Open 24 hours, 7 days a week
Towing Moosic PA
Richardson Roadside Assistance answers the phone at 3 a.m. on I-81, in the Montage Mountain warehouse district and on every back road in Lackawanna County. Class 8 tractors, loaded trailers, box trucks, pickups and family cars.
Short answer, if you're in a hurry
Richardson Roadside Assistance provides 24-hour towing in Moosic, Pennsylvania, covering both heavy-duty commercial equipment and passenger vehicles within a 50-mile radius of Scranton. Owner Daniel J Richardson runs the dispatch line personally at (570) 309-2516. Typical arrival inside Moosic borough is 30–45 minutes. Roughly 80% of the work is semi-truck towing, recovery and roadside repair; the remaining 20% is cars, SUVs and light trucks. Common calls include I-81 breakdowns near Exits 178–182, winch-outs from soft shoulders, warehouse-yard trailer moves, blown steer tires, no-starts and out-of-fuel diesel units.
- Dispatch: Open 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Coverage: 50-mile service radius
- Fleet focus: 80% trucks / 20% cars
- Based in: Scranton, PA 18504
Why Moosic generates the calls it does
Moosic is a small borough carrying an outsized amount of freight. Interstate 81 splits the town, the Turnpike’s Northeast Extension is a short hop south, and the warehouse corridor that grew around Montage Mountain moves trailers day and night. Add the airport traffic out of nearby Avoca and the ballpark and amphitheater crowds, and you get a town where a stalled Class 8 tractor and a stranded commuter can both be blocking the same road within an hour of each other. Knowing that pattern is the difference between guessing at equipment and sending the right wrecker on the first roll.
I-81 shoulder breakdowns
The stretch between Exit 178 (Davis Street) and Exit 182 carries constant tractor-trailer traffic feeding the Scranton distribution corridor. Disabled tractors, trailers with locked brakes and units overheating on the Montage Mountain grade are the tows that come in most often.
Warehouse and dock incidents
Moosic’s logistics parks generate low-speed damage that still requires a wrecker — dropped landing gear, jackknifed trailers in tight yards, kingpin misses and units that have to be dragged clear of a dock door before the next truck can back in.
Montage Mountain traffic
Event nights at the amphitheater and ballpark, plus winter runs to the ski area, put cars off the access roads and into ditches. Those are flatbed and winch calls, often several in the same evening once the temperature drops.
Seasonal weather swings
Northeastern Pennsylvania alternates freeze-thaw cycles with heavy summer storms. Shoulders turn to soft mud the moment a wheel leaves pavement, which is how a simple stop becomes a recovery instead of a straight hook.
The towing we roll out for
Every call on this line ends with a vehicle on a hook, a deck or a winch line. The only real question is which piece of equipment the situation calls for, and that is decided before the truck leaves the yard rather than after it arrives.
Heavy-Duty Semi-Truck Towing
Class 7 and Class 8 tractors, loaded dry vans, reefers and flatbeds towed with proper air-brake caging and driveline protection.
Light-Duty Car & Pickup Towing
Flatbed transport for AWD, EV and low-clearance vehicles, wheel-lift where it is safe, dollies when a brake is seized.
Winch-Out & Accident Recovery
Units off the shoulder, in mud, over a berm or jackknifed in a yard pulled back to pavement and then towed if needed.
Every tow type dispatched from the same line
- ▸Heavy-duty tractor and trailer towing
- ▸Light-duty car, SUV and pickup towing
- ▸Flatbed towing for AWD and EV vehicles
- ▸Box truck and van towing
- ▸Winch-out and off-road recovery
- ▸Accident and secondary-damage recovery
- ▸Trailer and equipment relocation
- ▸Junk and non-running vehicle towing
- ▸Long-distance towing across NEPA
Full list on the services page.
Heavy-duty and light-duty are not the same job
Commercial trucks
A loaded tractor-trailer cannot be handled like a sedan with a bigger hook. Drive-axle condition decides whether the unit is towed on the drives or lifted with the driveline pulled. Air-brake systems have to be caged before the wheels turn. A trailer with 40,000 pounds of freight changes the pull angle, the anchoring plan and the safe recovery direction, and hauling it wrong bends frames and voids warranties. Every heavy call starts with questions about weight, cargo type, axle condition and how far off the roadway the unit sits, because those answers determine which wrecker rolls. For fleets and owner-operators, downtime is the real cost, so a correct hook on the first attempt and clean paperwork matter as much as the tow itself.
Cars, SUVs and pickups
Passenger work is quieter but no less careful. All-wheel-drive vehicles and most modern EVs need flatbed transport rather than a wheel-lift, low-clearance cars need approach ramps that won’t scrape a bumper cover, and a car with a seized parking brake needs dollies instead of force. The same 24-hour line that dispatches a wrecker to a jackknifed trailer sends a flatbed for a family stuck on Birney Avenue with a dead alternator and the driver explains what happened instead of shrugging at you in the dark.
Our Primary Services
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How a Moosic Call Actually Runs
One Call, Six Questions
Location, vehicle class, whether it rolls and steers, cargo weight, hazards around you, and the drop-off point. Those answers decide which wrecker or flatbed gets dispatched.
