How to price towing
from your own costs.

Know what a mile, an hour and a call cost

• Per mile: fuel (your price divided by your miles per gallon) and a maintenance allowance for tires, brakes and wear.
• Per hour: operator pay, including payroll costs, for the whole job: travel, hookup, waiting and drop-off.
• Per call: card and platform fees, tolls, disposal and similar.
• Per month: insurance, yard rent, dispatch software, phones and the truck payment. Divide them by your calls per month to get each call’s share.

Count the empty miles

The drive to the pickup and the drive back burn the same fuel and time as the loaded miles, but nobody may pay for them. A rate built on loaded miles alone can lose money on every call that starts far away.

Pick a rate structure you can explain

• Hookup fee plus a per-mile charge is the most familiar structure for light-duty tows. Decide whether miles are counted loaded only or from your dispatch point.
• Hourly rates are common for heavy-duty towing and recovery, where time and equipment drive the cost more than distance.
• Extras such as winching, waiting time, after-hours and holiday calls, dollies, cleanup and daily storage should be written down and applied the same way every time.

The tow rate calculator takes your costs, a typical call and the per-mile charge you plan to bill, and works out the hookup fee that reaches your margin.

Check whether your rates are capped

Police-rotation, private-property and other tows made without the vehicle owner’s consent are often subject to maximum rates set by a state, county, city, toll-road authority or contract, and storage and release fees can be regulated too. Find out what applies where you work before you publish a rate sheet.

Judge motor-club offers against your costs

A motor-club or network payout is a flat offer for the whole job. Put it beside your cost for that job, including the drive out and back. An offer that covers its running costs but not its share of fixed costs can still help on a quiet day; one that does not cover its running costs loses money on its own.

Set your rates on your own

Base your rates on your costs and your own judgment of your market. Agreeing on rates with competing tow companies, even informally, is price-fixing, which is illegal under federal antitrust law.

Revisit them when costs move

Fuel, insurance and pay change through the year. Rerun the numbers when they do, and keep your rate sheet dated.