Blog

It’s just SO MUCH MONEY!

Everything is just getting so dang expensive. We wanted to take a few minutes to share with you the costs related to towing, and why it’s so expensive to get a vehicle safely relocated.  In addition, some Towing Services may have a few extra things to think about when it comes to pricing.

Give it to me straight doc,

A long time Tower, now retired, here in Edmonton once explained it to me this way;

Tow trucks carry a bunch of gear and equipment to ensure that when they respond to a call they are prepared for all kinds of situations.  As tow operators, once we head out for the day we never know what we might encounter or what task we will need to make a persons day.  We’ll step through each step of a basic hookup to consider the angles.

The operator backs up to your vehicle and gets his lift under the car, seemingly simple so far, but he must use his L-Arms or Spoons to grab your tire.  Those can be expensive, Upwards of $250 per and we need TWO because you have two tires.  The hydraulics and truck humm as your car elevates off the ground.  Good to go right?  Sure, I mean we can go down the road that way, but it’s not safe, nor legal.  We must now secure your vehicle to the lift, for that we need some straps.  Back to the truck the operator goes to grab his basket straps at a $80/ea.

Alright, car is strapped to the lift, we good to go?  Again, we could but still not safe or legal yet.  We need some form of secondary securement to the vehicle incase there is an equipment failuer, simlar to when you’re towing a trailer you need those extra ‘safey chains.’  In this case, chains rated high enough for a car at approximately $80/ea.  Car is secure, lets go!  WAIT!  Nope, not yet, still not legal, we need them fancy tow lights that are on magnets and stick to the back of your car so those following your disabled car down the highway don’t run into it when the tow truck needs to slow or turn.  Back to the truck the operator goes to grab is $200 magnetic tow lights. Now we are good to go…

Add this all up:

• L-arms – $250
• Basket Straps – $160
• Safety Chains – $160
• Tow Lights – $200
• Total: $770

Can you believe the cost of the most BASIC equipment for a tow costs over $700!  If the vehicle is an AWD, 4WD or is disabled becuase of the wheels could require the use of dollies which are over $3000.  Granted all of this gear can be used multiple times, the average basic tow in Edmonton costs approximately $150, which is no where near the cost of the equipment used.

There are a lot of other costs to consider too;

The Truck Itself

Whether the Tow Operator is driving a wrecker or a deck truck, to purchase these trucks new the cost now exceeds $150k.  Turn that into payments and you’re near $4,000/month. YIKES!  However, when Tow Operators get to this topic, we all tend to avoid the cost discussion and start arguing about Ford vs Dodge vs Freightliner vs Peterbilt and so on and so on.  Everyone has their preference for sure.  Then the discussion is around lights, $150k is the base price but to get all the fancy flashy multi colour lights and extra equipment that comes at much more of a cost.

Insurance

As a vehicle owner, you know how expensive insurance can be.  Insuring your own car or insuring your teenager to drive is EXPENSIVE.  Now imagine how much insurnace costs to cover a truck TOWING cars around, all day, in city traffic…  Now lets consider the risk becuase insurance companies love risk.  That truck and operator going to risk their lives working on the side of the highway, within INCHES of distracted drivers going upwards 110km/h.  Some of these tow operators will work without Traffic Control watching their back.

PS, this not a risk Tuber is willing to take, Traffic units for all highways!  A tow truck driver is struck and killed every 6 days…  SIX DAYS… Let that sink in for a minute…

Insurance for tow trucks is known to be around $1000/month, yes that’s on top of the payment for the truck we talked about above.

Let’s also consider Workers Compensation Insurance, we go deeper into detail in our Safety Third article.  The cost of this is roughly 3% of wages, overall wages.

Dispatch

If a towing company doesn’t want to have their operators distracted by phones, answering calls from customers while driving around there needs to be someone around for dispatch.  Whether its an employee at the towing company, or a third party service, Dispatchers play an important part in ensuring you are getting the service you need, when you need it the most.  In some parts of the industry, dispatchers are call takers that pass along information received from customers to the drivers.  In other parts of the industry, dispatchers are the lifeline of the business, ensuring calls are answered, drivers are supported, bills are collected, and customers have someone to talk to on their worst days.  There are points in time that a Tow Dispatcher shares similar duties to a 911 Dispatcher, then there are points in time where the Tow Dispatcher is like a drive thru attendant at McDonalds.  A WIDE spread of duties for sure.  Not trying to discredit 911 Dispatchers, as Tow Dispatchers much time is spent on the phone with the 911 Dispatchers working together to solve emergency situations.  911 Dispatchers deal with some incredible situatinos and Tuber stands 100% with them and commend them for everything that they do!

