Community Projects: The Guides We Keep
Each piece here answers one question a driver brings to a stopped car. Nothing here is a job we carried out or a ranked list of companies.
The kinds of tow people mean, and who usually calls each
Towing covers several different jobs, and the job decides who calls the truck. A municipal tow is a city or town removing a car under its own parking rules. A private-property tow is removed from a lot at the request of whoever controls it. An auto auction tow moves a vehicle the auction is selling or holding. Fleet and contract towing run on standing terms agreed before any car needs moving.
Each question has a home here:
- Lots and streets: the questions page covers lot notices, the half-fee rule and where the car goes.
- Choosing the truck: the tow-type helper on How We Help asks about the vehicle and where it sits.
- The minutes after a stop: the dated notes on Whats Happening.
- Checking a company: the history page explains what a published record can show.
For auction, fleet and contract work, this site has no sourced rule and states none. Ask for the price and terms in writing before the hook-up. The City of Boston's towing guidance notes that the Department of Public Utilities does not regulate a tow the owner requests, so the state maximum does not cover that call.
Dates that change what a tow costs or requires
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Massachusetts raised its passenger-car cap
The Department of Public Utilities raised the passenger-vehicle maximum from $108 to $132, a 22 percent rise, by emergency action pending final consideration. The Boston Globe reported it on January 19, 2024.
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The day these figures were checked
The statutes and pages cited here were read on this date. The Boston page gives $132 undated, and whether the emergency rate became final was not confirmed, so check the Department of Public Utilities.
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New Hampshire's review window grows to 30 days
A New Hampshire owner who disputes a state-police tow fee can pay to get the car released, then has 15 days from release to ask the commissioner of safety for a review in writing, under RSA 262:35-a. From January 1, 2027 that window becomes 30 days from receipt of the invoice.
A guide is only worth keeping if a reader can open each source it names and find the same figure there.
Why these pieces made the cut, and what was left out
A piece stays here only if a reader can check it. Each guide answers a question a driver meets at the roadside, and every figure traces to a source a reader can open.
We do not rank towing companies, name the nearest one or count reviews, because nothing on this site could check those claims. Nor do we show jobs, customers or events we did not witness. The picture at the top of this band and the one in the field note below are generated, and the clip further down is stock footage.
Roadside work on film, for context only
This clip shows tow operators helping drivers at the roadside. It is stock footage, not a job this site carried out.
Clip by Clément Proust on Pexels.
If you are still choosing between a roadside call and a tow, start with the helper on How We Help. It names no company and prints no prices.