Tow it to the station!!

[Tow411]

Topic Originally Created by HansonMA in May of 2004:

 

Lately it seems we have been told to tow vehicles back to the police station for investigation reasons,only to have them released to the owners without us being compensated.Now we have left the invoices with the officers in charge at the time of tow.Some were there only a couple of hours and some were there a month.The common denominator in all of these is nobody will tell me who is responsible for the screw up.The last one I towed I wrote the amount of the tow and my company name on the widshield with shoe pollish.If that doesn't work I 'll have to try one of those boots on the tire?

Kevin

 

TowZone said:

Kevin, does your contract address these type of tows? We had an issue once with officers wanting rental units taken to the districts or stations. They would then notify the agency who would give the officers free rental days because they didn't have to bail the vehicle out.

Often the officer would drive the car in and we wouldn't even know until someone called looking for it. That sitution lasted a short time till the agencies started to forget to pick the cars up and they sat on the police lots a couple of days till someone noticed. That's not a problem anymore as they all go to the impound lot.

 

TowmasterB said:

I had a problem with the Sheriff's dept a while back. When we towed a vehicle to their lot we gave the invoice to the deputy. Most of the time the deputy either lost it or didn't turn it in. When we sent out statements we weren't getting paid for many of the tows we did. Finally, I sat down with the supervisor and went over every unpaid invoice that was signed by one of his deputies and got paid for them. Now our policy is we keep the signed invoices and send them out with the statement. The supervisor agrees that this is a better way for us to get paid sooner and eliminate any problems.

 

Timco said:

We used to get asked to tow them to the Sheriff`s Office quite often. They would want to do the evidence search there. I would go the next day & tow them to my lot for storage. One day I went for the car, & it was gone! Seems the guy had bailed out of jail, & a Deputy had gave him the keys & sent him on his way. Yep, I lost that one. Our Sheriff called a meeting with all the rotation towers, & we don`t do that anymore. The cars are towed straight to our impound now, & the investigators come here to prowl through the cars. Sometimes our Drug Task Force, (not a part of the Sheriff`s Dept.), will still request a car to be towed to the jail for processing. We get a signed invoice upon drop, & we mail that in for payment. Our County is talking of building a new detention center, they have already bought the land. They plan on having their own impound lot on the premises. This will really hurt us, they will be taking a good chunk of our storage money away. They better buy their own trucks at the same time, because most of us agree to stop towing for them entirely if this happens. This is still in the planning stages, maybe they will see the light before it is too late.

 

TowmasterB said:

I usually charge them a little more than if it was going to my lot to make up for the lost storage. Our rates are not regulated. If it is a piece of junk, I won't charge extra. Those ones I am glad they are taking so I don't get stuck with them.

 

13thrattler said:

Kevin, I just get an officers signature and badge number, then bill the city or county.

I tried the "don't release it until you see a PAID invoice from me", but like your P.D.----, no one knew nothing, didn't want to know nothing, and couldn't make them know nothing.
I'm happy to tow it to the "station" if they will sign the invoice. If they don't sign, then it goes to my yard, and they can follow me, and process it there.

But, to be fair to the P.D.---they give me no problem with that. They understand that I can not do this for free.

Gilbert

 

unknown member said:

We tow the cars to the PD stations for whatever reason. Have an officer sign the ticket and away you go. When the owner wants the car they have to come to us and pay the bill. They then show a copy to the PD and they can get the car back. We have never had one get away on us without payment that I know of. I like the one PD in particular we tow for. They will have us take cars back to them and drop them in the garage. Sometimes they don't take into account that the car doesn't run or it's hid so hard it won't roll. A few hours later they are calling us back saying we can pick it up and take it back to our yard. Another tow bill for another service. Then the customer comes to get the car and they want to know why there are two charges. That's something they have to take up with the PD, we are just doing our job. The county PD are the only ones that will come to our yard to investigate a car. It's so much nicer when it just comes back to you in the first place.

