1. Tow truck

A tow truck (also called a wrecker or breakdown truck) is a motor vehicle designed to move disabled, improperly parked, impounded, or damaged vehicles.

  • Hook and chain – lifts one end of the vehicle using a hook and chain (less common today due to potential damage).
  • Wheel-lift – uses a metal yoke that lifts the vehicle by its wheels.
  • Flatbed – has a hydraulic platform that tilts and slides to load the entire vehicle.
  • Integrated – combines wheel-lift and boom, often used for heavy-duty towing.
Tow truck

A tow truck removes an illegally parked vehicle. (Moscow, Russia) © Wikimedia.org/Stolbovsky, CC BY-SA