Best Practice for Post Recovery or Accident. Don’t Forget a Truck Wellness or Inventory Check on your Wrecker

Let’s take a few minutes to review our post-recovery truck wellness check and maybe review our own well-being at the same time.

The recovery is done. Let’s back the truck in the stall and go home. But should we? Maybe it was one of those calls—a real traumatic event, a real physical challenge on both operator and machine. Let’s borrow a little something from our friends at the fire department. For those of you who volunteer or have experience with fire rescue, please don’t throw me under the fire truck if I spell it out incorrectly.

Many of our customers and towing friends tell us truck inventory and wellness is a part of EVERY post-recovery call routine—whether it's two in the morning or two in the afternoon. Our friends will tell us they will back the truck in the bay and go to work. Fire protocol is a spreadsheet of every tool in every box—one door and box at a time. Would the same system work for us in the towing industry? I heard you say “In a perfect world” under your breath.

Create a spreadsheet

If you had one heavy wrecker and started on the driver's side, first door—let’s call it D1—and wrote down what items are in that box. For example: two (2) 1/2” x 10’ G8 chains, two (2) 5/8” x 12’ G8 chains, and so on. You can continue on without me. D2 (driver’s side, door 2): 1 pair 4” short forks, 1 pair 4” tall forks, 1 pair spring fork holders with keeper pins and clips, etc.

Continue through the balance of the driver’s side boxes, and then start on P1 (passenger side, door one) and continue on down the side of the truck. We have seen everything from an excel checklist to a printed sheet; both work well.

This might be the opportunity to look at the location of items with regard to operator safety and necessary steps on the side of the road. An example might be: Should the tow lights and the cord be in different toolboxes? Should the underlift safety straps be with the chains or in the same box as the forks? Your truck, your call, but I think extra steps cost time and operator safety. Once you have inventoried your truck, type it up and print it off. You are now on your way.

Consistent truck layout

Let’s make this a little more challenging as you aced the first hurdle. I’m going to leave this one up to your company policy, but many tow companies, plumbers, electricians and repair techs inventory each truck in the fleet to the same layout. It all comes back to efficiency and safety in some cases. If you and I are working a recovery and you tell me to go grab a 3/8”x10’ chain out of your truck, I’ll know where to get it from and where to put it back!

The familiarity thing will also come into play when you get back into the shop at two in the morning as we can help each other. We can discuss the high and low points of the job. We can compliment each other on a good job done or offer constructive criticism. This is the point where we can look at those chains to make sure we didn’t stretch a link, bend a hook, or check the winch cables. Don’t forget to visit the safety chains and straps. If you have repairs or damaged goods, get it repaired, written down to be repaired, ordered and replaced.

A little housekeeping

Was this a particularly muddy job? Are the chains and your truck a mess? Did you have the outriggers buried in the muck up to the tail lights? On the subject of outriggers, we have seen outriggers that inhaled a wheel barrel full of mud on the last call and then weren’t cleaned out. That mud became cement and the outriggers failed to operate on the next call. A little post-accident power washer love would have prevented that.

More food for thought. Is truck and equipment clean-up part of your billable hours? Are broken chains, cables, straps, part of the billable or part of doing business?

This post-incident review and report time gives you time to mentally process those tough calls before you go home. You're human! You care! Both you and your trusted truck did your best, and both of you will be ready to do it again when the phone rings as you made sure of it and you will both get the help you need. Stay Safe, Stay Strong.