The Towing Epidemic in Ontario

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