A dispatchers wage can vary from minimum wage all the way up to $40/hr+ for the 911 Dispatchers.  Tow Dispatchers can be anywhere in that range depending on the need and engagement required. Is your mind starting to explode with costs yet?  We aren’t even half way there.

The people of dispatch are the important part, but since we are talking about cost we must go deeper.  For every dispatcher there’s a computer, a phone, likely a two way communication device of some sort (radio), an office and and and.  All of these come at a cost.  Phone systems that can handle multiple calls at once aren’t cheap, computers, internet all of these things can carry a large cost.  In that computer there is specialized software to help be efficient, ensure adaquete billing and much more.  We cover this topic in more depth in our ‘Paperless Article.‘  One can sum this up to yet another $1000/mo just for the software, phone system, computers and so on.

Driver/Operator

From various walks of life most Tow Truck Drivers, or the more prefered name of ‘Operator,’ are blue collar and tend to fit in the ‘trade’ type of demographic.  Both men and women that operate Tow Trucks are usually a little rough around the edges and must have a tough exterior to deal with some of the crazy situations they get into.  Towing can be a labour intensive job for hours or minutes at a time, and most of the time spent behind the wheel practicing their patience in traffic.

We will go more into detail of the life of a tow operator in another article as we must stay focus on costs.  SQUIRREL!  In most parts of North America Tow Operators fit into one of three categories regarding pay, owner operator, commision, or hourly.  Either way, at the end of the day, Tow Operators put their lives on the line each and every day, whether it’s working on the side of the highway or dealing with tense situations during reposessions.

The cost associated with Tow Operators (if we look stricly at light duty, meaning cars, vans, and suvs) they’ll range from minimum wage to $30/hr on average.  Meaning yet another cost associated with towing.  Arguably one of the most important, without a Tow Operator a Tow Truck won’t get to save you.  Tow operators earn most of their knowledge from experience and peer training.  Some companies have in house training programs, and there are ‘standardized’ national training such as Wreckmaster and ERSCA.  There is lots of opporuntiy for training, more in the heavy side of things it’s more like a mentor program just not quite as formal.  The role can have so many variables that can change at a moments notice, some siutations you may not come across for a few years making the ‘on the job’ training almost never ending.

Fuel

This deserves it’s own paragraph.  Though it’s short and sweet, tow trucks are typically diesel and while this makes them able to tow better and be more fuel efficient that doesn’t mean they run like  a volkswagon jetta prior to their scandal.  On average, Tow Trucks burn approximatly 25-30L/100km, or for our American friends, that’s about 6.5-7 miles per gallon.  The price of fuel has been a bone of contention for everyone who operates equipment or vehicles as part of business.  Some towing companies implemented a ‘Fuel Surcharge’ where they add 20 or more percent on top of their entire bill to help cover the costs of fuel.  If you think just a short tow across Edmonton, say from West Edmonton Mall to Herbers Autobody near Sherwood Park, which is about a 19km tow. While it doesn’t seem like much, if we break down the math, just in travel time (not including running time to hookup or unload) is 6L in fuel, at $1.50/ltr that’s $9 just in fuel.  Plus the hard to measure load and unload time, the fuel it cost to get to the customer and the fuel it’ll take to get to the next destination folliwng the customer.

This feels like a small amount, but when a tow truck puts on 200-500km/day (for local towers) that’s easily $225/day in fuel.  As the weather changes, and traffic changes, terrain and all of the variables, fuel can be a big part of the days expense.

Maintenance

As we start to wind down on the ‘regular’ costs incurred by a tow truck, or twoing service to ensure you get the help you need.  Maintenance is a big one for repuatble towing services.  Schedules, similar to what your dealer tells you about your car, need to be following to ensure the truck can be reliable and safe going down the highway.  An oil change alone on a tow truck can run upwards of $300, just an oil change.  Then there’s all the hydraulics and filters and wear and tear of all the other items picking up heavy things and towing them all over town.  As an operator, when you look back on your expenses in a month versus what you earned, you shouldn’t spend more than 7% of what you earned on maintenance.  If you did, you should consider your prices, or your maintenance practices.

From a customer perspective, this is why it’s important to choose a Towing Company that bangs their drums about safety and maintenance.  Knowing the Tow Truck showing up to save you isn’t leaking all over the place, or has a higher chance of breaking down, that’ll make the experience that much better.  We talk more about this topic in our maintenance article.  Now this goes hand in hand with training and care by the Tow Operators.  Focusing on a proper DAILY pre-trip will help spot issues before they become a problem.  Being able to resolve or identify issues during the pre-trip will greatly reduce cost and extend the life of the truck.

