DRIVERS, WHO ARE THEY
by
Richard Wolfe
Well it has been said that tow truck drivers are a dime a dozen, and I had a boss that when he heard that would always take a dollar out and ask for a bucks worth.
But are we really worth that little or are we worth more. We are the ones that have to decide that. How much of your life do you want to devote to this business. I know that it is most likely that you are on call most of the time, and that you have not much in the way of benefits, but maybe you work for a company that cares about you. If you do then you are doing good.
We are the people that the boss trusts with the expensive tow truck, and remember that it has a phone number on the side of it, so that people can call for help, or nowadays with all the cell phones out there, call and complain if you do something stupid. So maybe you realize that the truck is in all reality, a rolling billboard.
You are entrusted to promote the business by acting professionally, and being polite. You are expected to know what and how to tow or service all the cars that are out there on the road , and that means that you should have some mechanical background, or training. You should be able to read and write to prepare invoices, or follow directions. And of all the most important things, you should look professional and hopefully act it also.
Now the boss has a truck that hopefully is in good shape, and part of your job should be to keep it presentable and clean. You should have a uniform, and you should be proud of your job. After all where else can you be a hero one moment and a crook the other. Well not everyone is a crook, but in the eyes of the customer, you might be. After all, not everyone agrees with what we do.
Now for all you drivers that have the chance, are you taking training courses?. It does not matter if it is the home study course from the University of Georgia, or WreckMaster, or TRAA course, they all offer something that is important, as it helps you become a professional driver. And a professional driver is better paying in most places. You see that a certified mechanic is paid better, so the same should apply to the towing industry. You are the person that has to decide what your are worth. After all you have to live on what you make, so maybe you want a better wage than minimum wage.
All the business owners, should realize that the business wants to have the best drivers that they can have. That allows for better quality of service, lower damage claims (no damage free towing does not mean, you damage the vehicle for free), and mostly likely a lower turnover of employees. It takes money, and time to train a new driver, not to mention the risk that the driver might not like the long hours that most of us are working, and decide to move on.
Drivers it seems are a very mobile work force, we have a habit of changing jobs quite often. I am just as guilty as most other drivers, I changed my work place a lot in the early years. But I have settled down now and plan on staying where I am, unless some other factors come into the plans. I have a great boss and some good benefits. I am happy there. Now how many of you drivers have a good boss?. Lots of hands are going up I hope.
So drivers what do you want from you boss, do you want just a paycheck, benefits, or do you want respect, or do you just want to be unnoticed. In the real large companies, drivers are most likely just a number to the company owner, or a name. Will you be happy if you do not know your boss, or do you want to work for a smaller company where everyone knows everyone. Do you want to be a team player, or a loner that just does his job and that is it, or do you want to be the driver that no one likes. You are the one that decides who and what you are at work.
Now about the job, everyone knows that we have some long hours, and we work in the great outdoors, rain, snow, heat, mud, on freeways. Well you get the idea, but remember that we have our good side to the job, we get to help out people all the time, and in some cases we get to travel to other areas. I know of some heavy duty towing companies that seem to think nothing of going several states away, (and I am talking out west, not in the compact east coast). In these cases, I hope that the driver has a truck that is nice to drive as they might be in the truck for a couple of days at a time. What a way to see the United States, from the seat of a tow truck. It is almost like driving over the road tractors. (I have been there and done that, been in all 48 states)
Now bosses, what kind of employee do you want, that is important, because the choices that you make in hiring are the ones that you have to live with. Is the driver the one that you want, or is he someone (a warm body) to fill a shift that you have open. I have seen companies that want no experience, so that they can train them their way, and I see some that want experienced drivers. If you were a startup company or fairly new, would you want to train drivers?. I think not, but then if you are well established, then you might want to train drivers. After all we all had to learn somewhere, some of us had the hard knocks school method.
Heavy duty towing is another area that you might not want to have a rookie, unless you can afford to send out two drivers on calls for a while. Truck wrecks are always a learning experience, along with vehicle recovery. Straight and plain towing of cars and trucks is something that is easy to master (I hope it is). But each accident is different, and the same applies to recoveries.
So do you offer hands on training, or just point at the truck, and say " FETCH ". With a trained driver you might be able to do it, but a new driver, well that is harder. I had the " Fetch method " used on my first heavy duty tow, Someone drove and I hooked it. And it was a set of doubles!!!!. Talk about scared.
Every company has its own ideas of what it wants in a driver, and the same applies for drivers, they know what they want from a company. So maybe when you are looking for employees you might be able to match what each of you want. Who knows, it could be the match made in heaven!!!
If that's not true, then get out the buck, you will have 120 drivers to chose from!!!!!.
