What happens when you call an emergency tow truck at 2 a.m.
New Bedford Towing answers the phone at 2 a.m. the same way it answers at 2 p.m.: a dispatcher picks up, asks where you are and assigns a truck. The rest of what we do is covered under towing in New Bedford; this page is about the calls that cannot wait for morning.
We ask where the vehicle is first: on a highway, the road, the direction and the last exit you passed - I-195 eastbound past exit 26, Route 140 northbound before the I-195 cloverleaf - and on a city street, the street and the nearest cross street. The exit or the cross street is what puts the truck on the correct side of a divided highway the first time.
What we ask, in order
- Where you are - highway, direction and exit, or street and cross street.
- The vehicle - year, make and model, and whether it is all-wheel drive or electric.
- What happened - breakdown, crash, flat, dead battery, or stuck in a snowbank or a ditch.
- Where it should go - home, your mechanic, a body shop or a dealership.
With those four answers the dispatcher assigns the truck, quotes the total and gives you the arrival window before you hang up. We do not promise minutes we cannot control; the driver calls when the truck is close.
What an emergency tow in New Bedford costs, and what moves the number
We quote the total on the call, and the truck leaves after you say yes. The cost page sets out what moves the price of an emergency tow line by line; the short version:
- Distance - from the truck to the vehicle and on to where it is going, so Wareham to Fall River costs more than exit 27 to the North End.
- Time on scene - a car that rolls onto the bed costs less than one that has to be dug out or put on dollies.
- The vehicle - a compact on a wheel-lift is the simplest job; an all-wheel-drive SUV, an electric car or a lowered coupe needs a flatbed.
- Recovery work - a winch pull out of a snowbank or off a soft shoulder is its own line.
- The destination - a drop at a closed shop's night box is quoted differently from a run home and a second tow in the morning.
The hour is already in the quote: the state's schedule for regulated tows, 220 CMR 272, sets its base rate "regardless of day of week or time of day", and the total we quote is the total at midnight or at noon.
Massachusetts caps what a tow company may charge for two kinds of tow and no others: a police-ordered tow under M.G.L. c. 159B, § 6B and a trespass tow under M.G.L. c. 266, § 120D, both capped by the Department of Public Utilities under 220 CMR 272. A tow you call for yourself is not regulated - the DPU says it does not regulate towing requested by a vehicle owner.
Wheel-lift or flatbed: what a New Bedford tow truck does at the scene
An emergency tow is a loading job, and the loading is where the care goes. A wheel-lift slides a cradle under the drive wheels and tows the car on its other two. A flatbed, or rollback, tilts its bed to the pavement, winches the vehicle up and carries it with all four wheels off the ground.
Which truck we send
A front-wheel-drive sedan is a wheel-lift job. Anything all-wheel or four-wheel drive gets a flatbed, because lifting one axle and turning the other works the center differential or the transfer case in a way it was not built for - Subaru's manual says never to tow its AWD models that way. Electric cars get a flatbed too - Tesla tells transporters never to move the car with the tires where they can spin - and so do low cars, motorcycles and anything with crash damage to a wheel or the frame: a flatbed for a vehicle that cannot roll, not a wheel-lift.
Securing the vehicle
On a flatbed, wheel straps go over each tire and ratchet to the deck, so nothing on the body is touched; where they cannot be used, soft straps go around a rated point and J-hooks into the frame slots left for them, never around a control arm or a sway bar. Before that the driver puts the transmission in neutral, releases the parking brake and unlocks the steering - which is why we ask for the key - and a car with no power that will not shift goes on dollies.
Keys, personal items and where the car goes
Take wallet, phone and medication out before the car is loaded; nobody is opening doors on a shoulder once it is strapped down. Then say where it goes: home, your mechanic, a body shop, a dealership; the driver leaves the car and the key where you say. An impound is different - a police-ordered or trespass tow to a storage yard, with storage charged by the day. If your car has vanished from a street or a lot, the New Bedford Police non-emergency line, 508-991-6350, will tell you who towed it and where it is.
Before the tow truck arrives: staying safe on I-195, Route 18 and Route 140
Get the car fully onto the shoulder and put the hazards on. Get out on the side away from traffic and stand back from the travel lane, behind the guardrail if there is one; on I-195, Route 18 and Route 140 the lane beside you is moving at highway speed. If anyone is hurt, or the car is stopped in a live lane, call 911 first and us second.
A car fully on the shoulder with its hazards on is a routine tow. A car half in the lane is a police matter first, and if the police order the tow to clear the road, the truck that comes may not be ours.
