Broken down buses a boon for one North Charleston company
The Post and Courier
A Charleston County school bus is towed Aug. 22 by Ron Smith of Elite Towing after the bus caught fire on Brick Kiln Parkway in Mount Pleasant's Rivertowne subdivision. None of the four students aboard the bus at the time of the fire was injured.
The Post and Courier
Elite Towing owner Gene Sanders (right) and his son Matt prepare to raise a damaged container from its trailer Thursday.
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Don't let the gritty job and grimy work shirt fool you. Gene Sanders is no grease monkey.
Over the past 18 years, he's built a family-owned, one-truck wrecker service into one of the Lowcountry's most recognizable heavy-duty towing companies.
Known for its school bus-yellow trucks and cartoonish door murals, Elite Towing's drivers have developed a reputation for quick responses, surgical precision and steely nerves.
In recent months, the North Charleston-based company's drivers have hauled public school buses that caught fire, plucked a precariously perched 18-wheeler off a highway guardrail and untangled a tragic eight-vehicle pileup that killed five.
The calls never stop, said Sanders, 45, who started the company in 1990. "It's nothing to get a call at midnight. As soon as you think you are going to take your wife and kids out to dinner, there's a call."
It's no coincidence Sanders paints his tow trucks school bus-yellow. He's a former school bus mechanic, and his company is the primary mover of broken down school buses in the Lowcountry.
The state's aging school bus fleet keeps the company's drivers hopping, day and night, rain or shine. This school year got off to a busy start recently with back-to-back bus fires in Berkeley and Charleston counties and a slew of other breakdowns
"You better be ready for the phone to ring for a school bus," Sanders said.
The company is contracted to tow buses for the Charleston County School District, but its expertise with the ubiquitous hulks assures that it handles a steady flow of bus breakdowns from Georgetown to Ridgeland. The company might tow 10 buses on a busy day.
"It's sad to rely on someone's misfortune, but it's a service that's needed," Sanders said.
He expects the state eventually will retire the most cantankerous of its 5,700 buses, which could mean a drop in that slice of his business. So he tries to stay diversified by towing tractor-trailers and never saying no when the phone rings.
The company also is on a rotation list that emergency officials use when calling for wreckers to clear accident scenes.
Elite got the call Aug. 20 when a tractor-trailer veered off the Mark Clark Expressway. The truck's trailer plunged over the guard rail to the marsh below while its overturned cab teetered on the guard rail. The tow-truck operator sized up the situation as if lining up a golf putt before lifting the dangling truck to safety.
Eric Phillips, a battalion chief with the North Charleston Fire Department, said he watched in amazement as the Elite driver skillfully maneuvered the wreckage back on to the roadway.
"It's almost like poetry in motion," Phillips said. "They know the angles and exactly what's going to happen if they pull it this way or that way. They are experts at what they do."
Today, Elite Towing boasts nine trucks and 12 employees, including Sanders' wife and two sons.
The company has handled many unique hazards. Drivers encounter blood-splattered vehicles in the wake of accidents and toxic chemicals oozing from overturned tankers.
They've also responded to their share of fatal accidents. Sanders once had the grim duty of hoisting a vehicle wreckage into the air so the coroner could access and identify a body trapped in the tangled metal.
The towing and recovery trade also carries risks for its own workers, who spend much of their day walking a tightrope between the road shoulder and passing traffic. In 1992, one of Sanders' employees was struck and killed by a passing motorist while working a job along Interstate 95.
Danger isn't the only job hazard. The industry battles negative perceptions that tow-truck operators are unscrupulous profiteers.
That's one reason why Sanders' company won't do repossessions. When you tow 18-wheelers, there's no such thing as a quick and stealthy getaway, he said.
Reach Ron Menchaca at rmenchaca@postandcourier.com or 937-5724.
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Comments
oldglory (anonymous) says...
Interesting article.
September 7, 2008 at 8:11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
charlestonnative1963 (anonymous) says...
interesting indeed. And a shame that they get so much business from an old fleet of school buses that carry our "children" to schools that are over burdened by budget cuts and classrooms that are to full because of teacher cut backs in education
September 7, 2008 at 12:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wreckmaster013 (anonymous) says...
Where do these reporters get their information anymore and do editors check any of it out for accurcy? Elite Towing was NOT started in 1990. It was started in 2002 With trucks that were divided by Sanders and his former partner whom gave him a truck back in 1990 to become partners. As for the tragic accident on I-526 that killed 5, was Elite the only towing company on scene, or were there other towing company's there that also got dirty, worked hard, and did not get any recozition in this article? There were! I never knew that Charleston County school district has a contract with Elite. I will like to see that contract and see if other towing companies were given a chance to bid. Since when is a towing company a voice on the aging fleet of our school buses.If 10 buses a day are towed on a busy day then it is possible for 2 or 3 to be towed on a slow day right? Well that is not a good or safe thing for our children whom ride these vechiles everyday. The public would also like to know that Sanders hire's strippers to pose on these ubiquitous hulks to make calenders(some of the topless type) to place in area business as well as the trucking vechiles. Strippers and schools buses!! What a really bad thought. Is that potery in motion as Eric Phillips, a battalion chief with the North Charleston Fire Department said? I would just like to say that there are other professional hard working towing companies around Charleston that never ask for a thank you but never get the credit they deserve either.
