A non-running vehicle is anything that cannot be driven onto a deck under its own power. That covers a much wider range of situations than most people assume, and each one changes how the vehicle has to be loaded. A car with a dead engine but working brakes and steering is straightforward. A car that has been standing in a garden for six years with seized brakes, flat tyres and a locked steering column is a different job entirely, even though both are described the same way on the phone.
The reason a carrier exists is precisely this category of vehicle. There is no way to safely move a vehicle that cannot roll except to lift it onto something that can. Everything else — towing on a hook, pushing it by hand, dragging it onto a trailer — either damages the vehicle or endangers whoever is doing it.
The conditions we see most
Engines that will not start make up the largest share. The vehicle is otherwise healthy: the wheels turn, the steering is free, the handbrake releases. This is the easiest non-running load. A winch cable to the front recovery point and the car comes up the ramp under control in a couple of minutes.
Transmission failures are next. An automatic gearbox that will not select drive, or a manual with a destroyed clutch, leaves a vehicle that may or may not roll depending on whether the box will go to neutral. If it will not, the wheels are locked and the vehicle has to be skated or dragged carefully onto the deck with the appropriate equipment.
Seized brakes are extremely common on vehicles that have been standing. Rust bonds the pads or shoes to the disc or drum and the wheel simply will not turn. Forcing it with a winch can flat-spot a tyre or damage a brake component. The correct approach is to free the brake first where possible, or to use skates under the locked wheels so they slide rather than fight.
Steering that will not turn — a locked column with no key, a collapsed suspension component, or crash damage — means the vehicle cannot be guided up the ramp. It has to be pulled straight and aligned before it starts moving, because there is no correcting it halfway up.
Flat or missing tyres are their own problem. A completely flat tyre will roll but badly, and a missing wheel means the corner has to be supported. Both are workable with the right kit and both are worth mentioning before the carrier is sent.
Vehicles that have been standing
Long-term stationary vehicles are the hardest category and the one most often underestimated. A car that has not moved in years will usually have some combination of seized brakes, perished or flat tyres, a dead battery, a locked steering column, corrosion at the recovery points, and vegetation or debris built up around and under it. It may also be in a position that made sense when it was parked and makes no sense now — reversed into a corner, boxed in by a wall built afterwards, or on ground that has since become soft.
These jobs need preparation. Where possible we want to know in advance: how long has it been standing, do the wheels turn at all, is there a clear run out from where it sits, and is there anything blocking the path. With that we can bring skates, boards, extended winch line and enough time. Without it, a carrier arrives, discovers the situation, and either takes far longer than planned or cannot do the job at all.
Recovery points and why they matter
Every vehicle has designated points on the chassis designed to take a recovery load. Using them is not optional. Attaching a winch cable to suspension arms, subframes, axle beams, tow-ball mounts or anything bolted rather than structural will bend, tear or break something — often expensively, and often invisibly until later.
On many modern cars the recovery eye is a screw-in item stored with the jack in the boot, and the mounting hole is behind a small plastic cover in the bumper. If you have that eye, put it somewhere the operator can find it. If it is missing, say so, because the alternative attachment points need to be identified before loading rather than improvised on site.
Loading a vehicle that cannot help
With a running vehicle, the driver corrects the line as it goes up the ramp. With a non-runner, the line has to be right before the winch takes tension. The carrier is positioned so the pull is as straight as possible, because a winch pulling at an angle drags the vehicle sideways as it lifts and can slide it off the ramp edge.
The pull is then slow and continuous. Stopping and starting a winch under load on a ramp is how vehicles get away from operators. Once on the deck the vehicle is positioned for balance and strapped at the wheels. A vehicle with damaged wheels or missing tyres may need to be strapped differently, over the axle or the chassis, which is another reason the condition matters before dispatch.
Where these vehicles go
Non-running vehicles are usually going to one of four places. A garage, for repair. A specialist, for something the general garage will not touch. A buyer, because a non-running car has been sold as a project or for parts. Or a scrap and dismantling yard, at the end of the vehicle’s life. All four are routine deliveries.
The buyer case deserves a note. Non-running vehicles are often sold to someone who has never seen them in person, and the transport is arranged remotely. We can collect from one party and deliver to another, but both ends need to be arranged in advance — someone to open the gate at the pickup, someone to receive at the drop, and clarity about who is paying. A photo record at both ends protects everyone.
What to tell us
Whether the engine starts. Whether the wheels turn freely — try pushing it a few centimetres if it is safe to do so. Whether the steering moves. Whether the brakes release. How long it has been standing. What is around it and how a truck would reach it. And whether you have the recovery eye.
Photographs answer most of this faster than words. One of the vehicle, one from behind showing the run out, one of each wheel if the tyres look poor. Send those and we can tell you what the job needs before anyone is dispatched, and quote it accurately rather than guessing.