Anybody here with experience running a tow service/lot? Maybe do a mix of repo, AAA contract and private tow/rescue stuff. Seems that's a potential goldmine, but I can see it coming with more than its fair share of tear-your-hair-out hassles.
I'm actually curious about this for my own purposes - I can see it as a "retirement" business (since I don't expect I'll ever be able to actually retire). Maybe it's just because I've always had an odd desire to own a rollback...
Alex, my only experience with towing was 2 weeks training with a tow company in college...years ago.
It's a shady industry, in my limited experience. The drivers were pretty much like private contractors driving company equipment. Their cut was 25% of whatever the company took in. They had no benefits (best I could tell, but I didn't care at the time), were ALWAYS on call, and did stuff like wash the truck on their own dime. It was a lifestyle...and not one with which I was particularly enthralled.
As a college student...when they said I was done training and it was time to go get my DOT physical/drug test I said, "OK...where do I go to do that?" The response was, "wherever you want, it's on you." I just said forget it. They probably thought I was on drugs...
I've had ideas of doing non-emergency "transport" with a roll back or such and just avoiding the whole cut throat "recovery" type business. Not sure how plausible that may be.
Towing is one of those businesses that needs commercial real estate...or at least real estate where you can legally have a storage lot (It is required in MO, I believe...but could be remembering incorrectly).
Looking back...it was probably a pretty good deal for the folks who owned the business (but they didn't live like royalty, that was evident).
Clem
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