MrsTow

On 9/17/2021 at 6:51 PM, doingitall said:

I am not an accountant, but here is the reality as I see it. The actual costs you are writing off! The payroll  is deductible, the fuel is deductible, the uniforms are deductible, the costs of the fencing for your impound is deductible, the property taxes or rental expenses are deductible, the filing fee, inspection fee, etc is deductible ... so your actual expenses related to providing the service and running your business are in fact deductible. I hope and assume these are actual expenses that you are keeping track of and are the real costs of running your business. The profitable portion of the equation is where you are losing, you have expenses that are not providing actual income to offset them. While it looks on paper like you have lost money on the transaction, and you have in fact lost some amount of money by not being able to collect, you have not in fact lost $30/day for storage since it does not cost you $30/day to store the vehicle, nor does it actually cost you $4.50 per mile to operate the truck or $235 for the actual tow. There is going to be a certain amount of this type of "loss" in this type of business, and we as business owners have to do our due diligence to keep these types of situations to a minimum, and be proactive at controlling our expenses related to this potential. These expenses need to be figured into your overall expenses for your business. While I agree that it is frustrating, infuriating, etc, we have to structure our pricing to be able to compensate for situations like you have listed.

 

I too am frustrated that there is seemingly no way to recoup these expenses. The whole "blood from a turnip" thing. Do I want revenge - YES! Do I think local law enforcement could and should do more to assist with cases like these - YES! Should there be better ways to recoup the lost profit - YES! Should I be able to go after the registered owner easier - YES! Shoud the owner that abandoned the vehicle on me (and you) be arrested and charged with a crime - YES! Should every owner have insurance, and I be able to collect from insurance - YES! Would it be nice to be able to deduct lost potential profit? ABSOLUTELY! If I could do that, many years I could show a HUGE loss on my taxes ... Would it be nice to not have to figure these losses into my rates, thereby making all of my other clients pay for these f***ing deadbeat looser drags on society? ABSOLUTELY!

 

I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee in my storage right now from an accident, and for a lot of reasons it is still sitting in a corner, with a storage bill around $56k! Would I like to collect - SURE! Do I expect to collect? Certainly not! Should I really be able to deduct $56k from my taxes? No, that does not make any sense, but I do continue to deduct ALL of the actual expenses related to storing this and other vehicles in my storage as legitimate expenses related to the operation of my business.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with your premise, but the reality is a bit different. I am absolutely sure that nearly everyone here has had the same thoughts and experiences with these situations. THEY SUCK! We all get frustrated and angry, but you have a business to run. Minimize your expenses the best you can, be proactive on every job to try to avoid these situations, and accept that some F***ERS are going to get you from time to time.  And try not to loose sleep over them, I like to think karma comes around to everyone eventually.

 

Your actual cash loss (after getting $200 for the salvage) is probably more like $200-300, which you are in fact able to write off, and already are.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to give me your thoughts on this. Appreciate you! 🙂

What are your thoughts on the Honk and Agero/Swoop phone app to track drivers?   

On 12/19/2019 at 12:49 PM, Moose said:

MrsTow what have you learned from this?

Oh, I've definitely learned! I do not accept motor-club calls on a PO for any winch out that's over 15 feet away from pavement or over 20 miles away from my location....at their rate. If it's over what I stated, I let them know I do off road recovery as well. I tell them my rate and except nothing less. When I use my off road recovery trucks, I collect a non-refundable deposit upfront, the caller is told all calls are recorded and I also have video in all my trucks. Fool me once.... is all it took, won't happen a second time. I truly appreciate all the comments good or bad because it gives all outlooks on the matter and helps me decide the direction to take. Be safe out there!  :-)

So I'm running into an issue with the County because I have an employee that parks the tow truck at home while on call. Does anyone know any laws regarding this matter? I can't imagine telling the police department to wait, while we go pick up the tow truck at the yard before running the emergency call for them! 

Thank you. 🙂

Hi Everyone!  I would like to switch to using mobile software so the drivers can create invoices and get rid of the invoice books. Any suggestions? Thanks. 

Lol. I had my drivers go there, to do just that! Agero told them not to sign the invoice.

So true! Thank you for your thoughts. I enjoy the responses from everyone... it makes me want to pull my hair out less! I'm learning to chuckle a little more when dealing with motor club's and customer's. LOL

Nicole

So tonight, Agero contacted my company and ask if we could do a winch out of a stuck vehicle in the forest. Agero was told that we could use our off road recovery equipment but we charge different rates for this service then the contracted rates with Agero.  Agero contacted the customer and let them know our hourly rates and told the customer they would have to pay the difference that Agero wont cover.  The customer agreed. We drove 2 1/2 hrs to do this job and the customer knew how long it would take us to get there and even asked us to stop and get them water. We get to the entrance of the Forest and called the customer and found out they called out another off road recovery company in the area and that company was currently getting them out. Even tho we were on time! I contacted Agero of course because now 5 hours of time will be wasted to/from because of this person. Agero said the would pay the GOA fee. The GOA fee is not close to our hourly rate! Has anyone ever billed a customer that went through a motorclub, but agreed to rates of the towing company, then calls someone else?  Where can I find the rights towing companies have? Heck, do we have any?

Nicole Lewis   Hoist Towing & Recovery 

Prayers to the tow drivers family and friends.  God Bless.