[drkenan]

If a tow truck driver gives you really good service, are you supposed to tip them? Does it matter to the driver if you use AAA or not?

My '74 International stalled out on my yesterday and the driver was awesome and seemed to use a lot of extra care so I tipped him out $10. Was that the right thing to do?

 

[stevew]

yeah.

 

[TheTruth]

Meh, you should have given him $9.50.

 

[demo 9]

Meh, you should have given him $9.50.

in change

 

[jdcamb]

I give them Coupons. Although they never seem to pick up on why I gave them a Soap or a Toothpaste coupon. Old Lottery tickets too.

 

[Jeremy R]

Considering your choices in vehicles, Asheville tow truck drivers SHOULD tip you for putting their kids through college.
You need one of those punch out cards:
Get 9 tows and get the 10th for free!

 

[BigMike]

I give them Coupons. Although they never seem to pick up on why I gave them a Soap or a Toothpaste coupon. Old Lottery tickets too.

Haha!

 

[jimmydean]

Yes, it matters to the driver if you use AAA more often than not. Drivers make squat off AAA calls. I was paid a salary (rare in the tow world), So 6 to 3 I made $10 an hour, but I was on call 3 days a week. On call I made 25% or $20 which ever was more and AAA was a flat fee for most services. A call from AAA meant $20 almost every time, including the 2 hours I spent driving out to BFE to bring some jackass a gallon of gas at 2:00am and still had to be at work by 6 that morning.

AAA is a great deal for drivers and it is a good PR tool for the tow company. Tow companies make very little if anything doing AAA calls and that's why a lot of companies don't do AAA at all. Bruce got a ton of repeat business (like the Rolls) through AAA because of excellent service by his drivers.

The night I got the tip from the former Blazer made my night. Yes, it was a small token, but it was double what I would have made otherwise. $40 for 90 minutes wasn't bad all thing considered. He was a cool dude, too. Unlike the jackass that ran out of gas then bitched that it took me so long to get all the way out there.

<edit>Now if you went to an accident and convinced the customer to not use AAA and bill the insurance instead, that was a payday! $75 hook up, $4/mile, $50+ for "clean up", $35 a day storage (usually 3-4 days in the yard waiting on the adjuster and whatnot), then a tow from the yard to the body shop at $75 for the hook, and additional miles.

I could make $200 off a single accident if it went commercial rate vs. AAA rates.

So tip for the service, most drivers are very appreciative. I also never told my boss about tips I got because then I would have to share.

 

[bizutch]

I worked for USAC (United States Auto Club) doing Ford warranty roadside dispatch service. All the tow drivers despised AAA.

My mind was a blueprint of the Rand McNally road Atlas.

 

[jimmydean]

The main issue I saw every day driving was the guys who worked for straight commission. What better incentive to jack up the cost of service than to tie the guys pay to it directly. I never bumped mileage, or services. You will see guys drop 4 or 5 flares on a tire change. Why? They charge an average of $10 a flair for safety. Then you have to extinguish the flare and clean it up, that was $45 or $50 per 15 minutes.

You would see an accident scene with plastic, glass, bumpers, mirrors, and all sorts of crap strewn all over the place and the final bill shows $100+ in "cleanup". I always got up at least the glass and bits of car, plus would put sand on the spills to attempt to soak up the oil/coolant.

But I also wasn't the average dirtbag driver. All the on call drivers would hang out at the coffee shop waiting for calls and would swap stories with the EMT and cops. I could not believe some of the crap the guys at Speeds towing or Cops towing would talk about.

 

[loco-gringo]

You trying to "buy" your way into not pissing off this particular industry too???