What information should you give a towing company?

1. Where you are — properly

On a street: the address, or the nearest cross streets.

On an interstate: the road, the direction of travel, and the last exit you passed. An address means nothing on I-285. Direction and last exit mean everything.

In a car park or deck: the property, the level, and roughly where in it. Decks are the single most common cause of a wasted first trip.

Best of all, send a pin from your phone. It removes the entire category of problem.

2. What is actually happening

Not your theory — the symptoms. "It won't turn over at all and the dash is dead" is far more useful than "I think the alternator's gone". Say whether it was running when it stopped, whether it moved under its own power, whether anything sounded or smelled wrong.

Be honest about anything that makes it urgent or hazardous: fuel leaking, smoke, a hot engine, a vehicle in a live lane.

3. Year, make and model

This sizes the job. A compact car and a three-quarter-ton pickup are different trucks. It also lets a dispatcher work out things you might not know — including, often, the drivetrain.

4. Drivetrain

Front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive. This is the one people skip and it is the one that most often causes a second trip, because an all-wheel-drive vehicle usually needs a flatbed or dollies. If you do not know, say you do not know — that is a useful answer too.

Also mention if it is electric or hybrid. Several have their own towing restrictions.

5. What is around the vehicle

The access question, and the one that decides which truck can physically get to you:

• Is it in a parking deck? What is the clearance bar, if you can see it?
• Is it boxed in, parked tight on both sides, nose-first in a space?
• Is it on grass, in mud, in a ditch, or off the road surface? That is a recovery, not a straight tow, and it needs a winch.
• Is it on a hill, in an alley, behind a gate, or somewhere with a height restriction?
• Is the vehicle lowered or unusually low at the front?

6. Will it roll, steer and shift into neutral?

Three separate questions that all change the equipment. A car that will not come out of park needs skates or dollies. A locked steering column means it cannot be steered onto a deck. Flat tires mean it will not roll properly.

7. Where it is going

Your mechanic, a dealership, home, or a shop you want a recommendation for. Distance is a large part of the price, so knowing the destination up front is what makes a quote a real number rather than a range.

If you genuinely do not know yet, say so — but decide quickly, because storage is charged by the day wherever it ends up.

And what you should ask them

The call goes both ways. Reasonable questions:

• What will it cost? Get a number, and ask what would change it.
• How long, realistically? A window, not a wish.
• What kind of truck are you sending? Especially if your vehicle is AWD, lowered or in a deck.
• Do I need to be there? Usually yes, but not always.
• Do I get an invoice showing the destination? You want that, particularly if insurance is involved.

And one worth asking that almost nobody does: does this actually need to be towed? Some breakdowns genuinely do not, and a company that runs a mobile mechanic is able to answer that honestly rather than reflexively.