ESC

Best thing I did is add Agero and Allstate to my blocked call list on my Iphone so when they call at night, it doesnt wake me up. 

Here

 

2XL

I think I would just rent a tracked skid loader with forks and be done.   We just had a tracked Kubota SV75 the other day and it cost $250 to rent for the day.

 

I have bent an L-arm on my MPL40 once before while making a silly mistake and if i recall it was over $300 for a new one.

Thanks to whoever fixed my pictures.

 

We ended up speaking to Progressive on Friday and found full coverage and a great adjuster to work with.  I explained the situation and she cut right to the chase and asked for a total.  Before giving the price, i offered to send over a few pictures which she said would not be necessary.  I gave here a total and she had IAA pickup first thing this morning with no BS.  Wish they all could go this smooth.  We had 4 hours total in this job for each of our guys from start to finish.  We were paid in full for everything we did and we have received multiple compliments from people that saw the cleanup.

We caught a Honda Pilot:

 

We received a call from the Pennsylvania State Police on 12/3/20 to respond to an accident in the area of 220 Bollinger Road, Elverson PA.  We were advised of a Honda SUV 2-3 feet from the road stuck in water.  We immediately dispatched one of our wreckers to the scene.  Upon arrival we found the vehicle had struck a bridge causing a large amount of property damage. 

 

 

The vehicle ended up partially submerged in a creek below the bridge.  Water was above the hood and partially flooded the interior.  

 

 

 

 

A large amount of debris was scattered throughout the area from the broken fence, car parts as well as glass from multiple broken windows. 

 

 

 

 

 

Our operator discussed a recovery plan with the troopers on scene.  The ideal situation would have been to use a rotator to recover the vehicle, however due to weight restrictions on the roadway, low hanging trees and power wires directly above the vehicle, that was not a safe option. 

 

 

At that time we requested an additional wrecker to the scene to assist in the recovery, as well as a two flatbed trucks.  One would be used to transport the vehicle and one to transport the large amount of debris.   Once given permission, our operators were able to secure the vehicle.  Both wreckers were used together to recover the vehicle from the waterway. 

 

 

The front of the vehicle was lifted over large boulders in the waterway to avoid causing any damage to the oil pan.  Once out of the waterway, the vehicle was winched to the roadway using both wreckers.  At that point, the trooper searched the vehicle. 

 

 

Once the trooper was finished investigating, the vehicle was loaded onto one of our flatbed trucks and secured for transportation to our main location.  All remaining large debris at the scene was swept up and placed into disposal containers.  The vehicle was transported to our main location where it was placed in our secure storage facility.  Crash wrap was used to cover all broken windows. 

 

 

Our operators all worked together to cleanup the large amount of debris that was scattered throughout the area.  All large debris was stacked onto one of our flatbed trucks.  Small debris was placed into disposal containers.  There was a slight film on top of the water from the vehicles hazardous fluids.  Multiple absorbent pads were used to soak up any visible fluids. 

 

 

All debris was disposed of.  All rigging was cleaned, inspected, and placed back in its correct locations. Our accident remediation trailer was sent to the scene with a generator and shop vac to clean up all of the small glass pieces from the waterway.  Any remaining debris was picked up and disposed of and the roadway was swept clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

43 minutes ago, Stubborn66 said:

I have done my cost per mile to operate the trucks a couple different ways.  I am wondering how you guys calculate your insurance cost per mile.

 

I ended up using my insurance cost per year and divided that by the number of miles I run the trucks on an assumption.

 

I would be interested in how you may calculate yours

 

thanks

 

Tracy

Add up all of your expenses for the year and divide by the mileage.   Payroll, insurance, fuel, oil changes, tires, any repairs.  Roughly I figure it costs me around $1 per mile to run my light duty trucks plus paying a driver.

1 minute ago, GRUMPS The Towman said:

Super happy to hear that your business made out well on the job. For me, those types of big jobs are the ones that help bump the profit margins a bit. 

