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If you drive a commercial rig for a living, needing a tow is more than just a pain in the butt. For drivers of commercial rigs, such as 18-wheelers and similar vehicles, needing a tow means lost time and money. These trucks are more than just a means of transportation. A commercial rig is their livelihood and, in some cases, home.
Driving a commercial rig isn’t for the faint-hearted. Drivers of these big trucks haul many different types of goods – boats, autos, hazardous materials, even homes – over long distances, and with long hours between stops.
Sometimes drivers have to spend many nights away from the comforts of home, as they focus on sticking to a tight schedule. When you consider all of these elements, it’s easy to see what a huge inconvenience needing a tow can cause to a commercial rig driver.
Finding a company to handle the task of providing a tow for a commercial rig isn’t easy, either. Although there are lots of tow companies, towing a commercial rig requires special equipment, and an experienced tow truck operator.
And it’s a time-consuming operation. Consider all the things a tow operator has to do before he can tow a commercial rig safely:
After the commercial rig is hooked up, the tow operator has to tow the big rig to the desired destination. Depending on where the rig is disabled, this could be a trip of several hours. Remember that a tow truck towing a commercial rig or combination tractor with a trailer will travel much more slowly than an unencumbered vehicle. A distance that can usually be covered in an hour, can easily take twice the time.
Once the commercial rig is towed to its destination, the tow truck operator has to unhook the safety chains and tow lights, and re-install the drive line properly.
If each of these procedures are not handled by an experienced tow operator, the commercial rig driver is likely to experience even more frustration and down time. Those are some pretty good reasons for choosing wisely if you need a commercial rig tow!
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