ESC

Last week we were called to transport a BMW I8 for a body shop in Clifton Heights. The vehicle had just been repaired and was being towed to BMW for programming. The vehicle was currently locked down with no power. We were requested to use dollies to move the vehicle as it is all wheel drive and stuck in park. Bill was able to transport the vehicle with ease!

It was a short 6 mile tow, but it was about 30 miles from us. The body shop had been referred to us after they weren’t able to find someone willing to transport the I8. The starting price of the vehicle is in the $150,000 range. After we assure the shop we were confident in being able to take care of the care, including sending them so pictures of precious jobs we got the OK to get it done.

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About a week ago, just after 7 pm we were called to Pennsylvania Drive just off of Route 100 for an F650 Uhaul truck that was stuck in the mud. We arrived to find that the driver had become lost and attempted to turn around. We were able to winch the truck back to the roadway so they could get on their way.

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Another one from Uhaul this afternoon.

We got a call about a Corvette that fell off a ramp while attempting to load it onto a Uhaul trailer. The vehicle had been sold and was headed to Virginia.

The vehicle had a flat tire and stuck brakes so it was fighting them as they attempted to load the vehicle.

We were able to lift the vehicle by using a wrecker on each side. Once it was back on the ramps we were able to winch the vehicle forward.

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Paul Jr dropped off this box truck near Newark NJ. It had an electrical issue a few days ago around 4 pm on Planebrook Road in Malvern Pa. The customer called and asked how fast we could get him back to Newark so he could get another box truck. Once we verified their pockets were deep enough, off we went. 220 mile round trip for us in 5.5 hours.

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Now that Kat fixed the app so I can post pictures, I guess I’ll need to get to it. Luckily for us we had a quick crash tonight.

Just before 730 tonight we were called to Route 100 and Sheree Blvd for two vehicles after an accident. Paul Sr was able to quickly clear the blue Nissan off the roadway from southbound Route 100 and Sheree. It had heavy rear end damage. Paul Jr pulled the white VW off the curb from northbound Route 100. From our understanding the white car had been traveling south but after striking the blue vehicle, it ended up on the other side of the road. Spill Tackle absorbent was used to absorb hazardous fluids that had leaked onto the roadway. No major injuries.

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i pmed you both i fixed [mention=68]EdsTowing[/mention] problem with not having the space available. 
 
and......
 
[mention=105]ESC[/mention] The tapatalk app started work after a long time of them getting the plugin to me and working with the new version of the board.

I had been using the Tapatalk App as it was the quickest easy way to upload pics from my phone, but its no longer working for me so I havent posted anything in a while.

Detroit Wrecker was doing alot of refurbish work, and we had talked to them about it a couple years back.  After pricing out all we needed done to bring the truck back to what we wanted and the time and all involved as well as getting it to Detroit... we pulled the trigger and built a brand new truck instead.

Its a shame Detroit isnt doing the refurbish work anymore, as they really seemed to do a good job, but I cant blame them with the success of building new units.

I am not sure where you are located, but I would maybe reach out to @EdsTowing in Northeast PA.  I have been watching their facebook page, and they are doing some great refurbish work on pickups and dumptrucks.  He might be able to do something for you.   They are great to work with.

Update- Click Here

Sponsor says he won’t push Pa. bill with $40/day cap for ‘towing storage facility’

The sponsor of a Pennsylvania bill capping daily rates at $40 for any “towing storage facility” said he’s no longer seeking the legislation.

“Rep. Ortitay asked that I tell you that the bill is no longer being pursued,” Tracy Polovick, a spokeswoman for sponsoring Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-Cecil Township, wrote in an email Tuesday in response to a Repairer Driven News inquiry on House Bill 880. She said Ortitay didn’t specify a reason for his change of heart.

Another representative for Ortitay offered a similar assessment later that day. She didn’t know the reason either, but mentioned that “outside concerns” had arisen about the bill.

HB 880 would have added language to the 2012 Towing and Towing Storage Facility Standards Act stating:

A towing storage facility may not charge more than $40 per 24-hour period of total daily storage fees for a noncommercial vehicle and the charges shall not accrue beyond three months. The total daily storage fees for a noncommercial vehicle shall be conspicuously posted at the towing storage facility.

The 2012 towing law defined “Towing storage facility” as a “location where a motor vehicle has been towed as a result of a motor vehicle accident and is securely stored pursuant to an agreement with the tow truck operator who has towed the vehicle.”

HB 880 also says the facility needs to notify the owner of the vehicle’s location.

