How Towing Companies are Dealing With Pandemic Restrictions and Forced to Create New Safety Procedures

There are no vaccine mandates for employees of these towing companies, so no one will lose their jobs for staying un-vaccinated

California is one of the few states that continues to implement strict pandemic restrictions on businesses and individuals. The state and local governments leave it up to the businesses to enforce these restrictive measures on their properties.

Saar Shani Towing is one of many local towing companies currently developing new and creative methods to deal with the pandemic restrictions. Maintaining social distancing is a considerable challenge because it is typical for towing operators to interact with customers in person to give them rides to their destination or assist them at the towing yards.

“My towing company no longer accepts cash payments because we want to avoid the transfer of germs between customers and our staff,” said Saar, who is the owner of Saar Shani Towing. “We don’t even allow office visits anymore. Customers are instructed to submit their payments to us through a mobile payment app or over the phone. This will eliminate the risk of someone touching a surface contaminated with COVID-19.”
Customers find the online payments system works faster anyway. They don’t need to hand over their credit cards or other sensitive payment information to the towing companies. All payment transactions are secured through the online payment system, which means personal information is kept safe and private.

“I want my towing company to set an example for the other businesses and towing companies in California,” said Saar. “It is important that we all do our part to reduce the spread of the virus so that more people can stay safe. We also stopped holding vehicles at our storage facilities to avoid customer visits, so we don’t risk them and our employees. All we will do is transport vehicles from one location to another according to our customers’ directions.”

Saar Shani Towing previously allowed stranded customers to ride in their tow trucks as they delivered their vehicles to the appropriate destinations. Now that has all changed because of the pandemic restrictions. The towing company wants to maintain social distancing within the tow truck by avoiding these close encounters.

“To make up for this unfortunate inconvenience, we are now covering the cost of Uber/Lyft transportation for our customers,” said Saar. “We don’t want to leave people stranded any more than we want to leave their vehicles stranded. So, we have agreed to share the cost of Uber services for long drives with our customers, and sometimes we will even cover the entire cost of Uber/Lyft services for short drives.”

“When tow truck operators encounter customers and their vehicles, there are no handshakes permitted between them,” said Saar. “We have instructed our towing trucking team not to shake hands and never make physical contact with any customer. Even though we love to be friendly and courteous with our customers, avoiding handshakes is one of the best ways to reduce the spread of the virus.”

There are no vaccine mandates for employees of these towing companies, so no one will lose their jobs for staying un-vaccinated. However, an increasing number of towing companies are starting to require their un-vaccinated tow truck operators to get tested at least once per 10 days for COVID-19. The towing companies are paying for these tests out of their own pockets to ensure their employees are not infected with the virus.

The most criticized pandemic restriction requires un-vaccinated people to wear face masks inside vehicles and commercial buildings. Saar Shani Towing enforces this restriction by making their operators wear masks all the time. Not only do they wear masks while driving the tow trucks, but they also wear masks while working on securing or loading the vehicles.

Category: Driver Stuff, Engines & Drivetrains, Equipment, Featured, Fleet Maintenance, General Update, News, Safety, Shop Stuff