A drivable-vs-tow triage script that actually works

The drivable-vs-tow question is the most consequential single question on an intake call. Every other field — vehicle, mileage, symptoms — informs the eventual estimate. This one determines whether the customer's day involves a tow truck. It also determines which queue the request lands in at the shop.

If the question is asked badly, the shop ends up with a tow scheduled for a vehicle that the customer was perfectly happy to drive, or — worse — the customer drives a vehicle that should have been towed, makes the damage worse, and the shop becomes the bad guy.

This post is a working script for the triage, the follow-ups that matter, and the cases where the AI should escalate to a human instead of trying to decide.

The framing question

The triage doesn't start with "can you drive it?" That question is too open — a customer who hasn't tried doesn't know, and a customer who has tried might be optimistic.

A better opener:

"Is the car running and safe to drive right now?"

This frames the question around the customer's current state, not their tolerance. "Running" rules out engine-off symptoms. "Safe" introduces the idea that the customer has a judgment to make.

Branching on the answer

There are three useful answers, not two:

• "Yes, it's fine." Drivable. Capture the rest of the intake; schedule for the next available appointment slot.
• "No, it won't start" / "I'm stuck on the side of the road." Not drivable. Switch to the tow branch.
• "I don't know" / "It's making a weird noise but it's running." Uncertain. This is where most intake scripts fail. The right next step is a series of yes/no follow-ups, not "well, can you make it here?"

For the uncertain answer, three follow-up questions cover most cases:

1. Are any dashboard warning lights on right now? (red lights specifically — temperature, oil pressure, battery)
2. Are you hearing or feeling anything unusual when the car is moving — grinding, vibration, smoke?
3. Are you currently somewhere safe to stop, or are you on a highway?

The combination of answers usually resolves to drivable or tow. If a red warning light is on, tow. If grinding/smoke is reported, tow. If the car is on a highway with any unusual symptom, tow. Otherwise, drivable.

When to escalate to a human

Some calls don't fit the script:

• The caller is clearly distressed or in danger ("I just had an accident," "there's smoke coming from the engine").
• The vehicle is in an unsafe location (middle of an intersection, blocking traffic).
• The caller is reporting an injury.

The agent should hand off immediately. For shops that have a dispatch number, the handoff is a warm transfer. For shops that don't, the agent captures only the location and callback number and sends an urgent notification to the shop owner's mobile.

The intake script doesn't try to be a roadside assistance dispatcher. It just gets the right help moving.

The structured fields the triage produces

A successful triage call produces, in addition to the standard intake fields:

• drivable: enum of yes, no, uncertain-resolved-no, uncertain-resolved-yes, escalated
• location: free text — cross-streets, address, mile marker, parking lot name
• safe_to_wait: boolean — is the customer currently somewhere they can wait for a tow?
• tow_destination: the shop's address by default, but the customer can override (some prefer to be towed home and dropped off there)
• dispatch_notified_at: timestamp of the SMS to the on-call contact, if applicable
• caller_text_consent: explicit TCPA opt-in capture, with the verbatim consent language used

These fields drive the morning queue ordering. Tow requests jump to the top; drivable requests sort by appointment availability.

Why the script ordering matters

Asking "is the car safe to drive?" before "what year/make/model is it?" is intentional. The triage decision drives the rest of the call. If it's a tow situation, you need location and dispatch-readiness fast, and the make/model can be captured after the dispatch SMS goes out. If it's a drivable situation, the make/model is captured in a relaxed way as part of building the estimate request.

A surprising number of intake scripts ask the vehicle questions first because they were designed by people thinking of the shop-management-system data model rather than the call experience. The call experience should come first.

What this changes for the shop

A reliable triage script does two things. It reduces the rate of vehicles arriving at the shop that shouldn't have been driven there — which means fewer "while-you're-in-there" conversations that turn into trust problems. And it gives the morning advisor a queue that's already prioritized — the urgent calls are flagged, the routine calls are scheduled, and nothing requires re-listening to determine what happened.

Coggleby ships with the drivable-vs-tow triage built in — and you can customize the follow-ups to match how your shop dispatches. Start your shop at coggleby.com.