How To Choose The Best Towing Service Near Me
Typically, nobody gives towing companies a second thought until they have an immediate need for assistance. In fact, not many people really even know where their nearest towing company is located, what type of towing services they offer, their nearest office, or how long it would take them to dispatch help. When you’ve been thrust into a situation in which your vehicle is no longer able to get you from Point A to Point B, it’s normal to feel trapped, stressed, and desperate for assistance.
Because of this, people in need of towing generally choose the first closest company whose website and phone number they happen to come across. Of course, first and closest do not always equal ‘best’ so it’s a good idea to do your research before you ever run into an emergency situation. This is especially true if you travel by car frequently, as it’s much better to be prepared long before you ever need help.
Factors to Consider
There are many things to take into account when choosing an appropriate towing company. While the small details can be a little hazy depending on your exact situation, the best way to determine the best service for your need is to evaluate the companies you’re researching based on these categories:
Licensing, certification, and insurance
Services offered
Service costs
Availability and proximity
Reputation
Customer Service quality
Licensing, Certification, and Insurance
When choosing a towing service, you should first research whether this company is licensed, certified, and whether all of their trucks are properly insured. You’ll want to be certain that all of the drivers working under the company are fully trained and licensed. While in a crisis it’s normal to think that none of this matters so long as the driver is able to get you and your vehicle to safety, this isn’t the case. A poorly trained driver working for an unlicensed company may very well take you and your vehicle to safety, but there’s a strong chance that something will go wrong.
For example, if the driver or the tow truck damages your vehicle or gets into an accident during the towing process, it’s ultimately the driver’s fault. However, to collect any compensation, you may have to deal with a drawn-out legal process. It’s important to work with a company who can avoid all of these issues, but be there to support you if any issues arise.
Costs and Services Offered
Depending on the type of vehicle you need to have towed, you’ll want to determine whether a towing company offers the services you need. For most drivers, light-duty towing fits their needs perfectly, but for drivers of large vehicles (buses, garbage trucks, RVs, etc.), heavy-duty towing will be needed.
If your situation has left you stranded and your vehicle is out of reach for a normal towing job, do make sure that you seek out a towing company that can offer recovery services. Vehicles that have gone off the road into snowbanks, ditches, bodies of water, or down steep ravines are not going to be able to be towed by normal means. In these precarious situations, recovering your vehicle from where it rests will take specialized vehicles and equipment.
Perhaps one of the most important things to consider is the price. Of course, price should never be a person’s main deciding factor, but it’s a necessary factor to consider. Unfortunately, not every person who gets stranded has the funds to pay an arm and a leg for service, so comparing service prices is an important part of decision-making.
Availability and Proximity
It goes without saying that people who are in desperate need of vehicle towing hope to be assisted as quickly as possible. In researching different towing companies, you may have come across several that claim to have fast response times, but take a look at their hours of operation to make an educated comparison. While the website may mention that the company’s response times are quick, they might be neglecting to tell you that their response time claims only cover regular business hours. While this is fine if you happen to break down in the middle of the day in the middle of the workweek, accidents tend to happen most often at the least convenient time. Look for a company that offers 24/7 service in order to mitigate potential delays.
Take into consideration the company’s distance from where your car has broken down. Many tow truck companies have stations spread across several cities or states, so if you can get a clear picture as to where the nearest truck is located, it will be a good detail to use for comparison. Distance is not the only convenience to consider, though, as sometimes closer does not mean quicker.
Let’s assume you’re stranded on a long stretch of highway and there’s one towing company that’s 20 miles from your location and another that’s 35 miles in the opposite direction. One would think that the towing company that’s only 25 miles away would be the optimal choice. They’re closer so they will arrive faster, right? Not necessarily. It’s wise to call both companies and determine which one can help you fastest. For all you know, the closer company might have all of its trucks engaged with other tasks, might be closing, or may generally have slow responses. In this case, trucks that are 35 miles away and ready to go will be the better option.
Bottom line: it is best to be open-minded and to have a couple of feasible options in mind, in case your first choice does not work out.
