When police made the move from old scanners to new, digital forms of communication, it barely registered as news for the vast majority of Ballarat residents.
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There is however one group of locals who have felt the impact left by the switch. Tow-truck drivers.
In the past, drivers would listen in to the police scanner to find out where accidents had happened.
This often led to a mad dash, free-for-all type system where drivers would race to the incident hoping to arrive first and secure the prized tow.
Now with the scanner offline, this is still happening, just with less reliable information.
“We often don’t know where the incidents are,” tow truck driver Damian told The Courier.
“We may know what area or what road but we’re acting on a lot less reliable information.”
Because of this, Damian has considered stepping away from the industry.
“I love my job, I love getting out on the road but it just comes to a point where it’s not worth it.
“Before the scanner went offline I’d go out to a minimum of two jobs a day. Now I might only go out to two jobs all week.
“I’m on call 128 hours a week but only now bringing in about $400 a week, something has to change for me to stay with it.”
A potential change to help tow truck drivers is the implementation of an allocation system. This would mean when a smash occurs, the police would allocate the incident to a towing business on a rotational basis.
Damian believes this would make the entire process a lot safer for everyone.
“You won’t get us flying around trying to get there first, it’ll stop six different trucks rocking up to the one job and causing more congestion and it’ll make life easier for the cops because we won’t be in their way.”
These sentiments were echoed by Barry James Smash Repairs owner Glen James.
“Having companies take turns would not only be safer but make the customer’s experience a lot easier,” he said.
“Customers won’t have 10 different tow truck drivers shoving paperwork in their face trying to get their signature.”
Both Bendigo and Geelong use an allocation system during their incidents. It would be up to Ballarat Police to make the decision whether the system could be implemented locally.