Ellington

Members of local wrecker-service companies claim that the City Council's Tuesday decision to lower towing fees in Jackson will hurt their business.

The agreement locks down the rate wrecker-service companies can charge owners for towing and retaining vehicles that have stalled, been abandoned, or detained by police for various reasons, including the owner's overdue traffic citations or criminal charges.

Wrecker companies prefer to work inside city limits because Jackson's dense population and downtown traffic offers plenty of towing possibilities. To tow in the city, however, wreckers must sign the city's wrecker-rotation agreement, which now mandates that the companies charge a towing fee of $75 for cars, vans, light trucks, mopeds and motorcycles. Other fees vary based on the size of the vehicle. Wrecker companies have charged an average of $100 for towing fees since the last rotation agreement expired in 2002.

Trey Ward, of Ward's Wrecker Service, said the city's new towing fee of $75 is lower than the industry standard. He also criticized the city's towing fee cap of $185 for heavy-duty trucks exceeding 15 tons, saying the fee did not cover towing a rig of that size. Ward warned that the city agreement the council passed on Tuesday was an incomplete document that was full of holes.

"What's to stop my wrecker service in Jackson from putting a $75 administrative charge on your $75 ticket and charging you $150? There's nothing in the ordinance that says we cannot do that. There are several loopholes. We've submitted an ordinance that closed the loopholes, but the city of Jackson was unwilling to address it," Ward said.

Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes was one of the four council members who voted in favor of the rotation agreement, arguing that tough economic times made it difficult for towing-service customers to afford fees more than $100.

Ward 1 Councilman Jeff Weill, Ward 6 Councilman Tony Yarber, and Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon opposed the new policy, arguing that the ordinance wrecker-service representatives proposed appeared to be more complete.

Previous Comments

ID

159267

Comment

It's not just a matter of the set towing fee. There are the daily storage fees, fees to move the car from the wrecker lot to the curb, refusing to allow people to pick up their vehicle unless they show proof of insurance and continuing to charge a daily storage rate until this is satisfied. The company will tell you that if someone removing their vehicle without this fee should bump into another car on their lot the company would be liable. This is true, however, must they really charge $100 and up to drive a car off their lot to the curb? Really? One person offered that on a $75.00 fee the driver only makes $25.00 and the company needs more to pay the driver more. Perhaps they could take the $25, and give the driver $50.

Author

BuyJxn

Date

2010-08-11T19:18:21-06:00