Roadside and tow-truck app: jobs on a map, status, photos
The dispatcher is on the phone, the driver does not know which job is closer, the customer asks where you are. An app: a map pin, ETA, tow photos, payment. Android in the cab, a panel at base — not a WhatsApp group.
Recovery is real-time dispatch. The customer is on the hard shoulder of a dual carriageway; the insurer wants an ETA; the driver is 40 km away on another car. WhatsApp does not pick the nearest truck, keep a tow record or close kilometres at month-end. You search for a “tow-truck app” or “roadside dispatch”. Marketplaces exist (Pomoc Drogowa App, Priority Help Car and kin) — they match a driver to the nearest truck like Uber. That is another product: a job exchange. We build your dispatch: 3–30 trucks, your customers, your brand, your 24/7 number.
The architecture is field service plus fleet: Kotlin + a Laravel API, offline in a coverage hole, push on a new job. We do not force-merge it with a workshop — but a car dropped at your service can inherit status from the truck. The customer does not install your app: they get an SMS link with status and ETA. The app is for the driver and dispatch.
A day without a system
- The dispatcher cannot see which truck is free, where it is and what kit it has (low-loader, heavy, car).
- A bad address / no pin — the driver circles, the customer rages, assistance asks for ETA again.
- No photos before the tow (scratches, a mirror, suspension) = a damage dispute.
- Insurer / assistance jobs arrive by email or a hotline; someone copies them into a book and loses the VIN.
- Kilometres, night on-call and extras (motorway, weekend, a second person) from memory at month-end.
- Two “take it, you’re closer” messages on WhatsApp — a clash, two trucks to the same pin or none.
Driver app + dispatch
A job: a pin (coordinates, not “by that tree”), type (tow, jump, tyre, fuel, unlock, intercity transport), contact, payer (customer cash / card, assistance, car park, a lot). Dispatch assigns the nearest free truck with the right kit — or the driver takes from a pool if you work that way. The app: navigation, statuses (going / on site / towing / dropped), photos, a signature, a note “key in the box”. The customer gets an ETA link — fewer “where are you” calls. A panel: VIN history, routes, response time, invoices / KSeF for companies and car parks.
- Job intake: phone, a site form, an assistance email — one record, not three channels.
- A fleet map: status, last GPS on a live job (not “tracking for fun” off shift).
- Assignment: nearest + truck type. Reject with a reason, escalate to a second truck.
- Statuses and ETA in a link for the customer / principal.
- Before and after photos, a protocol, a signature. Offline in a tunnel, sync on LTE.
- A tariff: km, a flat fee, night, weekend, motorway. An on-call report.
Photos before the tow are not decoration
The driver shoots four corners, wheels, the cabin if they enter, the contact with the bed. Without that, a “you scratched the wing” claim eats the margin. Timestamp and GPS on the photo help. The same protocol as field service, only the dispute is dearer. A customer signature / refusal to sign is a status, not “it was somehow fine”.
Assistance and your own 24/7 number
Some jobs come from assistance centrals (PZU, Warta, PZM and others). We do not promise “every EDI integration in the MVP price”. We start from your number and your trucks. A bridge to a named principal — when there is an API spec and volume that pays for the connector. Otherwise dispatch types the job once (VIN, pin, product) and the rest of the day runs in the app. A marketplace like Pomoc Drogowa App can be a surplus channel — like Glovo for a restaurant. It is not your dispatch and it keeps the customer.
GPS every few seconds: on a live job, at a sensible rate, with staff consent (GDPR, fleet policy). Not off-shift “for fun”. iPhone in the cab: Android first — that is how most Polish fleets run. iOS when it is really in the trucks, not on a slide.
Fleet SaaS, an exchange or custom
A generic TMS / taxi dispatch rarely knows a tow tariff and a damage protocol. An exchange gives pins, not your brand. Custom (or a narrow build) when: several bases, a mix of assistance + retail + car-park contracts, a workshop at the end of the tow, night tariffs and a report for the principal. Frame: package or custom.
- MVP: a map job + driver app (status, navigation, photos) + an ETA link for the customer.
- Tariffs and invoices. Response-time report.
- A bridge to one assistance desk when there is a spec and volume.
- Workshop: “dropped at our service”. A second base.