And big time kudos to you for being sure to take care of your crew with a little 'extra". Thats a real business man move. 

Like my old man always used to say " your men ARE your business. All your rigs and equipment are nothing without them"

Everyone of our guys got an extra nickle that week.   We had been dealing with a real slow period and that week we ended up with a couple of great jobs.  It was a good way to show appreciation for those of our guys that stayed late on a Friday night and got things handled. Without them, we would have had to call in another company for the job, or lost the job all together.  Wish I could get some more work like it.  Its been terribly slow around here.

I guess I forgot to post a final follow up.  But those checks all came from Progressive.   Everything ended up being picked up and one point or another by Copart.  We delivered the white dodge to NJ.  After the recovery, cleanup, towing, storage (a few of the units sat here for a few weeks) and the tow out the total job came in just a little shy of 10k.  It made for a great job all around and we were able to take care of our crew a little extra special.  

 

Thanks for all of the comments and phone calls on this one.   I learned a few new things about dealing with haulers and commercial loads that I wouldn't have known otherwise. 

I keep a jack stand in my truck and I use it when loading a flat tire onto dollies.  Basically I lift the car, and set it on the stand.  I then setup the dollies with the axles as close as they could go to keep it tight so the tire doesnt slide through.  If its only one flat, I try to load the flat tire on my wrecker rather than the dollies though.

Good news!   Today the commercial truck & equipment adjuster came out from Progressive.  He was awesome to deal with.  He didn't have any issues with our invoice.  I showed him our pictures and he asked to forward a few of them over to him as well as the invoice.   The entire recovery and all on one invoice.  The only thing he asked that I change was to move the storage for the two "cargo" to separate invoices.  He is supposed to be having a check mailed to us for the truck, trailer and entire recovery.  He said the auto claims side of progressive will contact us about paying the storage on the two cars.  He also approved our quote, without any hesitation, to deliver the white dodge 3500 to Vineland NJ for repair.   Maybe I quoted too low... haha.

On 9/11/2020 at 8:07 PM, GRUMPS The Towman said:

Very nice gear you have there. 

I would STILL be there cleaning up with my shovel, broom and pickup truck.. LOL. 

Haha... I'd be laying dead on the side of the road after a heart attack after the first few shovels full if I attempted to do it by hand.

 

 

Very nice clean up!! 

Looks great!

Personally I don’t worry about pulling them forward either. Once secured properly on the condor. Then safety straps to the deck, it’s not going anywhere.


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That smell of a burn job is terrible.... but getting a few cars out of the job sure made deal I. With the smell a little easier.

 

As with my last job, I’m curious to hear how you guys are billing something like this. One bill or three separate? My plan is to put them all on one in hope that the at fault insurance will deal with all three at the same time under liability/property damage.

 

We had a scene supervisor, our cleanup trailer, and three flatbeds. Three hours from the time of call until we were back home and cleaned up. Used a power broom, Spill tackle, 2 disposal drums full of waste. My total is around 3 G’s for the job. The best part is, we know at least two of the vehicles will be covered under liability without any problem.

 

I’ll go into more detail in my description when I have more time.

_____________________________________

Today just after 4 pm we were called to the parking lot of the Lionville Giant for three vehicles after a fire. We were advised that one vehicle had caught fire while parked, also catching two others on fire. No one was injured.

 

We were able to get the parking lot cleaned up using our power broom. Each vehicle was loaded into a flatbed truck. All of the loose debris was swept and placed into disposal drums. Our crew worked together to scrape all of the melted plastic and aluminum from the area. Spill Tackle was used to absorb any hazardous fluids from the area. All three vehicles were transported to our storage lot. All remaining debris was washed from our flatbeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanks to everyone for all of the info!   I got a call this morning from Progressive.  They were pretty easy going so far, but they hadn't seen the bill at that time..  They asked for a total with storage through 9/11, so I emailed over the recovery invoice updated through tomorrow.   They asked if we could split up the bill for each vehicle, and I told them to take a look at what I send over and we could go from there.   I am planning to just tell them to split it up however they would like on their end.   Ill keep everyone updated.

