What Decides the Cost of Car Recovery in Surrey

Search for what recovery costs and you get a lot of averages. They are not much use, and it is worth understanding why before you ring anybody.

An average is built from every kind of job at once. A short daytime tow from a driveway to a garage a mile away. A motorway recovery at two in the morning with a car that will not roll. Put those in the same column and the middle of it describes neither.

What you want is a figure for the job you have. To get that, you need to know what a recovery firm is actually pricing.

The four things every price is built from

1. Getting to you

The truck has to come from wherever it is to wherever you are. That is fuel, road time, and a driver not doing anything else while it happens.

This is why a genuinely local firm can quote differently from one covering three counties. Being close is not a marketing line, it is a cost.

2. Where the vehicle is going

The second leg. From where the car is to where you want it: home, your own garage, a dealer, a body shop.

Worth deciding before you ring. Change the destination when the truck arrives and you have changed the job. The extra work and price should be agreed before it is carried out.

3. How hard it is to load

A car that rolls and steers can be easier to load using a suitable method. That is the easy version.

Locked wheels, damaged steering, missing keys or a vehicle on a verge can require different equipment. Suitability needs checking before the recovery is accepted. So does a vehicle in a tight yard, a blocked-in bay, or a car park with a height barrier the truck will not fit under.

4. When it is

Timing can affect a quote. Ask the firm whether the stated total includes any out-of-hours charge.

Nights, weekends and bank holidays all sit above the daytime rate. What matters is that you are told the out of hours figure when you ring, not when you are handed the bill.

What makes a price move on the day

The complaint people have about recovery firms, more than any other, is a price that grows once the truck turns up. Usually it is one of these.

• The vehicle was described as a runner and it is not
• There are no keys, so the car cannot be steered or taken out of park
• It has to be winched off a verge, a field or a ditch rather than a road
• Access turns out to be a barrier, a bollard or a bay with cars either side
• Nobody is there, and the driver waits
• The destination changed after the quote

None of those are unreasonable. What is unreasonable is finding out about them at the end.

The questions to ask when you ring

Five questions, and any decent firm will answer all of them without hesitating.

• Is that the total, or is there a call-out charge on top?
• Does that price cover getting it to my address, not just to the nearest garage?
• Is that the out of hours rate, if it is out of hours?
• What would change that figure once you get here?
• How do I pay, and do you want anything up front?

If the answers are vague, that is your answer.

Cover, or paying per job

The other question underneath all of this is whether to have breakdown cover at all.

Compare policy limits and cost against your own vehicle and travel needs. One-off recovery pays for the agreed job; it is not an annual cover product.

The catch people hit is what their policy actually includes. Roadside assistance is not the same as recovery, and recovery to the nearest garage is not the same as recovery to yours. Plenty of the people who ring a local firm have cover, and are ringing because of exactly that.

Broken down with no breakdown cover? What to do

Getting a real number

Tell us where the vehicle is, what has happened and where it needs to go. We agree the job and price before setting off. If the location, vehicle condition or requested work changes, we explain any extra work and agree the price with you before carrying it out.

How recovery pricing works here

For urgent help, see breakdown recovery or accident recovery. This guide explains quote factors; the prices page explains the booking quote.