Can anyone hear me, we’re in Trouble - The Australian Magazine 24-25 Nov

[Blue_haired_man]

The data given on the average cost and number of recoveries each year seems to amount to a turnover of $250k/year? I am a bit surprised they dont seem to fully see it as a meaningful income stream?

Also interesting is the list of damage to one of the recovery vehicles in this incident. Took a chunk of the money.

Turn over is a whole lot different to profit. The overheads, especially insurance for this type of work, vehicle and equipment maintenance, fuel and wages would all cut down margins substantially. A two day drive is four days labour as the recovery team need to get back to their place of origin. At the end of the day, it is a business, not a charity.

If these people want to publicly shit can the business who is out there offering the service because in their eyes the recovery wasn’t timely enough, there is nothing stopping them moving out there, starting a competing business, putting down the collateral/risk and running it their way.
Cheers Leo

 

[cradokaone]

My opinion based on the article only is that the managers at Mt Dare are inept and offer a service but fail to deliver timely and efficiently..
Fancy having 2 recovery vehicles out of action and not notifying the intended recipients of the situation, IMO Mt Dare should have notified Birdsville and let them get on with it.
Things worked out in the end regardless of all the combined circumstances and that's a good thing..

 

[phs]

My opinion based on the article only is that the managers at Mt Dare are inept and offer a service but fail to deliver timely and efficiently..
Fancy having 2 recovery vehicles out of action and not notifying the intended recipients of the situation, IMO Mt Dare should have notified Birdsville and let them get on with it.
Things worked out in the end regardless of all the combined circumstances and that's a good thing..

Agree,

What they did was extreamly careless
They should have advised them when they first asked that there vehicles were out of action and did not have an ETA

This also shows the need for sat phones, there is no way you can carry enough spares to cover any brakeage hell We can't even get Toyota to fix our Prado under a few months and we live 10 minuets from a dealer.

The scare part is the move advanced they become the harder more problematic they become and the harder they are to fix without dealership software

 

[Rhett HS]

There might be a gentlemans agreement between mt dare and birdsville, a halfway mark or suchlike.

Mt dare might have not wanted to sacrifice the income.

The traytop at birdsville seems the go for broken down vehicles especially modern vehicles. He said it is slow though, not a lot of power.

I dont know for sure what mt dare use but i recall someone using a patrol.

 

[Neil Watts]

There might be a gentlemans agreement between mt dare and birdsville, a halfway mark or suchlike.

Mt dare might have not wanted to sacrifice the income.

The traytop at birdsville seems the go for broken down vehicles especially modern vehicles. He said it is slow though, not a lot of power.

I dont know for sure what mt dare use but i recall someone using a patrol.

Income should be a secondary consideration in my opinion, your comment just confirms my suspicion that they are money gougers!

When its all said and done there's a lot of "coulda/woulda/shoulda" and I accept that it is a user pays senario but my discust is that they committed to something they knew they couldn't deliver! Not fair!

 

[mikehzz]

Yeah, I read the whole thing, and reckon this wasn't life threatening at any time. The police seem to agree with me. This was essentially a vehicle recovery in extremely difficult circumstances, there were other people there with a working vehicle. In my opinion Mt Dare had every right to ask for payment beforehand but probably stuffed the negotiations due to their own problems. You'd want some sort of commitment to set off on a 2 day journey with the possibility of nobody there when you arrive. I drove a taxi when I was younger and driving a couple of suburbs to pick up a booked fare often left you out of pocket because they were gone. People will take any opportunity to get out of a multi thousand dollar recovery bill and I'm sure it has happened to them before. If it was life threatening then I'm pretty sure all sorts of help would have been offered from many different directions with no mention of money. The people ignored a bucket load of warnings and recommendations to get into the situation.

 

[Rhett HS]

Is the recovery cost ever covered by the recovered vehicle owners comprehensive car insurance?

 

[Blue_haired_man]

Income should be a secondary consideration in my opinion, your comment just confirms my suspicion that they are money gougers!

