The Towing Epidemic in Ontario.
More and more across the media we are seeing an increase in
negative publicity towards the towing industry in the province of Ontario.
Scenes of tow trucks racing to scenes of accidents and endangering the safety
of the motoring public are becoming a daily sight. In my opinion there are many
factors that play into this problem and I’d like to go over just a few.
Money:
The amazing thing that makes the world go round. In
our industry there are two types of tow operators, the ones who go to work for
their pocket book and the ones who go to work for their customers. Don’t get me
wrong towing is a job first and a passion second, that being said we do need to
make money in order to survive. However there is such thing as an honest dollar
and a dirty dollar. Just recently I had the “pleasure” of having an encounter
with one of these Toronto style chasers. To say the least the experience was
less than desirable. After stumbling across a 2 vehicle collision on my way
home I as any tow operator would stopped to make sure everyone was ok. After my
arrival and speaking to the customer of the only vehicle that needed to be towed
a second truck showed up, the operator was not happy to see me there to say the
least. After confirming with me that I was not leaving the wreck, he then
proceeded to inform the customer that he would pay her insurance deductible if
she would allow him to tow her vehicle. How you want to run your business as an
owner is completely your business and nobody else’s, however when you don’t have
the courtesy to check with the customer, who was elderly, if she was ok, if she
needed to call any family, if she would like to sit in your truck to stay warm
rather than on the side of the road. You are not working for the customer you
are working for your pocket book. When we do not possess the skills to earn
business we are forced to buy it.
Police Involvement:
The media is quick to throw our industry
under the bus so to speak, scenes of tow trucks driving dangerously, in and out
of traffic trying to be the first to attend any motor vehicle collision. But
why are they in such a hurry? In Ontario our provincial police in the GTA area
are feeding into this dangerous practice. While attending an accident on my way
to a roadside assistance call, right place right time, I again stopped to
assist a motorist. Upon arrival I checked with the driver of the vehicle who
ended up being from the Ottawa area and we made some small talk, never once was
a mention of towing involved. As per usual a “chase” truck showed up just prior
to the police, and began trying to convince the customer to use his services.
Now this is where it gets fun, When the police officer began to deal with the
towing of the vehicle he has just one question. Who was here first? As I was
the first tow truck there the job was given to me and we made all the arrangements
necessary to make sure the customer was taken care of. Now how does this make
sense? The only factor that would decide who was to tow a vehicle was strictly
based on a drivers efficiency to arrive at a wreck, whether it be stumbled upon
or speeding to get too. Although we are responsible for our actions, this kind
of disregard for anything other than first on scene attitude from police definitely
encourages dangerous practices.
Lack of regulations:
The towing industry has been a breeding
ground for shady tow practices in Ontario. With a lack of provincial towing
regulations companies have been able to take advantage of customers with little
to no repercussions. The government recently has begun to introduce new laws to
help curve these problems. The problem is in order to solve the problems of the
few bad apples; many of the good apples will suffer. As stories of huge tow
bills into the thousands of dollars for simple tows off the highway become more
common, the negative image this brings affects even the honest of businesses.
In my opinion there does need to be some sort of control on towing rates across
the province, but these rates need to be evaluated in a region per region
basis. As an industry we had many of chances over the years to self regulate
ourselves before the government needed to step in. A task that should have been
assigned to the Provincial Towing Association, Unfortunately this association
has been nowhere to be seen on the matter over the years. This tends to happen
when the president of said association is more worried about the growth of his
towing business rather than the growth of our industry. For a man inducted into
the towing hall of fame I would expect more.
There is no doubt that there needs to be major change in our
industry, but this change will not happen overnight. There are too many
different groups that need to come together in order for this to happen. So
what can we do? We can have a voice; whether that is to our association, to our
local police, or to our customers. We need to let them know this is not how we
want to be known, this is not what we go to work for everyday. The good still
outnumber the bad although that gap seems to be narrowing as time goes by. To
my brothers and sisters who go to work for more than just themselves every day I
encourage you to voice your opinion and demand change, before we become the
minority in our industry.
Sincerely,
Shawn Michaud WM140989
