Tow Times Online
Ask The Pros
A.P. McDonald - Read Questions | Send a Question
Prior to founding Parks Highway Service & Towing in Nenana, Alaska, in 1992, A.P. McDonald worked as a journeyman automotive and truck mechanic. He is an ASE Certified Truck and Master Automotive Technician, TRAA and IITR certified, an EMT-1 (Emergency Medical Technician), holds a Class A CDL with X & T endorsements and is an active member of the Alaska Tow Truck Association. He writes the “Maintenance” column for Tow Times magazine, providing readers with useful information on truck chassis and towing equipment maintenance.
Edward D. Johnson - Read Questions | Send a Question
Edward D. Johnson is a longtime Tow Times columnist. A former police officer, he owns and operates a towing business in Hampton, Va. Ed has contributed a number of column series on tow truck operation, roadside procedure, technical and business topics. He is the author of Johnson's Guide for the Professional Tow Truck Operator, and Towing Business Know-How, a 24-month collection of “It's Your Business” articles from Tow Times.
Jack Schrock - Read Questions | Send a Question
Jack is well-known for his long-time background in towing equipment sales and presently as a semi-retired consultant to the towing and recovery industry. Jack has authored many articles for towing industry publications and addresses a variety of issues. He is a writer, lecturer, teacher and humorist with a following throughout North America and beyond. Jack writes the “Words of Wisdom” column for Tow Times magazine.
Jon Wickham - Read Questions | Send a Question
Jon Wickham owns Wickham and Associates, a company that specializes in the repair of tow trucks. In his Tow Times column “Troubleshooting,” Jon shares solutions to towing equipment troubleshooting issues. Covering a range of component topics from electrical to hydraulic, Jon continues to provide valuable, concise answers to common equipment problems.
Mike Scheidt - Read Questions | Send a Question
Mike Scheidt has been involved in the towing industry for 23 years. His training background includes Level 3 certification from the Towing and Recovery Association of America, hazardous materials certification, and advanced training in structure and proper handling of tankers. He also writes the Focus on Recovery column for Tow Times magazine.
Patrick Gratzianna - Read Questions | Send a Question
Patrick Gratzianna grew up in a towing family and has been involved in the Chicago towing industry for over 20 years. He is currently president of Midwest Fleet Safety Inc., a company that offers towing safety training, driver safety training, DOT and OSHA compliance. Patrick writes the popular “Safety Meeting” column for Tow Times, where he addresses a variety of health and safety issues involved in tow truck operation.
Steve Young - Read Questions | Send a Question
Steve Young, an experienced locksmith, and a longtime Tow Times columnist, is the founder of Tech-Train Productions, now a part of Lockmasters Inc., a distributor and manufacturer of auto-opening tools, manuals, videos and CDs. For online features on vehicle entry, locking systems and anti-theft systems, visit www.techtrainproductions.com. To reach Steve directly, call 850-476-0890.
Terry Abejuela - Read Questions | Send a Question
Terry Abejuela has 29 years of experience in the towing and recovery industry. Working as a tow truck operator for the first five years in the industry, he was hired as a Tow and Service Instructor for the Automobile Club of Southern California in 1982. He has maintained a part-time teaching credential from the State of California to teach light-duty towing and recovery for the Pasadena Unified School District since 1989. He has been a light-duty level 1 instructor for the California Tow Truck Association since 1998.
Tom Luciano - Read Questions | Send a Question
Tom Luciano is northeast regional sales manager for Vulcan and Miller Industries equipment. He conducts numerous training seminars in light- to heavy-duty towing and recovery for towing operators and state associations across the country. He has been an owner and operator of the Wilton Auto Truck Plaza, which specializes in heavy-duty recoveries. He is also an SAE co-chairman on medium- and heavy-duty towing. Tom may be reached at 518-494-5767 or e-mail
tluciano@millerind.com.
Who Writes Contracts - Read Questions | Send a Question
QUESTION:
My husband is new to tow trucking and needs to know what a sample contract looks like, and how to get a contract with government, car dealerships. Who writes up the contract the trucker or the dealership or government?
ANSWER:
There are normally no written contracts with commercial customers in the towing business. Commercial customers know there are dozens of tow companies available to them in the free market and they have no desire to lock themselves in with one. What your husband should do is clearly define the terms of his relationship with commercial customers including the fees he will charge them for each service that he is expected to perform. He should then put these terms in writing and present them to the person in charge of giving him work. Adjustments should then be made to satisfy both parties and each should keep a copy of the written agreement. The only purpose for putting the agreement in writing is to make it possible for each party to check back on it if there is a misunderstanding.
Government agencies may on occasion put towing out to bid and sign a one to three year contract with a tow service. Generally these “invitations to bid” are written by purchasing agents who have no knowledge of towing or road service and the contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder. Service quality specified in the contracts is usually very general and because the lowest price receives the contract, very little is expected of the tow service. Many tow companies who bid on such contracts either end up going out of business or find that they loose money on the government work that has to be made up on their “free market” work. I have been in the towing business for over 26 years. I have never submitted a bid and have found that on every winning contract that I have read, the prices for the work were so low that I could not have made money on the contract.
The only way to win and keep the towing sent by a dealership is to provide the best service at the low price generally expected. Dealerships often times want the tow service to provide a very low rate so the dealership can add a markup to the price and make money on each tow. A very few dealers are interested in quality and will work with a tow service as long as the quality is kept high. At such dealerships, it is incumbent upon your husband to ensure that each service writer is thrilled with his work. This is done by completing a complete tow ticket for each job that includes the correct and full name of the customer, the complete and full address of the consumer, the year, make, model, mileage, vehicle identification number, and the license plate number of the vehicle. Upon arriving at the dealership with a disabled vehicle, your husband should ensure that it is parked in the assigned parking space for the service team that will be working on it, lock the vehicle, and take the necessary information to the proper service writer. By doing these things, the service writer will not have to go to the car to get information and his work is made much easier. Another minor but very appreciated tool is to obtain a digital camera and use it to take pictures of each vehicle he tows both before he hooks up to it and after he has delivered it to the dealership. This will prove the condition of the car before he towed it and how it was delivered to the dealer in the event a damage claim is made by the vehicle owner against the dealership. Three months ago, a customer complained that “ground effects” on his vehicle had been damaged either by the dealer or by my towing. When the service writer told me of this complaint, I printed out large copies of the photos and presented them to her. She then called the customer and advised that photos made of his car were in her possession and that he could see them when he arrived. He never came back to the dealer and a claim he had made for over $1,500 was forgotten. The service written reported this incident to her managers who were thrilled at how the problem had turned out.
You may be fortunate to get a written contract with a shop or dealership, but it is extremely unusual for them to agree to sign one. Your service is the only thing that will keep the company dealing with you. I might add that the dealership I tow for only hired me within the last year. For a number of years, I provided the quality service described here whenever a customer hired me to tow their vehicle to that dealership. When this dealership decided to hire a new tow company, they asked me to take over the work and never discussed price with me. The service writers had been begging their managers for a change kept pushing for me to be hired and they are the ones who actually got the job for me.
