TowingBossPro Blog — Towing Software

On-the-Way and Arrival Texts for Stranded Drivers

Nobody calls a tow company on a good day. Your customer is on a shoulder with traffic blowing by, in a parking lot with a dead battery and a kid in the back seat, or standing outside a locked car in the cold. The single most useful thing you can tell them, after "we're sending someone," is "he's on his way now."

In Vehicle Photos at Pickup and Drop-Off: Protecting Your Towing Company, we covered protecting your company with photos. This one is about protecting the customer's sanity — and your dispatcher's.

Why the Waiting Is the Worst Part

A stranded driver experiences time differently. Thirty minutes with no word feels like an hour. Without information, they start calling: first your office, then a competitor, sometimes a friend with a truck. Each of those calls is a risk that your driver arrives to find the customer gone, or that your dispatcher spends the afternoon answering "how much longer?"

A simple text at the right moment changes the experience. The wait may be exactly the same length, but it feels shorter because the customer knows something is happening.

Think about the last time you sat in a waiting room with no idea how long it would be, compared with one that had a board showing where you were in line. Nothing about the wait changed except the information. Towing customers are in a much worse spot than a waiting room, so the effect is even stronger.

Two Texts That Matter

There are two moments worth a text on almost every call. The first is when the driver actually starts heading to the customer. Not when the call is taken, not when it is assigned, but when the truck is rolling their way. The second is when the driver arrives, so the customer knows to look for the truck and come out from wherever they are sheltering.

In the TowingBossPro driver app, both are one tap. The driver taps on-the-way as he pulls out and arrival when he pulls up. He doesn't type a message or use his personal number.

Timing is what makes these texts trustworthy. An on-the-way text sent when the call is assigned, while the driver still has two tows ahead of it, sets an expectation you can't meet. Because the driver taps it himself when he actually heads out, the message is true when it lands. Teach drivers that rule from day one: tap on-the-way when the wheels are turning toward that customer, not before.

Let the Customer Watch the Truck

Texts tell the customer you're coming. A map shows them. In the TowingBossPro customer app, the customer can see a live map of the driver on the way. For someone sitting in a cold car on a dark road, watching the truck get closer is reassuring in a way that an estimated time never is.

It also means the customer is ready when the driver arrives: out of the car and somewhere safe, with keys and paperwork in hand, instead of searching for the registration while the driver waits.

For roadside calls the effect is the same. Someone locked out of their car at a gas station can stay inside where it is warm and walk out when they see the truck pull in. A driver waiting on a fuel delivery can keep the hazards on and stay buckled in rather than standing on the shoulder looking for headlights.

What a Good Towing Text Says

Keep the texts short and useful. Your company name, so they know it is real. The fact that the driver is on the way or has arrived. Ideally, what kind of truck to look for if you can say so in a few words. That's it.

Avoid anything that sounds like marketing or asks them to do something complicated. They are in the middle of a bad day. A clean, plain message reads as professional. Automated texts and emails in TowingBossPro let you set this up once so every customer gets the same clear message.

Fewer Calls to Dispatch

Every "where's my truck" call takes a dispatcher away from something more important: answering a new call, working the Waiting List, moving calls between trucks. On a busy day, those status calls can take up a meaningful share of the phone traffic.

When customers get a text as soon as the driver leaves, and can follow him on a live map, most of those calls simply stop. The dispatcher gets time back to dispatch, which is the whole job.

When Things Run Late

Delays happen. A recovery takes longer than planned, or the truck heading to your customer gets pulled to a crash in a travel lane. The texts are not a substitute for a call when a wait gets much longer than you promised. Use two-way texting to send an honest update and keep the conversation in one thread, so whoever answers next sees the history.

Customers forgive delays when they're told about them. They rarely forgive silence. For how texting fits with dispatch, the driver app and invoicing, see the towing software page.