Tow Trucks, Wreckers and Car Hauler Discussion

[HotRodPC]

Yep, you dodged a bullet. Did bossman buy a new winchline or just have the hook reattached less the 8 inches?

 

[ScottyB]

We had one on the Shelf so whole new rope.

 

[HotRodPC]

Look at this thing @towjoe. It looks well used, but he says it all works good.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/lgi/cto/4885888956.html

 

[ScottyB]

Well, I'm day 14 into a 26 day week. At least it's over half way through that. Yesterday was a 34 hour day and the boss got his monies worth on that one. Yesterday was one of the busiest days I have done. I have had more calls in a day but this had the right mix of service and tows and spread out all over hell's half acre to just wear a guy down. Tomorrow, either the boss or I have a 140 mile tow to finish out a call from Friday night. I have a feeling I get to do that one but that is fine, I don't mind road trips.

 

[HotRodPC]

Well, I'm day 14 into a 26 day week. At least it's over half way through that. Yesterday was a 34 hour day and the boss got his monies worth on that one. Yesterday was one of the busiest days I have done. I have had more calls in a day but this had the right mix of service and tows and spread out all over hell's half acre to just wear a guy down. Tomorrow, either the boss or I have a 140 mile tow to finish out a call from Friday night. I have a feeling I get to do that one but that is fine, I don't mind road trips.

I'd be all over a 140 mile tow. Windshield time is easy money compared to hookin' and pulling chains time. Of course you're hourly so it doesn't matter to you.

I'm about 28 days into a who knows how long work week. This having the phones every night and every weekend is getting old QUICK. And I'm not impressed with my check at all. The bossman (manager) is going to have to start doing some things my way or else. Bossman (owner) called me up Friday and asked how much check was. I told him, I'm not happy at all. He asked why? I said no days off, working 24/7 and it was only $***.00. I said I don't think that's even minimum ******* wage. He said, well, I'm here with my wife looking at some #'s and I'm losing money brother. I said, I could have told you that. I know when my check looks like this, and I know what you're paying everyone, insurance premiums are and the fuel bill, I know you're losing money. He said, meet me at XXXX, I'll buy dinner we need to talk. So we did. Him, the manager and I are going to be having a meeting sometime Monday after the rush is over and make some changes to our zip codes and add a couple more motor clubs to make up for lost volume. As I told him, our area is way to big and we are driving from one side of the city to the other back and forth and giving up 15 miles on every ******* tow, that's why we are losing money. $35 ******* tows don't pay the bills, and we need to lift the maximum destination distance so I can get some ******* out of town **** going, and call in for a Copart to come back with me. He asked how far I wanted to go? I said, **** brother, I'll go to Dallas, Amarillo, Witchita and Ft.Smith. I've done it before and I made $800-$1100 a week. This **** here is ******* peanuts. I can make this working part time delivering pizza and not worry about tearing up a car.

 

[ScottyB]

I'd be all over a 140 mile tow. Windshield time is easy money compared to hookin' and pulling chains time. Of course you're hourly so it doesn't matter to you.

The reason I postponed it Friday night is I had no backup. That is a 6-7 hour tow with noone else in the area to cover what comes up. We have 4 drivers, 2 were on vacation and the other one had some personal business to take care of Friday night. I like the long tows, it's pretty much hassle free work. I think the boss will want to stay local tomorrow since he was gone all weekend and will have business stuff to catch up on.

This current situation is unusual though. With our nights and weekends guy out for 2 weeks that leaves the rest of us picking up the slack. Boss is trying to stay out of the fill in side which leaves 2 of us. The other guy has a limited amount he can earn each month so you can see where this is going. The good news is the part time guy is picking up most of the nights. The bad news is the scheduled extra shifts I pick up are salaried, not hourly. I'm still picking up more money than I normally would and that is helpful, but 38 hour days are a bitch. I do get my overtime rate if I get called out outside of what I am scheduled for but most of what I am doing doesn't qualify as that.

