The Jamie Davis Towing Discussion Thread

I hear ya...BUT whenever Al Quiring would get the same type calls whatever time it was he would just show up, do the recovery and go on to the next one. Always seemed like Davis was trying to pad the bill.

 

He didn't have a rotator either, there goes the "we are required to have it" excuse

 

I posted it so you would understand what the cost of equipment can be and what drives the cost of business.
Does this help or do we need to discuss further?

 

I know the cost of equipment, I also know that if I cannot make money with I'm not going to buy it, you can poormouth all you want, but if you buy a rotator and depend on some third party to provide your work and set your rate you have made a very poor choice.

 

It is mostly staged for tv, in the real world outside the show it does not usually work they way they show on tv.

I agree that Quiring runs a very professional operation, I loke how he is portrayed better than how they portray Jamie. That doesn't make Al right and Jamie wrong as there is more than one way to do their job.

Padding the invoice does happen, and those of us that are professional don't like those that do. That said, without seeing the actual invoices charged for similar jobs by those two companies I can't comment further.

 

Again, your ignorance of the towing industry is showing. In many areas the rates are set by the municipalities or state as a means to provide some sort of consumer protection. In an ideal world there would be no rates set by third parties and it would be all whatever the market will tolerate.

We never said that Jamie Davis was specifically required to have a rotator, don't know the police requirement in his area. Many states do have them as required equipment. Some have reasonable rate caps, others don't.

It would be fantastic if the states actually followed the federal law and got their noses out of setting our rates, like they did when trucking was deregulated. Again, by your logic no one would have entered the trucking industry prior to the mid 80's, afterall rates were set by an uninterested third party, namly the Interstate Commerce Commission.

 

Ok I’m out I don’t think I can help anymore.
Please listen to Brian the man was in the business of heavy tow and also sold heavy wrecker equipment.
He’s a true professional and knows his ####.

 

The dimwits being pumped out of trucking schools are a boon to the recovery services. In my area the recovery services have quadrupled the past 20 years. Ya know the village idiots are coming when you can afford to park a unit 70 miles out of town and keep employee busy year 'round towing mental midgets out of the ditch. It's hilarious but at the same time pathetic.

 

Do you mean back when your territory was protected and your rights had a market value, sometimes into the millions? Show me how being on a police rotation is anywhere close to that.

 

Easy. Look at the New York Thruway, or any of the interior New York City highways. They all are granted exclusive rights to accident recovery and in some cases exclusive rights to road service and breakdown towing.

In NY City your tow medalion is worth millions, there are a limited number of tow licenses issued and the only way to break into NYPD or highway towing is to purchase someone's rights.

NY Thruway makes exceptions for road sercice and breakdown towing of commercial vehicles, although crash response and site remediation post-crash is still exclusive to the tower that "owns" that stretch of the Thruway.

True, not all rotations are exclusive, afterall the concept of rotation is to spead the work among several qualified providers, however there is still some exclusivity since not all towing companies in a geographic area have the ability, or desire, to qualify for police work.

This whole post is way off track. The orginal intent of my comments were to explain why some towing companies rates vary wildly from others, and you have helped illustrate that point. It is basic business 101, you must make a return on investment. If there is a need in your community and you chose to fill that need, then you must follow the rules and obtain the required equipment. Set your rates accordingly.

I never intended to portray towers with a "woe is me" attitude, many of the run very profitable and professional businesses. If they didn't then the tow equipment market would not be a billion dollar industry and I would not have many customers now that I specialize in regulatory compliance and consulting for the towing industry. Perhaps my point did not come across as clear as I hoped.

My only argument is with the trucking industry groups and insurance lobby that has no idea what the true costs of operating a towing service is. They demand 24/7 expedited services while expecting general freight hauler rates for specialized services. Do some towers inflate their invoices, yes, and I will be the first to call them out as it makes the entire industry look bad.

Bottom line, the towing company did not cause the breakdown or crash, law enforcement has a duty to keep the highways open and towers have the job of doing just that. They have the same right to earn a reasonable return on investment as any other business. They also have the right to use safe, modern and efficient equipment to do so. They should not have to be stuck in the 70's with wore out mechanical wrecker booms just to keep your costs low.