Towing In The Information Age

The Information Age And The Towing Professional

Rollback For Sale

 I am reading about a county using background checks on towing operators. The arguments are strong for using them and not using them. On the one hand you do not want to send former felons to pick up your daughter who is stuck roadside..alone. On the other hand, once you have paid for your crime, should you never have a chance again to operate a wrecker or rollback?

The only thing I can think of is separating types of tows allowed into two classes. Roadside pickup operators would have to have clean records while maybe impound lot towers or parking violation towers would have

less stringent requirements, barring theft records of course.

This will prevent highway tragedy, yet still allow people to work...


To read the original article this commentary addresses go to:
http://wentzville.patch.com/articles/county-opts-to-continue-tow-truck-driver-background-checks

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To Tow Or Not To Tow..

Commentary on Article from MassLive.com

When planning towing procedures, consider every possible situation..

I agree with collecting taxes but towing or booting a car by a towing service may
not be the best course of action. I am reading that in Springfield, Massachusettes
 you either pay your excise taxes or you face towing or the boot. What happens if:

       you lose your job and cant pay

Taking away your means of transportation to get that money is not going to help
them make the money any faster. I think a provision needs to be made for hardship.

Original Article Link http://www.masslive.com/living/index.ssf/2012/02/boot_or_tow_springfields_neighbors_say_current_system_for_collecting_excise_taxes_working_fine.html#comments

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A city ends the use of towing for Predatory Government

Maricopa police admit to towing for dollars, promise change

BY STEVEN MAYER, Californian staff writerImage via Wikipedia

MARICOPA -- The chief of police in this hardscrabble town has had a change of heart -- and policy.
But the change didn't come easy. It was accompanied by sleepless nights and a rise in blood pressure for Maricopa Police Chief Derek Merritt.

No more, he says, will cops in this city of 1,200 in western Kern County pull over motorists for hanging a necklace from their rear-view mirror, having a crack in their windshield or driving with a burned-out license plate bulb.

In the past two years, Maricopa police have stopped hundreds of motorists for these and other "equipment violations."

Merritt says, and he's not about to apologize for his officers enforcing it.

To read the full article CLICK HERE


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Towing Story: Always take a picture

I am a tad biased. I edited this article for the East Coast Truck and Trailer Newsletter and Praise GOD we got published in American Towman!

American Towman August Page 18 2011 


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When they say you are getting towed....they mean it

Cheeburger Cheeburger Towing

From www.wdef.com

Submitted by Alisha Searl 
July 2011 
 

When cranking up the car for a family dinner, Brad Jones, says he did not know by the end of the night he would be without a car and without a lot of money.

Image via WikipediaKarenza Pentiah, Jones' Wife, adds, "We parked behind Cheeburger Cheeburger because we intended on buying my brother a burger there."

But before they placed his order there, they had dinner next door at Buffalo Wild Wings, where parking is only for employees.

Meanwhile, the man paid to monitor the lot for Cheeburger Cheeburger and two other connecting business called a tow truck, according to their records, six minutes after the Jones' parked.
 
Charlie Eich, owner of Cheeburger Cheeburger, says, "Essentially what happens is people continue to roll the dice. They show up, park, look around, take a chance, and they get towed.

More than 20 signs are tacked up, each explaining their zero tolerance policy, each trying to prevent cars getting towed.

To read the full article click Here
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Commentary:

With 20 signs posted and a 6 minute tolerance before towing your vehicle, I wouldn't risk parking their without a receipt from Cheeburger Cheeburger posted on my windshield with the date and time circled in big red sharpie. In fact forget that, I wouldn't even risk getting towed unless I had signed written consent by the owner that I was allowed to park there. Maybe one of the signs could read:

Its cheaper just to buy a cheeburger than to park here and go someplace else...

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Towing company accused of fraud.....

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Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon says a local towing company is taking advantage of unsuspecting tourists.

from  WKRG.com website

Orange Beach, Alabama

Orange Beach Mayor Tony Kennon says a local towing company is price gouging drivers who get towed from private parking lots. Kennon says Orange Beach Towing is charging drivers more than 200 dollars to retrieve their vehicles.


Known as "trespass towing"...the owner of a private parking lot...usually a hotel, condo or resort complex...has a car towed without the owner's consent. The charge to the owner of the car? 200 bucks. That's double what a tow would cost if your car breaks down or if you're involved in a wreck and Kennon says that's not right.


"If you tow without the owner's consent, there's got to be some type of flat rate without holding the car hostage," says Kennon. "They're essentially holding the car hostage and charging drivers whatever they want."


