All heads turned when Priority Towing’s 35-ton wrecker wheeled into the Safety Vision HQ parking lot last week. From the red & white checkerboard custom paint job* to the “In loving memory of our dad Joe” emblazoned on the truck’s side to the chrome- and woodgrain-detailed dash, this is one eye-catching vehicle!

Rig operator Jesse Oropeza stopped by for an adjustment to the collision avoidance camera system installed on this Peterbilt 379 Vulcan V70, one of two heavy duty wreckers in Priority’s six-truck fleet. Jesse enthused about the Safety Vision camera & monitor system, saying, “I’ve been driving wreckers for 18 years, and this back-up camera is the best safety tool I’ve seen. [Fleet owner] Joe Davis won’t put a truck on the road without one. These trucks are so big that, without the cameras, you’re asking for trouble.” According to Jesse, Priority is considering adding side-view cameras to its fleet to further improve driver visibility and enhance roadway safety.

Visit our flickr site for more great shots of Priority’s big rig. We’ve also posted albums featuring recent visits from other tow truck outfits: Houston’s Ideal Towing and Riverside Towing out of Baton Rouge. The latter company keeps busy towing illegally parked cars on and within a 5-mile radius of the LSU campus. (Geaux, Tigers!)

Both Ideal and Riverside are maximizing the benefits of mobile video. In addition to collision avoidance camera & monitor systems that help operators avoid accidents in real time, they’ve incorporated onboard video recording solutions to enhance fleet security. These solutions feature mobile DVRs that capture a video and audio record of each towing; and the recordings can be used to refute claims of damage to towed vehicles or to reconstruct the sequence of events, after the fact.

Amy Seals, who runs Riverside Towing with her husband Tim, tells us, “We record all our trips. We used to have people tell us, ‘You did this to my car’ or ‘You did that to my car.’ Now we have the entire drive recorded, from the hook-up to the lot.” So when the vehicle owners learn that the trips are recorded–start to finish–they’re less likely to lodge false complaints. For larger fleets with several rig operators, recording systems may also improve driver accountability.

Amy says Riverside first “ran into” Safety Vision at a tow show, where Safety Vision’s personal flashlight DVR caught their eye as a uniquely mobile safety tool capable of both illuminating and recording scenes in dim light; this versatile tool also takes still photos. Today, Riverside is enjoying a fleshed-out mobile video system that includes one forward-facing interior camera, an in-cab monitor, four exterior cameras (two side-view, two rear-view), and a mobile DVR. Now all they need is a FLIR PathFindIR infrared camera for enhanced visibility in even the darkest environments.

And speaking of tow shows: We’re fresh off the 21st annual American Towman Expo, held this past weekend in Baltimore, MD. If you were there, perhaps you chatted with our Duane Rumski in booth #635. If not, please give Duane or any Safety Vision account executive a call to learn how our collision avoidance and onboard surveillance solutions can help your tow truck fleet enhance safety, reduce risk, and improve business results. We’ve got your back, when it comes to mobile video.

(*Psst: Want to see more tricked-out rides? Sign in to Fleet Owner magazine’s Web site for their 2009 Vehicle Graphics Awards. And for more truck talk, you also may link to two Fleet Owner blogs in our blogroll, at right: Trucks at Work and Trucking Straight Talk.)

Posted by Christine Portillo
Tags: backup safety camera, FLIR PathFindIR thermal camera, heavy duty wrecker, LinkedIn, Peterbilt 379 Vulcan V70, tow show, tricked out truck, vehicle graphics

Filed under Fleet Operations, Goings On
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.