More than four decades of towing the line

Shaunavon’s Ian Morstad is a busy man. His tow truck service is integral to the A & B Auto Centre business.

Often taken for granted until you find yourself in a situation requiring his services, Morstad is an unsung hero who will respond at any hour, in any season, and in almost any weather condition to give you a boost, a tow or a lift.

Morstad smiles, “It’s a fun job. I love it. There aren’t many roads that I haven’t travelled. I get a thrill driving on roads I haven’t driven on before, and GPS makes it very easy these days.”

Correct dispatching is still crucial, even with GPS.

“The only time I had trouble locating a vehicle from a dispatch was on a call to Dollard. It turns out the dispatcher had mistaken Dollard, SK, for Dollard, Que. I didn’t complete that call,” he said with a chuckle.

Towing has seen Morstad put on more miles in a day than he cares to admit, and at times, he might finish one trip only to be dispatched and rerouted to another location.

Morstad has travelled as far as Peterborough, Ontario, with many trips as far as Winnipeg or north of Edmonton.

This winter has already seen some challenging weather conditions, but Morstad recalls the 2010 and 2011 winter as the worst in his memory.

“There was probably eight feet of snow, and we had a terrible cold snap in January. I started my truck on Sunday one week and it ran steady until the following Saturday. There were a lot of calls for boosts or to simply haul a vehicle to a shop.”

Calls for a tow truck might also involve locked vehicles (particularly if a child or pet is locked inside), pulling out stuck vehicles, accident calls, oilpatch breakdowns or recovering vehicles that have fallen through the ice.

Less urgent trips might involve hauling new or wrecked vehicles to and from destinations.

The job comes with potential hazards.

“I don’t enjoy doing calls along the Number 1 highway; it’s so busy now. One of my scariest calls was for a breakdown up on the Bench. I was plowing snow the whole way. But, we made it,” said Morstad. “There’s also been some very icy conditions where I found myself crawling across the highway, hauling the tow line for hooking up, because it was so windy and icy, I couldn’t even stand up.”

He describes his heaviest job as winching a jackknifed semi up a hill.

“Getting called out in whiteout conditions is not great either, but people are pretty good now and don’t head out if conditions are bad,” he said. “As long as the people are brought to a safe location, we can go out when conditions improve to tow the vehicle.”

He does not go out if roads are closed unless emergency services are involved in the call.

“I’ve only hit the ditch once myself, but a nearby farmer pulled me out.”

Morstad has one piece of advice: “If you request a tow truck and meanwhile another solution arises, or someone else pulls you out or gives you a boost, please call back to cancel the call in case another dispatch comes through where that tow truck may be needed.”

Today, his towing fleet includes a 2009 wrecker/winch truck and a 2017 bed truck with a deck for easier vehicle hauling. The winch truck has been affectionately named Ironhide, after a well-known Transformers character.

Tow trucks are a natural fit with the auto body business.

Morstad said he got into the business entirely by accident, quite literally.

“Back in Grade 12, in 1980, I accidentally ran into a parked car near the Shaunavon post office. I immediately drove around the corner to A & B Auto Centre on 2nd Ave East. Al and Barry Stevenson were the owners at the time. I offered to put in hours myself to help pay for the damages and to maybe do some work above and beyond to make things right. Barry asked me if I could start the following Monday,” Morstad said.

“There was a lot of hail that first year I was working there, so there were lots of overtime hours to apply to my apprenticeship,” he said. “I apprenticed for four years and did a couple of stints at school. I received my Journeyman’s Certificate as a Motor Vehicle Body Repair Technician in 1983.”

Morstad then bought the business from Al and Barry Stevenson and continues to be involved in the business 42 years later.

A & B Auto Centre moved to its current location along Highway 37 after completing new construction in 1997.

The transition of ownership to his son, Dane, will take effect in 2025, but Morstad has no plans to abandon his tow truck driver role any time soon. “I’ll continue to operate the tow truck along with other smaller jobs around the A & B shop. I also do most of the work on combine and tractor windows.”

His home shop has a few auto body restoration projects underway that he hopes to spend more time working on, along with spending time with his wife Donna and their three children and eight grandchildren, who are spread out among the three prairie provinces that he has travelled so frequently for work.

When asked if he will stop for others broken down at the side of the road when he’s travelling but ‘off duty,’ he instantly replies, “You bet I do.”

This story was originally published in The Shaunavon Standard . It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.