Auto-Routing Scheduled Tows: Transports, Dealer Runs and Planned Pickups
Not every tow is an emergency. A good share of the work at many towing companies is planned: moving cars between dealer lots, taking repaired vehicles back from body shops, transporting a classic car to a show, pulling vehicles a property manager reported, relocating cars from your yard. That work pays, and it is the work you can actually plan.
Auto-routing is most useful on exactly this kind of day.
Scheduled Work Belongs on the Board Early
The route order principles in Route Order for Tow Trucks: Stacking Calls So Drivers Don't Zigzag apply to every call, but planned work is where you can apply them before the day starts. When a dealer or body shop books a move for Thursday, put it on the dispatch board for Thursday on a specific truck right away. It leaves the Waiting List, so today's view stays focused on today.
Calls booked by commercial accounts stay under the account, so the call and the invoice end up together for billing.
Planned work also has a cost when it is not planned. A dealer transport that gets handed to whoever is free at two in the afternoon often means a truck crossing the county empty to get it. The same transport, scheduled the day before on the truck already working that side of town, costs a fraction of the miles.
Letting Auto-Routing Build the Order
Once a truck has its planned calls for the day, auto-routing can put them in a sensible driving order. For a truck with six transports, that can mean the difference between a day that crisscrosses the metro and one that sweeps through it. The driver sees the result in the app, with pickup and drop-off for each call and one-tap navigation.
Look over the order before the shift. Auto-routing knows the map. It does not know that one dealer only receives cars before ten, or that a shop's gate is locked at lunch. Adjust for those and note why.
Once the order is set, the driver sees the whole day in the app before leaving the yard: every pickup, every drop-off, the vehicle details for each unit and any notes. A driver who can see the full run plans fuel stops and breaks around it instead of finding out one call at a time.
Leaving Room for the Unplanned
The danger with planned work is filling every hour with it. Then the first breakdown or accident call of the day has nowhere to go and something gets bumped. Decide how much of each truck's day you are willing to commit to planned work. Many shops keep at least one truck lighter on planned work so it can absorb emergency calls.
When an emergency does land on a truck with planned work, the dispatcher reorders the list. The planned calls do not disappear. They just move down, and if they have to slide to tomorrow, the call moves with its details intact.
Some companies also schedule planned work toward the slower parts of the day. If your breakdown calls peak in the morning commute, it may make sense to start transports mid-morning, after the rush has settled, and finish them before the evening commute starts filling the Waiting List again.
Batches From Commercial Accounts
Some accounts send work in batches: a dealer with eight units to move between lots, a property manager with several vehicles to remove. Enter them as calls under the account, with vehicle details including plate and VIN, then assign them to a truck and day. Auto-routing orders the batch.
If you get recurring batches in a spreadsheet, CSV import can load customer and location records so repeat addresses are already in the system.
Estimates for Long Transports
Long-distance transports and unusual moves often need a price before the customer commits. Send an estimate the customer can approve online. Once it is approved, schedule the transport on the board for the right day and truck. That way you are not holding a truck for a move that never gets confirmed.
Keep the vehicle details and any special instructions, such as enclosed transport requests or low ground clearance, in the call notes so they reach the driver.
A Planned Day That Still Bends
Auto-routing turns planned work from a puzzle into a few clicks, but the real skill is knowing how much to plan and how much to leave open. A day built that way runs smoothly when it is quiet and bends without breaking when it is not. The next guide covers the opposite of a planned day: rush hour.
For how scheduled calls, auto-routing and the dispatch board work together, visit the tow dispatch software page.
Plan Tomorrow's Transports in Minutes
Schedule transports and planned pickups by truck and day, then let auto-routing order them.
Start Free Trial