Impaled in Jersey

Closing Lanes for Recovery Safety

By Randall C. Resch​​

In May 2019, a suicidal jumper threatened to end his life by jumping from a bridge into lanes of California’s SR-99. A CHP spokesperson told FOX40 News: "He could have landed on top of a vehicle which could have hurt somebody else.”

It took ten-hours of negotiation by a CHP officer (who knew the subject) to talk this person into surrendering.

The Sacramento Bee posted a tweet by the CHP saying, “The California Highway Patrol recognizes this closure has caused a significant inconvenience for countless motorists, but the safety of the suicidal person, the officers at the scene, and the motoring public who travel on State Route 99 daily is our foremost concern.”

To Law Enforcement and Traffic Incident Management, I pose this question: if highway traffic is slowed or re-routed for visiting dignitaries, police activity, loose animals, suicidal jumpers, or whatever other reasons, why doesn’t protocol allow for traffic stoppage and blockage for tow operators working critical incidents and accidents?

In another scenario, an experienced carrier operator responded to an upside-down vehicle against a K-Rail where no shoulders existed. The operator advised the CHP officer of his recovery plan by asking that traffic in adjacent lanes be slowed so he could best position the carrier to perform the roll. The officer firmly replied, “No.”

Initiating Plan B, the operator uprighted and loaded the casualty onto the carrier’s deck while working precariously close to moving traffic, endangering himself and others.

California leads the industry with 52-operator fatalities because there’s limited policy in providing traffic breaks or lane closures for towing and recovery. The practice of total blocking for quick-clear provides a much needed safety advantage to lessen a repeated slaughter of tow operators everywhere. I don’t accept that a tow operator’s life, or that of any first responder is any less valuable than someone experiencing unfortunate issues, especially when skilled, highly trained and motivated tow operators can clear highway lanes quickly. Simple math calculates that nine-hours and fifty-minutes would have been saved when compared to the jumper scenario.

Controlling Costs in 2021

By Brian J Riker

I have no doubt that 2020 was a difficult year for many tow bosses around the world. With travel disrupted and only essential services being provided for more than half the year it was anything but business as usual. What is in store for 2021 is yet to be seen; however, the prudent business owner will be cautiously optimistic as they enter the unknown.

Not all towers had terrible years. The heavy-duty market was only off a little for last year, light duty was down significantly in most parts of the US as was road service, but towers that were diversified into other transportation segments or provided a wide range of services found room for growth in 2020. Several towers even added entirely new service offerings to their operation to leverage the surplus labor they had available rather than furloughing these employees. To those towers I extend a hearty thank you for looking out for your team.

Regardless of the year you had, one thing that is always important is controlling costs. Several towers I have spoken with have noticed a reduction in call volume and gross revenue yet they have been able to maintain the same operating margin as last year or even slightly improve their margin. The one thing they all have had in common is a focus on controlling costs. All businesses need to periodically review their expenses and reevaluate the return on investment they get from each line item in their budget.

You do have a budget, right? If not, now is the time to learn to develop a budget as a tool for business survival. A budget does not need to be complex, just realistic, based on your actual experience as a company. Budgets are quite liberating once you have a good grasp on how they work. They don’t restrict you from spending but instead give you the freedom and peace of mind to spend on a plan without regret or guilt.

When deciding which costs to cut and which to increase for 2021, the prudent tow boss will look at the data available for the past several years, not just 2020, since last year was an anomaly. Knowing your actual cost of operation, in near real time, helps you decide what work is worth accepting and keeps you from undercutting your profitability just to keep busy.

There are several areas you should not skimp on in the name of cost control. Number one is payroll since a good operator is hard to find, expensive to hire and train, and will make you much more than they cost you. Don’t cut hours just for the sake of cutting hours - do your best to keep key personnel at or near their normal earnings. If you must reduce hours or staff, I suggest making your cuts on facts instead of emotions. The most expensive employee may not be the one with the highest pay rate but instead the one with the worst safety record or the most damages. Similarly, the best employee to keep may not be the most senior but rather the most versatile member of the team. Look deep at all factors when deciding to layoff employees.

Insurance is another area that needs to be examined but not skimped on. It is always a good idea to shop your policy before renewal each year but be sure you are comparing apples to apples. Always make sure your policy provides enough coverage that you will survive a catastrophic loss. It does you no good to have a lower insurance premium if you can’t afford to cover the losses not included in the cheaper policy. Higher deductibles are a popular way of reducing premium if you have enough cash on hand to cover the higher exposure.

