How Waterloo Roadside Works

1. Someone answers (319) 271-6565, at any hour, on any day of the year.
2. You tell us where in the Cedar Valley the car is, what went wrong and what you drive.
3. We give you the price and the timing for that one job. If the figure is more than you want to spend, you turn it down and owe nothing.
4. Once you say yes, we send a tow truck or roadside technician to the address, exit or mile marker you gave.
5. When the job is done, a receipt shows what went on the card and any cash agreed.

Each service on our Cedar Valley price list has a from-price. The final price can be higher depending on availability, the hour, the distance, the weather and the vehicle. Whatever the figure, you hear it before anyone heads out, and no charge goes through until you agree to it. If the job turns out bigger once someone is with the car, the extra work gets a price of its own. You accept or refuse that one too.

Every job starts with a card number on the call, even one partly paid in cash. Reading it out does not charge it. The card is held before help sets off, and charged once the job is done. If you pay part in cash, that amount is settled on the call. That agreed amount is all you hand over at the roadside, and anything more would be a new price, approved the same way.

A cancellation fee, a fee for a trip that finds no car there, or a service-call fee for a job that cannot be finished can apply. Each one is part of what you agree to on the call.

Our posted prices cover cars, SUVs, pickups and vans. For a motorcycle, a motor home, a trailer or anything heavier than a pickup, ask at the start of the call. We confirm the price, and whether a suitable truck is available, while you are still on the line.

Opening a locked car is offered; cutting or programming a new key is not. There is no membership or roadside plan to buy, either. You pay for the job you called about.

Calls come in from Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Fayette, Grundy, Butler and Chickasaw counties. That means city streets in Waterloo and Cedar Falls, county gravel, and the highways that tie them together. On the highways, our area runs from I-380 north of mile 48.6 to US-20, US-218, US-63, Iowa 150, US-18 and Iowa 3. The roads page has the exits, and the prices page has every from-price.