30.7% of tow company profiles list no hours. Fix yours this week
A big share of towing profiles on Google show no hours at all, so drivers stuck at night cannot tell who is open. Why it costs calls and a 20-minute fix.
A driver is stuck on the shoulder at 11 p.m. They search "tow truck near me," look at the map, and tap the first company that clearly says it is open. If your profile shows no hours, you are not in that decision. They never find out you had a truck 10 minutes away.
That is not a rare situation. In our benchmark report, 30.7% of the 23,074 towing listings show no hours at all. Only 50.7% say they are open 24 hours. In a trade where a large share of calls come at night and on weekends, that blank field is one of the cheapest problems to fix.
Why the blank hours field costs you calls
Google filters by open now. When someone searches late, Google can favor or label businesses that are open at that moment. A profile with no hours gives Google nothing to work with, so you may show lower or without the "Open 24 hours" label that drivers look for.
Drivers skip uncertainty. A stranded driver does not want to call three companies to find one that picks up. They want the listing that says Open 24 hours in green. A blank looks like a company that might be closed, or worse, out of business.
AI answers lean on it. When someone asks an assistant for "a tow company open now near me," the answer is built from public listing data. Hours are one of the clearest facts it can use. No hours means less to say about you, so you are less likely to be named.
It undercuts the reviews you have earned. Tow companies tend to have more reviews than most local trades. The median in our data is 31. Good reviews do not help much if the profile next to them suggests nobody answers after dark.
What to do this week
1. Decide what your real hours are (5 minutes)
Be honest about when someone actually answers the phone and can dispatch a truck. There are three common setups:
- True 24/7 dispatch. Someone answers every call, any hour, and a truck rolls.
- Extended hours plus on-call. The office is staffed 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and a driver takes night calls for emergencies.
- Business hours only. You do not take night calls at all.
If you are in the second group, think about whether you can list 24 hours. If a driver answers your line overnight and will tow, you are open. Listing shorter hours than you actually work hides you from the calls you would take anyway.
2. Set the hours on your Google profile (5 minutes)
Open your Google Business Profile, go to Edit profile, then Hours. Choose Open 24 hours for each day you answer around the clock. Google explains the options in its help page on editing business hours.
If you run different services on different schedules, such as impound release during business hours only, use the More hours section to list those separately. That keeps the main hours accurate for emergency calls and stops people showing up at the lot at 2 a.m.
3. Add holiday hours now (5 minutes)
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's are coming. Google asks businesses to confirm special hours around holidays, and profiles that do not respond can show a warning that hours might differ. If you are open on holidays, say so ahead of time. Those are some of the busiest days for breakdowns and accidents on the road.
4. Match the hours everywhere else (5 minutes)
Check that the same hours appear on your website, your Facebook page and any directory you are listed on, such as Yelp or Apple Maps. Mismatched hours make both Google and AI tools less confident about which is right. If your site does not list hours near the top, add a line like "24/7 towing and roadside, Salt Lake and Davis County."
Then make sure the phone actually gets answered
Listing 24 hours only helps if the call gets picked up. A night call that rings out costs you the job and often a bad review. If your night coverage is one driver who may be on another tow, set up a backup: forward to a second phone after four rings, or use an answering service that can take the location and dispatch.
At minimum, turn on missed-call text-back so a caller gets an instant reply: "This is Ridgeline Towing. We're on another call. Reply with your location and vehicle and we'll call back in 5 minutes." The missed calls and answering speed guide covers what a missed tow call costs, and the calculator will run the math with your average ticket.
A quick test before the weekend
On Friday night, search "tow truck near me" from your phone in your own service area. Look at what shows. Count how many competitors show as open 24 hours and whether you do. Then call your own number and see who answers. That 10-minute test tells you more about your night call volume than any report.
If you want your profile hours, night call handling and text-back set up for you, any service is available as a free 14-day trial, no card. Text or call (385) 249-3225.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, towing companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor