Financial Planning for Tow Truck Drivers and Traffic Crews

We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.

Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:

• Property & Investing
• Career & Income
• Tax Strategy
• Insurance & Protecting Your Family
• Super & SMSF
• Wealth & Investments
• Life Events & Changes
• Business & Wealth
• Legacy & Future Wealth
• Retirement Planning

This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.

Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.

Under one award, for example, a tow truck driver recalled outside normal hours for breakdown, accident or other emergency work is paid a call-back rate for the time recalled, with a minimum period. Your award, agreement or employment terms may differ, and Fair Work or your HR team can confirm what applies to you.

Call-backs depend on what comes in, so we plan with you from the pay you receive:

• Base pay for the regular bills
• Call-back pay given a purpose once it’s paid, such as a buffer, super or a goal
• A quieter month allowed for, so the plan still holds

Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.

What an accountant does

• Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
• Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
• Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
• Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction

What a financial adviser does

• Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
• Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
• Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
• Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
• Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations

Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.

Where they work together

• Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
• Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
• Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
• Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.

Fair Work says award coverage can be based on the employer’s industry and the work you do within it, your occupation, or both. One award, for example, covers employers whose establishment, plant or undertaking is principally connected or concerned with the vehicle repair, services and retail industry, which includes towing. An enterprise agreement can apply instead, and in some states, state public sector employees remain under the state system.

Fair Work, the relevant state body or your HR team can confirm which applies to you. Whichever it is, we plan with you from the pay you receive, and leave questions about your rate or classification to them.

In some states, driving a tow truck needs a certificate or accreditation, and running a towing business needs its own licence. The state licensing body can confirm what applies to you. Points worth planning:

• A deposit and repayments on a truck, with any loan arranged through a broker
• A buffer for quieter weeks
• Any cover through work or super, asked about before you leave wages
• Who pays your super on a contract, which an accountant or the ATO can confirm

We can work through each step with you before you commit.

The ATO says a business may have to pay super for a contractor if the contract is mainly for their labour (more than half the dollar value of the contract is for their labour), payment isn’t dependent on achieving a specified result, and the work can’t be delegated to someone else. Having an ABN doesn’t settle it. If you contract through your own company, trust or partnership, the business doesn’t have to pay your super.

The ATO leaves contract payments for materials, equipment or other non-labour items out of the earnings super is worked out on. An accountant or the ATO can confirm how that applies to your contract, and we can plan your super with you either way.

Not always. The ATO says you can usually choose your super fund, but lists times you may not be eligible, including if your super is paid under a state award or registered agreement, or you’re a federal or state public sector employee. Your employer or fund can confirm whether that’s you.

If the fund is set for you, there’s still plenty to plan: its fees and investment option, any cover inside it and what that costs, and contributions you could add on top. We can go through each with you.

In some areas, accident towing is shared out through a roster or allocation, so busy and quiet weeks can follow each other. Where a state sets maximum charges for accident towing, the price of a job may not rise when running costs do.

A plan can work up from the quieter weeks:

• A buffer that covers your regular costs for a slow stretch
• Truck repayments, if you have them, tested against a quiet month
• Good weeks put to work, such as topping up the buffer, super or a goal

We can build this with you, and an accountant can help with the tax on uneven income.

A general insurance broker can advise on cover for the truck, the yard and public liability, which protects what the business owns. That cover generally doesn’t replace your income or pay a lump sum to your family.

A financial adviser looks at you and your household: income protection, life and total and permanent disability (TPD) cover, the cover in your super, and how a truck loan or business debt fits a household plan. We can compare personal cover with you, and the insurer decides on any application.

A few places, depending on how you work. If you’re employed, sick leave may come first. Workers compensation is separate, through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies; some schemes treat some owner-drivers as workers. If you’re self-employed, Moneysmart notes you won’t have paid holidays or sick leave.

Income protection, if you hold it, can pay part of your income after a waiting period, subject to its terms, and scheme payments may reduce a benefit. Savings can help in the meantime. We can plan each part with you.

Who employs you shapes the first steps. On wages with a towing business, road agency or motorway operator, any paid leave can help first. In your own truck, savings can help with household bills and any truck repayments.

Workers compensation, if you’re eligible, is a separate claim through a state, territory or Commonwealth scheme, and each scheme sets who qualifies and its own rules for psychological injury.

We can help you understand how cover and its conditions treat a mental health condition linked to a serious incident at work. If you hold income protection or TPD, its terms are part of that, and the insurer decides any claim.

Free, confidential support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 and Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Yes. We’d start with when you’d like to stop towing or incident work, what your super and savings could provide, and whether extra contributions suit you, including as an owner-operator if no business pays your super. Coordinating jobs, managing a yard or training drivers before you finish is something we can plan for too, if you’d like it.

A truck or business you might sell later is worth planning as an extra, rather than as the money your retirement rests on. You can read more about our retirement advice.

We’re a national service, so you can meet with us by phone or video from anywhere in Australia. We also have offices in three cities:

• Sydney: offices in Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Seven Hills, Ingleburn and Narellan, servicing areas including the City of Sydney, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Sutherland Shire, Blacktown, Liverpool, Campbelltown and all surrounding suburbs.
• Melbourne: our St Kilda Road office, servicing areas including the City of Melbourne, Port Phillip, Boroondara, Monash, Casey, Wyndham and all surrounding suburbs.
• Brisbane: our Eagle Street office, servicing areas including Brisbane City, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and all surrounding suburbs.

Yes. New to towing, running your own truck or years into incident crew work, you can start from where things are now.

There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.

It’s worth bringing your last few payslips or your latest tax return, a super statement, papers for any policy you hold and details of a truck loan if there is one. Meetings can be in person or online.