The Jamie Davis Towing Discussion Thread

Mike, the life expectancy of tow trucks vary depending on the type of service they are used in and the location. As for new vs. used, a lot of police and highway contracts specify a minimum number, type, and age of trucks so the towing outfits may buy some 2 or 3 year old trucks just to qualify for a spot on the call list and then cycle these trucks out as needed to keep in compliance with the terms of the contract.

Example, Albuquerque NM requires a class A&B (light duty) company to have at least 3 trucks, one which must be a wrecker and they must be less than 10 years old. For medium and heavy duty they require at least two wreckers with a 25 ton or higher rating, no age restriction. Other ciies with bigger contracts or less competition (there are 28-30 light duty police qualified towers in Albuquerque) may require more trucks to effectively service the volume.

A well maintained lifht duty truck can last 10 years or more and still have value for the junk haulers, a heavy can last 20 or more years if it is not abused. It is common to remount the body on a new chassis once then replace the whole teuck on the next cycle, that is what I always did, 2 new chassis for every body, much cheaper that way.

 

I don't understand how Jamie goes thru so many different
Operators and how he lost so much business.
Everybody seems to be always complaining about money,
Including Jamie.
The first couple years they had the show all to themselves,
He had to be getting some money from the TV networks.
He should have cornered the market on that whole
Mountain by now.
Unless they done the show for free. I don't think he's that stupid.

 

Do not forget the work only last as long as the winter wheather.

 

You got to think too with the price of oil tanking back in late '14 a lot of work dried up. And I mean a lot. Unemployment rates went sky high in Alberta. I think Jamie took a gamble on expanding to Alberta at the wrong time. His expansion into Alberta was almost too fast.

 

How long does winter last up there.

 

Ten months winter, two months bad sledding.

 

Its too flat for good sledding. Gotta head to BC for that.

Besides I wouldn't exactly call it winter. -37C last week to +1C today lol.

 

How much is that in real money?

 

First, as said below the work is seasonal so Jamie has to lay off most of his help and many don't want to do it again next year so he goes thru a bunch of guys that way. Even in towing companies that are busy year round we have a lot of turnover, most people think it is an easy job but the demands of being on call 24/7, giving up family events and holidays is a lot for the average person to adapt to. I think the towing industry turn over has to be higher than truckload carriers, for every 20 drivers I hired and trained maybe 1 was still towing with my company a year later, and out of those 20 maybe only 5 were still in the towing industry at all.

As for the business, Jamie was quoted in an interview as saying he wishes he never did the tv show, since it went on the air a dozen of so companies have popped up on the Coq, splitting up the workload and driving the rates down. He isn't the only one feeling the pinch, Quiring is as well, towing is a very cut throat business. Once some other operators saw how good he had it on the hill they moved in to get their piece of the pie. That, combined with very bad timing in Alberta (as NorthernMechanic said) really hurt his cash reserves. Sadly, once desperation sets in and you step down in equipment it is hard to maintain the level of service your customers had come to expect so they start looking for other vendors, it becomes a viscous spiral to the bottom. Right now I think he is only still doing the tv show for the extra money it brings in. Look at what Ice Road Truckers did to the ice road drivers, now the companies are flooded each year with wannabees, so eventually the trucking companies will start paying less since so many drivers want to give it a shot.

 

Basically around minus 34 to plus 34 Fahrenheit