A while back my car got towed while parking in a residential neighborhood near Westheimer. To get my car back I had to go to some remote part of downtown and pay like $225 on top of a $60 fine from the city. My question is why do tow truck companies charge so much for towing a car and keeping it in their lot? Its not the tow truck lot is high rent and they have to recoup their expenses. Its normally in some desolate place in the middle of nowhere. The only real expense is gasoline and salary. But alot of these tow guys are self employed. If a tow truck driver tows 5 cars a day and impounds them, he can earn his company over $1000 for that day. I don't know if the tow lot gets half that amount for the self employed drivers, but its still appears like easy money. Its seems like a pretty good racket they got going.
Well....they have you over a barrell. They own the impound yard and can charge whatever the market will bear in use fees for their land. It's simple economics. You'd rather pay $200 than have to go buy a new car.
This is a form of legalized crime if you ask me. The tow truck guys rob you without a gun, but the city turns a blind eye so they can collect their taxes and fines also.
I think there is a lot more to it that what you think. Does anybody actually know any tow truck guys and how well off they are? I'm thinking there is lots of overhead that the public doesn't know about. Their liability insurance and legal fees are probably outrageous. They probably get sued all the time by people that claim their vehicle was damaged by the two truck. They probably have to pay all kinds of taxes and fees to the city, also...
risk/reward. They need to get rewarded well because there is a high risk that someone will shoot their worthless ass.
Well, impound fees might be controlled to some extent by ordinance. And, I imagine that they do have other operating expenses besides the land and salaries. They may have to carry insurance that covers all the cars they tow. Security for the lot. City licensing fees. But, yeah, they probably make a pretty tidy margin, considering the monopoly position they hold on the possession of your vehicle.
they gotcha yah by the balls maybe? ever notice the security around the cashier? its a business predicated on the customer is wrong and probably angry as hell.
the $225 is a fee regulated by the city on a police consent tow just be glad you weren't there to sign the ticket, they then could have charged you whatever they wanted
and yes, garage policies for wrecker drivers are sky high. However, wrecker drivers in the COH charge substantially more than what drivers charge in other parts of Texas. Like 50% more on average. I've regularly had to pay $400-$700 for a tow from 1/2 mile from the storage lot, all because the wrecker had the owner of the vehicle sign a blank ticket. If you are every in an accident, don't ever sign a tow authorization. Let them tow it to their storage lot and then hire your own wrecker to move it where you want.
i couldn't ****in' believe it when that **** happened to me. my sister got in an accident in my car. when she called, i was 45 min. away. when i get there, the two truck guy is all nice of course, asking to sign the papers for permission to tow the car away. later when the collision company tried to get the car out of the impound, they called me to tell me, the impound is charging $500 all because I signed. ****ing b*stard waited there for my signature and i didn't know any better. Lesson: NEVER SIGN PERMISSION TO HAVE THE WRECKED CAR TOWED.
the $500 sounds like a steering fee, which is typical if a wrecker driver tows your vehicle to one of his bodyshops for storage, i guarantee you they are going to try and charge you a $500 steering fee if you try to move it thats the problem....wrecker drivers/VSFs/body shops bully people into brining their car to their shop, and it works because 99% of the public knows nothing about car repairs and how to judge whether they are getting hosed on the quality of repair
how bout this, don't park illegally! i always see people parking in a handicap spot, then they go skipping into what ever store. now that's just ****ty if you ask me.
They aren't. But the VSF owner's that they work for are VERY well off. Most wrecker driver's work for VSF owners (very few are independent contractors) who in turn, carry a group liability policy. So you may pay the wrecker driver $225, but most of that is going to the VSF owner that guy is working for.
The same reason that; municipal courts and the city and charge you huge amounts of money for traffic violations, hospitals and corporate-run medical places can charge you $50 for an aspirin, college textbook stores can charge you $100 for a 90 page paperback. Because we, in our glorious free market society, let them.
So if you are in an accident, how do you get your car towed then? Will a tow company move your car without signing an tow authorization? Is this some sort of free service by the city for people in accidents? I had never heard of this, so I'm kind of confused.
