The default tow goes to a CAA facility; you can redirect it
CAA Insurance’s claims process says that, when towing is needed, it will arrange the tow from the Collision Reporting Centre to a CAA Approved Auto Repair Services facility, or you can request an alternative. Drivers who are shaken at the counter of a reporting centre often hear only the first half of that. The second half is the part that matters if you already know where you want the car to go.
Here is how it tends to play out in North York. Nobody is hurt, the car is leaking or a wheel is pushed back, and you have followed the tow truck to the nearest Collision Reporting Centre to file the police report. When you call CAA from there, the tow onward is on the table. That is the moment to name the shop. Once a car has been dropped somewhere, moving it again means a second tow and sometimes storage charges, and some of that may be yours to argue about.
Provincial towing law backs this up. Operators need an Ontario tow certificate, the bill has to be itemized, and the destination is the vehicle owner’s call. A tow CAA arranges sits on top of that right without taking it away. All of this assumes a no-injury crash; where someone is hurt, the first call is 911 and police at the scene direct what happens to the vehicles.
CAA Insurance, CAA Approved Auto Repair and CAA Recommended body shops are three different things
The CAA name covers several separate things, which is why the counter conversation gets confusing. In Ontario, CAA auto insurance is underwritten by CAA Insurance Company, which began in 1974 as Ontario Motorist Insurance Company and is part of CAA South Central Ontario. Your roadside membership is a different product from your auto policy. Calling the membership line for a tow does not report a claim, and the claim has its own channel.
CAA Approved Auto Repair Services, often shortened to AARS, is a programme for members. Its benefits include a parts-and-labour warranty of one year or 20,000 km at participating facilities. That is a membership benefit tied to the facility, separate from anything in your insurance policy.
Separately again, CAA lists Recommended Auto Body Repair Facilities for collision claims, and repairs there come with CAA’s repair guarantee. So a shop can carry the AARS sign, the recommended-body-shop designation, both, or neither. Crash Consultant carries neither, so CAA member savings, rewards and warranties linked to those programmes do not apply here, and we would rather you know that before the car arrives.
CAA’s seven claim steps, and where the shop decision sits
CAA Insurance takes claims by phone or online at claims.caainsurancecompany.com, around the clock, and describes the process in seven steps: report the claim, answer the initial questions, have the vehicle inspected, arrange repair and towing, sort out a rental, receive status updates, and settle. The shop decision officially sits at step four, but in practice it gets made at step one, because the first call is when the tow destination is booked.
CAA says it will explain the advantages of the facilities it recommends while encouraging you to choose a shop you trust, and that the ultimate choice belongs to you. In practice you do not need to justify the choice. Give the claims representative the shop’s name and address and ask where and how the vehicle inspection will be done.
Rental is the step that catches people out. CAA provides one only if your policy covers it, and then only while the vehicle is out of service for the damage or the repair. Ask whether yours comes from an OPCF 20 endorsement or from the not-at-fault share of the claim. If the car is drivable while parts are on order, the rental clock may not start until it comes in. Plan the drop-off around the parts arriving, not the day you reported.
- Ask for the claim number before you hang up on the first call.
- Name the shop before the tow from the reporting centre is booked.
- Ask whether your policy includes a rental and on what terms.
- Confirm who the inspector or adjuster is and when they will see the car.
If the car is already sitting at a CAA Approved facility
It happens: the tow was booked before anyone asked where you wanted the car, and now it is at a facility you did not pick. You can still move it. The cleanest time is before teardown, while nothing has been taken apart and no parts have been ordered against an estimate. Tell CAA you want the car transferred, give them the new shop, and ask who is arranging the second tow.
We help coordinate that transfer to our shop at Sheppard and Don Mills. We are not a tow company, so we line up the pick-up with the facility and the adjuster instead of sending a truck of our own. On a not-at-fault crash, DCPD keeps CAA Insurance as the company paying for your car, provided the other vehicle was identified and carried Ontario-licensed insurance, so the shop works with CAA’s adjuster rather than the other driver’s company.
Questions people ask
Is Crash Consultant a CAA Approved Auto Repair Services facility?
No. We are not in the AARS programme and not on CAA’s recommended body shop list, so the AARS one-year or 20,000 km warranty and CAA’s repair guarantee do not apply to work here. The shop’s own lifetime paint and refinish warranty covers the work instead.
I called CAA roadside for the tow. Does that count as reporting my claim?
No. Roadside membership and CAA Insurance are separate, so the claim still has to be reported to CAA Insurance by phone or at claims.caainsurancecompany.com. Do it soon after the crash, because the policy expects prompt notice of any collision.
Will CAA refuse to pay if I send the car somewhere it did not recommend?
CAA says the final choice of shop belongs to you. It pays what its inspection of the covered damage supports, and the guarantee it attaches to recommended facilities is the main thing you give up.
Who pays for the second tow if I move the car from a CAA facility?
Ask CAA before it is booked. Moving the car early, before teardown, keeps the cost and the argument small, and the itemized tow invoice will show exactly what was charged.