The firm operates across the states of Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Texas, providing its services to law enforcement and government entities alongside commercial and retail customers.
The company was established in 2017 by Scotty Crockett and Geoff Russell through the merging of two existing companies in Florida. From there, Guardian Fleet Services has expanded through acquisitions across the USA.
“Our service level and the capabilities we offer set us apart from the competition,” says Thomas Tedford, Chief Operating Officer of Guardian Fleet Services. “We invest in the latest technology and equipment while employing an incredible group of operators to provide exceptional service to our clientele across the board.”
A Winning Team
In its work, Guardian Fleet Services will often need to bring all of those resources to bear, as the company is frequently the first point of call for a scale of challenge its competitors would struggle to handle.
“In July 2022 we were called in to a 727 plane crash at Miami Airport,” Tedford recalls. “We recovered and moved the wreck for American Airlines. The wreck had to be shifted fully intact from one side of the airport to another.”
Guardian Fleet Services has been called in to respond to floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. Most recently it was on the scene for the aftermaths of Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, as well as floods on the east coast of Florida.
“We have responded to everything from large scale calamities to truck crashes throughout the country, and we are in a position to provide the sort of capabilities most companies would look the other way for,” says Tedford.
The organisation is able to respond to this wide range of tasks thanks to the extensive expertise of its leadership team, who possess a combined 250 years of experience in the industry.
“They all have experience working these types of disasters. That goes a long way to giving our team the confidence they need when we are leading them into the fire,” Tedford shares. “We have an incredible group of operators across the board. I would put them up against anyone in the industry. We have a can-do attitude, and our team likes the challenges they are presented with. We have always been very successful at achieving whatever goal is set in front of us.”
When Tedford says “whatever goal”, he means it, Guardian Fleet Services has built itself a reputation on its ability to rise to any problem to solve.
“Our people are trained to never say no,” Tedford tells us. “We may take our time to plan our operations and look at the problem from every angle, but we will always do the job properly at the end of the day.”
Guardian Fleet Services has spent a great deal of time recruiting the best operators in the country to come and work for it. Tedford tells us that the company’s benefits and pay scale are second to none.
“Our people are the foundation of our success,” Tedford says. “I like to say success is made where the rubber meets the road, but it is also our dispatchers, our admin personnel, our managers in the field. They are all committed to us.”
That commitment has been proven in recent times, with some staff coming in even after the hurricane that struck Florida caused people to lose houses and property.
“They remained committed to our mission for our customer base,” Tedford says. “It is a testament to the loyalty and perseverance of our employees.”
The Tools for the Jobs
As well as the right people, Guardian Fleet Services also ensures it has the right equipment to take on any job, including one of eight M100 rotators in the country, giving it access to impressive lifting capacity.
“Our executive team are involved in industry associations across the United States, whether its statewide associations like the Georgia Towing Association, or the Sunshine State Towing Association in Florida,” says Tedford. “We are involved in training our employees across the board, with certifications in several of our operations, such as heavy towing.”
To ensure that it has the right tools at its disposal, Guardian Fleet Services maintains key relationships with leading vendors in the industry, allowing for enhancements that not only benefit itself, but the towing industry as a whole.
“Our knowledge of equipment comes from decades of participating in the design of that equipment,” Tedford says. “Our founder worked for Miller Industries, the world’s largest equipment manufacturer, so we have great knowledge of the needs and capabilities of our operators.” 
The company’s people and equipment are both supported by Guardian Fleet Services’ steadfast culture of safety.
“That doesn’t happen by accident,” Tedford says. “It is an everyday occurrence in our management team, from the executive level down. We are committed to the operators on the road, our employees and our customers’ equipment that they entrust us with moving or hauling on a daily basis.”
This is no easy task with the number of assets and employees that Guardian Fleet Services has to manage, but Tedford believes the effort is worth it to build a safer company.
“As we continue to grow, we are investing in forward and driver facing cameras, onboard analytics, and live monitoring software technology,” Tedford explains. “We monitor our operators’ licences and medical cards every day, checking them for validity. We have also invested close to a million dollars a year in our safety team’s training, compliance, analysis, and insurance, right across the board.”
From this foundation, Tedford has big plans for the future of the company.
“We are consistently looking for quality operations that we can invest in or make part of the Guardian team,” he tells us. “It is not just about buying companies that are available, but buying quality businesses with a dominant market share in locations that are successful.”
Following this strategy, Tedford believes that Guardian will continue to grow, connecting a network of facilities across the southern United States.
“We are tying our customer base together, division to division and market to market,” Tedford says. “We have acquisitions planned for the next six months that will grow the company immensely.”
However much the company grows, however, its standards are not going to change.
As Tedford points out, “We have shown our ability to grow over the last year and a half while continuing to provide a high level of service.”
