Winter Good For IA Towing Companies

It's also good for positive stories on towing companies! Here's the www.wcfcourier.com story:

WATERLOO - Jim Lind doesn't want to make his customers wait. But sometimes they have little choice until one of Lind BP's tow trucks arrive.

After below zero weather settled into the area Wednesday following more than 10 inches of snow, drivers throughout the Cedar Valley found themselves stranded.

Tow truck driver Adam Gebel knows from working at Lind BP for more than six years that severe winter weather means long days.

"You expect a long shift," he said.

Drivers with dead batteries or stranded from the snowstorm knew they were in for a long wait for help.

"You've got to expect it with this weather," said Brent Leopold, who was unable to get his car going Thursday. Leopold said he didn't mind the wait and was glad to see Gebel.

Gebel was out along with Rob Mauer, pulling cars out of snowbanks and ditches and providing jump-starts in the frigid weather, in a 10-cylinder red truck that has racked up more than 309,000 miles of mostly in-town driving.

"The shop's been pretty hard on this truck," Mauer said.

The towing crews ran about a dozen calls behind for much of the day. Last year's record cold snap was worse with crews running about 60 to 70 calls behind, Gebel said.

Some calls were easy. Anne Cook's Volkswagen Jetta needed little more than a push to get out of a snow rut. Others cars, which went unmoved during a ban on towing, required some digging.

"There are some you have to dig through three, four feet of snow before you can get them out," Gebel said.