If you’ve ever waited on the side of a highway at 2 a.m., windshield fogged, phone dying, and the only noise being the hum of distant semi-trucks, you know how much rides on the efficiency of a towing service. For me, this personal stake is what led to building my video telematics company—we don’t just sell tech, we built it for people like the tow truck operators I met during that time, and the families counting on them to get their cars home safely. When someone asks, “Can video telematics be used in towing vehicles?” my answer is a resounding yes. But it’s not just a “can”—it’s a transformative tool that fixes the most stubborn pain points of the towing industry, and we’ve spent years refining it to fit the unique demands of tow trucks, not just passenger cars or big rigs. Video Telematics
Let’s start with what video telematics actually is, in plain terms, no jargon. It’s a combination of small, rugged cameras (mounted inside and outside a vehicle), GPS tracking, and AI-powered software that processes footage in real time or after the fact, paired with a cloud-based portal for fleet managers and operators. For towing, off-the-shelf systems designed for delivery trucks or police cruisers fall flat. Tow trucks operate in chaotic environments: tight urban parking lots, snowy rural backroads, accident scenes littered with debris, and long, isolated highway hauls. They need a system that’s durable, responsive, and tailored to tasks like hooking up a totaled SUV, navigating a residential driveway with a low-hanging power line, or staying on schedule during a multi-tow run across state lines.
One of the biggest headaches towing companies face is accident-related claims. Last year, I sat across from a fleet owner in Ohio who spent $120,000 in a single year disputing claims that his operators damaged a customer’s vehicle while towing. He showed me a folder of blurry photos, conflicting witness statements, and weeks of wasted time on phone calls and emails. That’s where video telematics changes the game. Our system mounts four cameras on every tow truck: a forward-facing one for road conditions, a driver-facing camera to monitor fatigue or distraction, and two side/rear cameras that cover the bed and the area around the vehicle being towed. When an operator hooks up a car, footage of the connection is timestamped and stored. If a customer says, “You scratched my bumper when you hooked up,” we pull the clip: it shows the operator aligning the flatbed, the vehicle being loaded without contact, and the clear exit from the property. We’ve helped dozens of fleet owners cut their dispute costs by 70% or more—this isn’t hype, it’s data we’ve collected from our 200+ tow truck clients over the past four years.
Safety is another area where video telematics shines for towing. Operators often work 12+ hour shifts, switching between high-speed highways and slow, tight residential streets. Driver distraction is a major risk—we’ve seen footage of operators glancing at their phones to confirm a tow address, or reaching for a snack mid-drive, moments before a near-miss with a cyclist. Our AI software is trained specifically on tow truck scenarios: it alerts managers in real time if a driver is drowsy (tracking eye closure over 20 seconds), using a phone, or following another vehicle too closely when transporting a load. Recently, one of our clients in Texas told us that after installing our system, they saw a 45% drop in minor collisions in their first six months. The key here is that we didn’t use generic AI—we fed our model thousands of hours of tow truck footage, not delivery or taxi footage, so it recognizes the specific risks operators face.
But towing isn’t just about driving. A huge part of the job is on-site work: hooking up disabled vehicles, securing loads on flatbeds, and navigating dangerous accident scenes. Our system’s side and bed cameras solve a big problem here: load verification. Before an operator leaves a site, they can check their in-cab screen to confirm the towed vehicle is properly secured—no more guessing if the chains are tight, or worrying that a vehicle will shift during the drive. We also have clients that use the footage for training. New operators often struggle with things like avoiding curb damage when parking a flatbed, or positioning a tow hook correctly on a low vehicle. Managers can pull footage of a successful tow, or a “teachable moment” (like a near-miss with a fire hydrant), and train new hires without putting anyone at risk.
Now, let’s talk about the unique challenges of towing that most video telematics companies miss. Tow trucks are constantly being on and off-road, exposed to rain, snow, mud, and highway debris. Our cameras are rated for extreme temperatures (-40°F to 140°F) and sealed to IP67 standards, so they don’t stop working when a truck is driving through a winter storm or a construction zone. We also designed our system to have offline functionality—if a truck drives through a remote area with no cell service, footage is stored locally on a rugged SD card, and automatically syncs to the cloud once the operator reaches coverage. This is a game-changer for long-distance tows, which are common in rural areas where cell service is spotty.
Another underdiscussed use case is dispatch efficiency. Integrating video telematics with GPS means fleet managers can see not just where a tow truck is, but what it’s doing in real time. For example, if a 911 call comes in for a disabled car on a country road, a manager can check the camera feed of the nearest tow truck to confirm it’s not already delayed by a stalled load, and send the closest operator immediately. We’ve had a client in Arizona that cut their average response time by 22% after implementing this integration—critical when someone’s car is broken down in the desert in the summer, where temperatures can hit 110°F.
Of course, no technology is without its concerns, and the biggest one we hear is privacy. Operators worry that being filmed will feel like Big Brother, and customers worry that their personal vehicles (or even themselves) will be recorded without consent. We built our system with privacy at its core. All driver-facing footage is only accessible to the operator’s direct manager, not third parties, and we have strict protocols around when footage is retained (it’s automatically deleted after 30 days unless it’s needed for a dispute or claim). For customer privacy, we have a feature that blurs faces and license plates of bystanders or third parties in footage—operators can also manually mark footage as “customer-facing” to ensure no personal information is stored unnecessarily. We’ve worked closely with industry trade groups to align our privacy practices with towing regulations, so our clients never have to worry about compliance issues.
Over the past four years, we’ve tested our system on everything from small pickup trucks to semi-tractor trailers, and even heavy-duty wreckers used to pull large cargo trucks off the highway. We’ve seen it work for local family-owned tow companies with 5 trucks, and for large fleets with 100+ trucks operating across multiple states. One story that sticks with me is a small tow company in Wisconsin that installed our system after a bitter winter led to a surge in claims from customers saying their cars were damaged while being towed. Within three months, they resolved every pending claim using footage, and their business grew because customers trusted they’d be transparent about the work done.
At the end of the day, video telematics isn’t just a tool for reducing costs or preventing accidents—it’s about supporting the people who keep roads safe and get people back on their way when their lives are disrupted by a breakdown or crash. Towing is an unsung industry, and the right technology can make their jobs easier, safer, and more profitable. If you’re a towing fleet owner, operator, or manager looking to test how video telematics can work for your trucks, we’re here to help. We can set up a customized demo tailored to your specific routes, equipment, and pain points, no pressure, no fine print. Connect with our team to start a conversation about how we can build a solution that fits your business, not the other way around.
Video Telematics References
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2022). Commercial Motor Vehicle Crash Statistics Report. U.S. Department of Transportation.
- American Tow Association. (2023). Towing Industry Operational Challenges and Best Practices. ATA Publications.
- International Organization for Standardization. (2021). Road Vehicles – Video Telematics Systems for Commercial Fleet Management. ISO 15008:2021.
- Insurance Information Institute. (2022). Commercial Vehicle Insurance Claims Trends: Towing and Recovery. III Research.
- Society of Automotive Engineers. (2022). Guidelines for Video Telematics in Specialty Vehicle Applications. SAE International.
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