Reputation
There are few things that allude to a company’s competence than word-of-mouth reviews by actual customers. While it’s possible to have people recommend a service they’ve never used, it’s far more difficult to disregard the word of entire groups of people who have expressed the same sentiment about the same company. Ask around to see if family, friends, or co-workers have a service provider that they swear by.
If you’re planning on looking at online reviews, be sure to check other resources in addition to the positive reviews on the company’s website. Many business owners only publish positive reviews on their website while deleting the ones that reflect negatively on the company. Check out the company’s standing with the Better Business Bureau, reviews on Google, Yelp, FourSquare, Angie’s List, and more. The internet is full of business reviews that the owner has no control over.
However, if you happen to see negative reviews that either do not explain or do a poor job of explaining their reasoning for posting a negative review, you might take them with a grain of salt. That does not mean that you should disregard them altogether; by all means, consider them in the context of other reviews. But also remember that it’s not uncommon for people to post negative reviews for a company that they’ve never used simply because they dislike the owner, an employee, or some other factor unrelated to the company’s performance. Due diligence is key when it comes to researching a company you’d choose in an emergency.
Customer Service Quality
If you’ve ever been in an emergency situation, you know that when you’re stressed, afraid, and in a hurry, the last thing you want to deal with is poor customer service. Quality customer service is the foundation of any business with a margin of success. Unfortunately, sometimes even otherwise strong businesses suffer from less than stellar examples of customer service. You’ll notice poor customer service as soon as you hear it, but it may be categorized in a number of ways.
For example, if the phone representative doesn’t want to answer your questions about licensure or certification, he or she is either making an attempt to withhold important information, or this person does not know enough about the company to be working at the front desk.
It may take a couple of minutes for the representative on the line to take your information. When relaying their own information back to you, the representative should be able to provide relatively straightforward answers. If you’re frequently placed on hold or you’re experiencing long pauses after each question you ask, it’s likely that your representative is not well-trained at his or her position and may not be relaying accurate information.
Lastly, if the representative is dismissive, unprofessional, or rude to you, you are likely not dealing with a company that values its customers. If you do not feel that the company is able to meet your needs in any way--either in terms of service or customer support--you should never feel guilty about looking elsewhere. A company that truly cares about its reputation and performance will know to put as much emphasis on customer service quality as it does for the towing services offered.
Additional Details To Consider
As mentioned above, you should not expect to choose your towing company on price alone. In fact, pricing might be tricky to establish. Depending on how the towing company charges, you may not be looking at a flat rate. Some companies include hook-up fees, out of area fees, and other miscellaneous costs as well as charging a certain sum for every mile driven. Ask for an estimate or quote when calling a towing company so that you can factor in the entirety of your service before making a decision.
If you’re far outside of your local service area and you’re unfamiliar with the area’s towing companies, you can do one of two things. Call your car insurance company and let them know that you’re in need of towing services and ask if there is anything they can offer you. Some insurance companies will cover towing in certain situations; in other cases, the company can recommend a tow truck to call.
You can also call the police department in the area and let them know what has occurred. The police can typically suggest a local towing company. What’s more, because you have just made them aware of your situation, there’s a record of where you are and what sort of help you need. Some departments might even pick you up and take you back to the station if the situation you’re in is potentially dangerous.
Once you have chosen a towing company, be sure that you get every important part of the transaction in writing. Do not rely on verbal agreements as they do not carry with them any legal obligation and cannot be verified in any certain way if complications arise. Ask for a printout of the services provided, total pricing (with a breakdown of what each factor costs), any guarantees their office claims, and warranties if applicable. While it’s quite likely that the service will be completed without a hitch, it’s good to protect yourself from being overcharged. Additionally, you now have something to submit to your insurance company if needed.
Nobody wants to be stuck on the side of the road with or without access to their vehicle. Whether you have been locked out, sustained a flat tire, ran out of gas, had your car overheat, were in an accident, had your vehicle go off the road, or your battery died, you’re going to need the services of someone who can get you help as soon as possible. A bit of time spent researching can help you ensure that this help does not come at a cost that’s any more than what’s fair, and can help you ensure that you’re provided with great service along the way.
At Stauffer’s Towing, we put all of our customers’ needs first. Learn more about what towing services we offer.