Examine equipment maintenance and replacement cycles closely. Just because the budget is tight it may not make sense to extend the replacement cycle on your equipment if the cost of the additional maintenance will outweigh the costs of replacing something. Consider reducing fleet size, or perhaps exchanging one type of equipment for another - especially when adding or revamping service offerings. Maybe you can do better with a few less pieces of spare or support equipment. Does it make sense to exchange some of your traditional fleet for something new like a roll off container chassis or dump truck?

You may even be able to use equipment purchases to offset tax liabilities which will have a bigger impact on your overall financial health than simply cutting out a truck payment from the budget. Consult with your tax or financial advisor to learn what makes sense for your specific situation.

Safety pays. Please don’t stop training your team. It is more important now than ever before to have safe and competent operators on the roadway, technicians in the shop and the best resources to keep them out of harm’s way whenever possible.

Lastly, now is not the time to skimp on advertising or marketing budgets. The customers are out there if you are creative enough to find them. It may be a good time to reevaluate the services you offer and cut unprofitable services or adjust rates before you cut advertising from your budget. It is the time to reevaluate how you spend your advertising dollars, that old yellow page ad just isn’t cutting it anymore, so be wise with how you spend your limited resources.

Safety Policy: No Disconnecting Linkages

By Randall C. Resch

FACT: For tow operators, disconnecting linkages is a scary and dangerous process. It’s one of several techniques in shifting transmissions for tow or load.

In back-to-back incidents, an operator was killed on New Year's Eve Day, 2019, and another, critically injured the day after. In both scenarios news accounts and investigator statements alleged that towers were working to disconnect linkages when "something happened." The industry has experienced countless operator fatalities and injuries as a result of vehicles attempting to shift to neutral.

In the carrier incident dated, January 2, 2020, the tower’s company responded with a statement: "He got inside of it and set the emergency brake and tried to get the disabled vehicle off the truck. Then he made a mistake and popped the shifter-cable off; the emergency brake didn't hold and the vehicle kind of rolled over the top of him." The carrier’s operator was reported to have been 19-years-old, which begs the question - how much carrier training or in-house training did he receive prior to being released for field work?

Does Policy Exist?

Does your company have written guidelines regarding disconnecting (transmission) linkages? When it comes to topic specific wording of your company’s safety requirements, does your company discuss the dangerous practice of disconnecting car linkages?

For my company, my Policy and Procedure Manual states, "Light-duty operators will not go under a vehicle to disconnect linkages for any reason." In most cases, a tower lays on their back to shimmy under a vehicle to disconnect a linkage. These are dangerous practices that lead to vehicle’s rocking-out of the wheel-lift and dropping onto the operator, even if jack-stands and chock-blocks are in place.

Regarding the New Year’s Eve fatality, the 18-year veteran operator was said to have been killed by "mechanical asphyxiation,” in which the tow truck possibly rolled backwards on-top of him, or was caused by other factors such as no E-brake or a transmission left in reverse.

No matter what the direct cause, lying under raised vehicles is a dangerous practice. My policy is a specific safety requirement to ensure tow operators aren’t injured or killed by accidental mishap.

Choose Proper Equipment

There are options for loading and hooking-up vehicles where disconnecting linkages isn't necessary. Go-Jacks, dollies, chock-blocks, even soapy water are the best items and alternative techniques that don't require crawling or lying under raised vehicles. These items add a level of safety topside, but must be used in accordance to manufacturer's standards. Accordingly, because of injury or fatality possibility, adding go-jacks or dollies to the tow/load scenarios are a "Charge-able" process and one you should be paid for.

The use of special equipment added to any job’s invoice is justified. Using special equipment necessitates the club/member/customer to pay for a higher level of safety assurance to tow operators and prevents them from going under lifted vehicles. By including go-jacks, skates and dollies, it prevents claims that the tow company inflicted damage to a vehicle's transmission.

At the time the call is received, the customer, insurance company and motor clubs should be told this up-front especially when no keys are available. If a vehicle's transmission has shift-override that can be manipulated from the vehicle's topside interior, obviously special equipment isn’t required.

I recommend that your company's employee handbook include a requirement prohibiting tow operators from disconnecting transmissions or linkages from the undersides of a lifted vehicle or one being loaded onto a carrier. If the vehicle cannot or doesn’t go into neutral, other techniques should be employed.

I recommend that safety meetings cover this topic to ensure your towers are properly trained when confronted with these situations. If this same scenario happened to one of your tow operators, would your company’s rules and training records document that these topics were covered? Waiting for an accidental injury or fatality to occur isn’t proactive. Be sure your company’s rules and regulations address this dangerous, yet preventable practice.