About The Group Behind This Notebook
Who keeps The Glovebox Notebook, what their judgement rests on, and what they will not do for a reader.
Who keeps this notebook, and what their judgement rests on
The Glovebox Notebook is a notebook of what to know when a car stops. It is written from the cited sources and re-checked against them. We belong to no towing trade body and hold no industry credential. What we offer is a method, and a reader can check each step of it.
We read the primary text first: state statutes, city guidance and published trade material. We look for a rule in that text before any claim goes on a page, and we set what a state says beside what a town or a company says. As the Towing and Recovery Association of America explains on its About Us page, the association speaks for the towing and recovery industry on federal legislation and education, so it is the page we send readers to when they ask who sets the wider rules.
A notebook kept this way has limits, and we state them. We do not rank companies or write reviews, and no customer or reader is quoted anywhere on this site. A figure appears only with its source beside it, and the text was read as of October 2026.
Why the notebook covers the minutes before the call
The people who answer a roadside call are usually the people with a truck to send. This notebook is kept by people who have no truck to send, so a reader gets the rules and the questions without a sales route attached. It is built for the minutes before a call: whether the car has to be moved, who may move it, and what to ask before anyone hooks up.
Three things this notebook will not do
It will not rank towing companies
A list of the best or nearest firms would need data we do not hold, and no reader could check the ranking. Where a reader asks who to call, we set out the questions to ask instead.
It will not write reviews or invent people
The notebook publishes no reviews or ratings of its own, and it quotes no customer or reader. The only quotations are the owner's own sentences.
It will not state a figure without a source
Each price, fine or deadline is tied to a named statute, city page or published article. Where a source is undated, we say so beside the figure.
Figures we check every recommendation against
- $132
- The passenger-vehicle maximum for a police-ordered or private-property tow in Massachusetts, as the Boston Globe reported in January 2024, after an emergency change from $108. The change was pending final approval, so check the Department of Public Utilities for the figure in force.
- $100
- The most a fine can be in Massachusetts for removing a vehicle from private property without the required police notice or the owner's consent, under General Laws, Chapter 266, Section 120D.
- 15 days
- The New Hampshire window to ask the commissioner of safety in writing for a review of a state-police tow fee, counted from release, under RSA 262:35-a. From 1 January 2027 the window becomes 30 days from receipt of the invoice.
- 106
- Tow truck operators killed or severely injured, in cases identified in a 2019 study of OSHA records published by the CDC's public archive. The study covers US data.
Where the state cap stops, and what it leaves to the driver
One belief readers bring to this subject is that the state caps every tow. The facts do not support that. Under General Laws, Chapter 159B, Section 6B, the state sets the maximum a tow company may charge for a tow ordered by the police or another public authority.
The City of Boston's towing guide says the Department of Public Utilities does not regulate towing that the vehicle owner requests. A cap on the police's tow is not a cap on a tow you order yourself, so agree the price first.
A cap on the police's tow is not a cap on a tow you order yourself, so agree the price first.
A lock repair on camera, and why it is not a lockout
Some calls about a locked car turn out to be repairs rather than rescues. The clip below shows a door lock cylinder being taken apart and rekeyed, step by step. It shows the lock being serviced, not a car being opened.
Start with the helper on How We Help
If you are deciding what kind of help a stopped car needs, the helper asks a few questions about the car and where it sits, then names the kind of help to ask for. It names no company and prints no prices.
Open the helper on How We Help to begin.