Field notes

Roadside intake without pretending to dispatch.

By Eric Berg · Last updated August 2026

Towing is a high-risk front desk. The employee can collect location, vehicle, situation, and callback details; it should not decide whether anyone is safe, assign a truck, promise an ETA, or improvise a price. Those decisions belong to the operator.

Where the phone work piles up

• You're driving. The operator cannot safely collect a detailed roadside request while operating a truck.
• Outside office hours. Roadside requests can arrive at any hour, so the approved intake and escalation path must be explicit.
• Garbled details. A loud roadside and a stressed caller make repeatable questions and careful read-backs especially important.

What belongs in the brief

Teach the company name, service area, supported vehicle types, hours, approved price facts, and the precise questions a dispatcher needs. Add hard lines: no safety assessment, no truck assignment, no ETA promise, and no emergency-service substitute. Because this role can affect roadside safety, a draft may be held for human review instead of provisioned automatically. See the exact product loop.

What it costs

Keeping an approved front-desk employee after the card-free audition is CA$149 per month, cancel anytime. High-risk roles can be restricted or held for review; the price does not expand the employee's authority.

Fair questions

Can the employee dispatch my trucks?

The safe role is intake, not dispatch: collect the caller's location, vehicle, situation, and contact details. The operator decides whether a truck rolls.

What about emergency calls?

The employee must not decide that a roadside situation is safe or dispatch emergency help. It can follow explicit escalation instructions and direct callers to emergency services when the approved script requires it.

Can the employee quote tow prices?

Your approved rates only - hook fees, per-kilometre, whatever you set - and a message instead of a guess for anything unusual.