any of you fellow towers work with usac and road america?
have you had any problems with them and any info i need to know about them? 
RA is slow pay & low call volume (for me). They also only have a $50.00 limit, after that you have to hit the customer up for the rest.
USAC is a little better, but right now I'm dealing with a returned check from them. It is because of the check itself not money.
"Any problems". Boy that's wide open.
When I started up (almost 4 years ago) I was contracted with nearly every motor club. My experience with these two clubs may be a bit outdated.
USAC will generally pay their PO's, although they will short miles and their rates are lower than I am willing to work for. (I signed a new contract with them early this year, but after two tows decided I was better off letting the truck sit than running so cheap). One important thing with USAC is that they will not pay en-route within any zip code that you are contracted for. So if you take a call 30 miles away and are contracted for that zip, don't expect any en-route. Also the customer is generally only covered to the "nearest servicing dealer". That cuts the paid miles to almost zero unless you are quite a ways from the dealer. Most tows USAC offered to me would have only paid the hook fee because of their rules and high required free miles.
Road America pays some of their contractors on time, and (very) slow pays some. There's no rhyme or reason to it. I don't know how well they pay currently.
I do retail tows for R.A. when they can't get any of their contractors to do them. They pay my rate and I take their credit card number and run it BEFORE doing the call. I absolutely will not accept their PO's (after fighting for 6 months to get a tire change paid) and do not depend on their CC's being good after having THREE different CC numbers declined. They use low credit limit cards and rotate them regularly. If they give you a number at the end of their shift it may very well be charged to the limit already.
BTW, when I get a retail MC call I add 10 - 20% to my retail rates. By the time they call me ALL of their contractors have refused the job and they have probably spent 30 minutes or more with no results. At that point they will pay whatever reasonable price is asked. Even doing this I'll never make up the money that the various MC's have shorted me over the years.
Sorry for the long post. Late and rambling. Hope some of this answers the question.
i like the last line jason where you add to your retail rate for the motorclubs i never thought of that i think i'll tack that little add on charge on the next call through and see how it floats. after all you are correct if im not on their list they are calling from the book at that time, i may as well recoup some of my advertising costs.