Equipment, again!

From a towing perspective the towing equipment required (light duty world) the equipment is pretty standard.  The equipment necessary to carry to provide basic roadside services and lighty duty towing is listed below.  Keep in mind that many operators carry much more than this, and as their experience grows so does their ‘toolbox’ both physically and mentally.  The list below is specific of ‘equipment’ separate from the truck itself and dollies.

• Basket or Wheel Lift Straps
• Safety Chains
• Dolly Straps
• Tow Lights
• Frame Forks
• Frame Fork Straps
• Steering Wheel Rope/Securement
• Lumber (various sizes/shapes)
• Small ratchet straps to secure broken/damaged items
• Broom
• Shovel
• Garbage Can
• Air Compressor (Truck mounted usually)
• Portable Air Tank (for those pesky parkades aka underground parking)
• Booster Cables
• Portable Booster Pack
• Floor Jack
• Socket set or Cross Wrench
• Knee pad
• Bungee Cords

Now from a recovery perspective (winching and pulling stuff out of the ditch) many operators have different opinions on the minimum requirements.  Given all the various circumstances tow operators can run into at different parts of the country, we’re going to leave this list as super basic.  You ready?  Here we go: Straps, chains, clusters, hooks, and clevis’.  That’s it, that’s all we’re saying.  Some recoveries can get away with $100 worth of gear, some can take thousands of dollars in gear.  If we can give any advice it would be to carry a lot, take care of your gear, regulariliy inspect it and keep it clean and organized.

That being said, the above equipment list would ball park safetly at $2k for the bare minimum of gear a truck NEEDS to carry to ensure it can be ready to go when called upon to save you or a customer at their time of need.  By carrying all of this gear, it help keep those wait times as low as possible.

Quick Review

Lets take a moment to do a quick review.  In our example of a $150 tow in Edmonton these are the things needed to ensure the Tow Operator can get it done safely, efficiently and reliably:

• Tow Truck – $150,000
• Insurance – $1000/mo
• Dispatcher – $4000/mo
• Fuel – $15
• Maintenance – Unknown
• Equipment – $2000
• TOTAL: $157,000

A lot can be speculated around this cost as some operators and companies will run older trucks, less experienced operators, no dispatch etc…  However, some may also cut corners to get the job by offering to do the tow for less.  This can greatly increase risk of damage and surprises for the customer.  Not good surprises either.

There’s all the other things we didn’t cover such as, uniforms, benefits, storage yard, facility, software, payroll services, management (leadership), upgrades, etc.  For Towing Services, please consider ALL of your costs when setting your rates, while one person who calls you for a tow shouldn’t have to cover ALL of your costs for the month, you do need to consider the costs you incur to get them service.  For customers, please understand that most Towing Companies around Alberta are there to help rather than hinder.  We want to take care of you, your car and your family in what could be a super stressful time.  Similar to your furnace dying, calling for a tow truck is like calling the furnace repair service at 2am to come out and help.  It won’t be ‘cheap’ but it will be done right and get your family back above freezing!

Fast, Good and Cheap, you can never have all three.

In addition, if you break down on the side of the highway a second truck may need to be dispatched for Traffic Control to ensure you and the Tow Operator are safe while you get picked up.  This is a whole additional cost to those listed above.

To Summarize, the purpose of this article is to outline the costs associated with Towing and explain why a $60 tow across town is silly from both the Towing Service’s perspective as well as a customers perspective.  Tow’s are expensive, but the service you receive, and the safety included is worth every penny.  Use a trusted service like Tuber Towing who you know will take care of you, and go the extra mile to ensure you and your family are safe.  “We Care” is Tuber’s Mantra for a reason!

In conclusion, towing services entail numerous costs that are often overlooked by customers. The expenses associated with equipment, trucks, insurance, dispatch, operators, fuel, maintenance, and additional factors quickly add up. Towing companies invest in specialized tools and gear to ensure safe and efficient towing operations. Moreover, they bear the financial burden of maintaining a fleet of trucks, insuring them, and providing dispatch services. Tow operators, who put their lives at risk every day, deserve fair compensation for their skills and the demanding nature of their work. It is essential for both customers and towing companies to understand and appreciate the expenses involved in providing quality towing services. By considering these costs, customers can make informed decisions, while towing companies can maintain sustainable operations and continue to assist those in need.