Road Canada

[TowZone]

09-05-13: towdriver wrote:

Who is doing Road Canada? Have you had any issues with them? I have done a few for them without any problems but the last couple of times they have called it hasn't gone so well. First one they wanted me to go an hour and a half from the shop to pick up a Ford F-350 with my medium duty and tow it 30km and do it for under $100. In the end they ended up getting the company beside the dealer that the truck was going to tow it in after 8 calls to me trying to get me to drop my cost. I just got another one where they wanted a tandem double bucket utility truck towed about 100km for less them my hook fee. The first person who called asked for a price which I gave her and explained how I came to the price. She had to get an ok to give me the go ahead. After being put on hold she said that they couldn't ok my price. Two minutes later someone else from there calls back and asks for a tow and starts giving me directions and where it is going. I ask who's truck it is and it turns out to be the one I just quoted. I give the same price as I did the first time. This time I'm told that the price is no problem and they will call back with a credit card number. It's now three and a half hours later and no call back. The location of the break down was 5km from the shop and I was done work at the time of the second call. As it was a customer of ours I went by where the truck was to see if I could help them or get the go ahead to tow it. It was less then 10 minutes from the time of the second call and there was no truck within 5km either direction of where they said it was.

 

Extowing said:

Welcome to the auto club game we have dropped 90% of the auto clubs and are much happier serving the honest reliable customers.

 

tcsc1 said:

We do work for them with contract prices that are very fair, but they are a bit of a pain, info wise, to deal with. But if you deal with ARI they aren't any more of a pain in the ass than them. I do remember when they last wanted to renew our contact they offered prices that were a quarter of what we had been getting, I "politely" told them no thanks and they renewed at our former rates with no further negotiation.
They are looking after Hydro so it is worth it to sign up AT YOUR RATES, if they need you they will sign at what you want. D

 

towdriver said:

Most of my hydro calls come right from hydro and bill to ARI. We aren't signed up and they normaly pay with a credit card with no problem but lately they are questioning the prices. I don't think there are any other heavies in the area that are signed up with them and if someone is coming from out of the area to do the call I can't see them making any money at the prices they want. We aren't signed up with any clubs we only do them with a credit card number. Boss doesn't want to be signed on with any of them.

 

tcsc1 said:

All my Hydro calls used to be called in direct from the driver, now they have to call into ARI or Road Canada or the driver will catch hell.
We probably only do 6-8 R/C calls a year but like I said, I didn't accept their lowball offer and ended up with good pay rates.
I do know when they lowball offered me, they lowballed everybody in Canada. D

 

Aces Towing said:

With our road canada contract, they pay the same rates as everyone else for towing and winching, took a bit of bitching but they signed.

Bryce Weber - Aces Towing
WM 091409 Level 6/7

 

lstyba said:

Some people just do not get it! They have no clue as to how to run a business! But this situation has arisen because we the "Towing Companies" let it happen! There will always be the 50% off guy somewhere!
Stick to your guns.

 

Cooter76 said:

I signed up with R/C at my rates and so too did my competitor. Now R/C calls for quotes for tows and I don't work cheap enough to get the work. So what is the agreed upon rates worth?
Heavy towing is getting to be worse than light duty. Why are so many people lining up to buy heavy trucks and then find out there is no work unless they do it cheaper than the existing guy? And these Auto Clubs seem to sniff them out. lol

 

When we are talking Hydro One trucks am I right in thinking their linemen are paid a call in fee of roughly $384 for a Sunday call in minimum? The Lineman don't own the truck or pay for the fuel, insurance, plates, etc. So why then if I request a $600 - $700 Sunday call in rate (to do what ever for this example) am I too expensive to provide a say $300 000.00 truck with an Operator (Priceless) and all the other required expenses to do the service required.

Just a thought pick it apart however you want to. But I believe the majority of Heavy Tow Truck Owners hare undervalued their equipment and insulted their Operators with their rates.

 

towdriver said:

I was just talking to one of the hydro guys who run the local yard and he said he has never heard of road Canada. He has gone back to dig into it some more but said all their guys know to just call us or their shop which then calls us. For recovery work hydro pays with their own credit card so haven't had any issues there just on the tow end of it.

 

tcsc1 said:

I was just talking to one of the hydro guys who run the local yard and he said he has never heard of road Canada. He has gone back to dig into it some more but said all their guys know to just call us or their shop which then calls us. For recovery work hydro pays with their own credit card so haven't had any issues there just on the tow end of it.

 

Aces Towing said:

Hydro one trucks- Road Canada is contracted through ARI for their road service. They will cover a breakdown tow or a winch back onto a "Roadway". I have yet to have RC cover a winch job as they are usually off road.

They call us direct, we submit bill to RC after the job if it is a tow, winches the supervisor pays with MC normally.

 

Queensway Tire said:

We have always billed Hydro One tows through ARI, until the last year or so when ARI has be refusing to pay tows.  I guess it's because of this Road Canada deal, but no one has mentioned that name.  Instead, the one head guy at Hydro One just gives us a credit card number, works for me.

 

towdriver said:

So I got a call yesterday for a broke down hydro truck and it came right from driver to local yard and the local yard called me. It sounds like it is more of the southern one that are using road canada at this point. Local guys haven't heard anything about road Canada and just call us. We then bill through ARI. The truck that once got the call from road Canada was not from the area and we figure that's why road Canada called us. It seams like now everyone is going to some kind of club to handle their calls.