To read the full story click HERE

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CCPD: No insurance? You get towed | Corpus Christi, TX | KZTV10.com |

From KZVT.com
posted December 30,2010



CORPUS CHRISTI -- Corpus Christi police say it's a crime that goes unpunished all too often: driving without insurance.

And the numbers are staggering: 25 percent of drivers in Nueces County are not insured. Over 4,000 citations have been issued in the last 6 months. 1,000 plus accidents in 2009 involved a driver with no insurance.

"Beginning January 1, if you do not have insurance, we're going to tow the vehicle," said CCPD Chief Troy Riggs.
Image via Wikipedia
Corpus Christi police haven't had much choice up until now---their impound lot has been full. Chief Riggs says with monthly auctions of cars that aren't picked up, it'll make room for cars towed for not having insurance.


To read the full story click HERE



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A towers view on safety

Safety safety safety.

I can’t stress this enough.  Too many drivers are getting injured or killed on the highways from numerous things.  The biggest thing that I can stress is BE SEEN!!!  Wear a vest to light up the scene.  There are numerous things you can do.  I remember one time where I was dispatched to a disabled motorist on a toll road.  It was a BMW and came out as a flat tire.  I thought to myself great, this person has never changed a tire before in their entire life and will most likely sit in the car and leave me to the work.  I arrive on the location of the disablement and find that the shoulder was barely enough to have the BMW on the side of the road, let alone my 21’ ford Jerr Dan Rollback.  I saw the disabled car and turned on every light I had so other motorists could see me.  I positioned my truck behind the disabled car so that as motorists came flying by they could see all the lights much better and not slam into us.  I also pulled a page from the police and decided to angle my truck so it gave me a little more room to work, keeping me out of harms way. 

Safety is the biggest thing that we need to follow out there, but so few drivers do.  Wear the safety vest.  Turn on all your lights especially at night.  People can see those work lights and your warning lights. Put extra warning lights on the back of the truck, more than the front.  And if that does not work, flares and triangles are a great tool to keep you safe, whether they are battery powered or the old fashioned ones.

Matt Thompson

Wrecker Division Resident Tower and Jerr-Dan specialist

East Coast Truck and Trailer

2906 Elmhurst Lane

Portsmouth, VA 23701

1-800-849-2178 (toll free)

(757) 465-2200 x336

mthompson@ectts.com

There are going to be some busy towers in New York

City to give red-light scofflaws the hook

By DAVID SEIFMAN City Hall Bureau Chief

Last Updated: 7:46 AM, August 2, 2010

Posted: 3:16 AM, August 2, 2010

EXCLUSIVE

The city is about to put the brakes on thousands of drivers who've beaten the red-light camera program out of $47 million, The Post has learned.
The red-light runners will be in for a shock when they check their parking-violation records and find past-due summonses dating back to 2003 added to their accounts.
And that's not the worst of it.

About 40,000 drivers who owe less than $350 each in unpaid parking tickets and, therefore, haven't been subject to towing are going to leap onto the towing hit lists when the unpaid red-light infractions are added to their totals.

Starting Sept. 13, following public announcements, city marshals will be authorized to tow any vehicle with a combined $350 owed for parking tickets and red-light summonses.

Red-light summonses have been overseen by the Transportation Department since 1993 and weren't included in Finance Department's database of parking violations.

As a result, city marshals and deputy sheriffs assigned to hunt down parking scofflaws didn't pursue drivers who ignored tickets after being caught on camera blowing through red lights.

The Transportation Department employed collection agencies to track those drivers with limited success.

With 664,000 unpaid red-light summonses -- totaling $47 million -- in judgment, officials are making no apologies for the sudden crackdown.

"We've always said these violations would subject you to being towed," declared Finance Department spokesman Owen Stone.

Most drivers caught zooming through red lights tend to cough up the $50 fine fairly quickly since it's tough to dispute photographic evidence. In 2009, the city generated $32.3 million from 150 hidden traffic cameras.
But some cunning culprits discovered that ignoring red-light summonses didn't necessarily mean risking having their cars towed.

"If you didn't pay, it didn't stop you from registering your car," admitted one red-light scofflaw who works for the city and said everyone in his office was aware that enforcement of the red-light violations was limited.
The scofflaw said he forked over hundreds of dollars to immediately settle all his fines, fearing the new towing offensive.

Lucky for him, he settled up.

About five dozen vehicles were mistakenly yanked from the streets last week despite the grace period. Officials promised to rectify matters for all the affected owners.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/city_to_give_red_light_scofflaws_YWqie986OgpG6gstmNdREO#ixzz0vSAzaj27


City marshals will soon target cars owned by scofflaws ignoring red-light summonses - NYPOST.com

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- msaks@ectts.com

DOE Keeps 2010 Diesel Forecast Under $3 a Gallon | Transport Topics Online | Trucking, Freight Transportation and Logistics News

Oil Price Outlook Unchanged from May

Diesel’s national retail price will average $2.98 a gallon this year, the Department of Energy said Wednesday, boosting its most recent prediction by 2 cents.

