I’ve noticed that I have never seen a heavy wrecker in my town. If I acquired one of these wreckers, after college when I’m to strike out on my own (well, with some family help,) maybe I could fill a void in the service economy here.
There’s no truck-stop here, although there are plenty of companies that use commercial trucks. I’d assume that the operator of a heavy wrecker would primarily be responding to calls out on the highway, not local stuff, but there’s no reason why a heavy truck couldn’t also be used to tow regular cars and trucks.
Are these heavy wreckers ever operated by independent owners, rather than a towing company with a fleet of them? Would an independent owner-operator be pushed out of business by larger companies?
My mechanic used to do this as a sideline to his repair/inspection business. He works alone. It got to the point where he had no time for his main business so he gave it up. The State Police would always use him for everything, and there are major trucking routes around here, so plenty of work.
Another problem he had was having to impound certain vehicles until the cops cleared the case. His yard was only so big and there were also some insurance issues.
A few things you need to consider: How are you planning to receive calls? Will you have to hire a dispatcher? Were you going to have the people who needed a tow call you directly or contract your services through garages? If you’re not connected to a garage, where are you going to tow people to? What hours will you be available and what will your potential customers do when you’re closed?
First step is to build a Business Plan. Outlining cost of equipment, how to pay for it, interest payments on loan(S), how you obtain jobs, what you do with a wreck, etc.
A great dream that could easily become real or a nightmare if not thoroughly researched and planed out with complete details.
This area is serviced by individual owned companies. One of them has the license to do the lucrative interstate haul aways. A neighbor has one a garage and towing business. A lot of his towing are people that have him do the repair work. He used to do more towing when younger, and he had to tow anytime the accidents happened. He doesn’t go out on the night calls anymore usually and he doesn’t pull in the interstate accidents. You can definitely make a living on towing, if the area has traffic you need.
Yeah, I worked with a guy who did towing and repo for a very long time - he said it was always a dangerous job, and I can see why. Repo more than towing, though.
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