Car Towing in London, Local and Long Distance

Which cars need a flatbed, and which do not

The single question that decides how your car gets moved is whether its driven wheels can safely turn while the engine is off. If they cannot, the car goes on a flatbed with all four wheels clear of the road. In practice that means every electric and hybrid vehicle, every all-wheel-drive car and 4x4, most conventional automatics, any non-runner that will not roll or steer, any car with seized or electronically locked brakes, any crash-damaged vehicle, any car with no key, and any vehicle that is untaxed, has no valid MOT or is off the road on a SORN. Lowered, modified and prestige cars go on a bed as well, for clearance reasons rather than mechanical ones.

A spec lift, sometimes called a spectacle lift, raises one axle and leaves the other two wheels rolling on the road. It is the correct tool rather than a downgrade for a short local move of a manual front-wheel-drive petrol or diesel car whose non-driven wheels roll freely, and it is often the only tool that will physically work. Underground car parks with a height barrier, narrow mews, tight ramps and height-restricted bays simply will not take a flatbed. When we take the details on the phone we work out which truck the job actually needs, so the right one arrives first time instead of a second vehicle having to be sent.

Electric and hybrid cars: never on their driving wheels

The Department for Transport's guidance to recovery operators, 'Recovery operators: working with electric vehicles', puts it plainly: it is not recommended to tow EVs on their wheels, because this can generate electrical current and damage the high-voltage systems. Turning a driven wheel spins the motor, and a motor being spun becomes a generator pushing current back into a system that is not expecting it. The only exception the guidance allows is moving an electric or hybrid vehicle a short distance out of immediate danger, at walking pace, with the distance kept to a minimum. That is a way of clearing a live lane, not a way of getting to a garage.

Manufacturers say the same thing in their own words. Tesla's owner's manuals specify a flatbed or comparable transport vehicle and state that the vehicle must not be transported with its wheels on the ground. Tow Mode allows the tyres to rotate only under 3 mph and for less than 10 metres, which is enough to get the car onto a bed and no further. Tesla also states that it is not responsible for damage caused during transport, including damage from self-loading dollies or tyre skates, so a wheels-down tow is a bill you carry yourself. Whatever the badge on the bonnet, check your own handbook: the instruction is normally there in the transporting section.

Crash-damaged EVs are a separate job again. We check visually for damage to the battery pack, the orange high-voltage cabling and the charge port before touching anything, and where there is obvious pack damage, smoke, hissing or heat the right call is the fire service rather than a recovery truck. DfT guidance recommends keeping a vehicle at risk of a thermal runaway event around 15 metres from anything else until the battery temperature has stabilised, and warns that an EV battery fire that has been extinguished can reignite, especially during the loading operation. Because the pack sits low in the floor, an EV lying on its side can be less steady than an equivalent petrol car in the same position, so it is loaded slowly with shock loading kept to a minimum. Be aware too that some garages and storage yards will not accept a fire-damaged EV at all, which affects where your car can go.

Non-runners, dead batteries, seized brakes and SORN cars

A car that will not roll is a different job from a car that will not start. The usual causes are a flat 12V battery on a car with an electronic parking brake, where the brake cannot be released and neutral often cannot be selected; brakes seized on after months standing; a flat, locked or missing wheel; no key at all; or a project car with the engine, suspension or brakes out of it. Dragging a car in that state ruins pads, discs and the parking brake motors. In practice we either feed the car enough power to release the brake and select neutral, or we lift it onto wheel skates or dollies and winch it up the deck. Tell us on the phone whether it rolls, whether it steers, whether the handbrake is electronic and whether the keys still exist, because that decides what equipment comes out on the truck.

There is a legal reason as well as a mechanical one to put a non-runner on a bed. A car that is untaxed, has no valid MOT or is uninsured is still being used on a public road when it is on the end of a rope or sitting on a spec lift with two wheels turning. Police guidance is explicit that a car being towed on a rope must be taxed, registered, insured and MOT'd where required, with a suitably licensed driver at the wheel. Lift all four wheels clear of the road and that problem disappears, which is exactly how a SORN car legally gets off a driveway in one town and into a garage in another. Raise the paperwork question when you call and we will tell you which method the job needs.

Long-distance car transport out of London

A five-mile tow to a local garage and a 400-mile move to Glasgow are different products even though they use the same truck. London to Birmingham or Bristol is a straightforward day job. London to Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff or Newcastle is a long day. Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen are usually planned around an early start or an overnight, and Belfast or Dublin adds a ferry leg that has to be booked around sailing times. Collection and delivery are given as windows rather than exact minutes, because motorway conditions decide the middle of any long journey, and we update you on the day instead of leaving you guessing.

Distance also changes what the law requires. Recovery drivers are exempt from drivers' hours and tachograph rules only while doing specialised breakdown work within 100 km of where the vehicle is normally kept. Past that radius the whole day has to be recorded properly, which is precisely why a long move is planned, quoted and booked rather than dispatched like a roadside call-out. It is also why a genuine long-distance quote includes the return leg: the truck has to come back whether it is loaded or not, and any price that ignores that is a price which grows later.

One legal distinction is worth knowing if the car actually runs. Government guidance for recovery operators is clear that moving a non-disabled vehicle, for example a working car from one garage forecourt to another, is classed as a haulage operation rather than recovery, and falls within carriage of goods for hire or reward. To you as a customer it is the same truck and the same straps, but it is a different job in law, so tell us on the phone whether the car drives. Auction collections, online purchases, private sales, dealer-to-dealer moves and cars following you to a new address are all handled this way, and we can collect against your paperwork if you cannot be there in person.

Access, safety and the London details that matter

If you have broken down on an ordinary road, the Highway Code asks you to get the vehicle off the carriageway where you can, use hazard lights if you are causing an obstruction, and put a warning triangle on the road at least 45 metres behind the car. On a motorway the advice is almost the opposite: move left into an emergency area or onto the hard shoulder, leave the vehicle by the side furthest from traffic if it is safe and possible, get behind the barrier and away from the car, and never use a warning triangle. If you cannot get out safely, stay belted in with hazards on and call 999. Motorway SOS phones connect to National Highways rather than to us, so make that call first in a live-lane situation, then ring 07960 200253 with the marker post or driver location sign number.

Access is the other thing to raise early. Underground and multi-storey car parks with height barriers will not take a flatbed, so the car is usually winched or spec-lifted up to street level and loaded there. Red routes, permit bays, box junctions, bus lanes and narrow residential streets all affect where a truck can safely load, and on private land, including some car parks and estates, the operator's or landlord's permission is needed before a vehicle is removed. We can winch from a driveway, a grass verge, a field gateway or a ditch, but tell us in advance so the right winch and recovery gear is on board. There is no ULEZ or Congestion Charge exemption for recovery vehicles, and low bridges rule out some direct routes, which is why the sensible route is not always the shortest one on the map.

Two questions are worth asking any towing firm, including this one. First, are you covered for my car while it is on your truck? What you want to hear is motor trade cover that extends to customers' vehicles in the operator's care, custody and control, both on the vehicle and in storage, because standard private car insurance does not cover trade activity at all. Second, what standards do you work to? PAS 43:2018 is the British Standards specification for safe working in vehicle breakdown, recovery and removal operations, National Highways Sector Scheme 17/17B is the training scheme for operators working on the strategic road network, and AVRO is the long-established UK trade body that audits members against minimum standards. Finally, if the receiving garage is likely to be shut when we arrive, say so when you book, and we will agree where the car waits and what that costs before the journey starts rather than after.