Ortitay, R-Cecil Township, had originally told fellow lawmakers he was seeking to curb “predatory towing practices.”

“Recently, a constituent of mine incurred massive storage fees at a towing storage facility, but they were not aware of where their vehicle was being stored until after thousands of dollars in fees had already been accrued,” Ortitay wrote March 10. “My bill would remedy this by placing a good-faith notice requirement on a storage facility to notify a vehicle’s owner of the vehicle’s location.  This could be fulfilled simply by mailing a letter to the owner. Additionally, this bill would place a $40 per day maximum on the storage fees.  As a point of reference, parking in Center City Philadelphia is $37 per day.”

The measure had drawn four other sponsors, split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. It was sent to the House Transportation Committee March 12.

Pennsylvania Collision Trade Guild director Steven Behrndt (Crawford’s Auto Center) on Monday argued House Bill 880 would be applied to auto body shop storage as well and described it as an industry concern.

Behnrndt argued that “towing storage facility” under the bill would include any location where a vehicle sets, including auto body shops. “It doesn’t matter where it falls,” he said.

He felt the legislation would be attractive to insurers amid what he called a trend of cycle times dragged out by photo estimating. Cars sit “week after week after week” without sufficient claims personnel to evaluate them in person, he said.

Behrndt also challenged the $40 cap as insufficient for certain areas of the state. He said his Downington, Pa.-based collision repair business has charged $60 a day for storage for the past three years, and “it’s time it goes up anyhow.”

Be heard: Pennsylvania lawmaker contact information can be found here.

Featured image: Pennsylvania state Rep. Jason Ortitay, R-Cecil Township, is shown. (Provided by Pennsylvania Legislature)

I sure hope you charged enough to cover all that headache! And dont forget to add the Agero fee.....hahah.   That ones easily worth a truck payment or so.

We have switched away from wire rope for extensions and gone to synthetic.  Its much easier to store and to handle.  I buy the small tool bags from home depot or craftsman and put the synthetic rope in them.  All of our wreckers and flatbeds carry at least 1 100 foot synthetic extension in their toolbox.   Trying to mess around with the Wire extensions can be a hassle.  They are alot more bulky and hard to work with.

13 hours ago, sweetk30 said:

so here is a question i have to you guys . . . i know what my answer is for now but i want to make sure i am not stupid or a A$$ ......

 

the only place you keep finding online and everyone says to go to WONT TALK to you and or offer help . yes its older equipment and on a narrow support band but you have it / its like new / and whan't to use it as a hobby toy .

 

you have sent PM message / called and left messages with lady who answers the phone / yes there a VERY BUSY person no replay in almost 2 weeks now / even have a thread here asking 2 to 3 basic questions and STILL not one word from the person . 

 

so what would you do in this place ?

 

i am NOT saying i cant fab / make stuff work / figure it out . . . but if the info is out there and cheep why not use it . but also why buy from them if they wont even talk to you . . . . 🤯

Personally, I say give it time.   There may be a situation unknown to you of something going on behind the scenes.  This Covid stuff has the world going mad.  Maybe someone in the family is sick, or hurt.  Maybe closed for vacation.  Backlogged in work and hasnt got to your message yet.  So many things that could be going on that no one can see from the outside.  Lets all hope for the best.

Otherwise, move on, and find the info from elsewhere... not much else you can do.

We have a few Condors, one in each of our flatbeds and an extra here at the shop.  They work very well.  I have been very happy with them.

WreckMaster and BA Products sell them already setup for you on chains.  We have them in our medium duty.

1 hour ago, Allen C. said:

There wasn’t anything in the owners manual about where to find the emergency shift release?

I know I sure wouldnt hang around on the side of the roadway to sit and read the manual.  The electric brakes are a pain.  Im usually in a wrecker, so wheel lift and dollies and charge accordingly.  But in a bed I would have done exactly as shown.  Quick, easy and damage free.  Plus enterprise pays well.

It blows my mid that delivery drivers go in some of these driveways.  Im glad they do as it is job security for us, but it always amazes me that they wonder why they end up stuck.  Amazon has been very good for business lately.

On 1/23/2021 at 10:06 PM, yoBdaBenO said:

Does spill tackle offer bulk order pricing?

 

How much does the average tow company order at a time?

I cant speak on behalf of Spill Tackle as far as pricing, but I went in with another local towing company a while back that ordered in bulk and I purchased a whole pallet to try out.  This stuff works great, its far lighter, and goes a much longer way than the average oil dry.  Where I would use 2-3 bags of heavy, clay oil dry, I use 1 bag of Spill Tackle.  I have still been playing around with it, but I am happy with my purchase, and will buy more when I need it.

