The Jamie Davis Towing Discussion Thread

Yes Mike it is a hard business. It can be rewarding if you are in a good area, but if you have a lot of competition they can drag the rates down below profitable levels real quick. To anyone interested in the towing business I strongly recommend you go start part time working for an established tow company to see how you like it first. As a heavy driver with skills you can make some good money, again depending on your location. In NM our drivers made better than $80k, I know drivers in NY and FL making over $100k, average would be about $65 as a company employee.

How I got into the towing business? My father, rest in peace, was a heavy recovery specialist for the US Army in the late 60's. He volunteered for that job thinking it would keep him away from combat in Vietnam, he was wrong! They armed him with a small side arm and his assistant had a rifle, they were sent right to the front lines to rescue stuck tanks, vehicles, etc and support combat operations by providing field repairs. When he was injured and discharged he needed a civilian job and fell back onto what he knew, diesel mechanics and towing. After working for others for a few years he started his own shop in 1978, got into heavy towing in 1980, but was out of the business in 1984 when the Department of Interior National Park Service annexed the land now known as the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, his shop was at the north end of the park and relied heavily on truck traffic on US Route 209. He then got into asphalt paving and passed away 9 years ago.

I was always enamored by his stories and rode along with him in the tow trucks, grew up at the shop, and we have many family friends in the business. So at 16 I started driving a little wrecker towing junkers to the scrap yard. Funny side note, my baby brother's first car was a 1978 Ford F-350 with a wrecker body, he even took his first wife to prom in that! At 18 I became a father and needed a job quick so I went to work for the local school bus contractor as a diesel mechanic and driver. They had a heavy wrecker but no one to drive it, knew my dad and asked him to teach me how to drive it. This began my career with heavy wreckers. At 21 I bought my first wrecker although it didn't work out so by 23 I was working for an auction hauling cars. Again at 28 I started a tow company, that time it worked for several years before I tried to get too big too fast by purchasing a competitor, lost a half million dollars on that deal and almost lost my home and wife. I then managed a few companies throughout the US before settling full time into owning car haulers. Easier life although I miss the towing and still tow part time for an old family friend.

So short answer Mike, I was born into it, you can say it was a family tradition. My grandfather on my mom's side also was a tower in the 50's and 60's. Another interesting side note, my youngest daughter (now 19) was born on the front seat of my tow truck in 1996. I had her head and shoulders in my hands before the emts arrived to finish the delivery. We didn't have a personal car at the time, only the two trucks I owned. My wife drove one and I the other. I had just come hone from a call and she was in labor, we packed up the other two kids and headed for her parents to drop them off then the hospital which was 45 minutes away. She didn't make it, water broke about half hour from the hospital and my baby was born, made the news and everything.

P.S. The truck in my avatar was my dad's first heavy wrecker he owned, a 60 something Diamond Reo with a homemade wrecker body. I would drive that around the yard, move wrecks and broken trucks into the shop and was only 10 or 11 years old at the time.

 

Thank you for sharing that is a great story, I figured it's kind of a family thing, because it seems like one of those business that now a days would be to hard to start from the ground up especially with all the competition and it being a race to the bottom it doesn't seem like a great opportunity for an entrepreneur.

 

You can still start from nothing but it helps to have a complimentary business as well. A repair shop or collision center helps support the towing company during lean times. A lot of tow companies that don't have repair shops supplement their operations with specialized hauling, environmental cleanup services, storage of boats and rvs, etc. If you are in a city area you can make it on just towing but you will have to do more than just police work.

Many companies start with just one light duty truck doing wholesale work for motor clubs like AAA and towing for shops that don't have their own trucks. It is hard but not impossible to start on your own today, just more expensive. In 95 I bought both of my light duty wreckers for $15,000 cash and they were only 6 and 8 years old. In 2002 I bought a 2000 International two car carrier (rollback/flatbed) with only 80,000 miles on it for $30,000. Today, that same 2000 truck would sell for almost $20,000 and a new one would be around $90,000. The equipment is becoming cost prohibitive for startups.

 

Really the tv show over dramatizes how bad the road is. It's a good road if VSA keeps on top of clearing the road which they don't. I'll admit I've spun out on it with a poorly loaded b-train and 1 set of triples on. Got towed to the top by Gord from quiring. $400 later.

 

I've worked for "contractor companies" and it's not a good system, these contractor companies have to do the same work the government was doing with the exact same costs only they have to try and turn a profit and be somehow cheaper at it as well, with the exact same costs as far as vehicles, materials and stuff like that goes. It can't be done unless a corner is cut somewhere. VSA has to make money on that contract that means somewhere they have to cut a cost. Weather it's in pay, benefits or anything else they have to cut a cost to make that account profitable where as back when the government did it and I'm not one of these "The government is great and can do no wrong people." However I do feel to a certain extent that if the providence of Britsh Columbia owns the roads, then the providence of British Columbia should have there own people out there keeping on top of the road. They owe it to the tax payers, because I can garentee you the money they are saving with VSA hasn't done anything to make your taxes go down.

It's like privatized school bus fleets those always get a bad wrap because the only way they can do it cheaper then the school district is no benefits to drivers, less pay for drivers and cut costs on other things as well. Also the money they saved with privatizing the school buses I doubt has done anything serious to make taxes go down.

 

They claim there doing a great job blah blah blah. But another theory is without them also doing a crappy job on the maintence the tv show wouldn't have anything to tape.

I've done midnight moves at 17 wide up there in a snowstorm and had 3 plow trucks waiting to run me up the hill which was nice though.

 

Season 3 Episode 10 Collin is out in Alberta doing a tow job just him and like 5 trucks off the road all of them right side up mind you,but still off the road and I tell you what that guy was working his behind off, towing looks like it certainly can be a pretty physical job at times, all that pulling of the winch cable, all that running back and fourth and hooking up all that in and out of the cab, that's a lot of work and takes a lot to do all that especially like he was doing and he had 4-5 trucks to do or what ever at $400-$800 a throw, he probably made Jamie Davis towing $6,400 in revenue just in that 8 hour shift. That was just one guy and one truck that's good money, but you figure he's got big bills and big time overhead as well.

 

That's so true. Same goes with private prisons. There are some things you just can't privatize. If you follow the money, you'll see that the politicians promising savings to the taxpayers by privatizing some government function are just diverting the money to their buddies' pockets and receiving campaign contributions by those government contractors.

The service sucks, the taxpayer pays the same, and the workers get screwed by working for lower pay and fewer benefits. The only people who benefit are the CEOs and shareholders of those companies and the politicians they support.

(End rant)

 

Well to be fair most are... You know it's true every time you stop at the truck stop.

 

I tell you what guys towing is a cool thing to know how to do, if you just know how to do it, but unfortunately that's not how people learn and for me not being born into it and not wanting to go through the learning curve, it's probably nothing I would do, but it's a cool thing, it's just one of those things where you learn as you go over the years and pick up tricks.