An increase in the demand for towing services has also led to more challenges within the towing industry. An increase in marginal costs, competition from other industries for labor, and ever-increasing fuel prices are some of the challenges that tend to keep towing companies below water. The Governments and other stakeholders must step in to help these companies stay afloat. How do these challenges affect them?

a.     Competition for labor

Towing companies require well-skilled drivers and operators to provide their services. These services need the operators to work during all-weather conditions. They also operate on the side of the roads where they are at risk of being struck by other vehicles. Therefore, we can see that this is a high-risk task that requires highly specialized skills. Other related industries require drivers. Such industries such as Uber and Amazon don’t demand many skills. They offer more safe and convenient tasks.  Our drivers will opt for these other tasks for better working conditions.  Thus the ever-growing demand for towing services doesn’t match the labor.

b.    Increase in Marginal costs

An increase in the number of vehicles on the roads implies more demand for towing services. This increase means that the companies need to get more trucks that would demand more fuel, labor, and operational costs. These marginal costs sometimes tend to outweigh their marginal profits. Therefore, as towing companies, we are at risk of not meeting our needs, and thus, we provide poor customers services. These trucks require massive operations and fuel usage. That only accounts for more costs.

c.      Insurance policies for Business

Laws and regulations require that as businesses, we need to insure ourselves. As for towing companies, we need to cover our services given that the nature of our activities tends to put us at higher risks of accidents.  The size of our operations and trucks requires us to pay more for commercial insurance. Over the years, there has been an increase in insurance premiums for the towing market. Therefore, we will pay service costs that would reduce our profits and our ability to meet our operations.

d.    Gasoline and Diesel fuel prices

Our towing activities tend to use more gas mileage. More gas usage relates to the more weight and force that we exert on our engines that would use more fuel. Further, the wind drags on our loads when we are towing also increase the use of more gas. This activity shows that we need more diesel and gas for our towing needs. Over the years, there has been a spike in the prices of fuels. This spike means that we will pay more operational costs associated with gasoline and diesel.

e.     Careless Motorists

Towing entails working in jam traffic. Therefore, as operators and drivers, we are fixed at roadsides where other vehicles are busy traveling past us. Some of these other motorists tend to be careless when approaching us even though we’ve already secured the place. They, therefore, put our lives at risk since they can strike us or even strike pieces of equipment that may hit us. Get more info about what you need to know about towing safety here.