Short answer
Check the licence first — towing services need a licence for some work and not other work. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 841 Australian towing services in this directory, only 21.2% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 6.3% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Towing Services handle breakdown and accident towing, tilt-tray transport, roadside assistance and vehicle recovery. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Towing Services are licensed for some work and not others
Tow trucks and their operators are licensed in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, where accident towing is also price-regulated, and the rules differ elsewhere. The industry's recurring problem is the roadside tow you did not call: a licensed operator will quote before hooking up and will tell you where the vehicle is going.
There is no national licence register in Australia — each state and territory runs its own. The regulator for your state is listed at the bottom of this guide, and checking a number takes about a minute.
What 841 Australian towing services actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For towing services:
| What we checked | Towing Services | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 21.2% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 75.5% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 6.3% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 82.7% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 73.7% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 39 | 39 |
What goes wrong with towing services
- An unsolicited operator at an accident scene who tows to a yard you did not choose
- Storage fees accruing at a holding yard you were never told about
- Damage to the vehicle during loading with no insurance to cover it
What to ask before the work starts
- What is your tow truck licence or operator number?
- What is the price for this tow, and where exactly is the vehicle going?
- Are you insured for damage during the tow?
A towing service who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median towing service in this directory has 39 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the towing services are
Brisbane (31), Melbourne (27), Sydney (21), Logan (17), Gold Coast (16), Blacktown (15). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best towing service in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do towing services need a licence in Australia?
- Sometimes. Tow trucks and their operators are licensed in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, where accident towing is also price-regulated, and the rules differ elsewhere. The industry's recurring problem is the roadside tow you did not call: a licensed operator will quote before hooking up and will tell you where the vehicle is going.
- How do I check a towing service's licence?
- There is no national register. Each state and territory has its own regulator — NSW Fair Trading, the Building and Plumbing Commission and Energy Safe Victoria in Victoria, QBCC in Queensland, Building and Energy in WA, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Access Canberra in the ACT, and the NT Government. Search the licence number the business gives you on the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- What percentage of Australian towing services have a verifiable ABN?
- 21.2% of the 841 towing services in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a towing service have?
- The median towing service here has 39. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare towing services near you
841 towing services, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
Read next
- How to check an Australian tradie's licenceThere is no national licence register in Australia. Here is the regulator for every state and territory, what each one c…
- What an ABN tells you about a tradie — and what it doesn'tAn ABN is free, public and takes a minute to check — and only 21.5% of 133,763 Australian trade businesses publish one. …
- When a tradie's phone number doesn't match their own website10,300 Australian trade businesses list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website. Sometimes it is a …