A tow bill, rebuilt line by line
A tow is priced in pieces, and the pieces are where the surprises live: a hookup fee for showing up and loading, a per-mile rate on the loaded miles, the truck’s empty deadhead miles home or to you, an after-hours uplift when it applies, winching time when the vehicle is not simply waiting at the kerb, and storage for every day the vehicle sits in the yard afterwards. This page prices each piece at the rates you enter, applies any minimum charge openly, adds contingency once and tax once, and reports the total and the all-in cost per loaded mile, with a downloadable estimate.
The tow itself
Recovery, access and storage
Minimum, contingency, tax and range
Disclaimer: This calculator gives estimates for general information only. It is not financial, medical or other professional advice. The binding charges for a tow are the operator’s, under the terms agreed or posted; where a tow was not agreed in advance (for example after an accident), local rules on towing and storage charges may apply.
What this calculator does
It rebuilds a tow bill from the components operators actually charge, so each one can be checked, queried or compared. Distance is split into the two kinds a truck drives, loaded miles carrying your vehicle and deadhead miles travelling empty, because they are frequently rated differently and occasionally only one of them is charged at all. Time-based work, the winching and recovery that a stuck, damaged or awkwardly placed vehicle needs, is priced per hour apart from the driving. Circumstance charges sit in the open: the after-hours uplift applied to the driving lines it customarily covers, a gate or access surcharge where the site demands it, and storage counted in the days it genuinely accrues. The estimator discipline closes the bill: lines rounded to cents, any minimum charge applied openly, contingency once, tax once, and an all-in figure per loaded mile.
How to use it
- Ask which miles are being charged. Some quotes bundle a radius of free miles into the hookup fee; others meter from the first mile, and deadhead treatment varies from free to fully rated. The fields here force the question into the open: a quote cannot be compared until its miles are the same miles.
- Storage is a decision, not a fee. Every day in the yard is charged, and the total usually exceeds the tow itself within the week. Entering realistic days (including weekends, insurer delays and release paperwork) turns storage from a shock into a plan: collect the vehicle, negotiate the release, or move it to cheaper ground quickly.
- Recovery time is where roadside quotes go provisional. A vehicle in a ditch, locked, damaged or without rolling wheels is not a standard hookup, and an honest operator prices the winching time separately because nobody can see it from the phone call. Budget it as time here, and treat a fixed all-in recovery quote over the phone with suspicion.
- After-hours uplifts apply to parts of the bill, not the whole of it. On this page the uplift covers hookup and mileage, the operator’s own time and travel, and not storage or access fees set by third parties. If a bill uplifts everything, the structure here gives you the comparison to question it with.
- Roadside membership changes the payer, not the price. If a plan covers part of the tow, the uncovered remainder is usually the long-distance excess, the recovery work or the storage. Pricing the whole job here and subtracting what the plan pays shows the real gap before it is argued about at the kerb.
How it is calculated
- Loaded mileage = loaded miles x rate per loaded mile. Deadhead mileage = deadhead miles x rate per deadhead mile. After-hours uplift = uplift % x (hookup + loaded mileage + deadhead mileage).
- Recovery = winching hours x recovery rate. Storage = storage days x rate per day. Gate or access surcharge enters flat.
- Subtotal = the sum of the line amounts, each rounded to cents. Minimum charge: if a minimum is entered and exceeds the subtotal, the minimum becomes the base and the results state that the minimum charge applied. Contingency applies once to the base; tax once to base plus contingency. Total = base + contingency + tax. Per loaded mile = total / loaded miles. Range = total less and plus your percentage.
Worked examples
A night tow with recovery and storage. Illustrative rates: hookup $75.00; 18 loaded miles at $4.25 is $76.50; 6 deadhead miles at $2.00 is $12.00. The after-hours uplift at 25% applies to those three lines ($163.50) and adds $40.88. Winching for half an hour at $95 an hour is $47.50; storage for 2 days at $45 is $90.00. Subtotal $341.88; tax at 8% adds $27.35 for a total of $369.23, or $20.51 per loaded mile. The tow itself is a minority of its own bill, which is typical of everything except the plainest tow.
