Towing vehicle means a motor vehicle used by a towing service for the purpose of towing, transporting, transporting or removing motor vehicles from public roads. Towing can be as simple as pulling a tractor off a tree stump. The most well-known form is the transportation of disabled or otherwise indisposed vehicles in a crane or a wrecking truck. Other known forms are the combination of tractor and trailer, and cargo or recreational vehicles attached by ball or pivot couplings to smaller trucks and cars. At the opposite extreme are extremely heavy tank recovery vehicles and huge ballast tractors carrying heavy loads amounting to millions of pounds.
All Australian states have laws that regulate towing companies, in particular those engaged in the towing of light and heavy vehicles involved in traffic accidents. Some limited-access highways, especially the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike, require specially designated towing companies to be the only towing companies running on them. Even when towing is carried out legally, and even if the car owner requests a trailer, the towing company is left with physical possession of the vehicle. Many jurisdictions have enacted several customer protection laws to protect the public from abusive towing or abusive towing charges.
Towing is the physical act of transporting the vehicle, while roadside assistance can include a range of services. Under these circumstances, law enforcement agencies notify a towing provider contracted to secure the vehicle and tow it to a storage lot. There are many safety considerations for properly towing a trailer or caravan, starting with the vehicle's towing capacity and going through the compensating hitches to connecting the safety chains properly and legally. There are many types of trailer hitch, such as a ball hitch, a tow bar, a pivot and a lunette ring, three points, a fifth wheel, a coupling and a drawbar, and others.
Before contacting a towing service, you should know that you are getting the best service in its class at a reasonable and affordable price. The safety permit for tow vehicles must be deposited in the tow vehicle for which it is intended immediately after receiving it. Towing capacity is a measure that describes the upper limit of the weight of a trailer that a vehicle can tow and can be expressed in pounds or kilograms. California law requires the tow truck company to immediately and unconditionally deliver a vehicle if the driver arrives before it is towed from private property and is in transit. This section specifically refers to the laws of several countries relating to the towing of a car or truck using a tow truck or a specialized crane.
An important factor for trailer safety is the “lug weight”, the weight with which the trailer puts pressure on the tow vehicle hitch. The larger versions, with a long, heavy body and heavier engines, transmissions and tow hooks, can be used to tow buses, tractor trucks or large trucks that they don't work properly. Necessarily, government and trailer industry standards have been developed for supports, lighting and couplings to ensure the safety and interoperability of towing equipment.
