Here's the reality no one talks about at towing industry conferences: your drivers are working alone, on shoulders of highways at 2 AM, hooking thousand-pound vehicles to their trucks while distracted motorists fly past at 70 mph. And when something goes wrong—a sideswipe incident, a customer claiming you damaged their car, or a dispatcher who can't verify completion—you're stuck trying to reconstruct what happened with nothing but a driver's word and maybe some GPS breadcrumbs.
That's not a safety program. That's hope disguised as a policy.
If you run a towing operation, whether it's five trucks doing roadside assistance or fifty handling municipal contracts, you know the job puts your people and your business at risk every single day. The question isn't whether you need cameras. It's whether you're going to keep relying on single-angle dash cams that only show what's in front of the truck, or invest in the 360° coverage that actually protects your drivers, proves your work, and stops false damage claims before they turn into expensive settlements.
Let's talk about what 360° camera coverage really means for towing companies in 2026 and why SureCam's multi-camera system is purpose-built for the chaos of tow truck operations.
Tow truck drivers work alone. Full stop. No matter how good your dispatch protocols are, when a driver pulls up to a disabled vehicle on a dark stretch of I-80 or into a sketchy repo lot at midnight, they're on their own.
Traditional "lone worker protection" in towing has meant check-in protocols and maybe a panic button. But here's the problem: by the time a driver needs to hit a panic button, the situation has already escalated. What you need is real-time visibility and deterrence. You need cameras that let your drivers know someone is watching, and that give you the ability to see what's happening if things go sideways.
SureCam's multi-camera system gives you:
One of our towing customers, a 40-truck operation doing contract work for highway patrol, told us they started using live-stream check-ins after a driver was nearly hit by a passing car while hooking up a vehicle on the shoulder of I-95. The dispatcher saw the close call on camera, immediately called the driver, and they repositioned the truck with a better angle and lighting. That camera didn't just record an incident. It prevented one.
Tow trucks operate in tight spaces: parking garages, narrow alleys, residential driveways, and impound lots with rows of cars inches apart. A standard forward-facing dash cam doesn't help when you're backing a flatbed into a loading zone or maneuvering a wheel-lift through a crowded lot.
Side cameras and rear cameras eliminate the blind spots that lead to sideswipes, backing accidents, and pedestrian collisions. And when those incidents do happen—because no camera system prevents 100% of accidents—you have multi-angle footage that shows exactly what the driver could and couldn't see, which is critical for liability and training.
Towing is a transactional business with a trust problem. Customers don't call you because they're having a great day. They call because their car broke down, they got into an accident, or, in the case of repos and impounds, they're about to lose access to their vehicle. Disputes are baked into the business model.
"Did you tow my car from the correct location?"
"Why did it take 90 minutes when you said 30?"
"How do I know you actually delivered it to the yard you said you did?"
Without video evidence, these disputes turn into long back-and-forths between your office, the customer, the insurance company, and sometimes the municipality that contracted the job. With 360° camera coverage, you can answer every one of those questions with a timestamped, GPS-tagged video clip.
SureCam's system captures the full lifecycle of every tow:
Customers who can see that you did the work as promised are far less likely to file chargebacks or complaints. Some of our towing customers have started sending customers a short video clip (via a secure link) showing their vehicle being loaded and delivered. It's a simple gesture that builds trust and cuts down on post-service disputes.
Here's the scenario every towing company has dealt with at least once: You tow a vehicle. The customer picks it up and claims you scratched the bumper, dented the door, or broke the mirror. They file a claim with your insurance. Your deductible is $5,000 or $10,000. You settle because fighting it costs more than the damage claim.
Now multiply that by five or ten incidents a year, and you're looking at $50,000–$100,000 in avoidable costs.
The problem isn't that your drivers are damaging vehicles. The problem is that you can't prove they didn't. And in the absence of proof, you pay.
With side, rear, and front cameras capturing the entire rigging, transport, and drop-off process, you have a complete visual record of the vehicle's condition at every stage. If a customer claims pre-existing damage as new damage, you pull the footage, show the scratch was already there, and close the claim.
