Towing company owner makes safety his mission (MI)

[goodmichael]

A few years ago a company approached the Sheriff's office in Bexar County and offered to pay for a number of Ford Crown Victoria police interceptors, brand new, if they could place advertising on the vehicles, just as many transit lines do with their busses. Just a thought on how to fund blocker vehicles. State Farm and Geico spend multi millions on advertising on television as well as having stadiums named in their likeness. It would be a nice gesture if they were to step up in an advertising capacity to fund blocker vehicles in a similar fashion.

[goodmichael]

Brian, by doing the bare minimum, the leadership of this industry is sending a message loud and clear that there is a point, a plateau, a bar, where your life as an operator is not worth the cost, effort, or attention requited to adopt industry wide standards. You are correct in stating that there will always be fatality incidents in this industry. I feel that seventy five percent of these incidents can be prevented by staff development in knowledge, education, training, and safe culture experience.

Unfortunately, as evidenced by only seven participants in this post, one being out of country, the leadership of this industry, to include owners, motor clubs, vehicle manufacturers, insurance companies, law enforcement, and politicians, are just kicking the can down the road. It really means nothing to a surviving family who has to struggle with not only the emotional loss of a loved one, but also has to pay bills, put food on the table, pay rent or a mortgage, as well as deal as best they can with the emotional trauma of losing a spouse compounded exponentially if their are children who have to process with losing a parent. You "leaders"  are doing a great job taking care of people in the field. Actually, some companies do things the right way. Unfortunately, many companies, by their inaction, sent the message that their employees are expendable.

Many of you piss, moan and complain that you can not find operators. Do you even comprehend why? Very few companies offer benefits. The hours suck. The pay is very low as a return on investment for the skillset required to properly complete the job requirements. Many companies treat operators as second class citizens. Many companies have the mindset of grinding employees down to a stump, then just throw them on the scrap heap and recruit another boot. Oh, did I mention the investment many make on training? I worked for a company here locally where just about everyone was quick to criticize and talk behind people's back, but I never once saw or heard anyone make even the slightest attempt to develop or mentor someone who was just starting out in their career. The person I was assigned to ride with was a total prick. I finally asked him if he wanted to pull over next to some railroad tracks so that we could beat each other senseless with the Vulcan spoons. He was a shitty trainer as well, as I knew considerably more about the equipment than he did. My punishment was to ride with the night supervisor and assist on heavy calls. He was a pretty decent person, and we got along pretty well. My point is that this industry is in crisis, it is on fire, and the leadership just watches from the sideline as it burns.  

I love this industry, it is a job like no other. After a difficult day, and they are the norm rather than the exception, one has the capacity to look back and know that they made a difference. One of my brightest moments was returning a wedding band that was knocked off the finger of a vehicle occupant during a crash. I kept the band in the console of my truck, because I did not trust any of the people I worked with to safeguard it. I would not recommend it as a career choice to my worst enemy. Not because of the inherent dangers, the low pay, the lack of benefits, or the brutal hours, but because of the culture. A culture of greed, envy, inattention, and a lack of respect and reverence for the lives of the people who are on the front lines.  

If this industry were to adopt unilateral standards that moved forward to a culture of safer operator procedures, and those standards were to cost lets just say 20 million dollars to implement, across the country, and they saved just one life, just one life, they would be worth every gram of zinc in a shiny penny. If OSHA becomes your new best friend and begins regulating this industry, or should I say over regulating this industry just remember that you had your chance to get it right, and you fumbled in the red zone over and over again. When you receive the letter stating that you owe 25000.00 for a fine because your employee was observed actively demonstrating an unsafe practice I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear you complain. Because you have the opportunity in the now to make things right, but as an industry you are unmotivated. When you all in the motor club side of the industry have to pay rates reflective of the professional services you pander to your client base, rather than the pennies on the real time dollar value that you currently pay, you will have no choice but to pay the band after the dance. When you in the industry that are involved in police towing can no longer get 30 minute response times, mark up tow tickets a certain percentage as part of your contracts in order to pad your municipal budgets, and are no longer afforded the opportunity to pad your budgets via towers low bidding municipal contracts. Just remember you had the opportunity to develop a safety rich culture, and you refused to act. 

