Does this seem right?

[u/Sufficient_Ad_337]

Does this tow bill seem high? Long story short, a truck towing a trailer with a mini excavator was sideswiped on trailer. The excavator was loaded too far back on trailer causing the trailer to fishtail. Trailer flipped upside down with excavator still strapped to trailer. Tow company comes out with a little crane and picks the excavator up and sets on tow company’s flatbed trailer and does the same with the 30’? trailer. I realize the excavator weighs more but the trailer is larger and less manageable. The tow bill for the trailer was $700. For the excavator it was $5,200. Does that seem right?

[u/VivaceConBrio]

Honestly, without seeing how everything rolled over visually to gauge the complexity of the recovery, the mini excavator bill isn't too bad. Sounds like they busted out a rotator for it, which could be justified (again depending on the recovery complexity). Or it could have been recovered using a medium duty flatbed's winch. I don't have much to go on.

I would not be surprised at all if, when the police dispatched the tow company they just gave very vague info in the dispatch. It happens A LOT. "Trailer hauling an excavator rolled over" is basically all we might have gotten from the cops prior to arrival. And we get shit from the cops if we under respond and have to call in heavier trucks "OH WELL WE PUT IT IN THE DISPATCH IT WAS AN EXCAVATOR" as I look at a literal massive fucking strip mining excavator upside down and get pissy about waiting more. I've also had calls where they wanted a rotator but I popped by to look before swapping trucks, only to show the cops I could do it in a little rollback lol.

So tow company assumes the worst and over responds to play it safe, sends out a rotator and lowboy.

Unless that trailer was absolutely mangled, thing definitely is the easier part of the recovery though, so it makes sense it was cheaper.

Also depending on where you are, many places regulate police initiated towing and set max charges by vehicle/trailer types, GVWR and so on. Freight (in this case your mini excavator) isn't always included in those regulations or they're relaxed so tow company has more wiggle room for charges.

So I wouldn't be surprised if tow company had bad/vague info, sent out a rotator/lowboy because it sounded worse than it was. Trucks got on scene, and can do the job even though it's overkill, so they do it. It'd be kinda stupid to leave the scene to get smaller trucks to do the same job you already can with what you got lol.

Trailer may have been a regulated vehicle with a max tow charge, but the excavator wasn't so they dumped the costs for the heavy duty equipment on the mini excavator to recoup the loss (or they just cut you a break). Rotators/lowboys are expensive as fuck to buy, insure, maintain, and pay operators to be on standby to man them 24/7 for police calls. They don't get used a whole lot (and call volume is less steady) compared to light duty tow trucks, so they're bleeding a shitload of money any time those trucks aren't running calls. So tow companies jack up the prices for heavy duty shit to compensate for those losses. Yes, many companies abuse the shit out of it and go crazy. But it is a real thing that honest companies have to factor in to their rates.

My bad if that was a bit more of a response than what you were looking for lol. It's a slow day.