Tovak

Tovak is for the moment your car won't start or won't move and you need someone nearby. You enter the vehicle's address or use your phone's location, pick the service you need, and the site lists the closest providers with a call button for each. Services cover towing, flatbed and heavy-duty towing, jump starts, tire changes, lockouts, fuel delivery, mobile mechanics and EV recharging. A search near central New York, for example, shows the three nearest providers with their listed services, then a longer list of published profiles within about 31 miles.

You can also send a request instead of calling, with your location, vehicle and what happened. The privacy policy says a request can go to up to five providers, who can then respond.

The providers are independent drivers and businesses who apply to be listed and supply their own name, phone number, services, base location and photos. Tovak publishes those details and says private customer requests and providers' application emails are not part of the public directory. The map separates a provider's shared live location from their listed base, and the site is clear that neither confirms availability.

Tovak does not set prices or take payment. Its own advice is to confirm the full price, including call-out, work and transport, plus any extras and the arrival time, before a provider sets off. The homepage also suggests what to tell them, such as a nearby landmark, whether the wheels and steering move, and any low parking entrance.

Coverage depends on where providers have joined. The site links city pages for large US cities plus London, Birmingham, Montreal, Auckland and Brisbane, but a smaller town may have few or no listings. It is run by Pavel Ananyev, its footer dates the service back to 2010, and it has iPhone and Android apps.

The privacy policy names its hosting provider (FastVPS in the United States), Google for maps, analytics and notifications, and Yandex's AppMetrica for app statistics, including which provider a user called. Analytics is on by default for visitors detected in the United States and opt-in elsewhere, and the site turns it off when a browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track.