Most people have never had to call a tow truck before the moment they actually need one. And when that moment comes — stranded on the side of the road, stressed, maybe in the dark or the rain — it’s easy to fumble the call in ways that slow everything down. The information you give when you call a towing company directly affects how fast the right truck gets to you, whether it’s the right truck for your vehicle, and how smoothly the whole situation gets resolved. Here’s what actually matters when you make that call, and what most people either forget or get wrong.
Your Exact Location — Not Just a General Area
This is the single most common problem on towing calls. “I’m on McFarland Boulevard” or “I’m somewhere near the university” isn’t enough to find you quickly, especially at night or in an area where one stretch of road looks identical to the next from a truck window.
What we actually need: the nearest cross street or intersection, the nearest mile marker if you’re on an interstate, the nearest exit number if you can see one, and which direction you’re traveling or facing. If you’re in a parking lot, the name of the business helps more than the street address. If you’re in a neighborhood, the house number you’re parked in front of is better than just the street name.
If you genuinely don’t know where you are, open your maps app before you call and either read us the address it shows for your current location or drop a pin and read the coordinates. A dropped pin takes about five seconds and eliminates the back-and-forth entirely. In the Tuscaloosa area specifically, some of the roads between exits on I-20 and I-59 can look very similar, and a mile marker number gets our driver to the right spot immediately instead of searching a two-mile stretch of shoulder.
The Year, Make, Model, and Drive Type of Your Vehicle
Not every tow truck is right for every vehicle, and knowing what we’re coming to pick up before we leave the yard means we bring the right equipment the first time. A front-wheel-drive sedan and an all-wheel-drive SUV are not the same tow — the SUV needs a flatbed to avoid drivetrain damage, while the sedan can often be handled with a wheel lift. A motorcycle needs different rigging than a pickup truck. An RV needs completely different equipment than a standard passenger car.
The year and make matter too, but the drive type — front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, or four-wheel drive — is the most important piece of information for determining which truck to send. If you don’t know your drive type off the top of your head, check your owner’s manual or look it up quickly on your phone before or during the call. It’s a detail that can save you from waiting for a second truck to show up because the first one wasn’t equipped for your vehicle.
What Actually Happened — Not Just “It Won’t Start”
“My car won’t start” covers about a dozen different problems, some of which need a jump start, some of which need a tow, and some of which need a specific type of tow. The more detail you can give about what happened leading up to the breakdown, the better we can prepare before arriving.
Did the engine cut out suddenly while you were driving, or did it just not start when you turned the key? Did you hear any unusual sounds — grinding, clicking, a loud pop — before it stopped? Are any warning lights on, and if so which ones? Did the car overheat? Is there fluid leaking underneath it? Did you run out of gas, or do you have fuel in the tank? Is the car in the middle of the road, partially off it, or fully on the shoulder?
None of this requires you to be a mechanic. You don’t need to diagnose the problem — that’s not your job. But describing what you saw, heard, and experienced gives the driver a much clearer picture of what they’re walking into than a vague description of the symptom alone.
Whether the Vehicle Can Roll and Whether the Wheels Turn
This one catches people off guard because it’s not an obvious thing to think about in a stressful moment, but it matters for how we hook up the vehicle. If the brakes are seized, if a wheel is bent or blown out completely, if the steering is locked, or if the transmission is stuck in park and won’t release, the approach to loading or hooking up the vehicle changes. A car that can’t roll at all needs to be handled differently from one that rolls freely. Telling us upfront saves time on arrival and reduces the risk of anything going wrong during the hookup.
Your Phone Number — One That You’ll Actually Answer
This sounds obvious but it gets missed more often than you’d think. Give us a number you’ll have with you and will pick up when we call, not a home number or an office number you’re not near. Our driver may need to call you when they’re close to confirm your exact location, especially if you’re in a spot that’s hard to find from the road. If your phone battery is low, tell us that too so we know to reach you quickly rather than assuming you’re not answering.
What You Don’t Need to Know
People sometimes hesitate to call because they’re not sure what’s wrong with their car, or because they don’t know exactly what service they need. That’s completely fine — figuring out what you need is part of what happens when we arrive. You don’t need to know whether you need a wheel lift or a flatbed, whether you need a jump start or a full tow, or whether your problem is the battery or the alternator. The more detail you can give about your situation the better, but not knowing the answer to those questions isn’t a reason to hesitate on the call.
What slows things down isn’t a caller who doesn’t know what’s wrong with their car — it’s a caller who doesn’t know where they are. Location first, everything else second.
One Thing Worth Doing Before You Ever Need to Call
The best time to think about what you’d say on a towing call is before you ever need to make one. Know where your vehicle registration is, because it has your year, make, and model on it. Know whether your vehicle is front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, or all-wheel drive — it’s in the owner’s manual and takes thirty seconds to look up. Know roughly where your spare tire is, even if you never plan to change it yourself. And if you drive I-20 or I-59 regularly, pay attention to exit numbers and mile markers occasionally — the ones you drive past every day are the ones you might need to report when you’re stuck.
None of this takes more than a few minutes of preparation. And if you ever do end up stranded and calling for help, those few minutes are what turn a stressful call into a quick, efficient one.
Every Hours Towing Co. serves Tuscaloosa, AL and all of Tuscaloosa County. When you call, we’ll ask the right questions to get the right truck to you — but the more you can tell us upfront, the faster we move.