A towing and recovery business will serve the general public, highway authorities and businesses by removing unwanted vehicles from the roads, car parks or different properties. A small or large or towing and recovery business can be quite profitable. You will need to have the skills, experience, and knowledge of the industry and the equipment for you to be successful. In addition, you will need to have the dedication to both follow your business plan and continually promote your towing and recovery services.
Word of mouth is ever so vital in the vehicle recovery game, with insurance companies, garages, and police, directing a huge chunk of the business. A smart marketing move would be to pick up the phone and start making appointments. No doubt this can be a dull slog that will have many rejections, but significant providers of work helping you without having actually sat in a meeting with you isn’t likely to happen.
Some recovery businesses will top up their work by doing vehicle movement work such as car deliveries, and moving stock between dealers and the like.
Vehicle recovery is a business that is in demand anywhere. One of the good things about this business is that you are able to incorporate other extra services.
Starting up a new recovery truck business – whether you intend to operate just one truck or many – is a big decision that should be based on only quality information and advice.
It’s recommended that in the very early stages of your planning process, you seek professional advice from people and organisations that can help you, such as recovery truck insurance brokers, lawyers, accountants, and Inland Revenue. You may also want to talk government centres for advice on vehicle use rules and regulations that you must comply with.
Getting a transport service licence
As is most often the case, you are going to need a goods service licence in order to operate a vehicle recovery business.
You must also make sure that transport service licence labels are prominently displayed in all tow trucks that you operate, either as close as it is practical to the bottom inside of the windscreen on the passenger side, or in the window directly behind the passenger seat. Law enforcement officials are known to be pretty fussy about this here in the UK.
Meeting vehicle requirements
Your vehicles will need to meet high safety standards before you operate them in a licensed transport service. This includes registration and annual licensing requirements along with those routine certificate of fitness inspections. Your vehicles are required to meet these safety standards while they are operated in a transport service.
When you are buying vehicles for your business, always be aware of the safety features that are common in many of the modern vehicles and any features that might affect the environment.
Operating your vehicles safely
It is vital that you maintain all your tow trucks in both safe and serviceable condition at all times.
Be sure to attend to all faults straight away. This will not only keep you in business, but save you money in the long term. This will also help you to achieve and maintain consistently good Operator Rating System (ORS) scores.
