Tow truck

A tow truck (also called a wrecker, a breakdown truck, recovery vehicle or a breakdown lorry) is a truck used to move disabled, improperly parked, impounded, or otherwise indisposed motor vehicles. This may involve recovering a vehicle damaged in an accident, returning one to a drivable surface in a mishap or inclement weather, or towing or transporting one via flatbed to a repair shop or other location.

A tow truck is distinct from a motor carrier that moves multiple new or used vehicles simultaneously in routine transport operations.

History

The tow truck was invented in 1916 by Ernest Holmes, Sr., of Chattanooga, Tennessee, a garage worker inspired after needing blocks, ropes, and six men to pull a car out of a creek. Upon improving his design he began manufacturing them commercially. The International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum in his home town displays restored antique wreckers, tools, equipment, and pictorial histories of the industry Holmes created.

Types of towing equipment

Vehicle recovery

Vehicle recovery is the recovery of any vehicle to another place, generally speaking with a commercial vehicle known as a recovery vehicle, tow truck or spectacle lift.

Recovery can take the form of general recovery, normally of broken down vehicles, or a Statutory Recovery at the request of the police using police powers, conferred in the United Kingdom by Parliament using an Act.

General recovery

There are many types of organisations that carry out the recovery of disabled vehicles; however, they can be divided into two distinct areas: Recovery Operators (who undertake the recovery) and Motoring Organisations.

Motoring organisations—or as they are often known, 'The Clubs'—are organisations to which the vehicle's driver will belong. They may have made a conscious effort to do this, or they may have got the membership with their new vehicle, through a company scheme, or purchased with an insurance policy.

In the event that a member of the public does not have a "club" membership, the police or Highways Agency can arrange recovery of the vehicle at what is called an "Owner's Request" and they will arrange for help to attend.