A surprising number of breakdowns are handled by someone who is nowhere near the car. A parent rings from a supermarket car park, a new driver is stuck on a road they have never used, a van driver calls the office from a job in another part of the county. You can arrange the tow from your own phone. You just need a few answers from them before you start.
Safety comes before the booking
Ask where they are standing, not where the car is. On a motorway or a fast dual carriageway they should already be out of the car, standing well back from the lanes, ideally behind a crash barrier or up the grass bank. If anyone is injured, the call they need is 112, and if they cannot make it, make it for them. The tow can wait a few minutes.
Get their location, not yours
When you open the app, it may drop the pin on your own position. For somebody else’s breakdown that is the wrong spot, so move the pin or type the place in. The most useful things to ask them for:
- A shared location. Most phones can send their position through a map app or a messaging app. Ask them to send it, then match the pin to it.
- An Eircode. If they are outside a house, a shop or a workplace, the Eircode for that address points at the exact building.
- Road and direction. On a motorway or a national road, which way they were heading and the last junction they passed.
Then the vehicle
- The registration. Ask them to read it off the plate, not from memory.
- Whether it is a car, a van or something bigger, and whether it still rolls and steers.
- What happened, in their words: it cut out, there was a bang, a warning light came on, a tyre went.
- Where it should end up: their house, their garage, or your yard if it is a work vehicle.
Sending the request
In the TowNow tow truck app, set the pickup to their location, add the registration and the drop-off, choose emergency, pick the problem and check the price before you confirm. The request goes out from your phone and your account, so expect any call about the job to come to you. Keep your phone charged and close.
Then ring them back. Tell them a truck has been booked, that the operator’s position is on your map, and to stay where they are safe rather than walking to meet it. You can read the operator’s progress to them as it comes closer.
When a call is easier than the app
Some jobs are simpler to explain by voice: two people at the scene, a car half in a ditch, or a phone at three per cent. You can request a tow online with the call-back form and put both numbers in the notes, or ring 087 452 4853 and give us the number of the person at the car. A person on the TowNow team reads every call-back request before anything is arranged.
If you look after a few vans
Keep the registrations and the address of your usual garage somewhere the whole team can find them, and put the app on whichever phone the office answers. When a driver rings in, the request then takes a couple of minutes instead of a long back and forth.
Keys and handover
Agree what happens to the keys before the truck arrives. If the person at the car is getting a lift home, the keys either travel with the car or get left where the garage expects them, and the garage should hear that the car is on its way.