Audio Article: Woman of Towing

Woman of Towing: Stephanie Unruh

from the May 2023 Issue of Tow Times Magazine

Stephanie Unruh has been around trucking all her life but, in one of life’s funny twists and turns, she stumbled into towing and recovery. Unruh answered a blind ad for a dispatcher and it turned out to be a towing company, Auto House Inc. Towing & Recovery in Galva, Kansas.

“I went in for an interview and realized it was a towing company, which I knew nothing about,” she recalls. “I thought, it can’t be that hard to dispatch tow trucks versus semis.” That was in 2010, and it has been quite an evolution for Unruh, 47. The Arkansas native had been in Kansas only a year when she landed the towing dispatcher job.

Six months into the new job, she asked to go along on a tow. “[Her boss] showed me how to run the levers. He walked me through it.” Five years later, in 2015, she obtained a CDL, opening up more opportunities. She had always wanted to get a CDL, after all Unruh’s mom and dad own a trucking company back in Arkansas, but she was also scared of the idea. “I was afraid of backing up. You got these big trailers that you have to reverse into these little holes” for loading and unloading. With lots of encouragement, though, Unruh made the grade, and has not looked back since. Towing pumps Unruh’s adrenaline. She likes to go out on the heavy recoveries, the semis that drive into the wheat fields. “That’s the fun stuff,” she says. She loves the spontaneity of towing. “It kind of messes up long-term plans, but you run into so many different people and situations,” Unruh says. “You never know what you’re getting into.” Galva is one of the largest wheat producers in the nation, providing plenty of opportunity for semis to roll into wheat fields. In addition, towing a tractor-trailer in Kansas requires two people, per state regulations.

“In Kanas they will not let you tow a tractor and trailer together anymore,” Unruh explains. “You have to split them. Now when you do semi tows, it takes two people to do them.” The town is smack in Central Kansas, strategically located near Interstates 70 and 135, and U.S. 8. The towing company does a lot of heavy-duty hauling. Unruh explains that COVID made Kansas “pretty desolate,” so Auto House Towing shifted gears to do more over-the-road work, hauling grain. “We go to the elevators, feed lots, and farms,” she says. “I haul all this stuff out to these various places.” Today the company’s operations are split 50-50 between hauling and towing and recovery. On the towing side, Auto House Towing has 15 tow trucks alone.

Launched in 1984 by Galen and Sharon Unruh, Auto House Towing has four locations, and currently is owned and operated by sons, Eric and Chris, who is married to Stephanie. Together they have four children, including son Jared who is interested in towing. “We stay on the same wave length,” she says of husband Chris. Unruh conquered her fear of reversing a 72-foot long semi truck in order to get a CDL. Her short stature also hasn’t held her back, allowing her to reach places where larger towing operators cannot, she says. “Size will get you into places that men cannot get to. Sometimes it takes a smaller person to help out.” According to Unruh, pride and confidence, and a positive attitude go a long way in the towing industry. “If you’re confident about what you’re doing it makes people look at you in a different light.” After her “blind” start in towing, Unruh now says, “Follow your dreams. If you can dream it, you can do it.”