Getting Paid for your work!

[TowZone]

From a Tow411 Topic which started in 2007:

 

OK, I'm out of the loop when it concerns "Getting Paid for your work".

Does this refer to anti dumping laws, vehicles which are left in impound by
owners and insurance companies or does it mean something else?

"From the Kingdom of Towing & Recovery Vehicles, may you find prosperity in 2007."

 

unknown member said:

good luck with that one i have tried several different approaches to get paid for abandoned vehicles and so far all we get is a junk car that is worth nothing. i think there should be laws against abandoning vehicles at a tow lot
but who is big enough to fight the government????

 

Santiam01 said:

Maybe it's time to "franchise" abandoned vehicle towing, kinda like the garbage / refuse haulers industry does with territories, & billing? Lien laws, vehicle registration rules & collection laws need to be monitored & set so that going after the last R/O is appropriate, & fair.

 

ED said:

In our area an abandoned vehicle is part of the rotation list. This means not only are you picking up a junk car that you will not get paid for, it cost's you money to get the title for disposal and you used your turn on the rotation to get it. I have inquired to put this on separate list but it is a non issue to the law enforcement agency.

 

bodysoother said:

I would think that any kind of work that you do, you would want to be payed. I know that if you don't pay your TAX that is owed to the goberment, they will put a lien on your property, or garnishee your checking acc. Here if it is property tax and you don't pay it, they can sell your property. You never really own anything, pay the tax and you can use it.
Abandon vehicles are probably the most of our not getting payed. In my opinion, there could at least be a law that considered this as littering on the highway, maybe a fine of say $500.00, we could at least be payed our wrecker bill, get at least part of our money and then sell the POS maybe for the rest. Here it cost me between $100 to $125 to pick up this POS. I wait until I have about 15, sell them to a salvage yard for $75 and they pick them up. I am really getting rich quick this way.

 

Corby said:

I think that all towing companies should get paid from their local government for the removal of abandoned vehicles. After all we are doing the community a service by collecting garbage right, and I also think that the last registered owner that dumps a car, should be fined for littering, if they don't pay the fine, then loss of drivers license.

Dave

 

MTA415 said:

All of the above Ron.I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.

 

Towinguy said:

When we pick up an abandoned vehicle for law enforcement, it goes to THEIR lot, and THEY are given a bill for the tow. If the owner wants to claim the vehicle within 30 days, they come to our office and pay the tow bill then pay the storage fee to the department. If it isnt claimed in 30 days the law enforcement agency that towed the vehicle pays the tow bill and the vehicle is sold at auction. If it only worked so well for vehicles that do make it to our lot.......Gregg

WM010022

 

Superior35 said:

Its not just in the Poconno's Ed, same thing in our area. Should be a community expense not a requirement for rotation. If everyone on rotation would stick together this could be fixed. But that will never happen. Some one will always take them in hope for an unfair advantage on the list.

 

hookrite said:

Abandon vehicles,No Insurance wrecks Is where I lose Money

Here we have a 500 lbs plus is Felony Littering BUT it is not enforced so we get stuck with it! Then you do paper work and send money for titles so you can crush it or sell parts.

I know it is a part of this business But we need an express lane at the DMV so we can either block the vehicle owners Drivers licsence,tags or something until we are paid I've had it with (I don't wont it you can have it and I'm not going to pay you)

This is the only business I know that you provide a service and then fight for your Money!

I have had people tell me that the state pays you to tow I have too educate them on how it works No the state does not pay us to tow Hell I have to fight with them as well when I tow one of there Vehicles (You wait 3 to 6 months to pay a bill you owe them and see what happens)

I was hit HARD in 2006 with the abandons and No insurance
worst I have ever seen!

I hope things can be changed http://www.tow411.net/images/emoticonconfused.gif Curtis

 

Scott Burrows said:

Legislative initiatives in KY to remedy this problem have been met with STIFF resistance, from law enforcement as well as administration officials. They see NO problem, advising that we should include this in our 'cost of doing business!'