On 9/8/2020 at 10:34 PM, GRUMPS The Towman said:

I have been intrigued with this accident and I got Curious about the hitch failure. That Curt 5th wheel has a 25k towing capacity with a 6,200 lb ( and change ) vertical load limit.. So, Long story short it is more suited for RV trailers. That 4 Runner on the top/front along with the nose weight of the trailer alone swallowed up most of its vertical capacity. Not to mention the 9,000 lb. pickup....

Guy buys a $90,000 truck, $18,000 trailer then goes and holds them together with a cheapo $600 hitch... 

I have to give a little credit to the hauler.  He had a nice new truck, and nice setup with the trailer.  But, I agree, it appears that the hitch appears too light for what they were doing.   They had everything else right.  DOT info, medical card, the straps were all in good shape and installed correctly.  Nice to see from a car hauler for a change, as most that we run across are a mess.

3 minutes ago, Chris Velasco said:

is it possible to ask for credit card from agero even if you have contracted rates? the are such a pain to deal with all of our calls are from out of area due to us being located in a small town. this is also our first year working with them 

Very possible.  I have a contract that is 20+ years old.... with ancient rates.  We cut them off, as well as most other clubs last year.    When clubs call we typically quote them $375 and up on a card.  We collect a card up front or we dont go.   Most times, they wont pay.  Others, they come back to you when they are desperate.  On occasion ill go less on the price, if its a real convenient job ... but even those seem to turn into a hassle fast with Agero.  I refused to agree to the new contract terms they tried to push on us back in Feb.  I cant imagine why anyone would sign on and agree to them personally.

Thank you everyone for the input!!  I started thinking about the billing and talking with our others at the shop and we all had some different opinions on this job, and I had a gut feeling that it was a bit of a different situation with a transport trailer and all.

 

So far my plan is to wait and talk to Progressive a bit and feel them out.  I am hoping they call and want to handle it all in one shot.  I am working up a rough draft on the invoice now, but its been a busy morning here after the holiday weekend.

 

Ed, you and I are on the same page numbers wise.... i came in around your figure before we add admin fees, crash wrap, spill tackle and storage.

 

Brian, what about the PA Towing and Storage Act- as far as not releasing anything before charges are paid.  My understanding is that protects towers from having to release vehicles and contents until charges are paid.  Now, this situation may be different than what we normally deal with with the cargo situation.

 

Also, one of the comments has me wondering.  So if we cannot hold "cargo", being the two vehicles on the trailer- if the insurance co wants to pick them up who do we talk to?   Typically with any impound or crash, we require the vehicle owner to show proof of ownership and release the vehicle to whoever- typically copart or ins co, etc.    In this case, being "cargo"... would you go off the transport company word?   I prefer to deal direct with the vehicle owner in that case, but dont want to run into any legal issues over "cargo".

 

Here is a few pictures of the aftermath in the daylight.

 

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Last night at 5:45 pm, just as everyone was about to leave for the holiday weekend we got a call for an overturned, loaded 3 car hauler. I was nearby in my personal car as I had left early to pickup my daughter from school. We went direct to the scene.

 

From the look of things, the fifth wheel hitch may have broken causing the overturn but police are working to find the actual cause.

 

I am a little curious to hear feedback on billing for this recovery. Do you out everything on one bill? Or each vin a different bill?

 

We had two mpl40 wreckers, two flatbeds, our 896 and myself on scene. Time of call until we cleaned up the trucks and headed home was just shy of 4 hours total.

