Idle Trucks Don't Pay the Bills

I’ve watched the economy with a careful eye, looking for signs of relief with hopes of passing good news. Unfortunately, there’s nothing new to report.

I see larger tow truck companies (more than three tow trucks) that historically maintain an impressive truck fleet so they’re at the ready when the economy turns around. Although having a thriving fleet might represent forward thinking in serving law enforcement contracts and other customers, cheating your company’s finances is a main component to failure.There’s an old saying that, “Trucks that sit don’t make money.” In hard times, how do some companies justify keeping a number of trucks idle? What about those sometime hard to make truck payments? If your company isn’t making income to justify keeping a truck … should it not be sold to re-invest company money elsewhere and keep the businesses’ doors open? Or does it make better sense just to take a truck off the company’s insurance and park it until the economy says it’s OK to put it back into the day-to-day fleet?These are difficult questions that must be considered as they relate to your company’s bottom line. The no-brainer answer to these questions and more as they relate to the company are simple … if you’re business isn’t turning profit, you won’t be in business long. Selling or parking trucks may be the answer to dollars that easily escape you through other associated business costs like fuel, maintenance, driver wages, etc.There’s an extreme importance in knowing what your company’s finances are to enable you to keep the company going. When tow business owners know where their operational dollars are … they also tend to know if the time has come to sell some of their idle assets vs. making monthly payments on trucks and equipment that will otherwise sit idle.Today’s big craze is whether or not it makes good business sense to purchase a Class D super-heavy-duty tow truck or a rotator. While having one listed in your company’s truck fleet is attractive to law enforcement agencies, new accounts and bid processes, one of those bad boys will certainly create a financial set-back if they’re not out working every day.Another part of working the truck is promoting the truck. If your company doesn’t have an aggressive sales or marketing person, and you’re not the kind of boss that likes to make sales calls … you’re in for a long difficult ride to make those extra dollars to pay for the sitting trucks. Remember: they all take fuel, insurance, permits, and most importantly, a qualified operator who has the necessary and capable skills to get the job done.If you’ve been lucky enough to survive this difficult economy, nothing mandates you get rid of your trucks if you’re able to keep them earning their way. When times get hard, sharpen your pencil to see what is your best strategy to stay afloat.