Lately my wife and I have been watching wrecker/recovery businesses at work, on YouTube It,s more technical and high cost than you might think. Semi recoveries often run $ 10,000.00. Just the cost alone is often life changing!
Take the independent trucker, already burdened with truck payments and diesel fuel at $2.85 per gallon and since he feels that he is a good driver has cut back on insurance to the bare minimum and then hits an iced over bridge and the truck jackknives with 20 tons on the back of expensive merchandise. The big wrecker comes that cost the wrecker company, 3/4 million and the costs shoot up, up and up.
State and federal laws kick in, one lane of traffic must be kept open to keep from backing traffic up for miles and possibly causing other wrecks. The ambulance crew and the fire department are first to work the scene and then the recovery people must figure out how to extract the vehicle without doing further damage.
Every move can rip a brake line, rupture a fuel tank, or puncture a $ 1,000.00 radiator.
Now days recovery personnel have video cameras that record every move they make to protect themselves from errors and omissions and to justify their charges. It's a dangerous job and is often in a hard place to work. Cold and/or heat, rain or snow goes with the job. Yet it's hard to imagine a more important job. Just think that if the recovery people went off the job for even one week it would tie up the highway system and make the roadways a junk yard.