 

After the police finished and gave us permission to get to work, the first thing we did was disconnect the dodge from the trailer. It was still held together by one safety chain. The front of the trailer was winched tight to the truck so we could take tension off the chain so it could be cut. Then the truck was winched onto our flatbed while a wrecker winched the back away from the trailer. Next we stabilized the trailer with two wreckers so our crew could disconnect the straps from the vehicles. Some of which had been compromised during the rollover. The trailer was uprighted using two wreckers. Our fifth wheel plate was used on an mpl40 and the trailer was moved out of the area. A wrecker uprighted the pickup and another hauled it away on dollies. The wrecker uprighted the suv which was hauled away on a flatbed. We swept the roadway and used spill tackle to cleanup and fluids.

 

Each unit was transported to our storage facility. All broken windows were covered.

 

We did find out the hauler has coverage from Progressive, so now we wait to find out about coverage limits and all.

 

We are very familiar with recovery billing and have attended the Big Whee class. But it’s a first for me having multiple vehicles all on the same trailer so I’d love to get some feedback from others.

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, EdsTowing said:

Yea of course...the 2020 drives away and I get the 08 Nissan....LoL

Haha... that always seems to be the case lately.  At least its not just me!

 

I swear the State Police in our area plot it out against us..... nice 5 car crash right up the road during daylight hours and they call someone from 10 miles away.  A single 1989 caravan overturned, off the road, in the middle of the night 10 miles away during a rain storm with no insurance and they call us.  We keep taking them all, one day our luck will turn around.  Glad to see you have been busy up there!

I am curious to see the end result of this.  It seems that the towing/environmental co is on the right path for properly cleaning up a scene.  These fixed rate police contracts are crazy.  Seeing their rates of $285 on a heavy duty police tow and $125 on a light duty blows my mind.  We have local police departments that have a similar fixed rate contract and we just cant make the numbers work.  The higher ups don't seem to understand the costs.   After checking out the environmental companies rates and all, things look reasonable and honestly on the cheap side.

Very nice.... i couldn't be bothered to waste the time attempting to get that car on a flatbed.  Using the auto loader and dollies is for sure the way to go.   It always drives me nuts having a vehicle owner that says it MUST go on a flatbed.

We have mostly stopped working with clubs all together.  When we do it is credit card only, and we charge them a very high rate.  Typically starting at $375 and up according to the situation.   If they are calling me they are desperate... and if they want our good service, they will pay up. 

 

The last club job i took was for Quest a week ago.  It was a secondary to tow an all wheel drive that was stuck in park from a tow yard 15 miles away.  The payout was in the $1100 range, cash only.  And it was being towed 4 miles.  I charged $575 credit card, plus got the payout amount plus 5% to cover the fees.  We had the job done within an hour.    I charge such a high rate to make up for all of the headaches, hassles and issues that the clubs have caused us over the years.  At those rates, yes I am very happy to tow for a club.   Allstate and Agero are both blocked from my cell phone so they dont bother me after hours when the phones are forwarded to me.  NSD is the only club that we still work with by PO, and they pay our standard retail rates....they rarely call us for anything nearby though.

We have been working with Excel for years.  Always great service.  They did a fabulous job designing our shirts and all.  The quality of the shirts is great too, they hold up well.

We have been purchasing our JerrDan parts from Ernie at ECTTS.  He has been great to work with, always fast and accurate getting my parts to me.

I do things in a similar manner to you.  I run an MPL40 wrecker typically and send a bed and we send a bed and a wrecker to most every crash.  

 

But if I had two beds working the crash pictured and nothing else available, I would back up toward the drivers side of the durango and winch the front of the durango away from the GMC.  The GMC looks like it would slowly slide off the durango as it was winched away.  Id load the Durango and move it out of the way and back the next bed up for the GMC.     Typically though, Id lift the GMC with my wrecker and winch the durango onto a bed, set the gmc down, winch it from the pole to the road and then load it on a bed.  Bill the Durango for a bed, and the GMC for a wrecker and a bed.  Cleanup and go.