Stubborn66

what kind of undercoating do you use?

don't think the cab will fit that way??

On 1/10/2024 at 5:43 PM, doingitall said:

I am in a rural area, and I sometimes see towing operators from 60+ miles away doing a variety of towing type tasks. I assume this is why those companies are in the area, but no way they are making any money most of the time ... We all know the type of operators I am talking about ...

We are rural as well, one of the insurance companies got a tow company from 60+ miles away to send a truck to my closest city and run calls.  They had one or two trucks covering from about 8am to 8pm.  When this started the company had two older trucks that I had seen, shortly after, I started to see pretty new trucks.  I did a bit of snooping online and found that this company had changed it's name more than once, had horrible reviews, and was looking for help advertising making big money on commission.   My calls from the company went down, naturally, for about a year, now the calls are back on the rise and I don't see those trucks as much.  Seems there will be a never-ending cycle of this type of "company"

1 geico

2 allstate

3 nsd /  questx

4

5

6

7

8

9

10 Agero we dont take their calls even out of network anymore

That looks pretty neat, but I doubt practical.  It also looks like it would be limited in capacity since the axles are all the way back.  I had seen a goose neck set up like a landoll, that was interesting too.  I would like to get a tilt deck trailer for the long distance runs to keep the rollbacks freed up.  I just cant seem to justify the expense because I am not sure how much I would actually use it

I am thinking about a gooseneck tilt or sliding deck as well.  I just cant seem to find what I am looking for.  I dont do semi's so something smaller.  A buddy of mine runs a Landoll at his job, it is a great trailer but it does have maintenance issues.  The new one his company got had suspension bolt issues as a I recall.

As I understand it, Beacon has been bought out so that may be the difference you are seeing.  We are happy with Towbook, but we do not use it to gain extra calls simply for tracking

11 hours ago, EdsTowing said:

Very nice. that Cougar is the perfect unit for that job. I miss mine...

She's a rough rider but she is always ready to work.

We got a weird one for us yesterday.  Cruise America calls about 2pm and asks if I can move a class B camper for them.  It was picking up locally and when she gave me the destination address, I did not recognize the town, usually I do.  They want to move this thing 260 miles to western PA on the turnpike, to a rest area.  One of their rentals has broken down and they want me to take them a good one.  I have never worked for them before, and I didn't really want to go so I used my regular formula to bid and added an extra 20%, they didn't even flinch.  I asked about the broken unit and the lady says she is getting someone else to move that.  I thought it was kind of stupid, they would not be able to move that on until the people got their stuff out of it after I get there, and I will be right there.  She paid me upfront with CC So, off I go.  It was a brand-new Ford that broke down, and they started having issues the day before.  There were 2 mid-thirties couples in the unit, and they started out in DC and were headed to California.  I did get to see my first snow flurries of the years though!!!!!! 

On 10/2/2023 at 11:15 PM, EdsTowing said:

Oh and the car was completely cleaned out except the Title sitting on the seat...LoL

 

That one is yours, at least you got the title

just took me three months to get paperwork on three of them

In over a year and a half now, we have not taken a single call that was dispatched OON through Tow book.  The rates are ridiculously low.  Agero is no longer associated with Towbook on OON calls so the levels of those annoying calls has gone down, but HONK is now doing the same thing.  Fortunately, Honk is not a big as Agero so there are not as many calls.  I have also read where Honk is not doing well, so hopefully they go away completely soon.

My recommendation, do not buy any subscription software in an effort to gain more business.  It is simply cutthroat rates and the motor clubs trying to exploit companies who need work.

I bid them full retail and add 20% after hours.  The two issues we had, I simply took the Towbook info, including pictures, and advised the CC company that I had google tracking that I could submit for.  Not a lot of time tied up in answering the chargeback, but it took a month or two to get a ruling in my favor.  I will still run them if I have a truck and a guy available.  By the way, you can view all of your movement on google right down to the time frame you request, but it will not let you print it out.  That is a security feature, but you can request it.

I think there is a website portal to request to become a vendor.

We are CC only with them, and swoop, and honk.  The other thing I will say is that google tracking your every move works in your favor.  Agero tried their charge back BS with us, and we used our google information along with Towbook timestamps and won two disputes.  We bid them to make money when they call and as long as you cover your bases you can win the dispute when they choose to try it.  I think they prey on companies who dont dot their I's and cross their T's.

We dont do a whole lot of Uhaul but got two this weekend.  This one blew a spark plug out of the head, and was towing a car trailer.  They had us take them 70 miles to the closest facility with a truck on Sunday night.  Uhaul takes care of their customers when they have problems, I'll say that.

This was called in a 5 am, about an hour from the shop.  They tried using a towel under the wheels, that was a new one on me.

I wouldn't go remove them just because the owner of the storage facility sent letters to the person who rented the space in any state. 

Laws regarding abandoned vehicles vary from state to state.  You don't mention what state you are in. 

they were lucky 

I took the time to watch this, all I can say is WOW, that operator makes us all look bad, and the insurance company is making their typical deny deny deny stance

still here 

what is the GVW of the trailer?  What is the weight of the truck? Do you have enough room at 20 feet so you can load it and center the weight over the axles?

10 minutes ago, brian991219 said:

I have had three different VFI's from three different Troops tell me the same thing and we discussed it at our last association board meeting. The Bureau of Patrol is not pleased, they were in opposition when the law was introduced and unhappy it has passed. Perhaps some PSP barracks and local officers are going to be more understanding than others but not all will. We also have heard pushback from multiple firefighter associations and a handful of fire chiefs regarding towers having blue lights. Seems a few are insulted that we get to use the same color as their courtesy lights.

 

As for a written harsh enforcement policy, PSP isn't about to do that. Their official statement is one of awareness, making officers and towers alike aware of the exact language of the Bill. This is typical when they want something enforced with no ambiguity.

Sounds about right, time will tell, I hope they do start enforcing the lights going down the road

On 3/3/2023 at 4:14 PM, brian991219 said:

Just a heads up, I have received notice from PSP they intend to cite for all blue light violations on the first offense. Seems Harrisburg is not that pleased we have this new legislation.

Talked to two officers I know over the weekend, both said they were briefed that blue lights were now legal for us but nothing about stepping up policing it????

Well, I had a long conversation with someone from NSD.  It seems as though one of the reasons they lost Avis is that cars were not getting moved and were ending up getting impounded and Avis lost some to abandonment.  It appears that non-contracted providers were not doing the right thing and that was part of the problem per my conversation.  The person I spoke to got upset when I said that it was partly NSD's fault this happened.

Long story short:

NSD is "nickel and diming" contracted providers to a point where many are dropping the contracts, which in turn is forcing NSD to go to " Out of Network" providers and use "companies" they know nothing about and have little recourse when they do not do what they are hired to do.

Could NSD saved Avis if they did not go out of network to service the account?????

For us, if the nickel and diming continues, we will be yet another provider who walks away from the contract.