Free Towing, and What That Actually Means
“Free towing” appears on every car removal website in the country, which has made it close to meaningless. It is worth being specific about what is and is not included, because the gap between operators is real and it usually only becomes visible when the truck is already in your driveway.
What is included
- Any address in the ACT or Queanbeyan district. Banks and Conder in the far south cost the same as Braddon — which is to say nothing.
- Difficult access. Steep driveways, soft ground, narrow side gates, cars behind other cars.
- Vehicles that will not roll. Seized brakes, locked transmission, missing wheels.
- Basement and podium carparks, where we bring the equipment to get the car up to street level.
- Multiple vehicles from one address, collected in a single visit.
There is no admin fee, no fuel levy, no after-hours loading and no “difficult recovery” charge. The figure we quote is the figure you are paid.
Why other operators charge and we do not
A towing company’s product is the tow, so it has to be paid for. Our product is the vehicle. The tow is a cost we absorb to acquire something we want, which is why the economics run in the opposite direction — we are paying you and covering the transport, rather than charging you for a service.
The practical consequence is that our free tow is conditional on us buying the car. We are not a general towing service; we cannot move a vehicle between two addresses for you, or recover a car you intend to keep.
The one real limit: clearance bars
The genuine constraint on a tilt tray is height, not weight or distance. Basement and podium carparks across Canberra — Belconnen town centre, Kingston Foreshore, Greenway, the newer Gungahlin and Molonglo apartment blocks — have clearance bars at the entry that a truck cannot pass.
This does not stop the collection. We meet you at the loading dock or street-level visitor bays, and where the car cannot drive itself out we bring separate equipment to move it up from the bay. It is entirely routine, but it has to be planned before the driver leaves, so please mention basement parking when you book.
Things worth telling us when you book
None of these change your price. All of them change which truck and which equipment come out, and getting it right first time is the difference between a twenty-minute job and a return visit:
- Whether the car starts, and whether it rolls
- Whether it is on a hard surface or on grass or gravel
- Whether the driveway is steep, or the access is through a gate
- Whether it is underground, or behind a boom gate or building manager
- Whether anything is parked in front of it
