Are “YOU” a Rip-Off?
Some ten years ago I saw a need for a pricing system that would be fair to customers and towers alike. I copyrighted this system and my reason was very simple. It was a service that needed to be provided to the towers of the industry in its pure form...at NO charge. One of our main goals since the inception of “price per pound” has been to keep this system free, and not just have it become a means of profit for Stormin’s, Inc. Years ago I saw good people being reduced to dishonesty by trying to bring their recovery bills up to where they needed to be to break even. What do I mean by “...reduced to dishonesty...?” I mean there were good, honest people trying to put food on their table that knew they needed $6,000, $7,000, or $8000 for a rollover to pay for equipment and insurance. They may have just spent a bunch of money on a big hydraulic...maybe they had just received training from Donnie Cruse at Wreck Master or Mark Anderson or Tom Lucianno & Joe Sroga . Unfortunately, the better these towers got at their trade and the more expensive equipment they bought, the faster they became at doing their job which meant the less they got paid. So, these towers looked at what some of the other towers were doing and figured...we’ll just do the old west thing and circle the wagons; put six trucks, 29 people, three horses, and a mule around the recovery. We’ll charge for everything. Matter of fact, let’s charge by the chain, charge by the foot of the cable, and charge by the snatch block. Let’s just take every piece of equipment we have and dump it on the ground and start charging for it. You can imagine how you would feel if you took your car or truck into the local shop and they dumped all their tools out and said, “okay, we’re going to add all of these up, the number of mechanics we use, the number of Snap-On tool boxes, and everything we can find will be listed on your bill.” Wouldn’t that feel like “bending over” instead of bending over backwards?
From the desire to get paid for being good at our trade and to be paid for the “job”...not for what it took to do that job, “price per pound” was born. Over the period of years we have modified it until it reached the point where it covered most of the contingencies. We not only needed to be fair to us, but we needed to be fair to our customers as well. Keep in mind, “fair” is a two-way street. Please, please...do not misconstrue “fair” with “giving” your work away. Some towers brag about how little they charge while, on the other hand, they are stealing from their employees by paying them under the table as independent contractors - which is about as legal and dishonest as holding up your local liquor store.
Recently, it has come to my attention, that people are taking the “price per pound” charging system and gouging customers with it. In fact, I have a copy of an invoice on my desk at this moment that has me hopping mad!! I don’t know what you call it but when I’m looking at a bill for $30,000+ for a tractor trailer stuck on the side of the road after pulling over to receive a speeding ticket. I get upset. This trucker was billed for travel within 50 miles, for inclimate weather - on a sunny day no less - and for 50 mph damage recovery. I guess he slammed on his brakes when the blue lights started flashing. This makes my blood boil!! I would hope that each of you towers would have enough guts to stand up and call a spade a spade. When you see an organization, an individual, or a towing company ripping people off with a system that was designed to be fair to both customers and towers alike, you should stand up and say, “Enough is enough! I don’t agree with it and you should tone this down.” By the way, the tower did add that if the customer paid w/in 10 days the bill would only be $8000 or something like that. $8000 to winch a tractor trailer off the side of the road where it only sat down after stopping?? Get real! Why can’t we take a good system and use it to our advantage without ripping people off? Why do you think people got so upset when we circled the wagons? They knew they were getting charged for something that was NOT legitimate. Do you think these people are stupid?! Do we have to use this system in a manner that will rip people off and further their mistrust of our industry? If you think I’m mad, you’re right! There is a copy of the official “price per pound” on our website and we are in the process of designing a “price per pound” calculator for our web site (www.stormins.com) that will be free for any tower to use. However, I have a very real problem with someone taking a good thing and twisting it into a price gouging machine. We have worked too hard as an industry to let a few money hungry individuals misrepresent a fair system.
Part of the reason for charging by the pound in the first place is that trucking companies understand poundage. That’s why it works better for trucks than cars. A guy driving a car doesn’t know what his car weighs, and he doesn’t care. Charge them a price they can understand. Also, we need to avoid making this system too complicated. Remember the “K.I.S.S.” principle... “Keep it simple stupid.” We’re not accident recovery investigators. We’re recovery people. What difference for towing does it make how fast the guy was going? We need to be busy recovering that vehicle not trying to figure out how fast he was going when he wrecked. We don’t need to be interfering with law enforcement any more than they need to be telling us how to recover a vehicle. I’ve seen wrecks where a guy was going fast with minimal damage, and I’ve also seen wrecks where low speed resulted in major damage. Let’s get back to real recoveries, and get our heads out of the clouds. Let’s treat ourselves and our customers fairly. When you see someone trying to take advantage of a good system, distorting it, or ripping it off...stand up and say, “enough is enough.” If they can’t do any better than that maybe they should go buy a garbage truck and start hauling garbage. Remember, if we can’t police ourselves, I’m sure the government would be happy to do it for us.
