Hopkins Wrecker Service

07/04/2026

We wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July!
Please remember to designate a driver, obey all traffic laws and wear your seat belt.
Hopkins Wrecker Service
(936) 564-7722

06/27/2026

HEAVY DUTY TOWING COMPANIES SHOULDN'T TAKE A LOSS ON GETTING THE INTERSTATES BACK OPEN ITS NOT OUR FAULT SOME TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE UNINSURED ARE HAVE THE MINIMUM INSURANCE COVERAGE.

Heavy-duty towing and recovery companies should not be expected to subsidize highway recovery operations because a motor carrier chose to operate without adequate insurance or because a broker tendered freight to an inadequately insured carrier.

When a commercial vehicle overturns, catches fire, loses its load, or causes a major roadway incident, recovery companies are expected to respond immediately, often at all hours, to protect the motoring public, reopen highways, and mitigate environmental hazards.

To accomplish this, we deploy specialized equipment such as rotators, excavators, skid steers, roll-off dumpsters, telehandlers, and trained labor crews.

These resources must often be paid for immediately, regardless of whether the responsible carrier has sufficient insurance coverage.

Maintenance costs, equipment repairs, employee wages, fuel, chains, straps, and truck breakdowns are legitimate costs of doing business. Absorbing tens of thousands of dollars in unreimbursed recovery expenses because a carrier was uninsured or underinsured is not.

There should be greater accountability throughout the transportation industry. Brokers and shippers who tender freight should verify that carriers maintain adequate liability, cargo, and recovery-related insurance before loads are awarded.

Likewise, minimum insurance requirements should better reflect the actual costs associated with modern heavy-duty recovery operations.

No business should be forced to choose between clearing a highway for public safety and risking a significant financial loss because another party failed to carry adequate insurance.

Recovery companies provide an essential public safety service, and the financial responsibility for those services should remain with the parties whose operations created the need, not with the company responding to the emergency.

Highways are reopened because recovery companies answer the call. Those companies should be paid fairly and in full for the services they provide.

WRITER ✍️ Gary Edward Hodnett

06/26/2026

WHEN CUSTOMERS QUESTIONS YOUR PRICES
FOR A EMERGENCY POLICE 🚔 TOW
“
All you did was tow it a few miles.
Why does it cost so much?”

It’s a question towing companies hear all the time after police directed emergency towing.

The answer is simple: you’re not paying for the few miles your vehicle traveled.

You’re paying for the emergency response system that made it possible for help to arrive when you needed it.
Not scheduled, not tomorrow, not when we can fit it in, but right now immediate response.

Like EMS and the fire department, towing companies are expected to respond 24 hours a day, 365 days a year—often within 20-35 minutes of being called by law enforcement.

That means maintaining trained operators, dispatch systems, insurance, storage facilities, and hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of dollars in specialized equipment ready to roll at a moment’s notice.

Here’s the difference…
Police departments are funded.
Fire departments are funded.
EMS receives public funding, grants, or municipal support.

Emergency towing companies receive none.
In fact, we may be the only emergency service expected to maintain around-the-clock readiness without taxpayer funding.

Even more challenging, approximately 40% of our police-requested services ultimately go unpaid.
Yet when the phone rings at 2:00 AM, during all types of bad weather after a serious crash, or when a roadway needs cleared for public safety, we’re still expected to respond immediately.

And we do.

The invoice isn’t paying for a few miles of towing.
It’s paying for the trucks, equipment, facilities, insurance, training, and people standing by 24/7, ready to respond when nobody else can.

That’s the true cost of emergency police tow

06/20/2026

06/08/2026

Hopkins Wrecker Service
(936) 564-7722

289 likes, 9 comments. “ ”

06/08/2026

Hopkins Wrecker Service
(936) 564-7722

05/23/2026

Hopkins Wrecker Service
(936)564-7722
Another timely recovery!

05/23/2026

Hopkins Wrecker Service
(936)564-7722
Nacogdoches, Shelby, San Augustine and Angelina County