Winter that won’t relent is big business for towing operation

Damaged and broken-down cars are filling up the lot at Eddie’s Service in Saukville.

“The ice has done a lot of damage to vehicles,” owner Paul Krauska said. “There were cars stuck in ditches or pinned between trees. During a snowstorm, sometimes we’re up to a two-hour ETA. We’re towing around the clock.”

Towing calls have been up since December, and for the past two months the auto repair shop at 125 N. Riverside Dr. towed about 100 vehicles.

“December was horrid. I only had five to six tows. In February, we did $22,000 worth of towing,” Krauska said. “Normally, January is the freezing cold month and in February it starts to warm up. We haven’t warmed up yet and we have more cold spells coming, so battery sales are going to pick up as well.”

Krauska said most of his service calls have been for flat tires caused by potholes or low tire pressure from the frigid temperature. Because of the close succession of winter storms the last couple of months, customers also needed assistance pulling out of their driveways.

“We were pulling cars out of driveways because they couldn’t get out. They couldn’t put out salt because it was one catastrophic thing after the next,” Krauska said.

He added his tow truck drivers are also helping good Samaritans who damaged their vehicles while trying to help their friends who were stuck.

In addition to towing, Krauska has been unusually busy repairing cars with suspension issues because of the road conditions.

“Even our alignments are up,” he said. “The roads are buckling and potholes are popping up. It’s doing more damage to the vehicles, which is great for us but unfortunate for the customers.”

Krauska’s technicians are working hard to remedy problems involving clutches and transmissions, which are not weather related but are causing issues this season.

“People are hanging on to their cars longer. It seems like the types of repairs are more expensive than last year,” Krauska said, noting credit card  sales are 20% higher than last year.

He said most of those problems could be avoided if people took time to do some preventative maintenance checks.

“A lot of people don’t spend much time thinking about their car. They’re not planning ahead because they just want to get in their car and go to work,” he said.