I don't know who I was kidding when I thought I could work with Copart and no one would find out. I mean I am literally embarrassed for anyone to know. I stopped in yesterday at Copart to pick up some checks on my way to pick up my Truck in a Box in Chattanooga and when I pulled in, I felt like "I hope no one sees me" I needed checks to pay for a truck I was going to deliver to Copart on my way back from Chattanooga. It was 10x worse when I brought the truck in. I saw Bakers and On Time towing which are local to me, and they would recognize me. My new truck hasn't been lettered yet, but they would know my face. And if that isn't bad enough the app does not integrate with Towbook so that's twice the work for my drivers or office. EVERYONE knows you can't make money with Copart, WHY did I do this? Was it the truck for 135k with a balloon payment of 25k after 5 years? Was it to see what the program was for my Towtal Advantage clients? Maybe I thought I was good enough to figure out the secret to making money with Copart? To be honest it was a mixture of all these things, but I wanted more than anything to see if I could use it as an additional stream of income. Now the first couple days was rocky to say the least, pretty much the first two days was a complete disaster and waste of money and efforts, but we LEARNED. We learned a lot. See my concept was to use Copart as busy work for when we were slow or for our nighttime guy to have something to do, my day shift guys would pick up Copart cars and bring them to the shop throughout the day and my nighttime guy could deliver them in the night. This would allow the cars to be dropped when no one was there and no lines. We wouldn't be able to go inside and get the windshield stickers or talk to the staff so we would save time. We wouldn't have to take them thru the gate so we would save time and not have to drive in the back where flats could happen. Plus, all the traffic stirs up so much dust my truck would need a new wash and air filter after every trip. They gave us the code to the gate so we could do it this way. So Copart is not priority to us. We use it to get our trucks out into the field so the Towbook pings being sent to the motor clubs can see we are active and will send us calls. We then do said calls if we have any and if not, we continue onto the Copart call. When we drop a vehicle and have nothing to haul on our way back, we contact Copart, and they give us a load back. Now because we have to take 14 cars per week to Copart we now can advertise our services in that area because we now can service that area. So, we broadened our service area. This plan will not work for everyone, but Copart is 50 mins outside of Knoxville TN which is a hot zone for calls for us and the roads are great, no inclines or mountain. It's easy on our trucks. AND my guys use skate religiously which saves my beds. They use skates so much that they are great with them. It's not a tool they rarely us or are not familiar with. Some people never use skates and if they had to, they would most likely struggle with them. GET FAMILIAR WITH YOUR TOOLS. So that's my take on the Truck in a Box thus far. You guys have a blessed day and I'll try to bring your info that has value to you and your business. Hey, don't forget to comment.
Comments