How To Get The Best Pricing For Your Tow Service

Needing Vehicle Towing, especially in an urgent situation, can often be a stressful and daunting time. While there are many things to consider when choosing which Towing Company to trust (check out our previous blog post What should I be looking for in a Towing Company?), we know that pricing is extremely important to our customers. We know that costs have risen in virtually every industry and at Jimmy Ray's Towing, we do our very best to provide affordable, professional and convenient towing but, we also want to help you save the most money, even if you don't choose us.

Proximity to pick-up and/or drop-off location

Like most towing companies, we use a mileage-based pricing structure. When you use Jimmy Ray's Towing, you will always receive an itemized bill with a pricing breakdown, for complete transparency. We have separate pricing for both "loaded miles" and "unloaded miles" and also separate our "Hook Fee" on said invoice. We know some customers will use their invoice to submit to their insurance for reimnursement but, even if you don't, we want to make sure you understand every part of your invoice.

When choosing a towing company, finding one in a close proximity to either your pick-up location or your drop-off location can help improve total cost. Using this strategy will reduce the number of "empty miles" you may be charged for (meaning the miles it takes for the tow truck to get to your location). For customers who's pick-up location is very close to our home base (Boiling Springs/Spartanburg area), you may not incurr any empty mile charges. Additionally, for customers utilizing a tow for a relatively long distance, we may be able to discount or remove empty milage charges.

"Why are there different rates for different mileage categories?"

Our Empty Mileage charges are lower than our Loaded Mileage charges. This is due to Loaded Miles carrying a higher cost of operating (increased weight means decreased gas mileage, additional wear and tear on our trucks and increased insurance rates when we have a vehicle loaded). Our Empty Mileage charges cover only the average fuel and driver cost and there is little-to-no profit for our charges when our tow truck is en route to you.

What is a "Hook Fee"?

A Hook Fee is our charge category for loading and unloading your vehicle. It is based on an average hourly rate and accounts for costs incurred during that period. As always, this will show as an itemized charge on your invoice.

"Have you increased your pricing?"

Like virtually all businesses and consumers, the costs to operate a towing business have increased DRASTICALLY. Rising fuel costs, the necessity to pay our drivers and employees a living wage, increased vehicle cost, increased insurance costs and increased fuel cost have affected our business, along with countless others. At the beginning of the current inflationary period, Jimmy Ray's Towing committed to doing whatever it takes to provide our customer base with the best and safest towing experience. When faced with the option to decrease our insurance coverage (including the coverage we have for a customer's vehicle while loaded on our truck) or prolonging granting our experienced drivers and employees a fair pay increase, we decided that an increased risk to our customers, a lack of support to our employees or the chance of providing a sub-par experience was just not worth it. We have retained our insurance coverage at a higher limit, in spite of many towing companies either dropping their coverage limits or operating without insurance at all. We know how important your vehicle is to you and we always want to operate under the most protective circumstances possible.

Unfortunately, this protection does come at a cost. We have adjusted our profit margin to accomdate passing LESS of the cost increase to our customer. We have remained committed to keeping our prices as affordable as possible to reduce the financial impact of needing a towing service.

The Takeaway

While there are considerations to make when choosing your towing company (like the proximity to your pick-up or drop-off location) which can make a difference in your total charges, there are so many factors that determine the pricing that towing companies may charge for your service. Although our costs have continued to rise, we have and will continue to do our very best when it comes to serving the Spartanburg and surrounding areas at an affordable rate. We also have monthly specials to help offset some of the cost (check out our SPECIALS page for this month's current specials).

No matter how short or long your towing needs, Jimmy Ray's Towing aims to provide the fastest, most convenient towing service at affordable rates. Be sure to contact one of our dispatchers to discuss a quote or schedule a tow today!