More than 85 percent of all tows in the US involve passenger cars and light trucks. The majority of these tows are provided by small, family-owned towing businesses. The towing and recovery industry is highly regulated at the Federal, State, and local levels of government. In the past 20 years towing and recovery equipment has dramatically changed and increasingly becomes more sophisticated. Incident Management is a Department of Transportation priority in the quest to keep increasing traffic moving on the nation's highways.
Towers play a central role in assessing and clearing accident scenes.
Regulations mandating drug and alcohol testing for drivers in the trucking industry also cover tow truck drivers. This will add both a safety feature and a major compliance burden to the small tow company operator. The standards for towing and recovery knowledge developed by the National Driver Certification Program will be the established practice of all men and women working in the towing and recovery profession. TRAA will be the industry's primary source for technical, management, business, legislative, and professional information. As the social and economic burden of American society shift from the Federal government to the people, TRAA and the TRAA Education Foundation will lead the way to bring important human and social service programs to the men, women, and children of the towing and recovery association.