Towing Company KPIs: Revenue Per Call, Per Truck, and What Storage Really Collects
By PlainSight — Insightful Actions · Updated October 2026 · ~5 min read
A towing company sells the same hour of a truck and a driver to very different buyers: a motor club that sets the rate, a police rotation where the law caps it, a private-property contract, an insurer that pays late, and a stranded driver who pays on the spot. Each kind of call pays differently, so the total tells you little. The numbers below split the work by source and by truck, and follow the money all the way to collection, the storage lot included.
Where your numbers live
Your dispatch or towing software, or your invoices, can export calls to CSV or Excel: one row per call with the date, the source (motor club, police rotation, private property, insurance, cash), the service (tow, winch-out, impound, roadside), the zone, the truck and the amount.
If you track miles, minutes on scene and storage days, include them. Names and plates aren't needed.
The numbers that tell you which calls pay
1. Revenue per call, by source
What good looks like: known for every source, and compared with what a call costs you to run.
Divide each source's revenue by its calls. Motor club work brings volume at the club's rate; police rotation and private-property tows pay a regulated or contracted rate; cash customers pay your posted rate. A source that brings a third of your calls and a fifth of your revenue is filling your trucks at a discount: worth it on a quiet night, not on a busy one.
2. Motor club share
What good looks like: big enough to keep trucks moving, small enough that one club's rate change doesn't decide your year.
The share of calls and of revenue from motor clubs. Clubs bring steady calls, but they set the rate and the response-time rules. Track each club's rate per call and per mile against your own cost, and how often its calls take a truck far from where the next job is likely to come from.
3. Revenue per truck per day
What good looks like: similar across comparable trucks and shifts.
Revenue divided by each truck's working days. Light-duty, wheel-lift, flatbed and heavy-duty trucks earn differently, so compare like with like. A truck far below its twin is usually parked in the wrong zone, booked on the wrong shifts, or spending days in the shop.
4. Response and clear times
What good looks like: the ETAs you promise, met; and on-scene times that match the job.
Minutes from dispatch to arrival and from arrival to clear, by zone and source. Missed ETAs cost motor club standing and rotation spots; long on-scene times on simple jobs point to equipment or training. They are also minutes a driver spends beside live traffic: in AAA Foundation research on 12,365 drivers passing roadside scenes, only 58% slowed down or moved over for a stopped tow truck, against 66% for police.
5. Storage: days held and what actually collects
What good looks like: storage billed from the day the law allows, and every vehicle released or processed on schedule.
For every impound, the days in storage, what was billed and what was collected. Storage on paper isn't cash: a vehicle nobody claims has to go through your state's lien or abandoned-vehicle process before it can be sold, and the sale may not cover the bill. Track the vehicles nearing your state's notice deadlines and start the paperwork on time.
6. Nonconsent rates: what the law allows
What good looks like: your rate schedule matching the current cap or filed rate in every jurisdiction you work.
Many states and cities cap or regulate what you can charge for a tow the owner didn't ask for, and the caps move. Connecticut's maximum for a nonconsensual tow of a passenger car rose to $130.63 on January 1, 2026, and is set to reach $142.65 by 2028. Check every jurisdiction's schedule each January and bill what it allows.
7. Insurance as a share of revenue
What good looks like: known, and shopped well before renewal.
Commercial auto is one of the biggest fixed costs in towing, and it is still rising: the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers reported commercial auto premiums up 4.5% on average in the second quarter of 2026, after 5.8% in the first. Divide your premiums by revenue, keep your safety record documented, and start the renewal two months early.
Warning signs worth acting on
- Motor club calls growing while revenue per call falls.
- Impounds sitting past your state's notice deadline — storage you may never collect.
- A truck with half the revenue of its twin.
- Rate schedules not checked since last year, in a jurisdiction whose cap moved.
- Claims rising after a new hire or a new zone, ahead of an insurance renewal.
Make it a weekly and monthly rhythm
Weekly: calls and revenue by source, the storage list and the missed ETAs. Monthly: revenue per truck and insurance as a share of revenue. Every January: each jurisdiction's caps.
Let PlainSight read your call export
Upload a call or invoice export and PlainSight breaks revenue down by source, service and zone, shows who supplies the work and how concentrated it is, and writes the next steps in plain English. Everything runs in your browser — your data never leaves your device.
See it on a live example →
Starting out? Read the free handbook for starting a towing & recovery business — the market, the stages ahead, how each kind of work pays, and what to do first. No account needed.
Frequently asked questions
- What file does PlainSight need from a towing company?
- A call or invoice export with a date, the source, the service and the amount. Zone and truck columns add area and fleet comparisons; storage days add the storage cut.
- Why split calls by source?
- Because each source pays a different rate for the same truck time. The total hides a motor club that is filling your nights at a discount, or a private-property contract that pays well and deserves your best trucks.
- Can I charge more than the cap for a nonconsent tow?
- Generally not where a cap applies, and the rules differ by state and city. Check each jurisdiction's current schedule and take local legal advice; this guide is not legal advice.
- Is my data safe if I use PlainSight?
- Yes. Files are processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded. Optional AI features send only anonymized summary totals, never names or raw rows.
Sources
This guide is general information for towing and recovery owners, not financial, tax, or legal advice. Figures described as “typical” or “common” are survey results and rules of thumb, not standards — always read your own numbers in context.