TOTEM TOWING was founded in 1973. Neil Clarke purchased one tow truck to service his three Service Stations in the Victoria area.  After a year went by, the towing demands from his and other garages warranted the purchase of a second truck.

In 1976, the first expansion opportunity presented itself to Neil; the owner of Tolmie Towing was offered a job with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia. Working for the Corporation and owning a towing company put the owner in a conflict of interest position, thus the he was motivated to sell. Neil could not resist the opportunity to expand his towing business and purchased Tolmie Towing immediately.

For a time Neil ran his business as Tolmie-Totem Towing. The three T’s inspired the new company name of "Triple T Developments Ltd., dba Totem Towing".

Besides running all his Service Stations, in 1989 Neil’s company had grown to a fleet of twelve trucks. This was the year for another injection of trucks to the fleet. In 1989, Triple T Developments Ltd purchased the fleet of four tow trucks from Colwood Sooke Towing.

In 1990, Neil promoted Dan Bird to manage the towing divisions of his company. For the next several years, Triple T Developments Ltd would run two divisions; Totem Towing in Greater Victoria and Colwood Sooke Towing in the Western Communities, serving all the municipalities from Victoria to Sooke and the Malahat.

1990 was also the year the Totem fleet took on a new look to a more distinct and recognizable color scheme.

With the construction of the new highway link from Victoria and Colwood, the travel time between the communities was greatly reduced. By 1999, Totem Towing and Colwood Sooke Towing were so intertwined; the decision was made to merge the two divisions into one.

By the year 2000, Totem Towing had grown to a fleet of fifteen tow trucks and three service vehicles, one motorcycle trailer, and one tandem equipment trailer and were the largest contractor for the British Columbia Automobile Association, serving the Greater Victoria area exclusively for 27 years.

In 2000, the owners Neil Clarke, Judy Clarke and Dan Bird employed a staff of thirty-two professional drivers and dispatchers, who responded to approximately 50,000 customer calls annually. Our team is dedicated to servicing and towing customers in need, and have for many years had a policy of NOT doing private impounds.

We believe strongly in professionalism, teamwork, and doing the job right the first time. To remind us of this every day, we have our motto on all our tow trucks "Doing it Right!"


BELMONT TOWING JOINS THE TEAM IN 2002!

THE NEW CENTURY has brought major growth to the Western Communities; now know as the “Westshore”.  The new highway to the Westshore is fast filling up with traffic, making it increasingly difficult to quickly move between the two regions of Greater Victoria during the rush hours.

In 2002, Dave Baird, the owner of Belmont Collision (1975) Ltd. decided to concentrate on what they do best, collision and automotive repairs.  He approached us with an offer to sell off the towing portion of their business.

On May 1, 2002, Triple T Developments Ltd. seized the opportunity to improve their service in the fast growing area and purchased Belmont Towing. The Belmont Towing fleet will continue to primarily operate in and support the Westshore Communities. The Totem Towing fleet will concentrate mainly on the downtown area of Greater Victoria. Both divisions continue to assist and support each other as the need arises to provide the most efficient service possible for our valued customers.

This acquisition brought our company to a fleet of 23 trucks and trailers, and a professional staff of 21 drivers, 10 office & dispatch staff, and a full time mechanic to keep the fleet on the road 24 hour a day.

2003 BRINGS ANOTHER GROWTH OPPORTUNITY FOR TOTEM TOWING!

As was the case in 1989 with the owner of Colwood Sooke Towing and with Belmont Collision in 2002, the owners of Audy Auto Body & Towing decided to sell of the towing portion of their business and concentrate on their body shop business.  We feel very fortunate to have been approached by Sylvain and Jacqueline Audy to take over their towing business.

On October 1, 2003, Triple T Developments Ltd. took over the operations of Audy Towing.  Audy Towing was a Westshore company who was the exclusive tower for the RCMP at the time of the purchase.  The RCMP fortunately continued the relationship with us after the transfer of ownership.

Flying two flags was difficult enough and now that we had three divisions to deal with, we knew we had to act quickly to minimize the confusion for our customers.  In order to simplify our accounting processes and eliminate the confusion for our staff and most importantly our customers, we decided to change all the divisions to Totem Towing.

We broke our company into two divisions:

• The Westshore division mainly services from View Royal to the Malahat and Sooke and all points between.  This division responds to all the RCMP in the Westshore area and houses the vehicles in our lot at 1297 Glenshire Drive, just off Sooke Rd.

• The Victoria division continues to service the rest of the Greater Victoria area.  This division is the exclusive tower for the Saanich and Oak Bay Police Departments.  The vehicles towed for these departments are stored at 3333 Tennyson Ave.

In 2005, company has grown to a team of forty-six full-time and part-time staff, with a fleet of 28 trucks and trailers.  In order to better service the Westshore, we have 8 drivers who reside and service that area 24 hour a day.  The rest of the fleet primarily services the urban part of Greater Victoria.  Although this is the primary structure, all trucks will go where they are needed to provide the best customer service possible.

STAY TUNED, WHO KNOWS WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS!