AAA/private requests for police calls

[Tow411]

Topic Originally Created by HansonMA in March of 2005:

 

How does your city/town handle requests for accidents or road hazzards? If your on rotation and a car hits a pole and the vehicle owner says he has AAA, or requests another tower, does the PD honor that request?
Kevin

 

Auto Rescue said:

More often than not they honor the request.John R.

 

TBAUTOMAN said:

They do down here Kevin.

 

Timco said:

They do within reason. If the car is out of the road, the Officers are willing to let them wait. If it is blocking the road...NO WAY!! There is only one guy here that does any motorclubs, & he is located at the far western part of the county. They will NOT wait on him to show up. He is also NOT on the rotation lists. Road blocked = next rotation tower....the way it should be.

 

Don29yrs aka THTDON  said:

Here in Hooterville, they will honor the car owner's request, as long as the request is made right when the cruiser gets there. If we are called, and our job is done, there is no going back, just because the car owner "just remembered".

 

HansonMA said:

My town pretty much honors the requests also,much to my dismay sometimes.In the last week I have had two calls where people have requested my company, only to have the officer tell them "NO". One town is the one that borders my town to the south and the other was a couple of towns away aprox 12-14 miles.One was an accident, and the other was a breakdown in a busy intersection.I don't have a problem with it, I actually like the fact that the police are loyal to thier tow companies.
Kevin

 

tommytows said:

if the police call me, its a full price tow, no way im accepting any motor club at a wreck, not dropping everything and show up in 20 mins or less for a motor club rate, if they want to get remubursed , thats fine, but pay me the full amount or call somebody else.

 

unknown members said:

Kevin,
Around here the requests are honored. With the city if it is an accident we lose a tow slip to that call. Disabled motorist calls go to the company that is up unless a request is made and no tow slip is pulled. As for the state the run the personal requests on a seperate sheet and you only get pulled down from rotation when there is not a request made and you are called. Everything seems to work out pretty evenly as we all have loyal customers who prefer one company to another and most do some form of auto club.
Mike

 

Anaron said:

Owner's request are honored by our law enforcement EXCEPT when a motor club is requested. Their past experience with motorclubs has been less than desirable. Extremely long wait times --- if they show up at all.Ron Burnes

 

Micheal McGovern said:

In the early 1990s, a Florida towing operator sued the Florida Highway Patrol, contending that a AAA member's request for "AAA" is not a request for a specific towing service and, thus, should not be honored as an "owner's request" permitted under the FHP towing rotation rules. Under the FHP rules, the rotation list is bypassed only if a vehicle owner indicates a preference for a "specific wrecker operator."

In his federal court suit, the tow operator claimed that the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) violated the non-AAA towing operators' rights to their equal share of tow calls when it directly dispatched the local AAA towing contractor, and thus circumventing the tow list, whenever a vehicle owner requested "AAA service." He contended that a request for "AAA" was not a request for a specific wrecker and, thus, the non-preference tow list should be utilized even if there was a request by a motorist for "AAA."

Following a trial that lasted over two weeks, the federal judge disagreed and held that a request for a "AAA wrecker" was a request for a specific wrecker and that it was, therefore, incumbent upon the FHP to call the AAA-designated tow service whenever requested to do so by a AAA member.

The plaintiff appealed and I represented him in the appeal to the federal circuit court. The circuit court affirmed and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

 

Don29yrs aka THTDON  said:

Mike, along the same lines, what do you think about a situation where the municipality or police department requires that each tow company on their rotation list be affiliated with AAA? Under those circumstances, if the burden was on the tow company to request affiliation with AAA, and AAA decides that they do not want to deal with that particular company, then that company is out of luck. They are disqualified from the rotation list. To me, AAA would be steering the direction of that tow list, keeping out the companies that they don't like. In my opinion, if AAA, or any other motor club for that matter, wants 100% representation on a rotation list, then it is up to them to make the best deal they can with each participant. I am not affiliated with AAA anymore. And if it became a requirement that I had to be affiliated with AAA to participate in the rotation list in my city, I would be denied my participation. To me, that would be discrimination, as I feel that I would be discriminated against because I was not affiliated with AAA. What do you think?

 

Auto Rescue said:

I'm not sure, in fact I totally disagree with having to be a AAA provider to be admited to a rotation list and AAA is the only MC I contract with, I do service others but it is at my rates not theirs.John R.