The plain daylight tow. The same hookup at $75.00 and 10 loaded miles at $4.25 ($42.50), in hours, with no recovery and the vehicle collected at once: $117.50. Set against the night example, the difference is not profiteering; it is the clock, the ditch and the yard, each priced on its own line.
A short hookup meets the floor. A $45 hookup fee alone, against a $95 minimum charge: the estimate builds on the minimum and totals $95.00, stating that the minimum charge applied. Short tows are priced by attendance, not distance, and the results say so.
Reading your results
Read the bill by its largest line, not its total. If storage dominates, the problem is time and the remedy is speed of release, not argument about the tow. If deadhead mileage dominates, the operator came from far away and a nearer one changes the bill’s shape entirely. If the uplift dominates, the same tow in working hours is the comparison to request. A tow bill is a small story about distance, time and circumstance, and the lines here let you retell it accurately when you query it, which is most of what querying a bill ever achieves.
Limitations
- Non-consent tows follow local rules. Where a vehicle is towed without the owner’s prior agreement (accident scenes, police direction, private property removal), many jurisdictions regulate what may be charged and how the vehicle must be released. This page prices the structure of a bill; the rules that cap it where you are standing sit outside any calculator.
- Vehicle class changes every rate. Motorcycles, heavy trucks, and vehicles needing a flatbed or a rotator are different jobs with different hookup and mileage rates. Enter the rates for your vehicle class; the form’s structure carries them, its fields cannot guess them.
- Recovery time is estimated blind. Until the operator sees the vehicle’s position and condition, winching time is a provisional figure on any estimate, including this one. Treat the contingency as the honest place for that uncertainty.
- Long-distance tows are often priced differently. Beyond a certain distance, operators may offer a flat transport price rather than metered miles. This page prices the metered structure; a flat quote is compared against it by entering the quoted total’s components as best they can be separated.
Frequently asked questions
What is a deadhead mile, and should I be paying for it?
A deadhead mile is a mile the truck drives empty: to reach your vehicle, or home after dropping it. Whether it is charged, and at what rate, is a matter of the operator’s pricing and your quote; many include a working radius in the hookup fee and meter beyond it. It is a legitimate cost of the service (the truck burns the fuel either way) and a legitimate line to query, which is why this page prices it separately at its own rate rather than burying it in the loaded rate.
Why does storage cost so much by the time I collect the vehicle?
Because it is rent on secure ground, charged daily and accruing through every delay, including weekends, paperwork and insurer approvals, whether or not anyone is thinking about the vehicle. On this page’s example, two days add $90.00 to a $341.88 bill; at the same daily rate a fortnight would add $630.00, more than the tow and recovery combined. The only controls are speed of collection and, where allowed, moving the vehicle to cheaper storage.
What does the hookup fee cover?
Attendance and the loading itself: the truck and operator coming to the vehicle, securing it (on the bed or on the hook), and the first handling. It usually excludes mileage beyond any bundled radius, recovery work to reach or free the vehicle, and everything after the drop. A bill that shows a hookup fee plus mileage plus recovery is not triple charging; it is three different pieces of work, itemized here in the same structure.
Is the after-hours uplift applied to the whole bill?
On most operators’ pricing, no: it applies to their own time-based and distance-based charges, the hookup and mileage, which is the basis this page uses. Storage is usually a third party’s daily rate and access fees are pass-throughs, neither customarily uplifted. If a bill applies a night percentage to every line including storage, that structure is worth a question, and the comparison this page produces is the evidence for asking it.
Related calculators
Method: itemized towing components at user-entered rates, after-hours uplift on the hookup and mileage lines, minimum charge applied to the base, contingency once and tax once, exactly as defined on this page. Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.