Story of the Fishing Poles!

[Ed Barker]

It never changes in the towing business,,,man calls for wreck we brought in and wants all contents including his fishing poles he has "NO" insurance,,,

 

I say bring me the title so I can junk it and get it out of my tow yard and you can clean it all out,,, he says in a mean voice I'm not paying you a dime and I'm not giving you a title!,,, along with a few very bad words that sounded like my ex wife was back on my porch,,, I said then your not cleaning it out,,, he then said what are you gonna do with those fishing poles! I said I own two gravel pits fully stocked and my kids love to fish!

 

Folks I'm more than fare offering to settle for a title and no money on an old junk car,,, very few companies will do that,,, we just clean up the mess you make,,, we didn't wreck it and we didn't total it,,, place blame where blame is do.

[GRUMPS The Towman]

I do the same with the under-insured junkers that you do. I am willing to take the title so I can get rid of it. Every now and again, you get those people who feel like we should pay them so we can get rid of it. Like we are making anywhere near what we are owed for cleaning up and hauling the heap to begin with. I play the "cant let you get anything out of it unless" game too although, Here, it is technically Illegal. As per our contract with the county, we are supposed to release ALL posessions from within the vehicle upon vehicle owners demand. The counties thought is we have the car as collateral and thats enough. Problem is the car isnt worth anything to begin with and then we cant get rid of it without a title so its a double edged sword. Now, if the customer knows the law, or has their lawyer contact me, then they called my bluff and I have to release their posessions. Then I get stuck with their balled up junk. It has gotten to the point that if the county calls for a wreck, I ask them what type of vehicle it is. if it is an older s#!tbox, I pass on it just so I dont get stuck with it. I already have 25 vehicles abandoned in my yard as it is..

[Derlyn Z]

On accidents where people don't have insurance we usually give them the option to either pay towing and storage, or hand over the title for the vehicle. It seems a lot of people like the option of just handing the title over, since they don't know what to do with the car anyway. But you still have those people  who let you hang and never show up!

[Stubborn66]

I have not had to deal with this, I get very few police calls.  sitting here thinking what I would do and I think at some point I would load the car up and drop it in their driveway, sideways of course, and blocking in what ever they are driving now.  Then, let them deal with it????

[ESC]

We stopped letting them slide with no fees a few years ago.   I obviously have chosen to help some of those clearly in need sort of thing... but for the most part, I try to at least charge an hour and get the title.  We are $175/hour usually.  Sometimes they complain, but I try to talk them through it and explain the costs and all and the fact that they chose to gamble and have low or no insurance coverage.  Also low scrap values have made it so I needed to charge to cover the expense if nothing else.   We are a licensed salvor, so getting a title is doable with alot of paperwork and time, so i do prefer to get a title from the owner.  Just last week I made a judgment call on one to not charge the guy in exchange for the title, but it had a little value... we had it sold the following morning to a local buyer for $500... so I was able to make some money and helped the vehicle owner out.

[dperone]

We also try to charge at least the tow plus get the title. If it was an involved recovery we might add labor in too, to try to cover at least a little of our costs. We also cannot legally hold possessions, but we "bluff" them a little to at least give us the title before they get any stuff. We've been hit or miss as of late, but junk has been way up and our scrap guys don't hound us abut the titles.

[Stubborn66]

Hard to believe that someone who doesn't bother to carry full coverage insurance is that well versed in the law.  Also cant imagine any lawyer wanting to get involved.  But in today's world they know everything but respect

 

Reminds me of my Uncle who passed away years ago.

 

Long Story but here is the gist of it

He did some front end work on a car people would not pay, tied his German Shepard to the car

Owner went and got State Police came back to shop

State Police told my uncle he could not keep car, he could file a mechanic lein

Uncle asked the cop if the parts were still his until they were paid for, cop says "yes"

Uncle tells cop to tell customer to give him an hour and come back after he took "his" parts back off the car.......and to bring a tow truck because it would not be able to move anymore.

Cop goes back to customer in the driveway and informs them...........Customer tells cop to ask my Uncle to wait an hour and they would be back with the money.

