Vehicle recovery


Vehicle recovery is the recovery of any vehicle to another place, generally speaking with a commercial vehicle known as a recovery vehicle, tow truck or spectacle lift.
Recovery can take the form of general recovery, normally of broken down vehicles, or a statutory recovery at the request of the police using police powers, conferred in the United Kingdom by Parliament using an Act.

General recovery

There are many types of organisations that carry out the recovery of disabled vehicles; however, they can be divided into two distinct areas: Recovery operators and motoring organisations.
Motoring organisations — or as they are often known, 'The Clubs' — are organisations to which the vehicle's driver will belong. They may have made a conscious effort to do this, or they may have got the membership with their new vehicle, through a company scheme, or purchased with an insurance policy.
In the event that a member of the public does not have a club membership, the police or highways agency can arrange recovery of the vehicle at what is called an owner's request and they will arrange for help to attend.
Recovery operators are the people who undertake the recovery. They are known by different names around the world, including patrols' tow men, and wrecker drivers. Some are the people used by the motoring organisations to rescue their members. A small percentage will be on the payroll of the motoring organisation and will work exclusively for them. Examples are the patrols used by The AA, RAC, and Mondial in the UK. Most recovery operators, however, work for privately owned companies or are individuals. They can do large volumes of work for some of the motoring organisations, but they will normally also do work for the public. In Europe, the percentage of this private work is low due to the high profiles of the motoring organisations. Of course some will never do work for the motoring organisations, preferring to work just for their own customers. In the USA, motoring organisations are still growing.
Although there have always been auto repair shops and garages who towed or recovered any vehicles, it is only really in the last fifty years that vehicle recovery has become an industry distinct from the auto repair trade. Many are still involved in workshop repairs, but an increasing number, if they cannot repair the vehicle by the roadside, will transport it to another repairer. Although there are some large organisations operating hundreds of recovery vehicles, most are family businesses operating typically between 10 and 50 vehicles. Lastly there are operators like highway authorities and other government bodies, operators of local recovery schemes and large fleet operators who recover their own vehicles.

Challenges in vehicle recovery

Vehicle recovery often involves challenging scenarios that require specialized techniques and equipment, particularly in difficult weather or complex environments like multistorey car parks, steep hills, or off-road areas. Professional recovery operators adapt their methods to these settings, sometimes using compact recovery vehicles or adjustable lifts to maneuver within tight spaces or limited height clearances.
For the driver awaiting assistance, certain preparations can streamline the process and reduce delays. Keeping the vehicle's tow eye or tow hook ready can expedite the recovery setup. It’s also helpful for drivers to inform the recovery operator if the vehicle can roll, as this determines the type of equipment needed, such as skates or dollies for immobilized vehicles. Additionally, providing precise location details, checking for any height restrictions, and noting any obstacles or mechanical issues further aids the recovery operation. These small preparations can make a significant difference in challenging recovery scenarios.

Military recovery

Military vehicle recovery is a type of operation conducted to extricate wheeled and tracked vehicles that have become immobile due to condition of the soil, nature of terrain in general, loss of traction due to an attempt to negotiate an obstacle, having broken down, or from sustaining non-combat or combat damage. Vehicles used in military operations can be hard to extricate from sand, snow, or mud. Vehicle recovery is part of the process known in the United States military as Recovery and Battle Damage Assessment and Repair, known by other names in other militaries.

Levels of recovery

There are three levels of recovery:
  1. Self-recovery: recovery of a vehicle by its own crew, using available tools and spare parts ', known in Commonwealth armies as the 'common equipment schedule, with troubleshooting procedures in manuals as instructions.
  2. Like-recovery: recovery of a vehicle by another vehicle of a similar or heavier weight class. Tracked vehicles are not permitted to tow wheeled vehicles, because it damages their steering.
  3. Dedicated recovery: recovery of a vehicle by a specialised armoured recovery vehicle.
In order to limit reliance on recovery assets such as ARVs, these levels of recovery aim to make a vehicle crew as self-sustaining as possible.