September 7, 2008 at 1:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
James29410 (anonymous) says...
Wreckmaster013 sounds like a jealous scrupulous profiteer that gives the towing profession a bad name.
September 7, 2008 at 4 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
James29410 (anonymous) says...
Wreckmaster013 sounds like a scrupulous jealous tow truck driver that gives the profession a bad name.
September 7, 2008 at 4:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wreckmaster013 (anonymous) says...
This is in response to james29410. First, I challenge anybody to find anything in my comments that are lie's or incorrect. Also am I a scrupulous jealous tow truck driver that gives the profession a bad name or am I jealous scrupulous profiteer that gives the towing profession a bad name? I am far from either. Im for the towing industry. I am for all the hard working tow truck operators. I just have a problem with people giving the public not all of or not the right information.
September 7, 2008 at 5:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wreckmaster013 (anonymous) says...
Maybe you need to lay off the cold beer for a while! I said that the company that tow's the school buses is the company that hire's strippers for their calenders. Pornography will eat everybody alive!!!
September 7, 2008 at 6:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
drp7773 (anonymous) says...
Lets see my chices are to look at tow trucks, busses or boobies , mmmmmmmmm lets see ... @^@
September 7, 2008 at 6:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
James29410 (anonymous) says...
Wreckmaster must be the president of the North Charleston Towing Alliance and you know what I'm talking about.
September 7, 2008 at 9:43 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
James29410 (anonymous) says...
Wreckmaster sounds like a Hotdog!
September 8, 2008 at 8:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
le9876 (anonymous) says...
To Wreckmaster013 as if wreck master certification means diddly squat. I suppose you don't now nor have you ever owned a calendar with a naked chick on it. I suppose also since I assume you are a tow truck driver please take note to driver because you certainly don't operate one that you have never seen the calendars distributed by tool companies, wrecker companies (you know the ones who sell the wreckers), trucking companies etc. that pass out calendars with nudity on it so really we should probably all go to Elite Towing immediately and burn crosses in there yard for having nudity on calendars that they pass out to GROWN MEN. And while were at it we should also hit all the local strip clubs to because after all if they were just normal nude models it probably would be ok for them to be nude on trucks so we'll go ahead and protest against the strippers to. As for whether Elite Towing has a contract with Charleston County School District and since your so knowledgeable on Elite Towings business I'll ask for your proof that no contract exists. And I believe Gene Sanders has been in business since 1990 maybe not under Elite Towing but he has been in the wrecker business since then running his own company. So my advice mind your own business and stop attacking things that you don't know anything about.
September 8, 2008 at 9:33 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jackson707 (anonymous) says...
Sounds like wreckmaster is a JEALOUS former employee or a business owner that is also JEALOUS. And also maybe he is the one with the porno problem. Also wreckmaster, have you ever thought that maybe the one writing the article has removed or added things to make the atricle read like he wants it to. Nope because your a JEALOUS person. Question for wreckmaster. How did you get your name ?????? What makes you a wreck master ?????? I agree with Coldbeer. I have been Dealing with this Towing company since 1990. No trucks was given to Sanders in 1990. Wreckmaster get your story straight. Enough about the JEALOUS wreckmaster. Elite Towing is a company that takes pride in thier employees and equipment and also us as customers. Maybe the next article should be on us customers that use Elite Towing we will tell you how professional they are. I think Wreckmaster should be removed from the comments.
September 8, 2008 at 9:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
smalltowngirl (anonymous) says...
wreckmaster, sounds like you may be a little jealous of this company, and the asset they are to the low country. Got news for ya buddy-you are one of very few that doesnt appreciate them and what they do on the roads each day. They are a hard working team, and deserve this article. They have a great reputation that surely wasnt handed to them, they worked hard & earned it. They show hard work and dedication each and every day, mean while-what are you doing for the low country? As for the calendars, could it be that you're jealous b/c you didnt get one for yourself?
Thanks for all yall do, great job!
September 8, 2008 at 11:45 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
James29410 (anonymous) says...
Wreckmaster, a little birdie told me that you liked to masturbate in the sleeper of your wrecker. Is this true?
September 8, 2008 at 3:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
UberBlitzkrieg (anonymous) says...
wreckmaster013 is a tool. Elite is the best. I have been using them for quite a while and all of their guys are top notch! There are other tow companies out there but I always see Elite towing vehicles. Very rarely do I see the others. American Towing is a bunch of losers. Always have and always will.
Way to go Elite! Keep up the good work.
James, I don't know if I want to hear about the sleeper romps. EEEEEEEEwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!
September 9, 2008 at 11:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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