Towing in Franklin Township, NJ: the Somerset section, Easton Avenue and the Route 27 side of the county

The I-287 interchange at Easton Avenue feeds the office and hotel parks on the Franklin side, and it is our usual way into the township. Rush-hour stalls on the ramps and dead batteries in office lots are common calls.

Give the dispatcher the building name or the ramp. For a car on the interstate itself, the direction and the last exit are what matter.

Easton Avenue runs from I-287 down toward New Brunswick through the Somerset section, a built-up stretch of homes, stores and apartments. Many drivers here are students and commuters headed into the city.

Street and apartment-lot calls are often a jump or a lockout at one flat price. When the car needs to go, a shop in New Brunswick or Piscataway is only a few miles.

Hamilton Street runs from the New Brunswick border into Franklin through a busy neighborhood of small shops and older homes. Double parking and tight corners make loading a car a careful job.

The driver may pull the car forward with a wheel-lift before switching trucks if the space is too tight for a flatbed. You hear about it before it happens.

Route 27 marks Franklin's edge with the Middlesex towns and runs south toward Kingston, past neighborhoods and small plazas. Inland, warehouse parks bring box trucks and tractors, and the south of the township near Griggstown and East Millstone is quiet and rural.

Heavy units handle the freight calls, and businesses can hold an account. The rural south takes longer than the Somerset section, and the dispatcher says so.