How To Start A Towing Company
Starting a Towing Company In Texas
There are plenty of great reasons to start a towing company in Texas! Towing businesses are pretty easy to start up and they provide real services that people have a constant need for. You and your drivers will be able to help stranded motorists tow their disabled cars to their repair shops. You may also be tasked with towing illegally parked vehicles. Considering the big size of the State of Texas and its major cities, there is virtually no end to the workflow in sight.
So, how do you start a towing business? Here are some guidelines.
Read the online Texas Towing Administrative Rules
here are a lot of them but they are outlined at license.state.tx.us. You will see the listing of available permits on this website. While you must have the Tow Truck Permit, you may also need another permit like the Private Property towing permit or the Incident Management permit.
Many new business owners want to jump in and do it all, but remember that you really cannot be all things to all people if you wish to succeed. Decide upon your towing company’s focus. For example, if you will be contracting with apartment and condominium complex owners for accounts, you would need to have a Private Property towing permit. You may still choose others but try to keep your business confined so that you can specialize in certain areas rather than try to do everything possible.
You will be able to make a name for your company and garner a reputation for being the top tower in the Private Property sector if you choose this permit, for instance. Besides doing tows for stranded drivers, you could also specialize in keeping illegally parked cars off community properties.
Obtain Licensing and Insurance
Apply for the necessary licenses required for specific towing jobs in Texas. You also want to buy workman’s compensation insurance and business liability insurance.
Decide on Your Business’s Legal Structure
While your permits are being processed, you can decide on how you will form your company. A good suggestion is to become an LLC or a corporation. Check with your accountant for more information. When you form the legal business entity you also want to open up your business’s bank accounts.
Buy Your Tow Trucks
The above steps can all be done simultaneously. Buying your tow trucks can also be done as your permits and licenses are getting processed. If you have already purchased a tow truck or two, that’s fine, but you can also save this part for the time where you are waiting for permitting or after your permits or obtained.
Rent a Lot
You will need a place to store impounded vehicles. Rent a lot or other facility where cars and other vehicles can be stored for days or weeks at a time.
Rent Office Space
You can probably use your home office to start. Once your company starts succeeding and growing you will most likely want to rent a special office space to do dispatching, accounting, and everyday business.
Hire Drivers and Staff
Make sure every driver is background checked and has clean licenses. They should all have the licensing required for driving towing vehicles in Texas.
You are almost ready to start taking calls and jobs, but before you launch, don’t forget to have a good web presence. You will not need a long, multi-page website, but you need something informative and one that has a contact form visible on the first page. Your customers will be in immediate need of help so be sure to give them fast, easy access to getting help both online or by phone.
In the State of Texas, there are legal caps to the amounts you can charge for various tow jobs. Be sure your prices are listed clearly on your website and on your social media profiles if you are using them to get customers. (Hint �” you should be! But if you do not feel the need to use everything from Instagram to Twitter, just select the few that work for you.)
Reviews and Affiliations
After you start doing your first few jobs, everyone will be getting comfortable and familiar with the way things work. Be sure to get customers who are happy with your services to leave positive reviews for you on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. As you start collecting more happy customers you have testimonials you can show to auto clubs and to police departments. You want to have a listing with these organizations so as to get even more work more consistently.
These are the basic steps you need to take for setting up a towing company in Texas. You should find the work rewarding and the pay lucrative. Remember to review your earnings and your company’s online reputation regularly. The key to being successful is being adaptable and listening to your customers’ and your employees’ feedback.
Related Info: