TowingBossPro Blog — Tow Dispatch

Dispatching Accident and Recovery Calls: Information to Get Before the Truck Rolls

Accident and recovery calls are where towing gets serious. A car on its side in a ditch, a pickup through a fence, a truck off an embankment, a multi-vehicle crash with police waiting. These calls take longer, need the right equipment and experienced operators, and often happen in the most dangerous places your drivers work.

Dispatch can make these calls go smoothly or turn them into a mess. The difference is mostly information.

What Makes Recovery Calls Different

The driver app in What the Driver App Shows on Every Tow Dispatch gives drivers what they need for a normal call. Recovery calls need more. A breakdown has a car sitting on four wheels. An accident or recovery call might have a vehicle on its roof, in water, down a slope or tangled with another vehicle. The time on scene is unpredictable and the equipment needed can change once the driver sees it.

TowingBossPro keeps Accident & Recovery as its own category so these calls stand out on the Waiting List and the board. Everyone in the office can see at a glance that a truck on one is likely tied up for a while.

Intake Questions for Recoveries

Ask where the vehicle is and how it is sitting: upright, on its side, on its roof, in a ditch, in water, down an embankment. Ask how far from the road. Ask about the vehicle: size, loaded or empty, any fluid leaks. Ask whether police or fire are on scene and whether anyone is still in the vehicle. If there are injuries or hazards, the caller should be working with emergency services first.

Put everything in the call notes. The driver reads them on the way and can decide if they need help before arriving rather than after.

Get a callback number for someone on scene, whether that is the driver of the vehicle, a witness or the officer. Scene conditions change, and the driver may need to ask a question on the way that only someone standing there can answer.

Choosing the Equipment and the Operator

Recovery calls often need more capability than a standard tow, and some need more than one truck. Use the vehicle details and the scene description to decide whether a light-duty or heavy-duty truck goes, and whether to send a second unit. Assign the call to a driver and truck in one step, choosing an operator who has done this kind of recovery before.

If you send two trucks, assign both so the board shows both tied up. Nothing is worse than assigning a second call to a truck the dispatcher forgot was supporting a recovery.

Keeping the Board Honest

Recoveries run long. Plan for it. When a truck is on an Accident & Recovery call, assume it is unavailable for a while and route other calls around it. If the next call on that truck's list is waiting, move it to another truck rather than leaving the customer hanging.

Text customers whose calls get moved or delayed. An honest update beats a missed ETA, especially on a day when a big recovery has eaten a truck's afternoon.

It also helps to tell the customer at intake that recoveries take longer than a normal tow. A family waiting at the side of a highway with a car in the ditch handles a long wait better when they were told it would take time to do it safely.

Photos and Documentation

Recovery calls are where documentation matters most. Vehicle photos from the driver app, taken before, during and after the recovery, attach to the call. They show the condition of the vehicle and the scene. Notes from the driver about what was done and what equipment was used help with invoicing and answer questions later.

Many recovery calls end with the vehicle going to your yard. In that case, the call can go into storage with a storage start date and daily rate, and the storage days are added to the invoice.

Safety Above Speed

Recovery scenes are dangerous. Speed matters, especially when a road is blocked, but no call is worth a driver getting hurt. Scene safety rules, traffic control and any requirements for working with police and fire vary by state and city. Make sure your drivers know the local rules and that your dispatch process supports them. The next guide covers what happens when the vehicle goes into your yard: impound and storage.

For how Accident & Recovery calls fit with the board and the driver app, see the tow dispatch software overview.