Richmond Towing Story

If you head west on a tow call out of Adelaide Australia , it’s 300 miles to the next town and more than 1.000 miles to the next city Perth,It;s the longest straight road on the globe . Truck accidents happen because drivers just steer off the road having lost their sense of direction.We call it white line Fever". The land is flat with no trees at all it resembles the moon. But the Kangaroos live there . I don't know how they do it but they do-getting water by eating the shrubs .There are 10 times more Kangaroos than people.They call them big reds "and they are big.Hitting one at highway speed will total a car -no joke..

bigger than Texas.but we have few people here.The seacoast is nice and green so most of our population live in the city of Adelaide and in one of about five townships spread along the coastal area of approximately 1.000 miles. Adelaide is located between the sea and a range of hills,it’s a city of about a half-million people,it’s where Richmond Towing has it’s base. Richmond Towing was started some 30 years ago by a young man named Bob Sincock , Bob left school at the age of 14 but a lack of higher learning did not hold him back. Bob washed taxis and did other odd jobs during the day and went to trade school at night,with his trade school knowledge he built his first tow truck in the back yard of his house .He worked the truck day and night ,committing to never leave

Being a fair man ,Bob did not want to take heavy work from other towing companies ,but would do the jobs others did not want. He would travel hundreds of miles on dirt roads to tow back someone's truck . A lot of towies (towing operators) would not even go out of town unless they got paid first in cash.But most of the trucks were run by owner drivers who did not have that sort of money ,Bob would let them pay a bit at a time until the bill was paid off.Most of the blokes he dealt with did not forget that .Some of them now have fleets of trucks and we get most of there work. Today the old house where Bob built his first tow truck is gone but we are still in the same spot and take up the whole block, Bob still get out and tows-and not

hat has been enforced by the police for the last 10 years .The city and suburbs are divided into zones and towing companies are called when it is their turn for an accident tow . There is a $ 1.000 fine for the towie that picks up a car when it’s not suppose to so this system has cut out all chasing to accidents.One bad thing about having a roster is it so hard to get on the list.

We don’t have the number of tow trucks we used to, Also the auto club in Adelaide is so big that towing compines tow a lot of cars at a low contrack price . The big difference beween us and the United States is the big truck towing in our Outback.

Heading west there are no towns but one can find "Roadhouse’s" about 100 miles apart where you can get gas,food and a shower . You either sleep in the truck or if it is to hot just on a ground sheet. There is a police station at the border. They don’t lock the cells you won’t go far it is to hot and there is no water,you would be dead in about one day. Out here is where you see real trucks Road Trains we call them .They have beefed up tractors and have attached three or more 40 foot trailers. If you leave Adelaide heading north you have a real drive ahead - 1.800 miles to the border and there’s nothing there. Then another 700 miles to Alice Springs ,a big town. It is strange but nice looking countryside of unusually shaped hills and all sort of lizards,snakes,kangaroos and emu's-large birds that can not fly. We use U.S. trucks like Mack's and Kenworths ,others can not handle it. Our tow trucks are on short wheelbases so they don’t crack in the middle and are beefed up to road train standards so they can pull 100 tons, and you need a big bull bar on the front. There are no fences in the Outback and you cannot stop in time if there are cattle or wild horses , camels on the road, Kangaroos will also jump in front of you . It can make a mess of your truck. It’s normal for us to travel 300 or 400 miles to hook up a truck and bring it back to Adelaide. A lot of times if it is a rollover accident , the damaged vehicle has to be towed to the next state more than 1.000 miles - and then you have to drive back again . But the best thing about the Outback is that if you break down someone will stop and help. . The land is called the "Never Never" Once you see it -you never forget it. Kingsley Foreman....