'Predatory' tows' big dollar impact in trucking at roadside, or as blunt end of the parking shortage

Overdrive Editor Todd Dills was at the conference of the National Association of Small Trucking Companies in Nashville, Tennessee, in November, in conversation with a small fleet owner there for the event, when the owner's phone rang. He glanced down at it, and tried to ignore it as the pair talked on. Then it rang again. “I've got to take this,” he said after glancing down, and wandered off to the side.

Turns out, one of his drivers, pulling a big liquid tanker, non-hazmat, had been in an accident. Luckily, all parties were OK, but the equipment, not so much. In the aftermath, the owner was presented with a huge tow bill for the nonconsensual, police-ordered tow, occurring in Indiana. It just so happens the state of Indiana ranked No. 1 for the intensity of reported “predatory towing” events motor carriers shared with the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) as the organization researched the extent of outsize bills and other egregious practices -- and their impact on trucking around the nation.

ATRI's new, about-as-comprehensive-as-you-can-get report on predatory towing is out now. Find a link to it in Overdrive News Editor Matt Cole’s reporting on ATRI’s work here: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15659826/predatory-towing-how-common-is-it-and-how-can-truckers-avoid-it

In this podcast, sit in on Matt Cole’s attendant conversation with ATRI Research Associate Alex Leslie, who brought a variety of additional insights to the questions of just what owner-operators and small fleet owners can do to combat so-called predatory behavior when they feel like they’re seeing it.

It can be difficult to know just how to approach unfair practices, given towing rules and regulations are a patchwork of local laws, by and large, when not covered by statewide rules. Those statewide rules, where they exist, furthermore, often apply only on state highways and when the state highway patrol is involved, as Leslie explains.

Dive into the details, too, of the small fleet owner’s tow. He questioned some of the charges on the itemized invoice he received in the aftermath -- totaling well upward of $9,000 with just a single night of storage.

Charges for use of the tow company’s expensive heavy-duty rotator were billed for a four-hour minimum at a whopping $1,500 an hour, for instance. The small fleet owner questioned the need for charges for not one but two service trucks on the scene, both charged at $350/hour for that minimum four hours for a grand total of $1,400 each. Attempts to transfer the liquid load to another trailer were met with resistance and demands of overnighted payment to release the load. Access to the yard where the tractor-trailer and load both sat was denied after 5 p.m. the day of the early-day crash itself. The tow operator claimed that, since it was a police impound lot, rules in the locale prohibited outside access after hours. The owner, though, remains unsure just whether the tow company may have simply made that one up, or not.

In his view, they simply “held the load captive until a check was overnighted to them.”

There's more where that came from, including measures trucking companies and operators can take to protect themselves on-scene, or seek redress when wronged, too.

Towing coverage in Overdrive through the year:

State legislation to rein in: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15542568/maryland-mtas-predatory-towing-bill-explained

Tow company perspective: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15540918/towings-predatory-pricing-a-tow-company-owners-perspective

Owner-operator experience: https://www.overdriveonline.com/channel-19/article/15540095/truck-drivers-share-predatory-towing-fee-stories

A particularly over-the-top example: https://www.overdriveonline.com/regulations/article/15635856/truckers-carjacked-roughed-up-by-a1-towing-in-memphis-report