Tow truck in Peterstown, Elizabeth, NJ: the Burg's tight one-ways, the lowered cars and the river blocks

Nose to tail on both sides, inches between bumpers, and a car that has to leave in the middle of it. The driver slides skates under the wheels, walks the car sideways into the street with the wheel-lift and then hooks it, and the job is covered by the booking fee.

Say the cross street and the side; the truck comes in by the side street, never down the block against the parked cars.

A car sitting an inch off the pavement cannot ride a wheel-lift and cannot be winched straight up a flatbed ramp without touching the lip. The driver frees it on skates, brings it to the corner where the ramp can lie flat, adds wood blocks under the ramp and winches from further back.

Say how low it sits when you call. That is a flatbed job from the start.

The streets that slope toward the Elizabeth River hold water, and a car that stalled in it goes on a flatbed with nobody turning the key. The driver checks the depth before backing the deck in. A drowned engine is the expensive outcome the flatbed prevents.

Bakeries, delis and body shops with their own vans and customers' cars. A short tow to a shop in the Burg, on Elizabeth Avenue or over the line in Linden is a handful of miles, and shops that call often get an account and one invoice.

From here Bayway Circle and the yard are minutes down South Elizabeth Avenue and Bayway Avenue.