Until MEANINGFUL abandoned vehicle legislation makes it into law, we will continue to be the dumping ground for the nation's 'mobile-trash!'

 

TOM JR said:

I think it also could refer to people who do not put paying their towing bills in a timely manner like some shop acccounts and customers that don't have the money in hand but you don't want to take their car or call the cops on them. I have a guy now Ive known for years who's down on his luck that owes me $175. I know he doesn't have it because hes got tough times but I sure could use the money he owes me.

 

unknown member said:

Idaho does have an abandoned vehicle law,but seems to be hard to enforce, at least where I'm at. We get a lot of abandoned/no insurance wrecks, and the same as everyone, try to get what we can at the crusher. Being remote out here, crusher costs and freight are high, so we don't get much. Sure does drive the rates up- then everyone else thinks we're getting rich. I tell them I'll sell out, they  can start tomorrow.

 

unknown member said:

in florida .its a no dumping state . we get a car . abandon . ppi crashed no insurance ir what ever . police rates . plus storage then lein . then adment fees . burn take off vins we will find vin last person to own it . pays or tag . lic- insurance will be suspended . when you go to get tag or drivers iic or insurance . or cops stop you guess what . we get a call

and wind up with that car also cause you have no lic - no tag . no insurance .and your other car has already been auction off sad ain't it sooner or later you will come back and pay your bill might be sixn months or more but you will be back cussing and hollering .... we don't tow for free ------

 

concordtowing said:

I wish we had a law like Florida has it would make it easier to get paid North Carolina has a dumping law but only applies to Finance and insurance

 

unknown member said:

i have had people come in our office next day after they have had a head on crash with black eye busted head can;t hardly walk now they jumped out and ran left there car , and also other people jumped run left there car .

then they reported it stolen they just want to look at it . and they ask how bad is it tore up , of course it ain't bad you can probably drive it home .no you can't look at it ;

if you pay for it you can have it i will bring it out of the field for you , cash only some pay some leave . some pay and leave car ,
\
yes you can cuss me all you want .. but you can't cuss my wife or my office ladies or my daughter in law or son

i guess i love this part of the job as much as i do the towing i told one guy he was going have to leave the office once if he did not calm down i walked him to door this dude turned around hit me five time up side head faster than jessie james could shoot a gun he never made it to his car .

i grabbed this dude around the neck and threw him cross back of ltd ford he had 4 guys in car with him they put him in car he ain't never came back i got his car , still driving it got title my 5 year old grand son can hit harder . i'm not saying thats the thing to do ..... but some times enough is enough all state ought to be like florida ------------------

 

towinu said:

In Washington we have a failure to redeem law. If a car was impounded by a law enforcement after your auction you file for a Failure to redeem. The officer that had the vehicle impounded will write a ticket for littering it is a $538 ticket the towing bill is attached and the registered owner's license is suspended. The registered owner can't get there driver's renewed until the entire amount is paid. Driver License's expire every four year so it sometimes takes a while to collect but better then nothing. Our company did a failure to redeem on someone I know (not knowing who it was original) and she told us that the amount the court lien was double the amount that we turned in for, but she never sh.owed us the paper work to prove that. She wants a deal on the price but we haven't seen a lot of return lately so we aren't changing the price yet.

 

oklatom said:

Public perception is the biggest problem I think, backed up by some of the insurance agents.

The person who caused the wreck isn't covered for his own car, so it gets dumped. You contact them and they will tell you "I was told if I left it with you, that would cover the bill." Often times it's their agent that told them this. I had one person arguing the wheels and motor were worth more than the bill against it. I suggest that for "X" more I would tow it to his house and he could sell all that and make a profit. He agreed, and I got paid on THAT one.

We need to educate the public that we need and deserve to be paid, that leaving the car isn't payment.

