The American Trucking Assns. (ATA) has officially endorsed towing and recovery services provided by a California company that operates throughout the continental United States and much of Canada.
American Towing Alliance (ATowA) provides heavy-duty towing and recovery services that include tow dispatch, incident management and invoicing and payment processing.

ATA estimates trucking companies should see bottom-line savings of between 10 to 30% on annual towing costs, and realize major savings with internal processes such as dispatching and accounting. Mid- and small-size trucking companies that run interstate routes should realize the greatest savings.
Under the terms of the endorsement, ATA members will pay a 6% dispatch fee for each tow and non-members a 10% fee.
"This is a project that ATA and the state associations have developed together," said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. He said the endorsement came in response to state trucking association requests that ATA find a nationwide heavy-duty towing and recovery provider committed to "quick response and fair pricing."
"We are pleased to extend this added value to ATA members and state trucking associations." Graves said.
"This is a great start for a collaborative effort that addresses a serious concern of many trucking companies," said ATA Chairman Vern Garner. "The program is expected to reduce towing costs significantly by providing fairly-priced, high quality services to participating ATA and state trucking association members."
"Incident mitigation is simplified by a single call for recovery services," says Chris Carlson, chief operating officer at ATowA. "We only recruit the best towers for our network and monitor their performance rigorously."
"ATA considered these criteria, among many others, in determining how this endorsed program benefits the trucking industry," said Rick Todd, chairman of the Trucking Assn. Executive Council.
The program is seen by ATA as important to truckers in keeping down overhead required to research and establish towing relationships and in tracking, managing and paying for towing services. ATowA handles all dispatching and reviews all bills presented to truckers on a standardized invoice.
In addition to cost savings, the program is expected to provide other benefits. These include reduced trucker stress and faster incident mitigation. "We provide a highly responsive, single point of contact following an incident," says Carlson. "This means less time on the scene, reduced down-time for recoverable equipment, and improved cycle time for delivering recoverable payload."
American Towing Alliance was founded by a small group of towers to compete with services provided and prices charged by auto clubs and other towing networks. After nearly 24 months of operation, the towing and recovery network numbers 1,400 towers. Customers include 10 national trucking and transportation companies, and more than 50 independent trucking businesses that own and operate 125,000 power units.
For more information on the program, call ATA's Debbie Sparks at (703) 838-7962.