Giving Thanks For What We Have

This month I traveled to India and had a glimpse of other tow truck operators performing the same services we provide on the other side of the world. The differences were clear; their equipment is beaten and battered. The technology is old British equipment. The streets are broken and partially washed out due to insufficient maintenance and extreme weather conditions. The life of a tow truck operator in India is significantly different from the U.S.

The average working wage in India is less than $3 per day (U.S dollars). A driver in the United States will likely make up to 40 times more than a tow truck operator in India. While it is true that some of the operating expenses in India are lower as a result of a lower cost of living, Indians pay almost double the U.S. price for fuel. Currently, their average price for gasoline is $4.63 per gallon.

Thanks to the extremely high price of gas combined with low wages of available jobs, many Indians can not afford to drive vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Most local deliveries of goods and merchandise are still performed by animals. Horses, donkeys, oxen, and elephants are routinely driven down the city streets, sharing the road with cars and trucks. When one of these carts breaks down it is assuredly not a tow truck that will show up to rescue the disabled vehicle.

Although, that does not mean there is a shortage of business for tow trucks. India is a hot country with mountainous terrain and heavy rainfall. That combination is cause for vehicles to be overworked and overheated, in addition to the dangerous driving conditions that can lead to accidents. The need for towing services in these conditions is inevitable.

Indian drivers are unlike any other in the world. To an American, their traffic system appears to be complete chaos. It is a free-for-all. Drivers share the road without regard for lanes, turn signals, traffic lights, or even oncoming traffic. There is virtually no existing traffic enforcement in most parts of the country. Their most used safety feature is their horn. TIME Magazine calls it “India’s Great Wall of Sound”. Whenever a vehicle approaches an intersection, passes a truck, intends to move, merge, accelerate, brake, or just warn someone they lay on their horn. One noticeable advantage of their traffic system is that they are able to move quickly from one point to another very quickly in heavy traffic. The down side is that it is dangerous. Near misses in city traffic are are common, most vehicles coming within inches of each other at every intersection.

Of even greater concern are the poorly secured loads. These types of trucks are the primary means of logistics for goods around the country. The cargo trucks are loaded beyond their maximum capacity and marched down the highway to reach their destination as quickly as possible. Often the load protrudes the cargo area and is loaded unevenly, causing the vehicle to lean to one side. This Tata truck has obviously been overloaded on the drivers side, which would be a guaranteed traffic ticket in the U.S. and could end in disaster.

Those that can not afford to hire a delivery truck will transport their goods by any means available. Since traffic enforcement is not an issue, delivery drivers are free to pack as many goods into their vehicle as they can fit, without any method of securing the load. They also run the risk of operating a slow moving vehicle on a busy highway or in crowded city streets, which does not appear to bother them.

Because of the expense, many vehicle are not well maintained and can cause problems in traffic. Breakdowns are common, and many vehicles are pushed off highways by hand and are repaired while blocking a lane or on the shoulder. Road conditions are no help to the drivers. Many roads are made of dirt and most paved roads are riddled with potholes and cracking. It does not take long for the trucks to start to look like the roads. Trucks can only take a certain amount of abuse before their parts start to fail.

The same is true for tow trucks. A well maintained tow truck is less likely to fail during a critical situation. At Airport Towing, we pride ourselves on our well maintained equipment and do everything possible to prevent any type of mechanical failure on an incident scene. Unfortunately, there are those who will keep pulling with their unit until something finally gives way and breaks. Though some of these operators exist in the U.S., there are many more who are working with substandard equipment in third world countries across the globe.

In any industry, it is easily noticeable when a company takes care of their equipment. A company that displays good public image is easy to see, yet rarely praised for their efforts. One of the benefits of displaying professionalism is the positive image that reflects on the industry as a whole. Operating a clean and professional towing operation in India must be one of the greatest challenges of any profession in the country. Few are up to the task. For those that put forth the effort, we would like to express our gratitude. Indian tow truck operators have to work in dirty conditions and 100+ degree heat almost year round. We are thankful for their efforts and grateful that we have been blessed with a great opportunity to operate a successful towing company in the United States of America. During this season of Thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for.

Hooked on Super Heavy Duty School

Three members of Airport Towing’s heavy recovery team participated in Super Heavy Duty Recovery School last month in Wenatchee, Washington. The classes were put on by the Towing & Recovery Association of Washington and hosted locally by Randy’s Towing. The Super Heavy Duty Certification earned by these heavy operators represents the highest level of achievement offered by TRAW.

Though many towing companies believe the only education a driver needs is experience (OJT), Airport Towing and other members of the Washington State Association believe differently. Clearly, there is no substitute for training. Participants are able to work in a controlled environment, and can take the time to work through scenarios, luxuries they do not have when on the scene of real working incidents.

TRAW’s Super Heavy Duty class includes classroom time and a final written exam, but the emphasis of the class is clearly geared toward hands-on training. Instructors work hard to stage large donated trucks, trailers, containers, and equipment in difficult geographical locations designed to challenge the tow operators. Throughout the class, the recoveries progress from simple winch-outs to basic tractor-trailer roll-overs, then on to more complicated situations.