 

Uncle was one of those guys, and he had a good customer base and worked his shop for 50 years up till he died

[GRUMPS The Towman]

I should of worded my response a bit better too. I usually charge $100 + the title. Like ESC stated, the unpredictable scrap rates, on top of the prep work for scrap takes a bite out of what little you end up getting after all is said and done. The bigger recovery jobs I try to get more of course with mixed results. I really try not to let on to the customer but in most cases, I am just more than happy to be able to get rid of the heap easily and quickly. The longer I have to babysit it, the more I add to my "disposal fee" too. I will give someone a few days to figure out what they are gonna do, But I have my limits.

There are of course some people who I can see are just getting by and I will usually let them slide if they are willing to just hand over the title. A customers overall demeanor is a factor in how far i am willing to work with them.

Sometimes, I will end up with one that is worth throwing a few bucks at and repairing for re-sale. Last one was an 05 Expedition hit in the right front. It was a low mileage, rust free southern truck So, a Fender, headlight, lower control arm ( all bone yard parts of course )and a wheel alignment. Turned around and sold it for $3,200. Had about $400-$500 into it. 

You would be surprised how many people run around with the bare minimal of insurance. I had a 2017 Land Rover over the summer that hit a fire hydrant. I took it in and stored it for over a week thinking its insured, Then finally when I hear from the clown that owned it, He states he doesnt have coverage. This guy thought I was gonna feel sorry for him. Turns out, There's a Dr. in front of his name as well... He paid full rates..

5 hours ago, dperone said:

We also try to charge at least the tow plus get the title. If it was an involved recovery we might add labor in too, to try to cover at least a little of our costs. We also cannot legally hold possessions, but we "bluff" them a little to at least give us the title before they get any stuff. We've been hit or miss as of late, but junk has been way up and our scrap guys don't hound us abut the titles.

Glad to see I am not the only one out there who tries the "possesion bluff" Lol

[ESC]

20 hours ago, dperone said:

We also try to charge at least the tow plus get the title. If it was an involved recovery we might add labor in too, to try to cover at least a little of our costs. We also cannot legally hold possessions, but we "bluff" them a little to at least give us the title before they get any stuff. We've been hit or miss as of late, but junk has been way up and our scrap guys don't hound us abut the titles.

We are in that same boat, however I am very cautious about always getting a title one way or another before we do anything to dispose of the car. Just to keep a paper trail to protect us if nothing else.  I have seen too many horror stories about tow yards scrapping a car without going through the proper channels to get a title first and it comes back to bite them hard.  I keep titles and copies of everything before it leaves our yard, even if it is a total junker.   

 

Rumor has it a towing company near us sold a junker without a title to a scrap guy a while back that turned into losing a police contract and a lawsuit over a POS car.

[GRUMPS The Towman]

I am the same way with having some sort of release from the owner or title for any vehicle I am going to scrap, regardless of what condition it is in. I personally have never gotten jammed up, But like you I have heard the horror stories. 

Not to far back, Another local company here had this Toyota Tacoma pickup that was a bit older but in great shape from a traffic stop. The only info he was told by law enforcement was that the registration was suspended. They made No mention of the Owner/driver. It had been in their yard for 5 or 6 months with absolutely Zero contact with the owner, driver, family, nothing. He had "assumed" that the truck was just dumped on him. So he proceeded to remove and sell the stereo system, and some other odds n ends from it. He then gave the truck to his 14 year old son as a "Woods truck" who then beat the bejesus out of it on the trails and mud pits in the back 40 of their property. Well, wouldnt you know a few weeks later, the owner was released from county jail where he has been since the traffic stop on a warrant..... He wanted his truck back...This all ended up making the local news and everything.. Talk about some negative publicity..I think that whole thing is still going through the courts.. 

If you dont have a title, then your going to sign a detailed release and provide a copy of your i.d. for proof you turned the vehicle over to me..

There is NO WAY I will ever go through that.. I cant see my competitors business ever recovering from that mess.

[jp245]

If the owner calls within a day or two and wants to dispose of the car I try to get the hook up fee (usually 150-200) and the title, by the close of business the following day. You have to put a short time limit or it just drags on and on. If the owner has no title NY DMV has a form we can fill out for a car over 8 years old and worth less than $1250, only good for disposal at a registered salvage yard. We fill that out with a copy of license and registration and keep it with our own release and paid tow bill.

[dperone]

Our local state police barracks is pretty good about getting us a junk title within a few months if the owner never shows up with the title. The problem is they only keep logs of impounds, not wrecks. If we junk a car without a title it's pretty well tore up and the owner emptied it out and told us to just keep the pos.