Trucking’s main fuel will rise to an average $3.13 at the pump next year, also 2 cents over last month’s forecast, DOE said in its monthly short-term energy outlook released Wednesday.

DOE said in its weekly report Tuesday that the national average diesel price was $2.924 a gallon — down more than 20 cents from the year’s $3.127 peak, set on May 10.

The price topped $3 a gallon for eight consecutive weeks ending May 24. Diesel averaged $2.46 per gallon last year.

Gasoline, meanwhile, will average $2.77 a gallon this year, DOE said, and average $2.80 during this summer’s driving season, which generally has the highest price due to strong demand.

Both those forecasts are a penny over last month’s outlook, and the summer figure is 36 cents higher than last year, DOE said. Gasoline averaged $2.726 in this week’s national survey and $2.35 last year.

Crude oil prices — which finished June at about $76 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — will average $79 in the second half of the year before climbing to $83 next year, unchanged from last month’s outlook.

DOE also said that reductions in crude output resulting from the 6-month deepwater drilling moratorium announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on May 27 will average 31,000 barrels per day in the fourth quarter.
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Towing Salesman (Portsmouth, VA)

East Coast Truck & Trailer Sales, Inc. is looking for an inside/outside salesman to sell our towing & rollback truck inventory. We specialize in Jerr Dan trucks. Excellent market with limited competition in this area. We need someone to help “beat the streets” and market our product. We will provide marketing material, vehicle transportation, vehicles for demonstration, and a pre-existing database for leads. Need someone to maintain existing customers and recruit potential new customers.

Base pay plus commission. Experience in towing industry preferred but not required. At least 3 years previous sales experience. Must be outgoing and an optimistic individual with the ability to cold call. CDL Preferred. Please forward resume to Bob Berger at BBerger@ectts.com or fax to 757-292-2028. Learn more about us and the products we sell at http://www.ectts.com./

Cop accused of soliciting $150 tow-scam payment

A 20-year Chicago Police veteran has been charged in connection with the federal "Operation Tow Scam" bribes and extortion investigation.
Shakespeare District officer James Wodnicki, 48, allegedly solicited a $150 payment from a tow truck operator who, at the time, was secretly working for the FBI, according to a federal criminal complaint... to read the full article click here

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Towing company under fire for inaccessibility to people with disabilites

Article Summary

• A disabled man in Texas could not see the towaway sign in the dark and thought he was exempt because of the disability sticker on his vehicle.
• When the disabled man went to the towing company, he could not access the office due to the face he was in a wheelchair.

Key Quote from Story

"Travis County Constable Bruce Elfant says all business operating in Travis County has to comply with the American Disabilities Act or A.D.A. Elfant says there are a few exceptions."

 for link to story click here

Tow trucks helping the flow of traffic

Standby tow truck project keeps city traffic flowing

By Suzanne Wilton, Calgary Herald May 17, 2010

From the Calgary Herald

 A city pilot project using standby tow trucks to improve clearance of busy roadways is keeping traffic moving during morning and afternoon rush hours, according to a city report.City officials report that 333 incidents were attended by standby tow trucks roving on five major routes during peak morning and afternoon times between Feb. 16 and April 16, an average of seven incidents per day.A report going to a city committee on Wednesday states that 64 per cent of the incidents were during the afternoon hours and the tow trucks responded in less than five minutes.This compares to five to 35 minutes for incidents detected by 52 cameras keeping an eye on major roadways."The roving tow truck service has provided good roadside assistance to motorists and we've been able to keep traffic moving," said Troy McLeod, the city's manager of traffic.McLeod said motorists have also appreciated help in cases where their vehicles have stalled in traffic, either because of an accident or vehicle failure or in one case, a medical situation. For example, a tow-truck driver came upon a woman slumped over her steering wheel at Deerfoot Trail and Memorial Drive and called EMS.The woman, who suffered a medical condition, was taken to hospital. In another situation, a woman ran out of gas on Deerfoot Trail at McKnight Boulevard and didn't have a cellphone to call for help.She was towed to a safe location and the towing company dispatcher called a family member to bring the woman some fuel."We also had a road rage incident averted because of the tow truck service," McLeod said.The one-year trial will cost $636,000, but how it will be funded into the future, if the program continues, hasn't been decided.Another update will come to council in November, when it will have to decide whether to continue the program and how to fund it.