Here is what I got today.  I just laughed when I saw it.   We stopped taking jobs for them on PO over a year or two ago. When they call now they are credit card only and I hammer them hard.... usually $375 and up.  Sometimes they pay.   I refused to agree to their bs terms when they changed last time.   Their rates are far to low.  And this new change would have cut another $10 off a job 10 miles away.     Not a chance I’d do a job for them at the rates they pay.   Not these days.   It’s cheaper to keep my trucks parked.  And a lot less headaches. 

HAHAHA... we were just talking about those cars here a few weeks ago.  We used to do a ton of work on them.... then scrapped a ton of them years ago.  Havent seen one in a long time.

20 hours ago, dperone said:

We also try to charge at least the tow plus get the title. If it was an involved recovery we might add labor in too, to try to cover at least a little of our costs. We also cannot legally hold possessions, but we "bluff" them a little to at least give us the title before they get any stuff. We've been hit or miss as of late, but junk has been way up and our scrap guys don't hound us abut the titles.

We are in that same boat, however I am very cautious about always getting a title one way or another before we do anything to dispose of the car. Just to keep a paper trail to protect us if nothing else.  I have seen too many horror stories about tow yards scrapping a car without going through the proper channels to get a title first and it comes back to bite them hard.  I keep titles and copies of everything before it leaves our yard, even if it is a total junker.   

Rumor has it a towing company near us sold a junker without a title to a scrap guy a while back that turned into losing a police contract and a lawsuit over a POS car.

We stopped letting them slide with no fees a few years ago.   I obviously have chosen to help some of those clearly in need sort of thing... but for the most part, I try to at least charge an hour and get the title.  We are $175/hour usually.  Sometimes they complain, but I try to talk them through it and explain the costs and all and the fact that they chose to gamble and have low or no insurance coverage.  Also low scrap values have made it so I needed to charge to cover the expense if nothing else.   We are a licensed salvor, so getting a title is doable with alot of paperwork and time, so i do prefer to get a title from the owner.  Just last week I made a judgment call on one to not charge the guy in exchange for the title, but it had a little value... we had it sold the following morning to a local buyer for $500... so I was able to make some money and helped the vehicle owner out.

We used to hear from them a ton when their cheap guy wouldnt help them.. they paid great with a credit card up front, then slowly they seemed to disappear.  I hear from them maybe once or twice a year it seems now, but its been a while.

I dont know how to score this, as we have really changed our business model in the recent years.  We really don't work with clubs on PO.

The one that stands out as a great "club" although not really a club would be Tesla.  I love them.  We set our rates according to the high level of service they expect for their customers and they pay us on time after 30 days with no hassles.  Usually they are well informed and great to work with, although low volume.

NSD used to be great, and they still arent terrible, but they have really fallen off in volume, and when we do here from them its usually a call that turns into a nightmare.  We almost never deal with them anymore.

These guys below are all terrible:

Allstate has been cut off and they never want to pay our credit card rates to help them- they have been added to my blocked call list so they dont wake me at night.

Urgently- They refused to pay us on a service a couple years ago and I cut them off and blocked their number

Honk- after they pulled the rate changes last year we cut them off and blocked their number

Agero is the bottom of the barrell- we cut them off and only do some jobs at a high rate with credit card up front when they get desperate enough to pay.- they have also been added to my blocked call list.

3 hours ago, thtdon said:

I am on the forefront of my next battle with Agero.  It is certificate of insurance time again.  I noticed that they took it upon themselves to raise the insurance requirement to a million dollars of liability insurance, and $150,000 for on-hook coverage, without negotiating that with me.  Before I forwarded the certificate, I asked my insurance agent to price out the higher coverage.  The new rate would be almost exactly double what I am paying now.  Yet Agero is unwilling to provide a rate increase to cover that added cost.  So I forwarded the certificate with the previous coverage limits.  And that's all they're going to get from me.  If they are not willing to give me more calls at a higher rate, then we'll part company.  And when they call again, they'll be paying retail rates on their company credit card, like half the tow companies are already doing. 

I have always been amazed at your stories from your dealings with Agero.   I am amazed you are still able to put up with them.  You are a much more patient man than me!  The best thing we did is kick them to the curb.  Now if they call, im usually $375 with a credit card, and it amazes me how often they will actually pay it.  I get wrecks here all the time that they cant find a provider to tow out to the direct repair shop across the street from me... we hit them with $175 to go across the street just for the hassle of dealing with Agero.