A tow truck operator's duties consist of communicating with a dispatcher, driving to the scene of an accident or breakdown, connecting the vehicle to the tow truck, and transporting it back to the service station or junkyard. The driver is usually responsible for attaching the disabled vehicle to the tow truck. Depending on the type of tow truck, this may include using a chain, winch, steering locks, and other devices and affixing lights onto the towed vehicle.
At the very least, applicants must have a valid driver's license and a record of safe driving to become a tow truck operator. Other qualifications vary by state and employer. In general, they should be at least 18 years old and have a high school diploma or the equivalent. Prior work experience isn't typically required, but trucking or automotive repair is always a plus.
Tow truck operators start at an average of $12.00 to $16.00 an hour, depending on employer and experience.
How to Become a Tow Truck Driver
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a tow truck driver. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.57 an hour? That's $42,789 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 99,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Tow Truck Driver Do
There are certain skills that many tow truck drivers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed hand-eye coordination, physical health and communication skills.
How To Become a Tow Truck Driver
If you're interested in becoming a tow truck driver, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 5.4% of tow truck drivers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 1.1% of tow truck drivers have master's degrees. Even though some tow truck drivers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a tow truck driver. When we researched the most common majors for a tow truck driver, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on tow truck driver resumes include diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a tow truck driver. In fact, many tow truck driver jobs require experience in a role such as driver. Meanwhile, many tow truck drivers also have previous career experience in roles such as truck driver or delivery driver.
Tow Truck Driver Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a tow truck driver can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as driver, progress to a title such as technician and then eventually end up with the title service manager.
Average Salary for a Tow Truck Driver
What Am I Worth?
Top Skills For a Tow Truck Driver
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 22.4% of tow truck drivers listed transport vehicles on their resume, but soft skills such as hand-eye coordination and physical health are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Tow Truck Driver Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Tow Truck Driver templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Tow Truck Driver resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Tow Truck Driver Demographics
Tow Truck Driver Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among tow truck drivers, 4.4% of them are women, while 95.6% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among tow truck drivers is White, which makes up 64.5% of all tow truck drivers.
- The most common foreign language among tow truck drivers is Spanish at 80.5%.
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Best States For a Tow Truck Driver
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a tow truck driver. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Tow truck drivers make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $59,299. Whereas in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, they would average $50,754 and $50,738, respectively. While tow truck drivers would only make an average of $50,451 in Massachusetts, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Rhode Island
$50,738
Avg. Salary
2. Vermont
$47,067
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$50,754
Avg. Salary
How Do Tow Truck Driver Rate Their Jobs?
5.0
5.0
Love it • April 2019What do you like the most about working as Tow Truck Driver?
Driving the truck Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
You have to have a CDL and I might not have money to pay for the classes Show MoreTop Tow Truck Driver Employers
Most Common Employers For Tow Truck Driver
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Miller Industries | $49,851 | $23.97 | 5 |
| 2 | Touch of Class | $49,232 | $23.67 | 4 |
| 3 | Schmidt's Auto | $49,145 | $23.63 | 4 |
| 4 | Jans | $48,611 | $23.37 | 4 |
| 5 | AAA Northeast | $48,336 | $23.24 | 27 |
| 6 | City Wide Mechanical Inc | $48,008 | $23.08 | 15 |
| 7 | AAA AUTO | $47,961 | $23.06 | 18 |
| 8 | ADESA | $47,667 | $22.92 | 5 |
| 9 | All Points Logistics | $46,517 | $22.36 | 8 |
| 10 | Bobby & Steve's Auto World | $46,428 | $22.32 | 28 |
Tow Truck Driver Videos
