my uncle who knows people in the field, he basically laughed at me and said “starting a towing company is like joining an opposing gang in the mafia”. ie: they would come slash my tires of my truck and intimidate me. He also said I would lose money because of long established towing companies and over saturation in the market. Plus, he said regardless of the previous statement, after insurance, mechanical work on the truck and gas the overhead would be more costly than what I would make. For those who started a towing company with one truck, how did your situations turn out? What did you do that worked? What didn’t work? How did you quickly build your business? Is what my uncle said true and this would be a huge mistake resulting in a ton of wasted time and money? I would be open to consensual and non consensual towing. Is there a certain niche I could fill? We get a ton of snow around these parts. I have a class b cdl with tanker endorsement.
I would greatly appreciate if anybody has been in a similar situation as I am now some advice. Thanks all!

I read that once the vehicle is loaded, those plates that the tires sit on are supposed to swivel to help with turns. But with no vehicle on the tow dolly yet, shouldn’t these align with the ramps? Is this an issue? First time towing a vehicle behind the RV and I’m nervous.

All, some business advice if you can spare it. I'm trying to build my business by connecting with Honk. I have TDLR but they rejected my insurance. I'm not exactly sure why as I got a canned response but my initial thought was that I was missing the commercial general liability insurance. However when I called my insurance company (Progressive), they indicated that my Garage Keepers Liability is also the commercial general liability.

From Honk's website:

• Commercial General Liability -$300,000
• Commercial Auto Liability - $100,000 Bodily Injury per person and $300,000 per incident
• $100,000 Property Damage
• On-Hook - $50,000 (minimum if towing)
• Garage Keepers Liability - $50,000 (minimum if storing)

I'd appreciate it if any of you could provide some insight. Is it just a matter of upping the limits for the Garage Keeper Policy or do is there another policy required?

Thanks in advance.

Key note: I am employed at an amazing company operating a Rollback truck, I am set up with Towbook and AAA already, I live on the edge of the zone we operate in.

The question: I have a friend that has started up in the zone next to me and doesn't intrude on my company's territory, he is running into the issue as an owner/operator where he gets calls that he is unable to take and working endlessly. He is looking for someone that can just be on call to help him, I am not aware if he is using Towbook but he does use AAA. He was wondering if I would be able to help him in my off time from my company, does anyone know if it would cause conflict or not?

Preferably, I plan to stay with my company as I am on the list to have the CDL classes paid and move into a heavy wrecker, so leaving my company isn't on the table. He is offering me commission on tows, my company also doesn't have active restrictions or rules preventing me from assisting a business outside of their zone, specifically ones within their zone are prohibited. His intention would to have me as an independent(1099) contractor assisting him with his business until he can employ someone full time.