Accident Vehicle Recovery in London

After a collision there is a lot to sort out and very little patience left for any of it. Moving the vehicle should be the simple part. MPG Recovery collects damaged and undriveable vehicles across London, at any hour, and takes them to a garage, a bodyshop, a storage yard or your home.

Safety comes first

If anyone is injured, if the vehicle is in a dangerous position, or if the road is obstructed, contact the emergency services before anything else. Recovery can be arranged once the scene is safe and the vehicle is cleared for removal. Nothing about moving a car is more important than the people around it.

Take photographs while you are waiting, if it is safe to do so. They help your insurer, and they help us: a picture of the damage tells us whether a wheel will turn and how the vehicle can be loaded.

What we can move

Vehicles with front, rear or side damage, cars sitting on a flat or collapsed wheel, vehicles with suspension or steering damage that will not roll straight, and cars that simply will not start after the impact. The bed lowers to the road and the winch does the work, so nothing has to be driven or dragged on its own wheels.

Where a vehicle has leaked fluid, lost glass across the road, or is resting against something, say so when you message. It changes how we approach the job and what we bring. Motorcycles are recovered too, on a front wheel chock with soft straps.

Where the vehicle is drivable and this is really a fault rather than a collision, see breakdown recovery. For the mechanics of how vehicles are loaded, see vehicle recovery.

What to send us

• The exact location — a map pin or full postcode
• Vehicle make, model and registration if appropriate
• Whether the vehicle rolls and steers
• Photographs of the damage and of how the vehicle is sitting
• Where the vehicle needs to be taken
• Whether anyone else has already been called out to it

Photographs matter more here than on any other kind of job. Damage to wheels, suspension or bodywork determines whether a vehicle can be winched or whether a different approach is needed.

Where the vehicle goes

Bodyshops, assessors and storage facilities all have their own procedures for accepting a damaged vehicle. Confirm the destination will receive it, and let us know any reference they have given you. If an assessor still has to inspect the car, it usually needs to go somewhere it can sit undisturbed rather than back onto a street.

If you do not yet know where it should go, say so. It is a common position to be in an hour after a crash, and it is better to talk it through than to move the vehicle twice.

Accident recovery across London

Collisions happen in the worst places: the A13, the North Circular, box junctions, roundabout exits and narrow residential streets where a truck has to work around parked cars. We are based in the E1 arches, so East London is closest, and the work runs across the rest of London and the surrounding areas.

Insurance and legal matters

MPG Recovery moves vehicles. We do not give legal advice, handle claims or advise on liability — speak to your insurer or a solicitor for any of that. What we can tell you is where your vehicle is, when it was collected and where it was delivered, which is usually what the insurer asks for first.

The company holds business hire and reward insurance, the cover required to carry customers’ vehicles for payment.

What it costs

Price depends on the location, the destination, the time of day and how much work the loading takes. A car that rolls is quicker than one resting on a collapsed wheel. Quotes are free and agreed before we set off, and there is no separate callout charge on a job we carry out.

Take your belongings out first

Once a damaged vehicle goes to a compound, a bodyshop or a storage yard, getting back into it is rarely as simple as turning up. Before we load it, clear out anything you need: documents, house keys, charger, sunglasses, the contents of the boot, anything on the parcel shelf. Check the glovebox even if you are sure it is empty.

Take the V5 out too if it lives in the car, along with any service history. Those are awkward to replace and worth money when the vehicle is eventually sold or written off.

Vehicles on private land and in car parks

Not every collision happens on a public road. Where the vehicle is on private land — a supermarket car park, an estate road, a gated development or an underground level — we need safe access and permission from whoever controls the site before it can be moved.

Usually that is straightforward and the operator simply wants to know a truck is coming. Tell us which it is when you message, and send a photograph of the barrier or ramp if the vehicle is below ground, including any posted height limit. It decides whether the vehicle can be loaded where it sits or has to be brought up to street level first.

Accident recovery FAQs