Approaches

Recovery can be performed using manual winches or motor-assisted methods of recovery, using ground or vehicle-mounted recovery equipment, with the recovery of heavier vehicles such as tanks conducted by armoured wheel and track recovery vehicles. During peacetime and in non-combat settings, various recovery vehicles can be used. In combat, under enemy fire, armies typically used armoured recovery vehicles, as the armour protects the crew from small arms fire and gives some protection from artillery and heavier fire.
Vehicle recovery can be performed by the vehicle itself, particularly if it has a powered winch, or by another like vehicle of similar weight and engine power. Many field expedients and improvised approaches for both recovery and repairs have been used by different armed forces since the wide introduction of vehicles into armed force. During the First World War, recovery vehicles tended to be re-purposed tanks. In WWII, while tanks and armoured personnel carriers were still converted into recovery vehicles, specialized, factory-built armoured recovery vehicles were introduced. This includes recovery with the use of the fifth wheel towing device or with Allied Kinetic Energy Recovery Rope. AKERR is braided nylon rope which is designed to stretch, which makes AKERR tow ropes better able to pull stuck vehicles out of mud. Special hand and arm signals are used during the vehicle recovery to guide the participants where field of view or line-of-sight are restricted and to make communications feasible in noisy battlefield conditions.

History

The history of the towing and recovery of motor vehicles has closely followed the history of the automobile itself. In its early days, towing was often achieved by attaching a horse to the disabled vehicle and pulling it home. Many of the first automobile repair shops had been bicycle repairers or blacksmiths, and they quickly adapted to recovering their customers' disabled vehicles. To achieve this, specialised recovery vehicles were often built. As automobiles have grown more sophisticated it has become much harder for the average vehicle owner to diagnose and repair a fault. Thus, a huge and specialised vehicle recovery industry has evolved to serve and support them.
Motoring organisations or clubs have been created to sell breakdown coverage to automobile drivers, particularly popular in Europe. Automobile manufacturers will often purchase bulk membership from the motoring organisations, to give away with new vehicle sales. These are usually 'badged' with the manufacturer's name. A large number of these motoring organisations do not operate recovery vehicles of their own, but instead use independent recovery operators as agents. Those clubs that have their own vehicles often also use independent agents to assist with specialist work, or when their own resources are stretched. Police forces also use independent recovery operators to move vehicles, for example after a car accident, when vehicles are illegally parked and when required for examination.

UK

Early motorists were often capable of carrying out minor repairs themselves, but as automobiles became more complicated, this became more difficult to carry out successfully. Some early local motoring clubs tried to support their members by encouraging them to help each other. A rota of members who would help other members was kept, and in some cases, cash was put aside to hire a tow vehicle if needed. By the start of the 20th century, some motoring clubs had become large enough to offer roadside assistance service. In the UK, they were The Automobile Association and the Royal Automobile Club. The services offered were limited to repairs if possible, if not a tow to local garage or the driver's home if nearby. During the 1950s, both clubs installed radios to allow them to dispatch patrols straight to the incident. Prior to this, the patrols had needed to go to a patrol box and 'phone in' to see if there were any jobs available.
In 1969 and 1970, a number of Midland-based recovery clubs were formed and started to offer a 'get you home service' from anywhere in the UK. The largest of these was National Breakdown Recovery Club, who also offered to cover you if you had an accident, something almost unheard of up until then. But today scenario is quite different, there are so many entrants into this business. They provide various other services which includes unwanted vehicle removal services, vehicle storage services.
Unlike the AA and RAC, these new clubs did not operate patrols or have their own recovery vehicles. Instead, they recruited recovery operators to work as their agents. These agents were selected from the best garages and coachworks. Inspections of the equipment and facilities were regularly carried out, by the clubs' own inspectors. Within a few years the AA and then the RAC responded with their own get you home or relay services.