(reprinted from Stormin's website for use in PPP history - discussions)
http://stormins.com/Community/PricePerPound/tabid/267/Default.aspx
Some ten years ago I saw a need for a pricing system that would be fair to customers and towers alike. I copyrighted this system and my reason was very simple. It was a service that needed to be provided to the towers of the industry in its pure form...at NO charge. One of our main goals since the inception of “price per pound” has been to keep this system free, and not just have it become a means of profit for Stormin’s, Inc. Years ago I saw good people being reduced to dishonesty by trying to bring their recovery bills up to where they needed to be to break even. What do I mean by “...reduced to dishonesty...?” I mean there were good, honest people trying to put food on their table that knew they needed $6,000, $7,000, or $8000 for a rollover to pay for equipment and insurance. They may have just spent a bunch of money on a big hydraulic...maybe they had just received training from Donnie Cruse at Wreck Master or Mark Anderson or Tom Lucianno & Joe Sroga . Unfortunately, the better these towers got at their trade and the more expensive equipment they bought, the faster they became at doing their job which meant the less they got paid. So, these towers looked at what some of the other towers were doing and figured...we’ll just do the old west thing and circle the wagons; put six trucks, 29 people, three horses, and a mule around the recovery. We’ll charge for everything. Matter of fact, let’s charge by the chain, charge by the foot of the cable, and charge by the snatch block. Let’s just take every piece of equipment we have and dump it on the ground and start charging for it. You can imagine how you would feel if you took your car or truck into the local shop and they dumped all their tools out and said, “okay, we’re going to add all of these up, the number of mechanics we use, the number of Snap-On tool boxes, and everything we can find will be listed on your bill.” Wouldn’t that feel like “bending over” instead of bending over backwards?
From the desire to get paid for being good at our trade and to be paid for the “job”...not for what it took to do that job, “price per pound” was born. Over the period of years we have modified it until it reached the point where it covered most of the contingencies. We not only needed to be fair to us, but we needed to be fair to our customers as well. Keep in mind, “fair” is a two-way street. Please, please...do not misconstrue “fair” with “giving” your work away. Some towers brag about how little they charge while, on the other hand, they are stealing from their employees by paying them under the table as independent contractors - which is about as legal and dishonest as holding up your local liquor store.
Recently, it has come to my attention, that people are taking the “price per pound” charging system and gouging customers with it. In fact, I have a copy of an invoice on my desk at this moment that has me hopping mad!! I don’t know what you call it but when I’m looking at a bill for $30,000+ for a tractor trailer stuck on the side of the road after pulling over to receive a speeding ticket. I get upset. This trucker was billed for travel within 50 miles, for inclimate weather - on a sunny day no less - and for 50 mph damage recovery. I guess he slammed on his brakes when the blue lights started flashing. This makes my blood boil!! I would hope that each of you towers would have enough guts to stand up and call a spade a spade. When you see an organization, an individual, or a towing company ripping people off with a system that was designed to be fair to both customers and towers alike, you should stand up and say, “Enough is enough! I don’t agree with it and you should tone this down.” By the way, the tower did add that if the customer paid w/in 10 days the bill would only be $8000 or something like that. $8000 to winch a tractor trailer off the side of the road where it only sat down after stopping?? Get real! Why can’t we take a good system and use it to our advantage without ripping people off? Why do you think people got so upset when we circled the wagons? They knew they were getting charged for something that was NOT legitimate. Do you think these people are stupid?! Do we have to use this system in a manner that will rip people off and further their mistrust of our industry? If you think I’m mad, you’re right! There is a copy of the official “price per pound” on our website and we are in the process of designing a “price per pound” calculator for our web site (www.stormins.com) that will be free for any tower to use. However, I have a very real problem with someone taking a good thing and twisting it into a price gouging machine. We have worked too hard as an industry to let a few money hungry individuals misrepresent a fair system.
Part of the reason for charging by the pound in the first place is that trucking companies understand poundage. That’s why it works better for trucks than cars. A guy driving a car doesn’t know what his car weighs, and he doesn’t care. Charge them a price they can understand. Also, we need to avoid making this system too complicated. Remember the “K.I.S.S.” principle... “Keep it simple stupid.” We’re not accident recovery investigators. We’re recovery people. What difference for towing does it make how fast the guy was going? We need to be busy recovering that vehicle not trying to figure out how fast he was going when he wrecked. We don’t need to be interfering with law enforcement any more than they need to be telling us how to recover a vehicle. I’ve seen wrecks where a guy was going fast with minimal damage, and I’ve also seen wrecks where low speed resulted in major damage. Let’s get back to real recoveries, and get our heads out of the clouds. Let’s treat ourselves and our customers fairly. When you see someone trying to take advantage of a good system, distorting it, or ripping it off...stand up and say, “enough is enough.” If they can’t do any better than that maybe they should go buy a garbage truck and start hauling garbage. Remember, if we can’t police ourselves, I’m sure the government would be happy to do it for us.
(reprinted from Stormin's website for use in PPP history - discussions)
http://stormins.com/Community/PricePerPound/tabid/267/Default.aspx