 

Melville said:

educate the public??!! I have a hard enough time educating me and mine let alone the public, isn't that the job of the public school system??!! anyways the simplest solution to this problem is to get legislation past in your state to add a small fee (eg...$0.25) per to each and every BMV transaction to compensate for the removal of abandoned vehicles. As a tower we would have to file as required per the rule in the state and then submit a request (form) to the state for a prearranged and set fee (eg...$100,00) for the removal and disposal.

The state should look favorably on this type of legislation as it will bring in millions of dollars a year in "revenue" and the remittance to the towers only a fraction thereof and the interest on the collected money from this should be substantial since the money would be collected at the time of transaction and the payment to the tower will no doubt be months down the road and only after we negotiate all the red tape required.

It should also encourage the state to go after the abandoners for an additional fee for actually causing them to surrender money to us towers.

 

joefromjd said:

We need a law like Florida has, or have one where law enforcement has to do all the leg work so we get paid. make them responsible so that we get paid, maybe then there would be some laws passed to take care of the situation.

 

Wes Wilburn said:

“We need to educate the public that we need and deserve to be paid, that leaving the car isn't payment.” WELL SAID

(The public does not know, understand or care what it costs to provide them this service or what would happen to our society if our service wasn't here)

And we need to inform the public and police this is ONE of the many reasons this type of towing costs more...

It is just the same as a store that builds the price of shoplifting into their prices...

So getting our side out to the public is one of the most important things we can do as an industry…

 

hookrite said:

RIGHT the banks and finance co's can dump on you! And WILL
I have 2 right now, Both wrecked with NO insurance and 10k plus owed on each one and the banks said we will write it OFF and will sale the titles to me for 1k each I told them what they could do with the title.

Curtis

 

concordtowing said:

I don't let them see unless bill is paid It seem most of the vehicles that I get stuck with belong to Hispanic they seem to believe it is okay to dump a vehicle and not return to pay for towing and storage cause that's how they do it in Mexico strip it on the side of the road and leave it for someone else I had a hispanic man come to my office yesterday 1-26-07 with an translator and she told him that I would drop the charges if they signed the car over to me but I did not tell her that, the way I know what she told him was my friend was at my office and she speeks spanish So important lesson learned the translator is telling them things that are not right and taking advantage of us that do not speak spanish The owner did ask me for a break on the bill and I said no he paid and took his car.

 

88towboy said:

people don't realize we cant take those cars down and pay are power bills and our ins. or buy fuel for are trucks they think by giving us the car that releases them of any obligation why do we want this problem very few cars have any worth there is so much we have to do to even get rid of these cars here we have to pay a driver to go tow it plus fuel and wear and tear on the trucks then we have to hold the car for 2-3 days usually if they ain't in there by then they ain't coming.

 

So then we pay some one in the office to access the dmv records and have to pay dmv to get vehicle owner information then make lien paperwork up pay again to have it sent certified mail to owner sit on it in our yard you know cuz thats free Im sure most of us could run from home if we didn't need a yard to store this crap then when we finally get notice back or wait out our 15 or 30 days depending on value of vehicle we have to pay our driver a second time to tow it to a wrecking yard and give it to them they will take it if we bring it to them so all of this out go and not once did we collect a dime for what we have done when does this stop!!!! and yes this comes from our rotation list take the good with the bad they say I call it black male I thought it was against the constitution to ask anyone to work for free or ask for services with out compensation this realty burns me.

 

TowZone said:

I used to think that way as well until the Baltimore Show last year. I was saying how most tow companies have said they dread the idea of selling 300 abandoned vehicles a month. Most just acted confused about what they would do, but then a few said bring them on we'll take em all. Follow the legal process, cut the car up and sell it off. Even if the car had to go to auction all said they would cut the cats off first on the junkers cause they would be worth more then the car would bring. I would think a major factor would be how much space the tow company has in there impound yard. Any thoughts?