Not only were students challenged with recovering heavy trucks that were thrown into the most precarious situations, but they were also given the realistic scenario of working through the night. Responding to accident recoveries in the middle of the night is nothing new to a tow truck operator, so the instructors decided to add the challenge of working in the dark during early morning hours without giving prior notice. The task was to recover a rolled over cement mixer, down an embankment, and off the main road. Through auxiliary lighting and careful rigging, the crew was able to safely recover the disabled vehicle.

Another scenario students were faced with  was to retrieve a heavy excavator, buried thoroughly in the mud to the point where the wheels were no longer visible. The class was broken up into two teams and students were asked to come up with a recovery plan that would get the job done most efficiently. Participants were given an opportunity to think on their feet, work in teams, and understand the limits of their equipment. From the working limit of the chain to the snatch block, the boom, cable, straps, shackles, and all other equipment must be considered when working a heavy recovery incident.

Students at Airport Towing observed that the value of working together as a team was the single most important lesson learned while working a heavy recovery incident. Their opportunity to train together helped the trio gain confidence in each other, which will increase efficiency while working together during real emergency operations. Just as any emergency scene responder has come to expect, tow truck operators must work quickly and in unison to be able to best serve the motoring public. Incidents need to be quickly analyzed and a plan for recovery operations must be implemented in a short period of time. This is especially true when heavy duty tow trucks are called on scene. Experience at work and training opportunities such as TRAW’s Super Heavy Tow School are the only way to prepare for such situations.

The location for the four day school and recovery class was at the Chelan County Fire District 1 training grounds. Fire departments are known for their level of expertise, directly related to their relentless training. Professional towing operators would love to have as much training as firefighters, but because towing is privately funded it is difficult to receive funding for training programs. Operators that donate equipment and drivers to these classes take a loss while their businesses operate short-handed.

This year TRAW was able to gain the support of 14 students who participated in the class and several instructors who were willing to volunteer their time for the benefit of the towing and recovery industry. Attending students came from all around the northwest to enhance their working knowledge of operating heavy equipment. Participating companies sending students included Airport Towing, Willette’s Towing, Pro Tow, Ron May Towing, Lakewood Towing, Randy’s Towing, Bethel Towing.

In addition to time and personnel donated to the super heavy duty class, several pieces of equipment were also donated to be used at the training facility. Airport Towing, as well as 3 other companies from Washington State sent heavy duty tow trucks to the Super Heavy Duty class, including Randy’s Towing of Wenatchee, Bethel Towing of Port Orchard, and Lakewood Towing near Tacoma. Randy’s Towing also provided a medium duty tow truck; George Washington Towing volunteered equipment transportation via a lowboy, and Nelson Truck volunteered the use of a new flatbed tow truck with side pull capabilities. Class instructors from TRAW included Rich Steele of Lincoln Towing, Keith Lewis of Pro Tow, Kurt Gillard of George Washington Towing, and Mike & Joanne Walcker. Visiting instructors from California were Bob Berry and Steve Cardineli.

Overall, the 2009 TRAW Super Heavy Duty Recovery School was a huge success thanks to the participation from regional towing companies, eager tow truck operators, and dedicated instructors. These participants are proud improve their professionalism and lead the way in our state’s towing and recovery operations.

Lumber Recovery on I-5: No Job Too Big

When other towing companies from the Seattle-Tacoma area refused to accept the job of cleaning up debris from a major accident scene Friday night, crews from Airport Towing went to work.

Heavy duty tow trucks were called to an accident scene on I-5 in SeaTac this weekend that involved an overturned semi truck and a 53 foot long trailer full of milled alder. The tow truck operators were unable to upright the truck with the load attached, so they cut it loose and abandoned it in the median. The off ramp was shut down until DOT crews could push the loose materials out of the roadway with a frontloader and the truck was hauled away. After one lane was reopened, the insurance agent on scene of the major incident was told she had to find someone who could finish the job.

With thousands of board feet of lumber on the ground, she called Airport Towing to finish the job other companies refused to do. Trucks were dispatched to the scene immediately and Airport Towing made a quick assessment of what equipment would be needed to handle the complicated task. One heavy duty tow truck responded immediately along with a large 3 axle carrier and a forklift. Other equipment used was a second flatbed, an additional forklift, two tow trucks for traffic control, and nine personnell.

What made the job increasingly complicated was most of the stacks of lumber had broken apart and were loose on the ground. All but three bundles had to be carried by hand out of the median and up to the pavement where they were neatly restacked and lifted by forklift onto flatbed tow trucks. The three surviving bundles were only half broken apart and were able to be lifted by a large wrecker. Specialized recovery straps were used to choke the load together and bring it up onto the roadway as individual sections.

The load recovery was so labor intensive it required 83 man hours of labor with a total on scene time of over 12 hours. Crews from Airport Towing are confident that if they had been given the opportunity to manage the accident recovery from the beginning, the load could have been manipulated or the truck uprighted in a way that would have cut down on the efforts that followed to recover the load.

DOT crews praised Airport Towing for their efforts on scene as they worked through the night and into the next morning. “You guys do good work,” stated a DOT worker on scene at the time of the incident recovery. Airport Towing once again proved themselves capable of handling large and complicated emergency incidents and  made sure to continue working on scene until all lumber and debris were completely recovered.