I do see OSHA becoming an active proctor of this industry in the near future. Their involvement will force rates to dramatically increase due to the costs of ensuring operator safety. These costs will be reflective in the rates that will be required to operate equipment. Motor club calls will likely triple in cost. Customer pay requests will likely double. Law enforcement rotation calls will be the least impacted, but will none the less also be affected. Motor clubs will likely require a copay at the time of service. There will be no more free smokescreens and mirrors on anything. But for that one operator who arrives home alive, the one who never knows he was impacted by the implemented safety standards, the one who will not have his or her name added to the wall in Tennessee, it will be worth all the effort to make things right, and safe.

If I offended anyone, please let me know. I operate under the guise of aggravating everyone I can, and those who listen twice. I have plenty more to speak about.

[rreschran]

Now ... two month's later ... it appears this thread lost its momentum. And, have you noticed that three tow operators were killed in November only four days apart,and all three in that 51-year's-old range. Is age an associated factor? I don't think so, and GoodMichael mentions the, "safe culture experience", suggesting tower's are individually responsible for their own safety or early demise.  With all of these lessons learned. why isn't the message of white-line safety reaching the forefront of every tower's existance?    R. 

[ESC]

On 9/26/2018 at 11:20 AM, Flagfixer said:

This may not be doable but, would insurance pay for a "safety responder" type support vehicle to respond to accident scenes to add additional safety for the operator??  Equipment with lights, cones, flares, vests and maybe scene lighting etc.  LE seems to leave the scene and the towers are left to clean up with no additional safety support.  Just a thought. . .

Insurance companies will pay.  They will complain about it, as they complain about everything else when it comes to them paying out.  But if it does come down to it, they will pay.   Where I see the issue is when it is a customer pay/out of pocket job- as customers already don't understand the cost of doing business and the recovery rates, etc.  They complain now, so what happens when I add charges for a traffic control unit, etc.  Then they go to police, or board of supervisors, etc and complain they are being charged unfairly.  Those sorts of people are quick to say choose a different towing company, or that price is too much etc.   I also dont agree with charging one price to an insurance company and then not charging a customer the same rates if it doesnt have insurance.  I am all for a traffic control unit and would love to do it.  But, I dont have the crash volume here to employ another traffic control operator to be on standby 24/7.  Currently when called for a single vehicle crash, I send a wrecker and a bed... and I do charge for it when it is needed.  Waynes Towing (a member here) has put together a very nice traffic control unit that they use and bill for.  I love it, I just cant afford to make it work for us just yet.  

 

On another note- Last month we bought our entire crew new Work King jackets and snow bibs that are HiVis.... we are trying to do everything we can to keep them safe.  That was a huge hit with the guys... and Zips had a nice sale along with the tow show discount.

[rreschran]

Nice ... will you show us a copy of your invoice so towers' can see how it's listed in billable services? Perhaps tow companies should consider this a billing practice for the future as long as the service is provided (take pictures of the blocker truck or traffic control unit) that are enclosed with the bill as evidence of on-scene coverage. It makes sense to me as long as towers don't use it as a means to pad their bill. I like the concept.    R.

[ESC]

58 minutes ago, rreschran said:

Nice ... will you show us a copy of your invoice so towers' can see how it's listed in billable services? Perhaps tow companies should consider this a billing practice for the future as long as the service is provided (take pictures of the blocker truck or traffic control unit) that are enclosed with the bill as evidence of on-scene coverage. It makes sense to me as long as towers don't use it as a means to pad their bill. I like the concept.    R.

I dont have a traffic control unit as of yet... i would like to... at some point.   But I use quickbooks for invoicing.  I write a description of the situation and what was done.  I put in all important vehicle info. Then I itemize equipment and labor.  2 hours light duty wrect @$.... per hour, 2 hours labor @$.... per hour...  If i ran a traffic unit i would add another line for traffic control unit @ $...... per hour just as I do any other equipment on scene.   Right now most insurance companies dont complain too much.  I get them complaining about this and that, like admin fees here and there.   Sometimes on a messy job if our gear is damaged or ruined, I add a line item to replace it.  Gloves, boots, etc.  Insurance companies usually will complain that it is a cost of doing business.  Then I show them pictures of the battery acid from their clients car that eats up my gloves, or something like that.  They agree to pay and I move on.

