Towing charges

[SphinxnihpS]

Thats insane.

I work for a towing company and our average charge for a private impound is in the $150-200 range.

Also NEVER, EVER, park in a reserved spot at any apartment/condo, they all seem to have super bitch's on the Strata(or building management comitee or whatever you want to call it) that have nothing better to do that watch the property all the time and report people who illegally park immediatly.

I've been asked by said super bitches specifically to send out a truck without a backup beeper and wait till late at night so they are alseep to insure that we actually get to tow the vehicle. Now dont get me wrong if you illegally park you are a moron and its all on you but to go to the level of trying to get someone to sneak in and tow the car is a little much.

You are an evil human being.

 

[Via]

The city my company is in has a bylaw that all private impounds follow local insurance tow rates(we have 1 insurance provider for the whole province, they set rates yearly)

The minimum amount for a 6 km tow is 72.99, almost all private impunds require dollies as we are not legally allowed to enter the vehicle to secure the steeriong wheel or release the e-brake so thats a $25 charge that could be avoided if we were allowed to enter the vehicle.

So after tax and fuel surcharge the cheapest it will be is around $125, goes up a few $ for every km the tow is over 6.

We are not allowed to keep the vehicle, but the bill goes up by $20 a day as the storage charge is $20 a day. If it has not been picked up within 30 days we can apply for a scrap order to take the car to scrap and squish it and get paid scrap metal prices for the vehicle.

After 90 days we can apply for papers to take ownership of the vehile but that requires alot more paperwork, sending registered letters to the owner, posting adds in the local papers, and alot of time. And if the owner has no intention of paying the bill or getting his vehicle back ever he can still can extend this process for months or years by lieing and saying he will come up with the money so mostly we just scrap everything unless the vehicle is worth more than $20,000 because its not worth our time.

Its a stupid setup IMO because we scrap tons of good working vehilcles worth 5,000-15,000 just because it would take to long or too much effort to get ownership and sell it, and for whatever reasons the owner cant pay the bill. Its a waste but thats the way the local laws are setup.

Surely you have to allow for the owner to sell the car if they can't come up with the money to pay you.

"storage" - don't make me laugh. My car died on the side of the highway outside of St Louis and I have to leave it there. I came back a few days later and it was towed, so I had to track it down.

Yeah - my car was in storage all right. It was sitting on grass behind a garage building next to some rusted-out old junkers. It was not in a secure area.

For this "storage" I paid $25 a day. Still pisses me off too.

 

[ManBearPig]

dude...im just chiming in (like most others) to say that this is fucking ridiculous! i'm in shock lol. around here, its either $125 or $150. good luck in court, fuck that towing company and your property manager.

 

[Zenmervolt]

In Washington State all towing fees are based on an hourly rate, with the maximum rate set each year by the state.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=204-91A-140

Find out what the maximum rate is for 2011.

Read your own link. The fee schedule applies only to tows initiated by the state patrol, not to private tows. It covers cars involved in accidents or abandoned on public roads, not tows from unauthorized parking on private property.

ZV

 

[Rifter]

You are an evil human being.

????

 

[Rifter]

Surely you have to allow for the owner to sell the car if they can't come up with the money to pay you.

"storage" - don't make me laugh. My car died on the side of the highway outside of St Louis and I have to leave it there. I came back a few days later and it was towed, so I had to track it down.

Yeah - my car was in storage all right. It was sitting on grass behind a garage building next to some rusted-out old junkers. It was not in a secure area.

For this "storage" I paid $25 a day. Still pisses me off too.

We do not have to release the car untill the bill is paid, they can sell it sure but the person they are selling it to will have to buy it unseen/undriven as they will not be allowed access to the vehicle untill bill is paid.

Our lot is paved and brand new, been in this yard for less than a year. Its gated and fenced with barbed wire and under constant CCTV. We have the local police contract and often have crime vehicles in our yard so it has to be secure to make sure the chain of evidence is upheld for the RCMP cases involving vehicles.

Also leaving your car on the highway is a bad idea, around here highway patrol would have called that in within 24 hours for removal.

 

[Via]

We do not have to release the car untill the bill is paid, they can sell it sure but the person they are selling it to will have to buy it unseen/undriven as they will not be allowed access to the vehicle untill bill is paid.

I don't understand how that's even remotely legal.

You guys don't own the vehicle, you're just holding a tiny little lien on it.

 

[Rifter]

I don't understand how that's even remotely legal.

You guys don't own the vehicle, you're just holding a tiny little lien on it.

i dunno, i just know thats how it happens. Thank god im not high enough up the food chain to have to deal with the legal details and argue with the idiots we have come through this office, since we tow for the police a good 30-40% of the people who come here to get there cars back are full out crack heads or druggies.

You have to remember as well its not like it is in the US where tow trucks are like vulchers, up here one company has the police contract and city contract(usually the same company) And you are not allowed to remove a vehicle from a public road without either city bylaw ticketing it and calling it in or the police having it removed, you cant just grab a vehicle and tow it like i hear of in the US. Also as far as our Privite impounds off private property(like apartment buildings/condo's and strip malls, mall parking lots, etc) we do not patrol, ever, if your car was towed it was because your building management/property management/security guard/whoever is authorized to call in tows called to have it towed, so if your car gets towed from private property its because you wernt following their rules plain and simple and its 100% on you.

Perhaps thats why we are allowed to keep the cars till payment is recieved, as the only way we will end up with your car on our lot is if the city/police/owner of property it was illegally parked on have called us to remove it.

 

[Nebbers]

Towing fees are ridiculous, yes... just like anything else involving automobiles.

However, don't park in a private space at an apartment complex, whether or not it's often being used. That shit has pissed me off a million times.

I'm torn because I sympathize with you about towing fees but you also brought it upon yourself by doing something that routinely pissed me off in the past. Yeah, you may have only been there a short while but if that happened to be at a time that someone who had the right to park there was trying to do so... pain in the ass for someone who shouldn't have to deal with it.

 

[edro]

He knows he screwed up. Just like when you get caught speeding; you know you are guilty.
The problem is the $800 charge.

 

[boomhower]

Dang you got screwed. We make the tow truck companies get certified with city and have a set rate they can charge, if they don't like it they don't tow. It's around $150 for a tow and $30 a day storage.

 

[Gibson486]

Been there, done that. This was a the day I brought my new Mazda3 home too. I forgot about street cleaning...and the car was just gone. They did not even wait. Street cleaning started at 7....the car was gone at 7:30. I lived in boston, and it got towed to the other side of boston with no public transportation near by. I ended up taking the bus and walking 2.5 miles. Cost me $350 to get the car out. At first, they said it had to be payable in cash. After arguing, the credit card machine magically appeared.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

You are an evil human being.

For having a job? Might as well be pro-shoplifting to. And murder, why not?