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Professionally speaking, the appearance of your tow truck represents the face of your company and your business practices. A poorly maintained tow truck is not only an eyesore but also, safety-wise, a liability for yourself, your customers, and other users of the road. As such, we hope to provide you or your company with the proper maintenance tips to keep your fleet in the best physical shape for the sake of professionalism and your business going forward. Follow these tips to give your towing business a competitive edge.
Periodic Inspection This first tip is essential for any tow truck operator since it also serves as a workplace safety practice. To ensure quality towing for your clients and mitigating legal liabilities for yourself and your company, doing a periodic 360 degree inspection of your tow truck and its components are essential. If your tow truck is equipped with a winch, checking the cable for frays in the cable is critical to its function. Aside from its components, keeping the amount of loose items in the truck bed also serves as a healthy maintenance practice. Any loose items like nuts and bolts in your truck bed could fly off and damage your customer's windshields; obviously everyone would avoid this as much as possible. Given time, a tow truck will go through varying weather and seasons causing various different types of wear and tear. A properly maintained tow truck will boost the confidence of your operators or yourself in the execution of their daily rounds of serving your communities towing needs. A Vehicle Too Well duh! Don't forget that your tow truck is also a vehicle in itself so whatever maintenance you would put on your personal vehicle, you probably want to do that on your tow truck also. A tow truck needing a tow is both comedic and ironic in a mostly negative way so be sure to stay ahead of the curve in your caring of a tow truck. All the regular maintenance like oil changes, tire changes, washer fluid, etc. are all more critical in a tow truck than civilian vehicles. Why? Well, imagine you're in the dead of winter and it's packed snow outside. Most people aren't driving and the ones who are either are super prepared or left without a choice. Without having stayed ahead of winter and getting snow tires for your tow truck in preparation, how can you properly service a call let alone get your tow truck there in the first place? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense does it? Foresight and staying ahead of the game will both save you and your customers many heartaches. Lubrication Nothing helps preserve the life of your tow truck more than regular cleaning to minimize deterioration and proper lubrication of all moving parts. Cables and joints are common places for dirt, water and other particles to seep into and cause catastrophic damage. The best way to avoid this type of situation is to regularly inspect, clean and lubricate these areas; maintaining these components will ensure smooth operations and preserve the longevity of your service vehicle. In summary, a regular and consistent pro-active attitude will pay dividends to the life of your tow trucks. From regular inspections to proper maintenance to diminishing wear & tear through generous lubrication, these all work in conjunction to keep your tow truck in the best condition for your servicing needs both in the present and in the future. A clean vehicle increases the confidence of its operators which in turn assures the customers in any situation and ultimately, pushes up your bottom line. Everyone wins in this situation. Best of luck!
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 In our day and age, there reasons aplenty why we should improve the fuel efficiency of our vehicles. No one enjoys paying for gas regardless of the price that the major oil companies are gouging us on a daily basis. I'm not sure how much I believe that the supplies are running out but that's just me. However, this doesn't change how we can directly decrease our dependence on these companies. Improving our fuel efficiency is one such way we can go about doing this. How, you might say? Here are 5 easy ways! Lead Foot No More! This one is super-straight-forward. When we step on the pedal, it engages the vehicle to draw more fuel to run the car so logically, how we step is directly going to affect the fuel efficiency. Many modern vehicles come equipped with a fuel consumption indicator and this is a great way for you to see how your vehicle is doing at any given time during your commute. Some of these indicators may even give you real-time readings so you can see just how a little more pedal pressure consumes more fuel. Anticipation Another very straight forward way you can improve your fuel efficiency. This involves the presence of mind to see what is coming in the distance and driving accordingly. For example, if you know the stale green traffic light in the distance is changing before you get there, slowing down early might make it that your vehicle does not make a full and complete stop. Hopefully, by the time you arrive at the intersection, the traffic light will be green again in time for you to just