 

letsplay2 said:

Someone has got to pay for the services that you rendered. Is someone signing the bill? What about getting a badge #? Writing a contract or notifying someone in authority that your services need to be paid.

Someone how someway someone will pay attention. Yes you might have to raise a stink but you do need to get noticed.

Devin

 

unknown member said:

We tow vehicles to the PD yard and get the officer's badge # along with the file # this way if they release the vehicle without the R/O paying for it, then IT GETS billed to the Police, no questions asked. We have had a few leave and when they get the bill with the badge # and file # on it well...we get paid, and now.................no one leaves for free.

 

HansonMA said:

A couple of weeks ago I (in writing) requested a meeting with the deputy chief, reguarding this issue.Since that letter we have towed two more vehicles to the station(8 in all now) from a serious motorcycle vs. car accident that was believed to end up a fatality.In all cases but one, a signature from an officer was obtained.Now I know they were investigating the letter because a couple of days later a LT called and asked me some questions about one of the vehicles,but I have not heard anything since.I was told by someone(annoni ly) that two of the vehicles were released to the owners but nobody knows about the money???????
This s*^t just drives me nuts
But they all can call me quick when they need a favor.

Kevin

 

someotherplace said:

When I ran rotation in a smaller county we occasionally towed cars to the station. When we did, we would get a dispatcher or preferably the arresting officer (if available) to sign the ticket, and leave a copy of it with dispatch. They usually paid up pretty quickly and when they forgot to, the place was small enough you could call up the sheriff and get them busy on it. I don't think we ever had one that wasn't paid for.

Richard

 

HansonMA said:

I met with the Deputy Chief yesterday and cleared up the problem,towed remaining vehicles back to the shop and he assured me I would be compensated for the "misunderstanding"on their part, that allowed two cars to be released without payment.Problem solved,hopefully.
Kevin

 

Dennis Richards said:

Kev- We do the signing, the writing on the window, the best one I have is I write on the drivers side window, BLVD towed this vehicle, if you need the keys call, it usually catches there attention when you have the keys.
Dennis
WM94160

 

unknown member said:

I just love how they take the good vehicles to sell under the seizure law but the junk the towed for the same offense they let me take to my place for no pay and to spend money for processing. And the other thing is the guys around here have always towed the sheriffs cars for no charge- put me back on top- The next call may involve storage. But now they are paying 25.00 to one service to tow what they used to get for free. If that is not the buddy system I don't know what is. Then they set our tow rates low and I'm sure that his 25.00 cut-throat price has affected there pricing policies for us.sometimes you just got to grip it and rip it.

 

Jeepers1 said:

What year is this???? Twenty five dollars! They have you clean up their streets - and if you were the only tower this may be different - there is no loyalty in this from the cops - the ones on the beat love us because we are quick to take care of them but when it comes down to it - those above could really care less. We've done this for 9 years and were the only ones on the contract went out for bid - 1st time in 9 years - of course we lost - no repair shop or body shop to off set the low rates others were charging - it took the PD 3 years to get out of contract - they are now calling us back and we do a good job and get paid at our rates. No more 1 to 2 hour wait for the PD they get service immediately.

 

annettemcd said:

We have towed three fatality accidents to the Trooper's lot this summer. The first one still had the body in it and they removed it there. (It was a high speed front end collision and everything was smashed back to the back seat.) All three were totals and two of them were rentals. In each case the Troopers followed the tow and kept it in sight the whole time. We turned each invoice into the Trooper office and were paid directly. The only problem that we had is the time that I took the invoice in and tried to get a signature. Everyone there was either afraid to sign it or said that they never had to sign before. It was easier to leave without a signature. They still paid. I do not know why they would not sign. We are fifty miles away from the main Trooper post, so it would be inconvenient for them to come out and do the investigation here. We did lose out on the storage, but it was a clean deal and we were paid for the jobs that we did. It was fine with us to do it this way.