 

HansonMA said:

I do not have proof positive, but I have been told (several times)that a AAA company in my area, when requested by the customer,thru the PD, to respond to the scene of an accident, will attemp not to honor the AAA card, and convince the customer to have it stored at thier facility or that of a bodyshop($$).Informing them of insurance coverage benefits.This in my opinion is very deceptive and a poor buisness practice.My beef is I have a contract with my town to provide 24/7 and all that includes junkers,calls for favors from officers,junkers,flat tires on cruisers,junkers,angry drunks,and did I mention junkers.One of the AAA drivers was intelligent enough to inform one of my drivers that when they hear of an accident or a disabled car on the scanner,they will try to beat the cruiser to the scene to see if the person has the AAA card.Practically everyone and his brother has "THE CARD" so I've basically been the garbage man lately.

AAHHH! nothing like a good venting
Kevin

 

annettemcd said:

I would think that if the customer requested AAA not a specific towing company, then the police officer should be required to call AAA, not the towing service that they happen to know is AAA. The same argument could be used to say that if they are willing to call AAA, they should also be willing to call any other emergency road service provider: USAA, Geico, AllState, USAC, Progressive, etc. (I did not say CCMC only because most customers do not know that they are calling CCMC.) Isn't it discrimination to be willing to call AAA, but not others? If they are calling AAA service providers directly, then it could be said that they should have to know which towing companies are contracted with which motor clubs, so that they could call them directly? Most other motor clubs want to be contacted directly instead of after the fact.

I would think that this would blow up in the police officers' faces with long waits and confusion.

 

Don29yrs aka THTDON  said:

When I was with AAA, and I got stuck accepting the AAA card for a police call, I only accepted it for the basic tow. Anything extra was charged to the member. Sweeping, winching into position, disposing of debris, any extra labor at all was charged to the customer as a co-payment. That's what the medical community does. Have you ever gotten a bill in the mail weeks after you had some sort of a medical procedure or testing done? One of my employees had a CAT Scan done a while back. My employees are covered by health insurance. But there was a $350 co-payment for the CAT Scan. Co-payments are a fact of life in medicine. Why not towing?

 

TOwBoY88 said:

I don't accept AAA. Never did, probably never will (I say probably because of A) Something amazing could happen and their rates could actually be worth taking and B) If the other guy in town finally gives them up I can't see letting someone else just come in and sweep it up and let them "start to get bigger").

But, if you are on a police call at 2 AM you get back to the shop at 9:30 and the owner shows up with their AAA card, do you have to honor that card even though a call was not placed requesting this service?

I don't know how your contracts read, but I'm sure there is a loophole in it stating something about receiving a call or something that would be in the benefit of the towing company or maybe I'm just wrong and their isn't anything. If that is the case and you gotta "accept" it, I think that is just another notch in the belt of "not signing up".
Thanks ahead of time,
Billy M.
Bill's Towing
Jacksonville, IL
(217) 245-7835

 

annettemcd said:

AAA can not be used to pay for impounds. In the same way, insurance will usually not pay for impound tows. Cash only on impounds.

 

Don29yrs aka THTDON  said:

When I was with AAA, if we did a police tow, and the customer paid for the service, such as a DUI arrest, unlicensed, uninsured operator, snow removal, etc., and the customer went to AAA for reimbursement, AAA would reimburse them and deduct that amount of money from my check. So I had some rubber stamps made. If we towed a car that was obstructing snow removal or street sweeping operations, which seemed to be the most common type of tow to get reimbursed, the tow invoice was stamped with the message "obstructing sweeping" of "obstructing plowing", in big red letters. Generally, those tows did not get reimbursed after that. However, I never write "DUI" on a tow invoice because we, as towers, as not legally and medically qualified to determine that a person is under the influence of alcohol. I know what you're thinking. You and I can both spot a drunk a mile away. But legally speaking, we aren't qualified. But if the car was unregistered, uninsured, or operated by an unlicense person, I would make sure that the reason was prominently displayed on the slip. Without that, the customer would simply tell AAA that they broke down, and the crooked towman refused his AAA card. And you know AAA, the customer is always right.

 

tommytows said:

here they supposed to call AAA first, have them dispatch the call , thats thier "rules", i've had to tell them , sorry, it was called out as a police call, not a AAA call, but you can get reburised after you pay me, most of the time it gets them off my back, love to see their face when they receive a check for $20.25 lol. then they will realize WHY we don't accept motor clubs for wrecks. thats why people have insurance , for wrecks .