 

I think this needs to become a more common standard practice and it will help us all in getting paid.

 

Another thought that came to mind on the billing for traffic control.  Look to OSHA rules about providing a safe work environment for your employees.  If an insurance company wants to say its safe to load a crash on the highway without traffic control, I bet they wont put it in writing for you.   You have to provide that service to keep your operators safe, so you need to be paid to provide that service.

[Flagfixer]

Good to see more input.  What would you have to invest to make a traffic control vehicle.  I assume an arrow board, amber lights  (maybe red to the rear) cones and flares, vests etc.  With the investment, a billable fee should be determined and just bill the insurance company as equipment necessary for the job.  Include pics and a written description of the use of the traffic control vehicle.  A reference to the OSHA in the written description of the requirement for the vehicle to be on scene for the recovery should suffice and you get paid.

 

Here,the LEO usually leaves as soon as possible because of the calls that are backing up as clean-up takes a while at times.  On scene traffic control leaves with the LEO.  Insurance companies should be informed in the description of the services and equipment you used. 

 

Thanks to everyone that input information and suggestions to this thread.  Something has got to b e done to make the scene safer.  Any work on the side of the highway has just gotten too dangerous to stand by and do nothing.

 

JimB

[ESC]

Here is my ideal traffic control truck. Something with enough size and weight to handle a possible impact. A large arrow board and a fold down style crash protector. We are lucky enough to have a neighboring business that manufactures these less than a half mile from us. I still can’t work it into our budget with the cost of an added operator on standby. We are busy, but I don’t get enough crashes that I could afford the added equipment and labor etc. For us to bill what it would take to make it work would make my pricing outrageous. But the added safety and all would be huge.

The local company that builds them is called JTech if anyone wants to check them out.




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[Flagfixer]

I was in Sarasota today and was sitting in traffic waiting to get through a construction project.  A contractor was installing LED street lights on the newly rebuilt section of the road.  He had his bucket truck working on the lamp poles and behind it was a flatbed truck with a lift gate on the back.  The lift gate was modified to hold those blue plastic barrels in an upright position.  They were supported by some heavy looking racks on the truck side of the lift gate.  The truck had a bunch of cones, an arrow board that folded down and amber LEDs on the rear.  It looked like it had been whacked a few times but was doing the job.  Now, I  got to thinking that all the stuff could be made on a subframe and fitted to a cab and chassis of some kind.  If the truck died, take it off and put it on another chassis. Lift gates are easy to get used, You could make an arrow board from scratch.  Might be worth spending some time drawing.  Drums with sand shouldn't be a problem.  ( I am cheap !!)

 

JimB

[goodmichael]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 9:05 PM, ESC said:

Here is my ideal traffic control truck. Something with enough size and weight to handle a possible impact. A large arrow board and a fold down style crash protector. We are lucky enough to have a neighboring business that manufactures these less than a half mile from us. I still can’t work it into our budget with the cost of an added operator on standby. We are busy, but I don’t get enough crashes that I could afford the added equipment and labor etc. For us to bill what it would take to make it work would make my pricing outrageous. But the added safety and all would be huge.

The local company that builds them is called JTech if anyone wants to check them out.




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It should not be considered outrageous to spend the extra time, effort, and money to protect your employees. Again, I am calling out the leadership that sets policies in this industry, as well as the employees themselves. Stop putting yourself at risk of serious bodily injury and death by spending even one second on the side of the road more than is absolutely necessary. Stop putting your employees in harms way because you do not want to, or are afraid to,  bill for, and spend the extra money to mitigate the risk of death or injury to your staff. It is your business, it does not belong to the motor club, the insurance company, or the client, it belongs to you. Provide the mechanism of a safe working environment for your employees, and bill for it as a line item just as you would if you used dollies, or go jacks. It is a part of doing business. Are you afraid the insurance companies are going to yell at you, call you mean things, or not want to talk to you or give you any business? The insurance companies need towing companies, it is not the other way around. Instead of caving into the mandates of motor clubs and insurance companies, there are a vast number of people who need to grow a pair, stand your ground, and push back those who have been pushing you around. Being a professional means doing the right thing for the right reason at the right time, and not having to be told what to do. A professional does what is right because it is the right thing to do. Not because they have to be told what to do.