 

Annie@Hodge's said:

well glad to see that im not the only one meet with county pd yesterday i was told that yes they did mess up twice returning cars to owners with out the tow bill being payed i was told it is now a cival matter and if i wanted payed i needed to take owner of cars to court WHY should i have to go through that trouble its there mess up not mine you pay me YOU take them to court i did my job you didnt do yours.but is good idea to take keys and write towing companys name on window will start that from today on except it wont be LITTLE

 

annettemcd said:

Boy, if this happened to us, we would not take it lying down. We would ask to talk to a supervisor and go as far up as necessary. It might be a civil matter, but how are you suppose to get anywhere when the police released the vehicle? Yup, I would definitely pursue this.

I agree that next time that you tow to their lot that shoe polish and holding the keys are in order. I would also have an officer sign the invoice and initial a note which said: "This vehicle is NOT to be released without payment."

 

CDTows1 said:

We got fluorescent stickers made up that says do not release this vehicle until the towing charges our paid with our company name and phone number on them. We place the sticker on the windshield of the vehicles.

 

trucker jeff said:

Its in the county contract that the will pay the charges for anything towed back to a station but they sometimes get brought to the yard the next day 8 to 5 by the county truck (wouldn't want to wake him up to go get the pos at 2:30am would we ?)Always on my tows, Jeff

 

[ESC]

This sort of thing happens often.  We have continuously had an issue with PA State Police. 

 

The last time I towed one to their barracks, it took me over 6 months to get paid.  Originally the PSP trooper told me that a supervisor would call the following morning and pay by credit card.  In the end, a repo company paid me, then picked up the car.  At that point we advised the state police that we would no longer drop them at their barracks without payment. 

 

It had been quite a while since they called me to do it.  But, last week one night at 4 am, we got a call and I went out for what was originally called as a one vehicle crash.  I arrived, and was immediately told by the trooper that it would need to go to their barracks for investigation.  I politely asked who would be making payment for our service and they said that I would have to go after the owner of the car.  The vehicle was an unregistered old Honda Civic that was involved in a crime.  I explained the trooper the situation, and i politely advised them that I would have to decline the tow unless someone was able to produce payment.  

 

In the end, they called another towing company.  I feel bad about it.  But we advised them of it at their last inspection with us last year.  We have had far too many problems with PSP in the past.  I will gladly help them, but they rarely call us.  Our area is mainly local PD.  State Police only tend to call me in the snow or pouring rain when their normal guy wont answer.... basically we seem to get all the junk.  I had to put my foot down on this last one.  It was bad enough that i wasted the hour on the call as it was.  

 

I know many are not in a position to say no to the police, but in our case, we do very little work for the state as it is, so I took the opportunity and stood up for our company.

[GRUMPS The Towman]

You did the 100% right thing ESC. I too have been rolled by all the different L.E. agencies around me in similar situations. I will no longer tow any vehicles to their barracks. If it is not coming back with me or someone is paying the bill at that moment, then they can call the next guy on the list. The contract clearly states that once they are completed with their investigation, they are to call us so we can take possesion of the vehicle. Yet, every time they would simply release the vehicle back to the owner, family or even their insurance company and that would be the end for me. No payment, no collateral, Just another kind hearted gesture courtesy of my pocket. Some of these jobs have had Hours of recovery time, clean up, materials man power, etc..

I do respectfully disagree with your comment that " not everyone can say no to the police". We ALL can say no to anyone we choose, for what ever reason we choose. This is MY business. and I am in busness to make a profit. I cannot work for free and none of us should ever feel like we have to just because someone with a badge tries to tell you you have too. We are free enterprise, Not a government run or funded agency.

[yoBdaBenO]

We have a garage that is not used for anything but these types of vehicles. The officers like it as it has a restroom a very small office and is secure. The alternative is to take them to the headquarters where there is an overhang to back it into. I think it's more the approach than anything else, our officers are trained as to how we do things. Just makes it easier when they agree.