Must be Some money to make as O/D@ The HGV recovery lark??
The 3truck shunt@ Dumfries bypass last week cost the two firms involved £6.5k to get the units alone back to Cairnryan.
That is £6.5k EACH!!![emoji52]
Money had to be deposited in wrecker firms bank BEFORE units were even moved!!!
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It be up to 10k each by the end of the week in the rdc waiting rooms…
I’m no expert but I think the recovery firms have to police approved etc so probably a bit of a closed shop and ultimately a shafting for the unlucky operators!
There was a thread on here a while back of a owner driver or small company getting a truck pulled a short distance (a couple of miles if memory serves correctly) off the motorway by the police approved contractor) to a slip road or services and it cost him around 3k, ended up fighting a legal battle but don’t think he got anything back! I think he was in the process of arranging his own recovery until the cops turned up.
Moving big heavy trucks needs even bigger heavier trucks. Not cheap and can be stood for ages before a job comes in-- no one books their breakdowns or accidents in advance! 24hr 365day cover needed too. Recovery is expensive for a reason, its costly to provide it. As already said a contract with Police/Highways whoever could be a nice earner, but I doubt they’d give a chance to a start up operation.
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It is not impossible to start off from scratch in heavy recovery, but it does help to have an idea about how to get the thing going again since you will need something to bring in revenue while you are waiting for the next recovery. So a yard large enough for the hook and a few disabled vehicles will also be required. It also helps to have a fairy godmother.
Mick Gould and Neil Yates both started off in their early twenties working from the family farm/yard doing heavy vehicle and plant repairs, either from that base or mobile. Both had some financial assistance from their parents. I worked for a while with both of these guys, in Micks case before he started out and was still an apprentice at an established heavy recovery company’s workshop. Mick, who is one of the most naturally talented fitters I have ever met, would always be covered in black grease from head to toe. While the rest of us turned up for work in cars or on a motorbike, Mick had a yellow Bedford TJ flat, upon which with our assistance went his toolchest many evenings. One of the evening jobs he told us about was attending to Jeff Beck’s (Yardbirds & Jeff Beck group) 'dozer which had thrown a track in the middle of a river. Later the family built a proper workshop on their farm, from which he traded until the opportunity came to acquire land next to the Royal Oak on the A21 at Flimwell.
Neil Yates’ father ran a sucessful HGV and van hire and haulage business from a yard near the old Jungle cafe at Offham on the A 20. Neil started off working from there and mobile. I met him at that time when he took over a contract from another mobile fitter who had attempted to fit an Iveco engine into a Ford Cargo and given up on the job. I was doing mobile repairs for Scottish & Newcastle Breweries whose depot was opposite Neil’s new customer, I would occasionally assist him when he needed a second pair of hands or neede the lend of something.
Wreckers go for far too much in my opinion I reckon there’s a constant churn of people borrowing heavily to fork out a six figure sum for an often tired underpowered vehicle, with poor parts availability, only to then move it on to a few years later after its spent most of that time warming the yard.
cav551:
in Micks case before he started out and was still an apprentice at an established heavy recovery company’s workshop. Mick, who is one of the most naturally talented fitters I have ever met, would always be covered in black grease from head to toe.
Spent 5 years sending truck into Mick Goulds, really nice bloke to deal with, and I agree he knows his stuff, including the electronics and sensors in modern trucks, and he’s still covered in grease and is sat at his his desk in dirty overalls and still does many callouts himself.
I did get towed back from Calais once, I knew the truck was having problems, I left a message for Mick to call me the day before he got back to me that evening, he diagnosed clutch on the way out, but said to keep trying to get back, I think I might have made it to the UK if it hadn’t been for queues at the Euro Tunnel terminal, but at least I didn’t have to get some french company to drag me off the Autoroute, I’ve heard a few horror stories about their prices, the price we paid for a tow back from the Eurotunnel terminal was nowhere near some of the figures quoted here.