(414) 279-5510 Call City of Milwaukee · Milwaukee County
Most of our work is inside the city. In the 12 months to October 2026 we completed 750 jobs in Milwaukee, and 643 of them were tows. A live dispatcher picks up (414) 279-5510 at any hour, quotes the job and gives you an arrival estimate on that same call. A 2 a.m. tow costs what a noon tow costs.
Rather see the number first? Price the job online
Freeway breakdowns
Our map holds 63 exits inside city limits, spread across nine freeway corridors. An exit number on its own can point to the wrong side of town. Exit 9 is mapped twice, once on the South Side by the Airport Freeway and once on the far Northwest Side, and Exit 1D appears on three separate stretches. The freeway name settles it.
Stuck between ramps? The last green sign you passed is enough. Tell the dispatcher which way you were heading and whether you made it to the shoulder.
If traffic is flying past a few feet from your door, stay buckled in with the hazards on. If there is a guardrail and you can reach it without crossing a lane, get out on the side away from traffic and stand behind it, back from the car.
Wisconsin has a Move Over law: drivers must change lanes or slow down for a stopped tow truck with its lights going. Many still do not, so nobody should stand between the car and the lane, and nobody should try a tire change on the traffic side.
From our dispatch records
Completed jobs inside the city limits, by the reason on the ticket:
742 completed jobs
Jump-starts are the clear second call here, about one job in seventeen. A battery that dies in a driveway or a surface lot is a jump-start visit, not a tow. If the car still will not crank after the boost, say so and the dispatcher sets up the tow. A flat with a usable spare is a tire change; a flat with no spare is a tow to a tire shop.
If you cannot see a street sign, a neighborhood name plus one nearby street usually gets the driver close. These are a few of the 100 named on our map, grouped by where they sit.
Low clearances
Milwaukee has 322 low-clearance points on our map, far more than any other town on it. Of the ones we have detail on, most are downtown garage entrances posted between 6 and 7 feet. At that height the car usually has to come to the entrance to meet the truck. A few of the named entrances:
| Entrance on our map | Posted clearance |
|---|---|
| Chase Tower Parking Garage | 6 ft 0 in |
| Metro Market Parking | 6 ft |
| Two-Fifty Garage | 6 ft 4 in |
| 615 Vel R. Phillips Ave Garage | 6 ft 6 in |
| The Shops of Grand Avenue | 6 ft 7 in |
| 411 East Wisconsin Parking | 6 ft 8 in |
| Downer Garage (East Side) | 6 ft 10 in |
Tell the dispatcher your level, whether the car rolls, and whether it is all-wheel drive. That decides how the car gets to the entrance and which truck meets it there. We run 3 flatbeds and 2 wheel-lift wreckers; an AWD car or one that will not shift out of park rides the flatbed.
Call 911 first if anyone is hurt or a car is blocking a travel lane. The Milwaukee Police Department works out of seven district stations plus the Avenues West substation. The Milwaukee County Sheriff and the police at UW-Milwaukee, Marquette and MSOE also appear on our map, so the officer who arrives may not be city police.
Whoever responds, get the report number before the car is hooked. Your insurer asks for it first. Once the scene is cleared, call (414) 279-5510 and tell us where the car should go. Our accident towing page covers the rest.
Start with our Milwaukee tow lot guide. It covers finding a towed car, the city tow lot and what release costs.
At our storage lot, 206 W Layton Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53207. Call (414) 279-5510 before you head over and the dispatcher will tell you what to bring.
Yes. When you call us yourself, you choose the drop-off: home, your mechanic, a dealer. A light-duty tow of 10 miles is $130 and 25 miles is $200, the same at 2 a.m. The towing cost page breaks the price down.
Cash, all major cards, mobile pay; insurance & motor-club billed direct where supported.
Most Milwaukee calls are plain towing. Lowered, all-wheel-drive and electric cars go on a flatbed. Keys locked inside is a lockout, and an empty tank is fuel delivery.
For a bike, see motorcycle towing. Box trucks and other big rigs are on the heavy-duty page. Everything that is not a tow is listed under roadside assistance.
Out past the west city line, West Allis and Wauwatosa each have their own page. To the south are Oak Creek, Franklin and South Milwaukee, and Brookfield is further west in Waukesha County.
Every smaller suburb has its own page too, from Shorewood and Glendale on the North Shore to Cudahy and St. Francis on the South Shore; the full list is on the service areas page.
Have three things ready: the location, the vehicle, and whether it rolls. The dispatcher prices the job, gives you an estimate for the truck and keeps the line open if anything changes.
Call dispatch: (414) 279-5510