4 Things Top Tow Operators and Business Owners Do Differently

Last Updated: November 2026

🔎 In this article: It’s not bigger fleets or newer trucks that separate thriving tow businesses from struggling ones. Rudy Nieto shares what he’s learned about habits and practices that leading tow business owners and operators prioritize, no matter the size or scale of business.

I’ve never run a towing company. I spent years around vehicle titles and lien data, but that's different. So when I became Autura’s CEO, I made it a point to learn this industry from the people in it. I spent time on the road with tow owners and operators. I still do. Mostly I listen.

I’m sharing four major things I’ve noticed about the thriving towing and recovery businesses.

Spoiler alert: the habits below have nothing to do with truck count or territory size.

4 Habits the Top Towing Professionals Put Into Practice

1) They Don’t Leave Safety to Luck

Safety (in any context) is personal for me. If you want to know why, read my LinkedIn post, or you can trust me.

Same goes for those in the towing and recovery industry. They work on dangerous roadsides every day. A few stats that underline why:

• 2,100+ people were struck and killed while stranded or working on the roadside between 2019 and 2023, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
• The same AAA research found that only 58% of drivers believe their state requires them to slow down or move over for a tow truck, compared with 66% for a police car.
• Still, 36% of drivers changed lanes or slowed down for neither.

Top operators do not treat that as bad luck they hope to avoid. They treat it as a known hazard and actively train against it. They use programs like the Towing and Recovery Operator Certification Program, a joint standard from WreckMaster and TRAA, which turns two separate certification tracks into one. They drill scene positioning and high-visibility gear, and enforce the same proper safety practices on quiet Tuesday afternoons as they do in snowstorms.

Related reading: Roadside Safety Should Start with Better Education: Here’s Why

2) They Don’t Wait for Their Market to Grow

According to IBISWorld's market data, the U.S. automobile towing service providers' revenue is hovering around $12 billion this year. That number has shrunk at a rate of 1.7% per year from 2021 to 2026.

Automobile towing service providers have operated in a volatile environment during the current period. Swings in consumer travel activity, business operating costs and competition created revenue volatility… In 2026, fuel price increases and economic uncertainty have encouraged households to consolidate trips and delay nonessential travel. At the same time, market fragmentation has created intense contract competition, which has limited providers' pricing power and ability to apply fuel surcharge increases.

That is not a market handing out easy growth.

The operators doing well are competing with reliability and speed, not just hoping business picks up.

• They know their average response time.
• They know which contracts are profitable.
• They don’t guess about capacity. They track and monitor it.  

My colleague and experienced towing industry expert, Dennis McGowan, shares more about how smart towing business owners diversify their revenue.

3) They Make It Easy for Customers to Pay

This isn’t specific to the towing industry, but cash now accounts for just 14% of consumer payments, while credit and debit cards make up two thirds of all payments, according to the Federal Reserve’s annual Diary of Consumer Payment Choice.

The takeaway: stranded motorists stuck on highway shoulders likely won’t be pulling out a checkbook or handing tow operators cash to pay for services.

Top towing pros understand this, and set themselves up to accept secure payment methods: swipe, tap, or text. This encourages payment on the spot instead of 30 days later (or not at all), and helps prevent chargebacks.

4) They Make Earning Trust a Top Priority

Ninety-seven percent of consumers read online reviews at least occasionally before choosing a local business, according to BrightLocal's most recent Local Consumer Review Survey.

But trust in those reviews is thinner than it used to be. Since 2020, the amount consumers report trusting online reviews as much as personal recommendations has dropped from 79% to 49%.

People are reading more and believing less. Any operator coasting on a handful of older five-star reviews should worry. Top tow pros treat online reputation the way they treat their fleet, giving it regular maintenance.  

• Respond to reviews, good and bad.
• Ask satisfied customers to leave reviews while their good towing experience is top of mind.
• Understand that one dismissive response to a bad review does more damage than the bad review itself.

Related reading: Online Reviews: The Tow Business Guide On How to Ask, Interact, and Manage Feedback

The four habits above take discipline, not capital. Every tow business owner reading this, whether you run three or three hundred, can put these into practice.

The operators who take safety, reliability, compensation, and customer trust seriously are the ones making it in this market. And they’re the ones we love working with because our mission…

We drive integrity, compliance, and efficiency in towing and recovery, so communities keep moving, lives are saved, and people get home.

… aligns with how these towing professionals run their businesses.

Let's Roll.

Rudy