Short answer
An AI employee for a towing company answers roadside calls at any hour, collects location and vehicle details, texts customers their ETA, and follows up on motor-club and invoice paperwork. Dispatch judgment, pricing on unusual jobs and anything involving an accident scene stay with your people.
Tow calls do not wait until morning
A driver with a dead battery on the shoulder does not leave a voicemail. They call the next number on the list. Towing is one of the few businesses where the phone is the product, and where the call at 2:40 am matters as much as the one at noon.
Most small towing operations cover this with the owner's cell, a dispatcher on a rotating shift, or a paid answering service. Each works until it doesn't: the owner is under a car, the dispatcher is on another call, the service doesn't know your rates.
Oraculo is a managed AI employee that answers and places calls on your business line 24/7, texts, and works in your dispatch tools, reporting back to you over WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, email or its app.
What it does on a typical tow call
| Moment | Today | With Oraculo |
|---|---|---|
| Call comes in at night | Rings out, or the owner wakes up | Answers, asks where they are, what happened, vehicle make and model, whether anyone is hurt |
| Customer asks how long | Dispatcher stops to check, then calls back | Texts the ETA you or dispatch provide, and updates if the driver is delayed |
| Motor-club job | Paperwork in an email thread, deadlines easy to miss | Tracks which club jobs are open, asks the driver for missing photos or signatures, flags anything overdue |
| Customer needs a ride or a storage fee explained | Driver improvises | Gives the answer from the rate sheet you provide and hands off if it is outside it |
| Invoice unpaid after a week | Forgotten until month end | Sends the invoice link and polite reminders, reports what is still open |
If you dispatch with software such as Towbook or a shared spreadsheet, the question is whether it has an API or a login. If so, Oraculo can usually enter and read jobs there, including by logging in on its own secure computer.
Roadside intake: the questions that save a driver's time
Good intake is the difference between a clean dispatch and a driver arriving with the wrong truck. Oraculo asks the same short list every time, in the order you set: location (it can ask for a shared pin by text), vehicle and its condition, whether the car is in gear, in a parking garage, or blocked in, and a callback number.
- Safety first. If a caller says there has been an accident, someone is injured, or they are on a highway shoulder, it tells them to call emergency services as you've instructed it, and alerts you or the on-call dispatcher right away.
- Wrong service. If the caller needs a locksmith or fuel delivery and you do not offer it, it says so politely.
- Price questions. It quotes only what is on your rate sheet. Anything unusual, like a winch-out or a heavy-duty tow, goes to a human.
Because it remembers customers, a repeat caller from the same fleet or apartment complex does not have to start over.
ETA updates and motor-club paperwork
Most angry calls to a towing company are 'where is my driver?' calls. A text that says the driver is about 20 minutes out, with a callback option, removes most of them. You tell Oraculo the ETA by text or through your dispatch tool, and it relays it to the customer.
Motor-club and roadside-assistance work adds paperwork: job numbers, photos, odometer or location confirmation, and deadlines for submission. Oraculo can keep a list of open club jobs, remind drivers by text to send what's missing, and tell you which are about to age out. It does not decide whether a claim is valid, and it does not argue with a club about reimbursement.
A sample delegation
At 11 pm you text: “If someone calls about a tow after midnight, get location, vehicle and a callback number. Text me the details. Don't promise a time, I'll give you the ETA.” A caller phones at 1:15 am.
- Oraculo answers, confirms the caller is safe, and collects location, vehicle and callback number.
- It texts you a summary with the pin location.
- You reply 'driver 35 min'.
- It tells the caller about 35 minutes, then checks back by text if the time passes with no arrival.
- The next morning it lists the overnight calls, who got a truck, and who dropped off.
What should stay human
- Dispatch decisions on who goes where when three calls arrive at once.
- Accident scenes, police-directed tows and impounds, where rules and liability matter.
- Disputes about damage, storage fees or a motor club's reimbursement.
- Anything that sounds unsafe. It alerts a person instead of improvising.
How Oraculo handles this, and what it costs
Starter is $12 per hour of work with a 6-hour weekly minimum, about $312 a month. Business is $8 per hour with a 43-hour weekly minimum, about $1,500 a month, with a dedicated Slack account manager. Calls are $0.19 a minute, which is worth comparing to a per-minute answering plan; see AI employee vs answering service cost. Setup is a one-time $499 with four 1-hour Zoom sessions, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
For related trades, see locksmiths and AI that answers your business phone. To hear how it handles a tow call on your line, book a 20-minute demo.
Key takeaway
A tow company wins on who answers first and who keeps the customer informed. An AI employee does both at 3 am, and leaves the judgment calls to the people driving the trucks.
Frequently asked questions
Can an AI employee answer my towing phone at night?
Yes. Oraculo answers and places calls on your business line 24/7, collects location, vehicle and callback details, and texts you a summary. Phone calls are billed at $0.19 per minute, on top of the hourly work.
Can it give customers an ETA?
It relays the ETA that you or your dispatcher provide and can follow up by text if the driver is running late. It does not guess arrival times on its own, since traffic and driver position are your call.
Does it work with Towbook or my dispatch software?
Oraculo connects to 300+ tools and works with anything that has an API or a login, including through its own secure computer. Whether a specific dispatch product is a smooth fit is checked during setup with your engineer.
What happens if the caller is in an accident?
You define the rule in advance. Typically it tells the caller to contact emergency services and immediately alerts your on-call person. It does not dispatch a truck to an accident scene on its own.
Is it cheaper than an answering service?
Compare your current per-minute plan to $12 an hour of work plus $0.19 a minute for calls. An AI employee also does follow-up and paperwork, which a basic answering service does not. Your real call volume decides which is cheaper.