- An exchange / marketplace — only as a channel, not as the only source of truth.
Describe truck count, assistance work, base count and whether the map, photos or billing hurt. MVP: map job + driver app + customer status. Insurer bridges after a first month of numbers, not on a promise of “every central”.
Truck type, tariff, on-call — dispatch that does not lie at night
Car transporter, low-loader, heavy, on-site help (jump, tyre, fuel), A–B intercity: another resource, another tariff, another duration. A dispatcher who sees “a free truck” with no type sends a car bed for a van. Tariff: km, a city flat fee, night 22–6, weekend, motorway, a second person, waiting with police. A shift report instead of a book. 24/7 on-call: who is on, from when, whether they take from the pool. Two “take it” WhatsApp clashes die when a job has one owner in the panel.
Contracts: car parks, lots, fleets, assistance. Another payer, another report, another SLA (ETA 40 min in the city). A principal panel (the car park sees “truck 12 min”) cuts the call. That is white label, phase two. A marketplace (Pomoc Drogowa App) stays a surplus-kilometre channel, not the SLA of a park that pays a retainer. Workshop at the end: VIN and “dropped with us” we join to workshop software when you actually live off it — we do not merge screens.
Offline, fleet GDPR, proof of tow
Tunnel, forest, underground car park: the app stores photos and status locally, sends on LTE. Not décor — the only way the protocol does not die. GPS on a live job with consent, a fleet policy, trace retention. Off shift, silence. Damage photos: four corners, tyres, contact with the bed, VIN on the plate. Timestamp. A “scratch” claim without that eats a night-shift margin.
3 trucks, your own number, no EDI: a map-and-photo MVP pays back on disputes and ETA. 15 trucks, two bases, three centrals: count bridges after numbers. How many trucks, assistance or retail, how many bases.
Two bases, empty miles, a night on the dual carriageway
A second base is not a second spreadsheet. Fleet, a zone tariff, who is on-call on which side of the city, a job transfer when the nearer truck is busy. Empty miles after dropping a car at a lot: the system can suggest a pool pin on the way, a marketplace can add surplus — but the source of truth stays your panel, not the exchange. Night on a trunk road: night tariff, a second person on a heavy job, waiting for police as a paid status, photos in rain offline. Without that you fight over hours in the morning. The customer on the shoulder gets ETA from a link; assistance gets the same if you want to show SLA, not “we’re coming, sir”.
Driver training: three statuses, the camera, a signature. If the app has 18 buttons, they return to WhatsApp on the first shift. Dispatch on a tablet at base, not only on a PC. Report: response time, km, scratch disputes, job source (phone / assistance / exchange / car park). After a month of numbers you know whether an EDI bridge makes sense. Night shifts, second base, assistance share.
Payer, SLA, a scratch dispute — three reports from one job
One tow can have a customer payer, assistance or a car park, a 40 min SLA, and a wing claim. Software that only has “job done” will not close the month. The tariff counts km and night; SLA counts time to “on site”; the dispute lives on photos and a signature. Three views, one record. A marketplace will not give you that on a car-park contract. WhatsApp will not give VIN history. A map-and-photo MVP pays back on the dispute and the ETA; EDI and a second base — when on-call numbers show it.
A driver on the first shift: going, on site, photos, towing, dropped. Four–five buttons. Dispatch: pin, type, assign, escalate. Customer: a link. The rest (night tariffs, a principal report, a PZU bridge) after a week where those buttons really work in a tunnel. iPhone in the cab later. Tracking off shift — never without consent and a policy.
WhatsApp vs a map: who is 12 minutes from the pin
A dispatcher on the phone asks three drivers who is closer. A map shows it without asking, with truck type and status. The difference is ETA, fuel and the customer on the shoulder. Assistance counts minutes; a Google review does too. An app with no pin and no nearest free truck is a pretty status, not dispatch. A marketplace will show someone else’s truck. Your panel shows yours. The product choice starts with that sentence, not with the colour of the “going” button.
Photos in the rain, a refusal signature, VIN on the plate: a protocol that defends margin. Offline in a tunnel. A night tariff. An on-call report. Then, not before: a bridge to one central, a second base, iPhone. We do not build Uber for every tow truck in Poland. We build your 3–30 trucks. Pins a day, % of scratch disputes, whether the exchange stays a channel.
