To All Those Who May Find Themselves Needing Roadside Assistance This Summer

As you jet out across the country, across the state or across your town you’ll want to be prepared. So grab you sunscreen, check your oil and the pressure in your tires and forget about your job for a couple of days.

Summer trips are a time to relax and enjoy friends and family. And while you’re out there having fun if you happen to find yourself in need of assistance roadside I’ll be there to help.

Hi, my name’s Don and I’m in the towing business.

While you’re behind the wheel cruising at 80+ MPH–down every major thoroughfare in the country– me and guys just like me are available to lend you a hand…should there be any problems. We’re kinda like the mail…always showing up through good times and bad (mostly bad). Through rain, sleet, snow and dark, we’re always available. But just like the mail we’re severely under-appreciated. When was the last time you thanked your mailman?

Anyway I’d like to take this opportunity to point out just a few of the challenges that me and my fellow towers face every day so that you may come to appreciate the services we provide.

To begin with: how did we get to be the bad guys? I don’t know about everyone else in the towing business but I signed up to ride in on the white horse, not to be looked down upon as someone whose aim is to take advantage of those in need. My idea was to make a decent living while saving stranded motorists, assisting law enforcement, and clearing the roadways. But due to circumstances beyond my control towers are portrayed as less than scrupulous.

Oh yeah y’all love us in the middle of the night when we’re summoned to pull drunks out of ditches and yank wrecks out of the middle of the road. But come day-break we’re cast as price gougers and vultures.  Sun-sobered and no-longer-stuck motorists, having satiated their need for our services, are now less willing to pay a reasonable rate and complain– to all who’ll listen– about how they were fleeced. But the reality is our rates are less than that of your plumber, the HVAC repairmen, and the Geeks who work on your computer. And they don’t have to fend off interstate traffic 2 inches from their heads while changing a tire at 4AM.

We get you out of bad, potentially life threating situations every time we’re called– but were not allowed to charge reasonable rates for our services? Whose Idea was this?

And rather than pay those reasonable rates you call your motor clubs…Your Roadside Assistance—It’s the number you use to get “free towing”. We are constantly misled by these people as they scramble to find anyone within a 200 mile radius willing to accept the pittance they pay to service you. Motor club dispatchers plead with us to go out of our way to provide you outstanding service with the promise that “All added costs will be covered” but when the time comes to submit the invoice to receive the payment and get our due– we’re shot down.

Denied…our requests for reasonable and adequate compensation are rejected, obliging us to wait on hold and beg for the money owed or call back between the hours of 10:00AM And 2:00PM to again wait on hold. Maybe that’s why it takes so long to get a tow truck through Roadside.

And take a look at those who run your Cities, counties and other municipalities. Strapped for cash and unable to kick the revenue habit they hinder our ability to ensure your safety. They demand 24 hour, round the clock service at a moment’s notice but require that we operate at rates no sane business person can manage…Forcing good men to remain on the side-lines or bend the rules, sell trucks and fire good drivers.

And while we’re on the topic of drivers– The drivers we can afford to hire to do the work you require at rates we’re allowed to charge want only to do that work when it’s convenient for them…besides they can’t work over 29 hours a week due to Obamacare. So please–Next time you have an accident or breakdown roadside– do it between the hours of 8:00AM and 4:00Pm, on a weekday, so as not to cut into their family time or time on the river.

Other than that have a great summer and be careful out there.