When its all said and done there's a lot of "coulda/woulda/shoulda" and I accept that it is a user pays senario but my discust is that they committed to something they knew they couldn't deliver! Not fair!

The question is how much truth is in the article? There’s always three sides to a story, each parties version and the truth, this one has a journalist trying to make it dramatic as possible for their article?

As I said earlier, they aren’t running a charity. There’s nothing stopping you from heading out there and doing just that for all these unprepared poor darlings.when was the water tank ruptured? Before or during the desert crossing? Was it communicated to mount dare that they actually had nearly exhausted their water and food supplies? Did mount dare force them to be out there, or insist they did not need a reliable source of communication in the middle of a desert? And did they actually confirm they would arrive on x day. Not to mention when did the accident involving one of the recovery vehicles happen? And did anyone require hospital treatment since it was such a life and death situation?

I call bullshit thanks to the ending where poor old love refuses to take a leak at night because the dingos may get her in the hallway.

At the end of the day if you expect to head out into very remote areas, plan for the worst and don’t carry on like a pork chop when it does actually hit the fan and others don’t drop what their doing to save the day immediately without being compensated. If that’s their attitude buy a PlayStation and don’t leave the couch, sure as hell don’t attempt a desert crossing.
Cheers

 

[mikehzz]

Is the recovery cost ever covered by the recovered vehicle owners comprehensive car insurance?

Club 4x4 offer it built in. You still have to pay it up front then claim it back though. No other insurance that I know of will cover you. They may have road side assist but there are distance limits plus other restrictions.

 

[Neil Watts]

The question is how much truth is in the article? There’s always three sides to a story, each parties version and the truth, this one has a journalist trying to make it dramatic as possible for their article?

As I said earlier, they aren’t running a charity. There’s nothing stopping you from heading out there and doing just that for all these unprepared poor darlings.when was the water tank ruptured? Before or during the desert crossing? Was it communicated to mount dare that they actually had nearly exhausted their water and food supplies? Did mount dare force them to be out there, or insist they did not need a reliable source of communication in the middle of a desert? And did they actually confirm they would arrive on x day. Not to mention when did the accident involving one of the recovery vehicles happen? And did anyone require hospital treatment since it was such a life and death situation?

I call bullshit thanks to the ending where poor old love refuses to take a leak at night because the dingos may get her in the hallway.

At the end of the day if you expect to head out into very remote areas, plan for the worst and don’t carry on like a pork chop when it does actually hit the fan and others don’t drop what their doing to save the day immediately without being compensated. If that’s their attitude buy a PlayStation and don’t leave the couch, sure as hell don’t attempt a desert crossing.
Cheers

Sorry! Can't agree with you on this one, take the blame out of it, take the recklessness out of it. If I tell someone I'll do something then I do it, just the way I am, if I commit then I'm in. They committed to something before doing their due diligence. Show me the money..... oh hang on we don't have a vehicle that can help, you just sit there for a couple more days and we'll get there when we can, should have been offloaded to the authorities or Birdsville immediately.

 

[boobook]

I think those people should have had a Rangor Raptor. That would have solved most of their issues.

 

[phs]

I think those people should have had a Rangor Raptor. That would have solved most of their issues.

There's an idea dune jumping

 

[mikehzz]

I think those people should have had a Rangor Raptor. That would have solved most of their issues.

The trailer was probably over its tow limit plus severely hampering its jumping skills. I saw one the other day, a bit too bulky for my taste.

 

[Tink]

Sorry! Can't agree with you on this one, take the blame out of it, take the recklessness out of it. If I tell someone I'll do something then I do it, just the way I am, if I commit then I'm in. They committed to something before doing their due diligence. Show me the money..... oh hang on we don't have a vehicle that can help, you just sit there for a couple more days and we'll get there when we can, should have been offloaded to the authorities or Birdsville immediately.

