Towing on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo, NY — $160 Base Plus $7 a Mile, Any Hour

What a Call on Hertel Avenue Looks Like

Hertel Avenue is one of the verified streets in our Buffalo coverage, the roads where cars actually get left when they stop being drivable. A call here is the same four questions as anywhere: where exactly the car is, with the nearest cross street; what it is, because an all-wheel-drive car needs a flatbed and a front-wheel-drive car does not; what it is doing; and where it needs to go. From those we quote the job before the truck is sent.

Property work around Hertel Avenue tends to come from the North Park Theatre, the North Park branch library, North Park Lutheran Church, North Park Community School: the battery that died while someone was inside, the lockout at the far end of a lot, the car that will not start in a space it cannot be pushed out of.

Pull as far out of the travel lane as the car will go, hazards on, keys ready. If it is winter and the car is in a snowbank, stop spinning the wheels and clear in front of the tires. We do not work the interstates, expressways, parkways or bridges; that is a different license and a different truck.

What Hertel Avenue Is Like for a Truck

North Park calls are a mix of the two things North Buffalo does: residential driveways and the commercial strips that run through it. A dead battery in a driveway at seven in the morning and a lockout outside a storefront at seven in the evening are the bread and butter, with winch-outs on the side streets once the bands come through. The streets are wider than the West Side and most of them take a flatbed without trouble, but the side streets off the strips still park both sides in winter.

North Buffalo's main roads take a flatbed without trouble, and the driveways are mostly long enough for a wheel-lift to back straight in. The side streets off the strips are the exception in winter, parked both sides with a berm at the kerb, and there the wheel-lift is the truck. Lots behind the storefronts are tight and a car at the back of one may need a neighbour moved.

What a Tow From Hertel Avenue Costs, Worked Out

From North Buffalo a tow to a shop on the same strip is a couple of miles, $174. Across to the West Side or downtown is four or five, $195. Out to the inner ring is eight to ten, $230. Roadside calls are flat and the car does not move. Pick the near shop and the mileage is the smallest line on the bill. Roadside calls on Hertel Avenue are flat: jump start $129, lockout $129, tire change $169, fuel $129 plus the fuel, battery $199 plus the battery.

Winter on Hertel Avenue

Lake-effect bands can bury one North Buffalo street and skip the next. If the car is in a snowbank, stop spinning the wheels; every turn polishes the snow under the tire into ice. Straighten the wheels, clear in front of them, and call with your cross streets.

Stuck on Hertel Avenue Right Now? Four Things, in Order

1. Get safe. Out of the travel lane if the car will push, hazards on. In the car if it is cold and the spot is safe; out and away from it if it is not.
2. Work out which call it is. One click and dim lights is a jump start. Keys visible inside is a lockout. A flat with a spare is a tire change. Buried or off the edge is a winch-out. Anything that has to move is a tow.
3. Call or text (716) 277-7012 with the nearest cross street on Hertel Avenue, what the car is, what it is doing, and where it is going.
4. Check the number. $160 plus $7 a loaded mile for a tow; the flat price above for a roadside call. Anything else, ask why.

What to tell us when you call from North Park: the nearest cross street or a pin, for example where you are on Delaware Avenue. What the car is, because an all-wheel-drive car needs a flatbed and a front-wheel-drive car does not. What it is doing: dead, flat, locked, stuck or wrecked. And where it needs to go, if it needs to go anywhere. From those four answers we tell you which call it is and quote it before the truck is sent.