Two more weeks and life will start to return to normal.

You commented on how you guys are running 15 miles to get tows. Most of mine are 20+ to get to and they seem to pop up in such a way that I end up crisscrossing the county to cover. Occasionally I'll get lucky and get a string of calls in close proximity and be able to run them together but that is not the norm. We can pull that off in part because we don't have a massive call volume but that goes both ways, We burn a lot of fuel covering all those calls.

 

[HotRodPC]

We're giving away 15 miles, 10 miles in route and 5 miles towed before we get anything extra over and above the $35 hook. And I do them all the damn time. Drive 9 or 10 to get there, then take it 4 or 5 miles and then it's only a $35 tow from Agero. Where as if it were a 140 mile tow, even if it was 10 miles to get there, I'd get $35 hook, then 135 miles x $2.50 a mile which is $337.50 + $35 hook, now we made some money $372.50 and then I'd get a Zone 16 Copart coming back that probably pays $150 or so. And at 70-75mph, I'd be making money. All these local tows are killing me. Do the math at how much time I'd have involved for that tow and what I'd make at a 35% commision.

 

[towjoe]

I pay my drivers on commission here at 30% for a good driver. I get $45 base rate on motorclub work, $2.50 in route after 10 and $3 after 5 hook as a average. Cash customers are $45 hook and $4 a mile if going out of town. Shop rate is same also except for flatbed. Shop get $45 flatbed cash customers pay $60. I've done a lot of math and that's what it takes for me to make alittle money and pay drivers a good wage to respect working here. My girlfriend has been running the phones 24/7 and been one other driver and I running calls. We are trying to decide how to change things up maybe add a night shift driver that runs phones and calls. It's hard to send a driver out after we have run 14 hours straight to do night calls

 

[HotRodPC]

Seems here depending on the company, the lowballers pay 25%. But a training or driver with under a year experience is 27% A year or more driver is 30% and that's pretty much it. They say the better drivers with say 5 years experience make more than the 1 year 30% because he is quicker and knows his way around town and all the drop spots at the shops and such, so he's making more money from experience even though he's still 30% which is true. An exceptional driver or a driver trainer will usually make 33% and they're aren't many. 30% if pretty much the standard. So I don't tell anyone around here I'm getting 35%. But, of course I earn that ****. I'm about to friggin burn out. Haven't had a day off in I don't know when and I've the phone from about 5:30pm to 8am M-F and all day Sat and Sun. So I also take the volume of the calls since other drivers try to pretend to have phone problems and not answer their phone or say their truck is broke.

 

[ScottyB]

I don't know what the other companies in the area pay (Other than one that is paying $10/hour and drivers are on 24/5.) but I don't know that I could get on with more than maybe one other due to how far out I live. For now I just keep on keeping on.

 

[ScottyB]

Ok, I guess it's my turn. My son was filming last night as I grabbed 2 cars for a dealership from a brokerage. He was a bit slow getting started but all you missed was me rolling back the deck. He also paused while I walked over to bring the second car over. The whole thing took 12 minutes from stop of truck to start of truck.

Never mind. I guess I can't figure out how to upload a 1.3 GB video. (I guess I'm just that big.)

 

[HotRodPC]

sunuva bitch, a 12 minute video is 1.3GB? What format is that? That's not right. I think I had a 17 minute video and it was in the area of 400mb, and I cut it down to like 9 minutes and it was about 280mb.

 

[ScottyB]

sunuva bitch, a 12 minute video is 1.3GB? What format is that? That's not right. I think I had a 17 minute video and it was in the area of 400mb, and I cut it down to like 9 minutes and it was about 280mb.

I had it at highest res. Oooops.

 

[ScottyB]

This is what I ended up working late on this evening. Damn Fords and no cranks. No, I didn't try to Jumpstart it.

 

[HotRodPC]

Cool. Careful with that one. You know he's watching every move you make.