First contact was made on a dodgy radio, which was difficult to understand from what I read. If you know anything about Mt Dare Hotel, it has a couple of permanents and the rest are seasonal workers. Looks like from what I read that the boss was away when the first call came in. The person who took the radio call probably was not aware of the whole situation and was just the call taker.
Now, with a dodgy radio at the other end, how was anybody supposed to make contact and tell the “idiots in the desert” (let’s call them what they really were) that the recovery was delayed for whatever reason. Remember at no stage was any life in danger, it was not a medical or any sort of life saving emergency situation, it was only ever a simply vehicle recovery. All future contact appears to have been by way of two or three third parties around the country relaying radio calls from the idiots in the desert to and from Mt Dare. Not a very ideal situation for clear and concise communication.
Tink

 

[dno67]

I have not read the article but, l beleave there's some confusion between a recovery and a resue. If your hoping to use the services of a recovery as a resue service l think you have it all wrong. I don't
have a problem with money up front, there's plenty of businesses that
provide or supply there services under the same conditions. Why should a romote bissness in a high risk situation be any different.
The family could have waited at mt dare and tagged along with another or several other vehicles but chose to risk the journey
solo, so they have the right to way up the risks but mt dare don't?

 

[Blue_haired_man]

First contact was made on a dodgy radio, which was difficult to understand from what I read. If you know anything about Mt Dare Hotel, it has a couple of permanents and the rest are seasonal workers. Looks like from what I read that the boss was away when the first call came in. The person who took the radio call probably was not aware of the whole situation and was just the call taker.
Now, with a dodgy radio at the other end, how was anybody supposed to make contact and tell the “idiots in the desert” (let’s call them what they really were) that the recovery was delayed for whatever reason. Remember at no stage was any life in danger, it was not a medical or any sort of life saving emergency situation, it was only ever a simply vehicle recovery. All future contact appears to have been by way of two or three third parties around the country relaying radio calls from the idiots in the desert to and from Mt Dare. Not a very ideal situation for clear and concise communication.
Tink

My point exactly

 

[Blue_haired_man]

I have not read the article but, l beleave there's some confusion between a recovery and a resue. If your hoping to use the services of a recovery as a resue service l think you have it all wrong. I don't
have a problem with money up front, there's plenty of businesses that
provide or supply there services under the same conditions. Why should a romote bissness in a high risk situation be any different.
The family could have waited at mt dare and tagged along with another or several other vehicles but chose to risk the journey
solo, so they have the right to way up the risks but mt dare don't?

Once again, my point exactly

 

[Rhett HS]

My tentative assessment:
Mt Dare were allocated the job via gentlemans agreement.
Mt Dare want the income.
They predict when they can get their vehicle(s) up and running, and give timeframe.
They cant get them up and running in time, maybe they need parts they dont have and will take too long to arrive.
They organise alternative solution.

 

[Blue_haired_man]

Sorry! Can't agree with you on this one, take the blame out of it, take the recklessness out of it. If I tell someone I'll do something then I do it, just the way I am, if I commit then I'm in. They committed to something before doing their due diligence. Show me the money..... oh hang on we don't have a vehicle that can help, you just sit there for a couple more days and we'll get there when we can, should have been offloaded to the authorities or Birdsville immediately.

Happy to agree to disagree. But the article is lacking any proof of mount dare promising to me there on day “x” apart from some here say in a sob story magazine article. In which I don’t recall any mention of contacting mount dare I might add. There was also very little information regarding whether the fact it took them time to attain funds to pay for the recovery as required by the recoverer and whether this impacted the timing of the departure.

You and I will never know the full details of what was said and then relayed through Chinese whispers since they didn’t have any direct means of communication. If it was such a life threatening situation the could have activated their beacon...oh wait. They could have called...of wait. Oh wait no sympathy

 

[Albynsw]

Club 4x4 offer it built in. You still have to pay it up front then claim it back though. No other insurance that I know of will cover you. They may have road side assist but there are distance limits plus other restrictions.

And it is not covered by NRMA etc as it is not a designated road so you need to get back to MT Dare or Birdsville before their services of whatever cover you have with them kicks in.