cruise through. To have your vehicle come to a complete stop then to have it start up again and for what we want to achieve is counter-intuitive. This method doesn't mean you have to brake on your way to the intersection, just taking your foot off the pedal would have you cruise to a stop (if it's one of those long lights). Shed Some Dead Weight For some reason, as I was writing this post, a picture emerged in my head and I think it was very applicable. I pictured a boat great distress within a storm and in the process of a jettison. In this process, the crew members of the vessel purge the contents of the ship into the water to give them a fighting chance in case of an emergency. A jettison lightens the ship to escape a situation where they're stranded or gives them more stability when inside of a raging storm. Applying this same concept to our vehicles is what we want to achieve. No, I am not recommending you throw out your belongings while your vehicle is full speed on a highway (this would be hilarious to watch by the way). But rather, getting rid of all the dead weight in your vehicle. This enables our vehicle to not work so hard to carry our weight in the course of movement. The more weight, the more fuel consumption. Simple again! Tire Pressure This is more of a maintenance-related way of getting the most out of your vehicle and its potential for fuel consumption. Minimizing the amount of work your vehicle has to do in order to spin the tire to get moving is the premise of this point. If your tires are under inflated or not all equivalently inflated, your vehicle will not perform efficiently fuel-wise. Check in your vehicle manual for the specifications for your vehicle's tires and the exact pressure needed. Topping up your vehicle tires to just the right pressure could spell significant improvements in your vehicles fuel efficiency. Do Not Idle
For our fifth and final way to improve the fuel efficiency of your vehicle, we had to save the best for last. This also happens to be the most overlooked method of fuel efficiency. If ever your vehicle is idling, like at an intersection or traffic, for more than 10 seconds, it's actually more fuel efficient to turn off your engine and turn it back on when you actually start moving. Outside of that 10 seconds, you save more fuel to restart the engine instead of keeping your car on the entire time you are stopped. This method is also a great way for us to do our part in saving this planet. Not only are we saving fuel and minimizing exhaust from our own personal vehicle, but for every second our car isn't on, that's less pollution exiting into our atmosphere. You save money, the Planet breathes better, and we all win! Let us know what you think about these tips and feel free to post your own fuel-saving secrets in the comments below! Just imagine in your head for a moment, you're boarding a plane and as you pass the smiling faces of the beautiful flight attendants you happen to peak over into the open cockpit. You look inside and you see the pilot playing on his phone and enjoying a light comedic banter with his co-pilot. "Why aren't they doing a pre-flight check?," you wonder.
Shouldn't we have the same kind of reaction when we're getting into our cars and getting ready to drive? Yes, it is certainly different from going into the air in an aluminum can and if ever there was a problem, there isn't really a shoulder you can pull into. However, we should be as careful as we would as if we were getting onto a plane; you'd get mad at those pilots for not doing the same thing. In fact, according to AA1Car, "Mechanical failures are a factor in 12%-13% of all auto accidents..." Mathematically, that would mean that at 12%, 3 out of every 25 car accidents have mechanical failures as a factor! Mechanical failures include manufacturing defects in the car itself and/or the parts of it and/or lack of care (wear and tear). Again, imagine you're in a car going 100 km/h on a hot summer day down Lougheed Highway, enjoying the breeze and that song that brings back memories of your mullet is playing then BOOM! You hear an explosion and suddenly your car hits the ground on the front left side and you feel it starting to veer uncontrollably into the median on your left shoulder. Sound scary? Just think how this whole scenario could have been avoided if you just checked your tires before you drove out. And that's just your tires! Mechanical failures include the following but are not limited to these:
Anything listed above in combination with the temperature of the day, the weather outside, road conditions, debris on the road, your driving speed, your driving habits plus many more, could greatly increase your chances of getting into an accident. We can greatly decrease our chances of an accident if we checked our vehicles regularly and thoroughly. If in doubt, seek expert advice and have a car mechanic look over your car. In case of a serious accident, be sure to call emergency services immediately. For less serious accidents or generally minor issues but vehicle has failed, call Ridge Meadows Towing anytime 24/7 at 778-765-1119. For more information, head on over to AA1Car for more on this topic as well as many others. |