Towing Call Intake Checklist
Every profitable tow is a short interrogation that does not feel like one. Skip drivetrain and you send the wrong truck. Skip payment and you collect at the curb. Print this list, keep it by the phone, and notice it is the same list an AI dispatcher has to finish before it texts you.
A towing call intake checklist is the set of questions that decides whether a job is profitable before a truck moves: drivetrain, accident or breakdown, whether it is blocking a lane, whether keys are available, the exact pickup (not a landmark), who authorizes the drop-off, and how the customer is paying — plus year, make, model, and a callback number. Those are the seven-plus fields on the tow truck dispatcher page, written here so you can print them. An AI dispatcher has to finish the same list. A message that skips it is how you send a wheel-lift to an AWD SUV at 1 AM.
Key takeaways
- Print the list below. Desk copy and glove-box copy.
- Drivetrain, location, and payment are the expensive skips.
- Landmarks are not pins — resolve or send a geo form before rolling.
- Tow Deputy runs this intake 24/7 and texts the structured job; you still enter Towbook/Omadi today.
The printable checklist
Use your browser's print dialog on this page. Ask in an order that sounds like a conversation, not a booking form, but do not hang up until every line has an answer.
- Callback numberConfirm the ANI; get a second number if a battery is dying.
- Year / make / modelSize, class, sometimes the equipment guess — never a substitute for drivetrain.
- 1. DrivetrainFWD, RWD, AWD, or 4x4. Skip it and you send the wrong truck.
- 2. Accident or breakdown?Police, fluids, extra equipment, different arrival plan.
- 3. Blocking a lane?Time-critical, often police-involved, changes dispatch order.
- 4. Keys available?Locked in, lost, or in hand — dolly, lockout kit, or nothing extra.
- 5. Where exactly?Address or resolved pin. Not “behind the Shell off the interstate.”
- 6. Who authorizes drop-off?Caller, insurer, shop, fleet manager. Wrong answer means two moves.
- 7. How are they paying?Card, cash, motor club, insurance. Asking at the curb is how tows become collections.
- Passengers / notesWho is with the car, pets, wheelchair, gate codes.
Roadside-only jobs still need 1, 4, 5, and 7. A lockout in a parking garage without a stall number is the landmark problem in costume. Location Intelligence exists because callers will not volunteer a street number.
What each skip costs you
| Skipped field | One-truck consequence | Five-truck consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Drivetrain | You are the second truck, an hour later | Wrong unit rolls; closest right unit is now farther |
| Lane blocked | You treat it like a driveway job | You dispatch out of urgency order |
| Exact location | Twenty minutes of frontage-road tourism | Two drivers hunting; radio noise; reviews |
| Payment / drop-off authority | Unpaid bumper argument, then a second move | Same argument, plus a shop account you just annoyed |
According to TheKeyBot, 85% of emergency callers will not leave a voicemail. An incomplete intake that forces a callback is often a miss with extra steps. Finish the list on the first call.
How an AI dispatcher uses this list
Tow Deputy's AI towing dispatch collects structured intake on every call: caller, vehicle, drivetrain, problem type, keys and traffic, pickup and drop-off, notes. It quotes your card while the list is still in progress so the payment question is not a surprise. On Growth it can send a deposit link before you roll. Then it texts you the summary. You glance, you take it or you do not — Anthony G.'s one-man version of dispatch — and you enter the job in Towbook or Omadi yourself. Native sync is not built yet.
“We run 14 trucks across three counties. We used to need two full-time dispatchers around the clock. Tow Deputy handles the intake perfectly — vehicle type, drivetrain, exact location, the whole nine. The structured data feeds right into our routing, so we always send the closest available driver. We cut our dispatch overhead by 90% and our average response time dropped by 8 minutes.”
That quote is a 14-truck shop. The checklist does not get shorter because you have one truck. It gets more expensive to skip, because you are the second truck. Keep the paper list for humans. Let the AI run it when nobody can pick up. Starter is $99/mo with a 14-day free trial. Demo: (615) 205-9369.
How to use the list on a live call without sounding like a form
Open with the problem — “are you blocking a lane, and is anyone hurt?” — then vehicle and drivetrain, then location, then money. Payment last is easier on a scared caller, but it cannot be omitted. If they only have a landmark, stay on location until you have a pin or a texted geo form; do not “figure it out when we get close.” One-truck operators skip this because they think they know the town. That is how you end up in the wrong Walmart parking lot. Five-truck shops skip it because the radio is loud and someone says “I got it.” Structured intake is how Eric A.'s routing gets a closest driver instead of a guess.
Motor-club and police-rotation calls still need the list, but they also need a person for the account rules. Use a press-1 or an escalation type so those do not die in an AI script they should not be in. Impound FAQs can stay automated if you taught the hours and the fees. Junk-car callers can be ended or transferred — your policy. The checklist is for dispatchable tows and roadside jobs. Everything else is triage into the right bucket: job, escalate, or end.
Tape a one-page version above the shop phone anyway. New night drivers will not remember drivetrain when the caller is yelling. The paper list is training. The AI is coverage. You want both. When you listen to a Tow Deputy recording, grade it against this page. If a field is missing, fix the configuration, then print the list again so humans and software are asking the same seven questions.
Towing intake checklist FAQs
What questions should a tow dispatcher ask on every call?
Seven decide whether the job is profitable: drivetrain, accident or breakdown, blocking a lane, keys available, exact location, who authorizes the drop-off, and how they are paying. Year, make, model, and a callback number sit on top of those seven. Skip one and you send the wrong truck or chase payment at the bumper. The dispatcher guide walks through why each question exists.
Why does drivetrain matter more than make and model?
Make and model tell you size and sometimes class. Drivetrain tells you equipment. AWD and 4x4 often need a flatbed; a wheel-lift on the wrong car is a second truck and a customer watching you learn. Ask it every time, including on lockouts, because the 'just a lockout' that becomes a tow is still an AWD problem.
What if the caller only has a landmark?
Do not dispatch to 'behind the Shell off the interstate.' Resolve it to an address or drop a geo pin before a truck moves. That is the single largest source of wasted driving in towing. Location Intelligence is the AI version of the same habit. A human dispatcher who guesses is also wasting diesel.
Can I print this checklist?
Yes. This page is the checklist. Use your browser's print function and keep a copy at the desk and in the truck. If nobody is at the desk, the same fields are what Tow Deputy captures on the call before it texts you. Either a person or the AI has to finish the list. Voicemail finishes none of it.
Related reading
- Back to the blog
- Tow truck dispatcher: the job, the cost, the AI option
- Caller location capture when they only have a landmark
- AI dispatch that runs this intake on every call
- 24/7 intake from $99/mo
Let the checklist run when you cannot hold the phone
Start a 14-day free trial or call the demo line and listen for every field on this list.