Need a tow? 24/7 towing in New Bedford, MA

New Bedford Towing answers the phone around the clock, and the call itself is short: where the vehicle is, what it is, what happened, and where it should go. From those four answers we pick the truck, quote the job as one figure, and give you the arrival window before anyone hangs up.

That window moves with where you are - the shoulder of I-195 at rush hour is not a driveway in the West End - so we say it on the call rather than printing minutes on a web page.

What we ask on the call

• Where the vehicle is. Street and cross street, the lot, or the highway, direction and nearest exit.
• Year, make and model, and whether it is all-wheel drive, four-wheel drive or electric. That answer decides between a wheel-lift and a flatbed.
• What happened. Breakdown, collision, stuck in snow or mud, flat, dead battery, keys locked inside. Several of these are a roadside fix, and we would rather send the jump pack than the hook.
• Where it should go, if you know; if not, say so and we settle it before we hook up.

The truck that comes

Most two-wheel-drive cars and light trucks ride behind a wheel-lift: the boom slides under the drive wheels, wheel straps hold them, and the other two wheels roll on the road. It hooks up quickly and fits where a flatbed cannot - a tight lot off Acushnet Avenue or a side street with cars on both sides.

All-wheel-drive, four-wheel-drive and electric vehicles, and anything low, damaged or unable to roll, go on a flatbed: the bed tilts to the ground, the winch line brings the vehicle up on soft straps, and all four wheels ride off the pavement. The manufacturers' reasons are under flatbed towing for all-wheel-drive and electric vehicles.

Not every call needs a hook. A battery down about 30 percent at freezing - AAA's figure - a tire cut on a curb, an empty tank, keys in plain view on the seat: these are roadside assistance for a dead battery, flat or lockout, and the truck carries a jump pack, a jack and a lockout kit. When the vehicle cannot be made drivable where it sits, it is emergency towing at any hour.

New Bedford is a port city with an interstate through it and a swing bridge on its harbor side. I-195 has four interchanges inside the city - exits 24A and 24B for Route 140, exit 26 for Route 18 and downtown, exit 27 at Washburn Street eastbound and exit 28 at Coggeshall Street westbound - and a breakdown there is a shoulder pickup with traffic passing at speed.

Route 18, the JFK Memorial Highway, is the four-lane freeway between downtown and I-195, and it is a work zone: MassDOT closed the ramp from I-195 westbound exit 26 to Route 18 southbound on September 8, 2025, and it stays closed until the summer of 2027, with County, Purchase and North Front streets among those affected.

US 6 splits just east of the foot of Route 140 - the Taunton-New Bedford Expressway, which runs north out of the city as a freeway - into Kempton Street eastbound and Mill Street westbound, a one-lane, one-way pair; a car that dies there holds the whole street behind it.

The New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge carries US 6 over the Acushnet River and swings open about 5,000 times a year, daily for the fishing fleet, so a two-mile run to Fairhaven does not always take the four minutes the map says; we plan around the openings. Reconstruction is estimated for 2028.

Seastreak sails to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and the Cuttyhunk Ferry leaves from State Pier, both reached by exit 26 and Route 18 south. The MBTA has run the Fall River/New Bedford Line since March 24, 2025, with 352 spaces at New Bedford station, 536 Acushnet Avenue, and 354 at Church Street station, 387 Church Street - lots where a dead battery turns up at 6 p.m.

Then the port: the top US fishing port by catch value for 23 consecutive years on NOAA's count, and a working waterfront runs on pickups, vans and trailers that fail like anything else. We are light-duty, and we say so on the phone if a job is beyond a light-duty truck's tow rating.

Snow emergencies and the parking ban

New Bedford averages 32.5 inches of snow a year by NOAA's normals, and a storm that needs more than normal operations brings a snow emergency and a parking ban enforced for 48 hours unless it is lifted or extended. During a ban you park on the north side of east-west streets and the east side of north-south streets, and stay off the double-sided ban streets entirely - County Street, Kempton Street, Mill Street and Ashley Boulevard among them. Park on the wrong side and the car is ticketed and towed at the owner's full cost, plus storage.

After the citywide ban that took effect at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, January 18, 2026, the city towed 170 vehicles overnight. Those tows are police-ordered; the FAQ below says how to find a towed car. What we can do is winch-out and recovery from snow, mud or a ditch when a car is buried by the plow, nosed into a bank, or off the edge of an icy driveway.

New Bedford Towing quotes every job as one figure on the call, before the truck rolls, and that figure is the bill unless the job is not the job described - a car that turns out to be all-wheel drive, a winch pull that was called a flat - in which case you hear the new number before we do the extra work.

Massachusetts regulates only the tows you did not ask for: the Department of Public Utilities sets maximum rates under 220 CMR 272 for tows ordered by the police or by whoever controls a property - a trespass tow - and states that it does not regulate towing requested by the vehicle owner. A tow you call for yourself is priced by the quote you agree to. The regulated caps are on the cost page; this page stays free of dollar figures on purpose.

What moves a quote is short: how far the vehicle goes, flatbed or wheel-lift, how long the truck is on scene, and whether there is winching, a recovery strap or extra labor before it can be hooked. The whole list is under how we quote a tow before the truck rolls.

New Bedford is the largest city on the SouthCoast: 101,079 people at the 2020 Census on 20 square miles of Bristol County, ZIP codes 02740 and 02744 through 02746. We work every neighborhood - Downtown, the North End along The Ave on Acushnet Avenue, the Near North End and Far North End, the South End, and the West End around Buttonwood Park.

Past the city line we cover the neighboring towns. Distances are center to center by road, which is why a Fairhaven call and a Wareham call are quoted differently:

• Fairhaven - 2 miles, over the bridge
• Dartmouth - 4 miles
• Mattapoisett - 7 miles by US 6
• Acushnet - 8 miles
• Westport - 11 miles
• Fall River - 14 miles by I-195
• Marion - 14 miles by I-195
• Freetown - about 14 miles
• Wareham - 17 miles, where I-195 ends

Outside these towns, ask anyway; we say on the call whether we come and what the distance adds.