Honest ETA, Not a Guess
You get a realistic arrival window and the tow equipment type. If a heavier wrecker is required and adds twenty minutes, you hear that on the phone rather than discovering it later.
Scene Safety First
Cones, lighting, and traffic control go out before any hook-up on a live shoulder. Nothing about a recovery is worth a secondary collision.
Hooked the Way the Vehicle Allows
Air brakes caged, driveline pulled or drives lifted where required, dollies or a flatbed for AWD, EV, and seized-brake vehicles. The hook method is chosen to protect the vehicle, not to save the driver time.
Delivered and Documented
The unit goes where you choose: your shop, a truck stop, a dealer, a yard, or home. Paperwork is clean enough for a fleet manager or an insurance adjuster to process without follow-up.
What to do while you wait on the shoulder
The most dangerous part of a breakdown is rarely the mechanical failure it’s the twenty minutes spent standing next to live traffic. On I-81 through Moosic, trucks are moving at highway speed within a few feet of a disabled unit.
- Get as far right as the shoulder allows, and past the guardrail if the terrain is safe. A soft berm is better than a travel lane.
- Four-way flashers on immediately. At night, add reflective triangles at roughly 10, 100 and 200 feet behind a commercial vehicle.
- Stay belted inside the cab unless the vehicle is smoking, leaking fuel, or sitting in a position where it could be struck.
- Exit on the passenger side only, and never stand between your vehicle and oncoming traffic while waiting.
- Drop a pin from your phone’s map app and read the mile marker or nearest exit to dispatch. Precision saves ten minutes.
- If a commercial unit is blocking a lane, call 911 as well PennDOT and state police coordination clears the scene faster.
Moosic and 50 miles around it
Dispatch runs from 1516 W Gibson St, Scranton, PA 18504, which puts Moosic minutes away and keeps the wider Northeastern Pennsylvania freight corridor inside a single response radius.
- Scranton, PA
- Wilkes-Barre, PA
- Stroudsburg, PA
- Tunkhannock, PA
- Mount Pocono, PA
- New Milford, PA
Between those points we cover Avoca, Dupont, Duryea, Old Forge, Taylor, Dickson City, Clarks Summit, Pittston and the interstate mileage that connects them. If you are unsure whether your breakdown falls inside the radius, call and ask the honest answer takes ten seconds.
Why Drivers Choose Richardson Roadside Assistance
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast can a tow truck reach me in Moosic, PA?
Most calls inside Moosic borough are reached in roughly 30 to 45 minutes. Moosic sits between the Scranton dispatch base and the Avoca/Pittston corridor, so a truck is rarely starting from far away. Weather, an active crash investigation on I-81 or a queue of simultaneous calls can stretch that window, and the dispatcher will give an honest ETA instead of an optimistic one.
Do you tow semi-trucks and loaded trailers, or only cars?
Both. Roughly 80% of the work is Class 7 and Class 8 commercial equipment tractors, loaded dry vans, reefers, flatbeds and box trucks and the remaining 20% is passenger cars, pickups and SUVs. Heavy recovery, winch-outs and trailer relocations are part of the standard scope.
What does towing in Moosic cost?
Pricing depends on vehicle class, hook type, recovery difficulty and loaded mileage, so a firm number comes after a short set of questions on the phone. Light-duty hooks are quoted flat with a per-mile rate; heavy-duty recovery is quoted by equipment and crew time. The quote given on the call is the quote honored on scene unless conditions on the ground change and you approve the difference first.
Are you open at 2 a.m. or on holidays?
Yes. Dispatch runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and through winter storm events. Overnight is when most breakdowns on I-81 and the Turnpike Northeast Extension actually happen.
Can you tow a truck that is off the shoulder or stuck in mud?
That is a winch-out or recovery, not a routine tow. Tell dispatch how far off the roadway the unit is, whether it is upright, whether the trailer is loaded and what the ground looks like. That determines whether a wrecker, a winch line and snatch block, or a rotator-class response is sent, and it prevents a wasted roll-out.
What information should I have ready when I call?
Your exact location mile marker, exit number, cross street or a dropped pin plus vehicle year, make, model or truck class, whether it rolls and steers, whether the drive axles turn freely, cargo weight if loaded, and where it should be delivered. Six answers is usually enough to send the right truck the first time.
Can you tow a vehicle to a shop, a yard or my home?
Yes. The destination is yours to choose your own shop, a dealer, a truck stop, a storage yard, a body shop or a driveway. Long-distance tows out of Moosic to Wilkes-Barre, Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono or beyond are quoted by loaded mileage before the hook goes on.
Do you tow non-running or junk vehicles in Moosic?
Yes. Non-running, wrecked or long-dead vehicles are towed out of driveways, yards, apartment lots and commercial properties, including units with flat tires, missing wheels or seized brakes that need dollies or a winch onto the deck.
Who you're calling.
Richardson Roadside Assistance is owner-operated by Daniel J Richardson, working out of Scranton and specializing in commercial truck recovery across the region’s freight routes. There is no call center between you and the person deciding which truck to send. That is the whole reason the ETAs are realistic and the quotes hold: the person quoting is the person accountable when the wrecker pulls up. Read more about the company or get in touch.