The New Bedford-Fairhaven swing bridge
The bridge carries US 6 over the Acushnet River and opens an average of 5,000 times a year, with daily openings for the fishing fleet. If your car dies in the line for an opening, or on the span, there is nowhere to pull off: get off the roadway if you safely can, otherwise stay belted in with the hazards on, and tell us which side of the river you are on.
The I-195 and Route 18 ramps
The ramp from I-195 westbound at exit 26 to Route 18 southbound closed on September 8, 2025 and stays closed until the summer of 2027 while the 1965 interchange is rebuilt, with work reaching County Street, Purchase Street and Belleville Avenue. From that area, say the ramp you were on or were trying to reach, because the driver's detour depends on it.
After a crash
If you are able to make decisions and the car is not blocking the road, you decide where it goes - your body shop, your driveway, the dealership. If the police order the tow to clear the road, the car goes where the police direct it, and that is the kind of tow Massachusetts rate-regulates. Get your belongings out before the car is loaded either way.
When a tow is not the call
Some 2 a.m. calls do not need a tow. A car that clicks but will not crank in January is usually the battery - AAA puts a battery about 30 percent weaker at 32°F - and a flat with a usable spare is a tire change; either is a jump start or tire change instead of a tow. A car that is stuck but not broken is a recovery: pulling a car out of a snowbank or off the shoulder is a winch line and a recovery strap, not a flatbed ride. The smaller job is the cheaper one.
24 hour towing across New Bedford and the towns around it
New Bedford Towing covers the whole city - Downtown and the waterfront, the North End along The Ave, the Near North End and Far North End, the South End and the West End - and the towns around it: Fairhaven across the bridge on US 6, Mattapoisett farther out the same road, Dartmouth, Westport, Acushnet and Freetown, and Marion, Wareham and Fall River along I-195. Fairhaven is about two miles, Dartmouth four, Fall River fourteen.
Two kinds of place strand cars overnight: the MBTA lots at New Bedford station, 536 Acushnet Avenue, and Church Street station, 387 Church Street, where a car will not start after the last train, and the State Pier ferry lots, where a car that sat a week while you were on Martha's Vineyard may not turn over. Give us the lot name and where in it the car is.
Beyond those towns - past Wareham where I-195 ends, or past Fall River toward Route 24 - a tow becomes a long-distance transport, quoted by the mile.
Frequently asked
Does New Bedford Towing tow at night, on weekends and on holidays?
New Bedford Towing answers the phone around the clock and sends a truck the same way at 3 a.m. on a holiday as on a weekday afternoon. What changes at night is what we ask, not whether we come: have the exit or the cross street ready.
The arrival window is given on the call, because it depends on where the truck is and the weather.
What should I do while I wait for a tow on I-195?
Stay out of the road: as far onto the shoulder as the car will go, hazards on, out on the side away from traffic, and behind the guardrail rather than behind the car. Keep your phone on, because the driver calls when the truck is close.
Tell the dispatcher which exits you are between - 24 for Route 140, 26 for Route 18, 27 at Washburn Street, 28 at Coggeshall Street, 29 for Route 240 - so the truck comes in on the correct side.
After a crash, who decides where my car is towed?
If you are able to make the call and the car is not blocking the road, you do: New Bedford Towing takes it to the body shop, dealership or driveway you name. If the police order the tow to clear the roadway, the car goes where the police direct it, and that is the tow Massachusetts rate-regulates under 220 CMR 272.
What are the legal grounds for towing a vehicle in Massachusetts?
Four grounds apply. A police-ordered tow under M.G.L. c. 159B, § 6B, when police direct a vehicle moved; a trespass tow under M.G.L. c. 266, § 120D, which only the person in lawful control of the property may order, after parking was forbidden directly or by posted notice and after notifying the police; a snow emergency tow, when the City declares a ban and cars on the wrong side of the street are ticketed and towed at full cost to the owner, as 170 were overnight on January 18, 2026; and an abandoned-vehicle removal under M.G.L. c. 90, § 22C, for a vehicle standing more than 72 hours without permission.
A tow you request yourself is none of these; the price is whatever is quoted and agreed.
Can you stop a car from being towed?
Sometimes. For a trespass tow, Massachusetts law says that if the owner appears before the tow is completed the vehicle may be released, with the tow company charging one half of its usual fee, under M.G.L. c. 266, § 120D. For a police-ordered tow or a snow emergency tow, no: the vehicle is moved on the authority of the police or the city.
A call to New Bedford Towing is different: you called us, so if a neighbor's jump pack worked first, call back and say so.