An on-call MVP: pin, status, photos, ETA link
A job on a map, the nearest free truck with a type, four statuses in the cab, a photo protocol, an ETA SMS. That closes “where are you” and a scratch dispute. Night tariffs, assistance EDI, a second base, an exchange as a channel — after a week of on-call numbers. We do not build a Poland-wide marketplace. Android first. GPS only on a live job. Trucks, pins per shift, whether WhatsApp still assigns trucks.
Dispatch on a tablet at base sees the map and queue, not only a PC in the office. The driver does not call “what next” — push and a pin. The customer installs nothing. Assistance with no API gets the same ETA link as the customer. After a week of numbers you know whether an EDI connector pays or typing the pin once a day is enough.
Job types at the start: a car tow and a jump start. Tyre, fuel, unlock, intercity — the next iteration when the first two statuses work in the rain. We do not build 12 assistance products on day one, because the driver will return to the phone.
A pin exchange vs dispatch for 3–30 trucks
Pomoc Drogowa App and Priority Help Car match a driver to the nearest truck like Uber — a marketplace, a surplus-kilometre channel. It will not replace a tariff, a scratch protocol and a car-park contract. We build your dispatch: a pin (coordinates, not “by the tree”), type (car, low-loader, heavy, jump), nearest free truck, statuses going / on site / towing / dropped, four-corner photos, an ETA SMS link. The customer installs nothing. Android in the cab first; iOS when it is really in the fleet.
- Tariff: km, city flat fee, night 22–6, weekend, motorway, a second person, waiting for police.
- GPS on a live job, staff consent, silence off shift — not tracking “for fun”.
- Assistance (PZU, Warta, PZM): one bridge with a spec and volume; the rest is pin+VIN typed once.
- Workshop at the end: “dropped with us” can join workshop software.
Offline in a tunnel and a wing dispute
Photos with a timestamp and GPS defend a night-shift margin. The app stores status locally when LTE dies and sends later. Four–five buttons for the driver; 18 fields return to WhatsApp on the first shift. Report: response time, km, source (phone / assistance / exchange / car park), disputes. After a week of numbers you know whether EDI pays. We do not build Uber for every tow truck in PL.
A second base, empty miles and a 40 min car-park SLA
A second base is not a second spreadsheet: who is on-call on which side of town, a transfer when the nearer truck is busy. Empty miles after a drop at a lot can fill with a pool pin or an exchange job — the source of truth stays your panel. A car-park contract: a retainer, an ETA SLA, a principal panel “truck 12 min”. That is white label, phase two. A marketplace will not give you that SLA. WhatsApp will not give VIN history. Invoices and KSeF for companies from the panel.
Frequently asked questions
- Must the customer install your app?
- No. An SMS link with status and ETA. The app is for the driver and dispatch. Marketplaces force the driver onto someone else’s app — another model.
- iPhone in the cab?
- Android first — that is how most fleets in PL run. iOS when it is really in the trucks, not “because the boss has an iPhone in the office”.
- GPS every few seconds?
- On a live job, at a sensible rate, with staff consent. Not off-shift for fun. GDPR and a fleet policy are part of the rollout, not a footnote.
- How long to start?
- Map + statuses + photos for 1–2 job types: weeks. Assistance EDI, night tariffs and a second base — the next iteration after on-call numbers.
- Pomoc Drogowa App instead of your own dispatch?
- That is a pin exchange — a job channel, like Glovo. It will not replace your fleet panel, tariffs and damage protocol. You can use both: the exchange for empty kilometres, your system for contracts and the 24/7 number.
- Do you connect every assistance central?
- Not in the MVP price. One principal with a spec and volume — yes. The rest: dispatch types pin and VIN once, the day runs in the app. “Every insurer” is expensive and usually dishonest at the start.
- Kilometres and on-call pay?
- A tariff in the system: km, flat fee, night, weekend. A report at end of shift / month instead of a book. Invoices for companies and car parks from the panel, KSeF if that is your source.
- A car dropped at your workshop?
- Tow status can open a job in workshop software. We do not merge two systems onto one screen for sport — we join VIN and status when you actually live off it.
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