Parking Garage Recovery

[Eric Fouquette]

Just a little recovery today 3rd floor of parking garage very little room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rreschran]

Hi Eric ... no criticisms here ... just asking ... if you didn't have a light duty, low-profile wrecker available for this recovery (?) knowing certain parking garages have height issues. SO, if this was an auto club response, what invoice suggestions would you make to get paid for the equipment you sent and used beyond the initial carrier? 

 

Thank for sharing your photos to show other towers what options are in the proverbial tool box.       R. 

[GRUMPS The Towman]

I mean no offense, but It does seem a bit excessive to go through all of that for that minor ordeal. On the other hand, I suppose if you have the equipment and can justify charging for its use, then so be it. From observing the pics I dont see any fluids on the ground, so I would assume the vehicle may have still ran and moved on its own power possibly? Did you "tow" it all the way down to the street with the Fork lift? Obviously I dont know all the details so it is difficult for me to determine how or if there was another way to handle it.

I also noticed you transported the Lull ( thats what we call those types of fork lifts / machines here ) to the scene on a 5500 Ram roll back. I was just curious what the machine weighs?  Is it safe to assume you had to dispatch a second roll back to tow the casualty once it was at ground level? 

Again, I dont mean to be offensive or critical in any way. Like Mr. Resch, I am curious how billing for all that gear and man power is gonna work out for you.

[rreschran]

I remember certain past recoveries where we'd have extra equipment to get the job done yet we didn't charge for everything used. In some cases it was a matter of adding that level of, "wow factor", expecially for law enforcment calls. We can all agree that Big Wheel Towing has plenty of wow factor right?

 

On one, slow Sunday, the SDPD requested a truck for a stolen recovery; an old, beat-up and stripped Honda having tires and no keys three-quarters of a mile back into a difficult ravine. I sent a wrecker to the location in-case it needed to be lifted from a ditch, a carrier to transport it, but they stayed on-the-pavement. We used only our 4x4 recovery pickup and a length of shortened recovery chain to drag it to the roadway. With one of my tow driver's driving the pickup, I sat in the Honda and applied the brakes every few feet to scootch the front-end in-line with the pickup. The angle of turn and scootch caused the Honda to slide-over and stayed pretty much in the path of the 4x4 until we were back on hard pack and loaded onto the carrier. The officer was pleased. We charged for the 4x4 and two operators on-scene. Due the, "Zero Value", of the Honda, I was able to talk the PD into an abatement slip and the Honda went to scrap within a few days.        R. 

[EdsTowing]

So in my opinion...which doesn't matter..., I see a vehicle that "pussed" out fluids. It's on the ground and the tires have tracked through it. Probably has $10,000 - 12,000 in damage but most likely fixable. Now I know Eric doesn't have a LD Wrecker but regardless, that is pretty dam low...like 72"-78". So unless you do this type of work all the time (which I know he doesn't), not many would have a unit to fit in such a tight space. I'm not sure if my skid steer would fit in there but otherwise I would have to use one of the shop trucks & drag it out. I wouldn't start it since the rad & support are obviously back since it missed the bumper support. Sometimes I have cut the belt as long as the crank balancer isn't in to anything. But anyway, two guys & a machine are certainly justified. My crash van would be there so whatever I need is handy...we bill it out on nearly all accidents. And yes the machine has to get there somehow, we charge $150hr x (?) hr. min for moving our Skid Steer or Mini Excavator.

 

In my market, this job would be a couple grand and would have no problem getting paid.

 

Let me say one thing that I learned from a guy in Massachusetts.... Don't minimize the tasks that you accomplish. Many times, guys in our industry are used to solving problems and under estimate the value of what they can do. I'm not trying to be offensive but I have met plenty of guys that were downright brilliant but never able to fully transmit that to their bottom line. That claims handler doesn't have a clue on how to solve this issue....he's only told to say what he says. Just take good photos, document the procedure and write the accident summary to depict just how smart this solution was!

 

Of course that's just my opinion...I could be wrong.

[Stubborn66]

On 10/5/2020 at 8:49 PM, EdsTowing said:

Let me say one thing that I learned from a guy in Massachusetts.... Don't minimize the tasks that you accomplish. Many times, guys in our industry are used to solving problems and under estimate the value of what they can do. I'm not trying to be offensive but I have met plenty of guys that were downright brilliant but never able to fully transmit that to their bottom line.

I think a lot of us struggle with this.  Figuring out how to do the job and getting it done is part of why we do what we do.  Getting challenged repeatedly by adjusters, who's job it is to try and get the price lower can be an insult.   We have to make a profit on each job on a job like this we have to use the tools we have available to us. 

 

I hope he got paid for everything he used to complete this recovery.  

[rreschran]

Absolutely ! ! !  When adjusters are successful into brow-beating a cheaper price out of one company's invoice, it's kinda' like feeding the bears ... they keep coming back and every invoice from then-on results in them "cheap-shotting" every invoice from then on. If a company does the work and justifiably, "documents", all work done, get paid for the work you do.

 

But, the sad reality that I've noticed for many years, when tower's gouge, there always will be push-back. While an adjuster's job is to try and lower invoices, they're educated enough to know what towing and recovery prices are in the proverbial ball-park. When gouging takes place, it hurts all towers in the end-run.         R.