INSIGHTFUL TALK BY DAN MESSINA ///
Tow Shows 2021 I
t’s getting to be that time of year where the industry looks like it starting to bounce back and vendors are registering their booth at tow shows. We say the industry is coming back but is it really. I went to Minnesota a few weeks ago on business and I had the opportunity to talk to a few tow companies. Yes they told me that tow volumes are picking up because people are starting to travel again, but there is other things in the industry that are now effecting their business. Finding drivers will always be a problem because the next generation tow company owner is decreasing. Family members don’t want their 18
Tow Professional | Volume 10 • Issue 5
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dads business. Their interests are different, and now finding trucks is becoming a major task. I could just tell be talking to the tow company owners that their attitude is changing. When I first got into towing everyone one was competitive and creative, now they are looking for ways to sell their business, or find other ways to make money in towing. From Minnesota I drove over to Wisconsin to meet with a few tow company owners before I went to the Wisconsin tow show. Again the attitude was the same. How do I get out and retire. One owner told me his driver came to work the other www.towprofessional.com
day with half his hair brown and the other half green. He went on to explain how hard it is to put these employees in front of his customers. I was standing at the show talking with another company when his wife took a call from a driver. The driver’s girlfriend broke up with him so he quit his job. No notice to the owner he just quit. The state tow show is small in comparison to the bigger shows coming up but you can get more intimate with the owners who were there. We talk at length about the driver problem and what a tow truck driver will look like in the future. In the past the driver wanted as many
