Stubborn66

I was just notified by my rep that NSD has lost the Avis contract. I think this has been in the works for a while now. Also, I got another new rep, this makes about 6 over the past few years. She is telling me that NSD is no longer paying the OOA fee. They are only paying dead head miles back to your coverage area. Watch what calls you take, if she is correct, there are many calls that we will not be running if we wont be compensated the $25.00 OOA fee. We are already giving them 20 miles of dead head on all calls. I dont think she is correct, and she cannot seem to answer my questions clearly. She is supposed to have her manager call me to clear this up. That new building and losing Avis will be interesting.

we have had Towbook for just about a year now. Pros: it gives us a good platform for documenting our calls easily and keeps all information in one place, the pictures and notes are all kept in one place. It has actually saved us from Agero charge backs. We are a small company, and tracking our drivers is not what we intended, but tracking our drivers via GPS tracking has also helped to prove service was completed. We have maintained our volume level with Geico which is who wanted us to go digital We have integrated Towbook with our accounting system, Quick Books which has helped us streamline our billing and making sure we are paid properly. Cons: Agero seems to have access to us, even though we are not contracted with them. They send out digital dispatches at all hours of the day with ridiculously low payouts and we cannot shut them down without stopping all digital dispatches. One of their selling points is that we can get "extra" work with these digital dispatches, but only if you want to run for nothing. Overall, we are happy with the choice, and although we were hesitant to go digital it has been a positive move, even considering the cost.

pretty sure that one will have insurance!!

thank you for what you do to keep the site going

1 geico 2 NSD 3 allstate all others CC up front

happy new year, still here from PA

SENATE BILL No. 1123 Session of 2022 I can't get the whole thing to copy and paste, but yes, rear facing only. If you read the whole thing, it is confusing on when the yellows can be used I am going to wait a bit before I even put blue lights on the back of the trucks.

I think this is a good thing but now I envision guys going down the road with the blue lights flashing ((even though is specifically states when the vehicle is stationary.) For us, we still break out three flares when it is high traffic. There is something about the flame and smoke that actually gets traffic to slow more than lights. 15-minute flares generally give plenty of time to load. Curious as to everyone's thoughts on this

Welcome to Burger King, may I take your order

Just ordered a couple of rolls to try......tarps were getting beat up

Ed, Nice Truck, thought you were a Ford guy??? Just curious, did you mount the back up camera off to the side of the pivot point on the wheel grid? It looks that way in the picture. When I mounted mine, I put it on the center line and use it to line up on the emblem of the causality when I can.

We renewed in August as well, then we got a notice in the mail that they were changing the dealer tags to a new style tag. he questionnaire they sent asked if you were still using all of the tags that were assigned to you, if not, they wanted you to return any unused tags. Supposedly, we are all getting new tags. I would have to look, but I think it said in October

We filled out the questionnaire and have not gotten anything back from the state as yet.

Sounds like you would be better off with a 4wd wrecker, based on the versatility you want.

tracy@blainesrepairservice.com

Ed is giving you very good advise. You need to know what your true operating costs are before you can make good decisions. Once you do that, you will be surprised what it costs to operate a tow business but you will know what you need to make a profit. It takes more than being able to run a truck to successfully run a business. I have a chart to calculate expenses that I will share with you if you email me that can help you. Like Ed said, many of these new companies will be busy as hell loosing money and not even realize it until it is too late. As far as insurance, if you are a new company with no history, your options will be limited. You need to have a few years under your belt and be able to share loss runs to get better rates. The biggest cost factor is generally your "on hook" coverage. Most of the insurance companies require 150K of On Hook coverage. Be sure you are getting quoted for On Hook, not just general liability. 17K for a new company with one truck is high, but not sure you will do much better. Progressive is where many new companies land in the beginning Motor clubs will not sustain a Tow business in my opinion. They are great as fill in work but if you are going to be relying on them, you have a tough road ahead. If you are solely a towing operation, you need to reach out to local repair shops, and establish your name with them. Police rotations are great if you can get on, but they generally have equipment requirements as well as insurance requirements. Google ads are another good source of customers, but they will generally be shopping price. If you do go the motorclub route and you and your buddy are in the same area, I would find out his rates and start higher in my negotiation with the clubs. Good Luck

When the front end starts coming off the ground is when it gets Interesting 😁

Has anyone tried these? I have a Matco jump starter which is good, but heavy and still wont do the bigger diesels. I also have a cheap Autozone one that charges from the USB port, it is light and honestly I think it does as good a job as the Matco one so long as the vehicle starts on the first or second try. BUT, the charging port on the Autozone one is junk, I have had it replaced three times because the charging port connection comes apart. I like the USB charging because I can leave it in the truck. I am thinking of trying one of these Thanks Weego 120 Jump Starting Power Pack | 1200 Amps | Jump 0V Batteries (myweego.com) Weego 120 Jump Starting Power Pack | 1200 Amps | Jump 0V Batteries (myweego.com)

I didn't think the RT tag made a difference. I was under the assumption that if you had a DOT number and an MC number with interstate authority you were good. As I recall, NJ has some sort of use tax similar to NY hut but I thought that only pertained to CDL vehicles. I am far enough away from the state lines that I don't have to deal with either, I just don't run them, but I can see you running into NJ quite a bit from where you are. They get you anyway they can!

why is an RT tag no good if you have the dot and mc numbers?

And that scale is almost always open now that they refurbished it

Google mechanics

Thank goodness your driver is ok

Fortunately, we have been busy too, and thankful for the work. With that, we have run into some pretty interesting caricatures this week. Had one insurance customer let me load the car after they said they could pay a copay. Then half way home they tell me that cannot pay. I pulled over on the interstate, called their insurance company, informed them of what was going on, and advised the insurance company that I was going to take the customer to the next exit and drop them off at a hotel for safety then I was going to impound the car. The customer hearing all of this. All of the sudden the fingers pounding the hell out of the cell phone and what do you know, they found the money. Imagine that! Long quiet ride the rest of the way home and the money waiting their when we got there.

Not sure why AAA is spending money on this kind of research when they cant pay thier service providers a decent rate???