Our Best Stories of 2021

2021 has been a big year for Merciful Towing. We are excited to share some of the highlights of the year. Our team is grateful for all the opportunities we have had to serve customers on their worst days. Merciful Towing will be ready and standing by for your emergencies and towing needs in 2022 and beyond.

Merciful Towing’s Journey

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Our journey to opening our new home began in early 2020. After looking at over 20 properties with a realtor, we had almost given up hope of finding one. Finally in December, a large 12-acre lot near exit 89 in Oak Grove, KY became available. The property needed extensive cleanup work, but came with a two-sided billboard, a double-wide trailer, and a large barn-style building.

By January 2021, we closed the deal on our new home at 1834 Carneal Lane, and opened the doors of Merciful Towing and Recovery a few weeks later. We started the year with eight trucks and operators. Access to phones and the internet was problematic because of the location of the property. Good communication outlets are essential for our business, so we quickly gained internet through a cable TV provider and hired a contractor to install new lines, phones, and a server. We outfitted our dispatch center with new equipment so we can support eight full-time dispatchers with five dispatch terminals.

By August, we were able to keep our dispatch center open 24/7. Our team had to grow to allow for towing coverage 24/7, so we started adding and training drivers. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and shortages, we secured over 24 trucks by the end of the year, not including the other additional equipment we gained, such as trailers, forklifts, semi-tractor trailers, and more.

As the year comes to an end, we are still rapidly hiring technicians to keep up with the demand. In the course of a year, we went from working out of a 5,000 square foot building in Cadiz, KY to a 12-acre location with unlimited growth potential. Additionally, we became a AAA PSP in Davidson County, TN to assist in fleet operations, which pushed us to max capacity with our current staff and trucks. Despite being pushed to our limits, our team still maintained a 4.9-star rating or above in three locations on Google. We are exceptionally proud of our growth during another challenging pandemic year.

Most Unusual Towing Job Of The Year

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We have helped countless motorists this year, but one story stands out as our most unique challenge. On October 13th at approximately 1:13 PM, we received a call to action on Wallonia Road in Cadiz, KY. A semi pulling a 16×68 partial section of a double-wide mobile home had overturned with no injuries. Our team brought multiple heavy-duty wreckers to evaluate the situation and provide support. Once on the scene, we got the big picture of just how large this section of a double-wide mobile home was. Our two heavy-duty wreckers appeared very small while sitting next to this trailer.

Since this was a section of a mobile home, the side facing the sky was open. Proper rigging was essential to prevent the trailer from destroying itself once we started to tighten the cables. We requested more straps and chains be brought to the scene to handle this unique towing issue. The manufacturer expected that we would need to dispose of the trailer on the scene into roll-off containers, but our team was not intimidated by the challenge.

We rigged the trailer for an up-righting process. The two heavy-duty wreckers were able to upright the trailer back onto the wheels with minimal damage. Our team worked together to help the trailer come down smoothly. One of our operators placed his rollback in the adjacent field and ran a cable to soft strap over the trailer to assist in slowing the trailer down as it came over onto the wheels. The tongue of the trailer was not strong enough to continue being used for transport, so we removed it and rigged the frame for transport with a heavy-duty towing truck.

Next, we had to back the 16-foot wide trailer 1,000 feet into a nearby field over, and somehow turn it around, which was more challenging as it became dark. The Trigg County Sheriff’s Office was contacted to assist us with traffic control. We traveled at approximately 30 MPH for the eight miles back to our facility in Cadiz, KY. Everyone was surprised to see the trailer pulled down the road without total destruction from the up-righting process.

2021 has been a challenging and rewarding year for Merciful Towing. We are excited to see what next year holds. Our team is looking forward to serving you in 2022!