We've had customers tell us that a single avoided claim paid for their entire annual SureCam subscription. One towing company in the Southwest was facing a $15,000 claim for alleged frame damage to a luxury SUV. They pulled the multi-angle footage from the tow, showed that the damage was visible before the hookup, and the claim was dropped within 48 hours. The customer didn't apologize, but they did stop calling.
Towing companies, especially those doing parking enforcement or repo work, are constantly accused of predatory practices.
"You towed my car illegally."
"You damaged it on purpose."
"You're running a scam."
These accusations are exhausting, and they're often baseless. But without video evidence, they stick. A single viral social media post claiming your company damaged a car or towed illegally can cost you contracts and reputation.
360° camera footage is your insurance policy against false accusations. When a customer posts on Facebook that you "destroyed" their car, you can show the footage to the property manager, the insurance company, or, if it escalates, a lawyer. Footage is evidence, and you can shut down false accusations with facts.
Let me be clear: 360° coverage doesn't mean you need six cameras on every truck. It means you need enough cameras in the right places to eliminate blind spots, document service, and protect your drivers.
For most towing operations, that means:
SureCam's Vantage system supports up to six synchronized camera views, and you can configure each truck based on the type of work it does. Flatbeds doing long-haul transports might prioritize rear and side cameras. Wheel-lifts doing quick roadside assists might add a driver-facing camera for lone worker protection.
The key is flexibility. Your fleet isn't one-size-fits-all, and your camera system shouldn't be either.
Tow truck drivers work long shifts. They drive in stop-and-go traffic. They get called out at 3 AM. Fatigue and distraction are occupational hazards, and they lead to crashes.
SureCam's AI-powered driver-facing cameras detect:
When the system detects a risky behavior, it triggers an in-cab alert to the driver and sends a notification to your dispatch or safety manager. You can review the footage, coach the driver, and—most importantly—intervene before fatigue or distraction turns into a crash.
One of our customers told us they saw a 40% reduction in distracted driving events within the first three months of using SureCam's AI alerts. Drivers knew the system was watching, and they adjusted their behavior accordingly.
Here's what GPS tracking alone tells you: where the truck was and when.
Here's what GPS plus 360° video tells you: where the truck was, what the driver was doing, what the customer's vehicle looked like, whether the rigging was done correctly, and whether the driver was put in danger by passing traffic.
SureCam integrates GPS data with every video clip, so you get timestamped, location-tagged footage that can be pulled up in seconds. Dispatcher needs to verify a drop-off? Pull the GPS log and the rear camera footage. Insurance adjuster want proof of vehicle condition? Send them a clip with the GPS coordinates embedded.
This is the kind of end-to-end visibility that turns video telematics from a "nice-to-have" into a core operational tool.
A lot of the big-name telematics platforms want to sell you the whole enchilada: route optimization, fuel tracking, driver scorecards, maintenance scheduling, and—oh yeah—cameras, if you want them. The problem is, you end up paying for a bunch of features you'll never use, and the video piece is bolted on as an afterthought.
SureCam is different. We're video-first, which means our platform is built around the idea that visual evidence is the most important data you can collect. Everything else—GPS, speed, g-force alerts—supports the video, not the other way around.
For towing companies, that means:
We work with towing companies running 10 trucks and towing companies running 200 trucks. The platform scales with you, and you never pay for bloat.
If you're still running your towing operation with single-angle dash cams—or worse, no cameras at all—you're leaving your drivers, your reputation, and your bottom line exposed.
360° camera coverage isn't a luxury. It's the baseline standard for any towing company that wants to:
SureCam makes it simple. No upfront hardware costs. No complicated installation. No bloated software. Just cameras that work, footage you can access, and a platform that fits the way towing companies actually operate.
Ready to see what 360° coverage looks like in action? Book a demo with our team, or visit surecam.com/pricing to compare plans. We'll show you exactly how SureCam protects tow truck fleets—one camera angle at a time.