Will police call a tow truck? It all depends in Pennsylvania

• By Tom Lisi | LNP/LancasterOnline

Towing company operators know they’re not always seen as the good guys, especially when they’re called by a police officer to impound a vehicle that’s been in a wreck or when someone is found to be driving illegally.

“Everybody thinks we’re a bunch of crooks,” said Gwen Null, president of the Pennsylvania Towing Association.

So was the reaction of a 38-year-old Columbia man last month after his 2005 BMW coupe was impounded after a police officer pulled him over in Marietta and discovered his driver’s license was suspended.

Will Berke told The Watchdog he was pulled over on River Road for a burnt-out headlight. The Susquehanna Regional Police Department officer then discovered Berke was driving on a suspended license.

Berke claims the officer initially told him he could get a friend or loved one to drive the vehicle home. But the officer quickly reversed course and said Berke’s BMW was going to be towed. Asked about this change later, Lt. Jeffrey Sosnoski of the Susquehanna Regional Police offered no comment on Berke’s description of events.

At the scene, a driver from York County-based Unlimited Towing, Susquehanna Regional Police’s primary tow company for emergency calls, arrived within four minutes of receiving a call from the police, according to Jeff Graham, Unlimited’s owner.

Both Berke and Graham said Berke’s BMW did not fit inside a narrow shoulder lane on the two-lane River Road in Marietta across from Rutter’s, which meant it was in the flow of the traffic. In these situations, police officers are expected to take steps to remove a vehicle as quickly as possible, tow operators said.

Four days later, Berke handed over $600 to Unlimited to get his car back, an amount that took him several days to cobble together from friends and family, he said.

Graham said he stands by the bill, which otherwise would have totaled $805 were it not for a $205 discount. That’s not only fair, Graham said, it’s less than other tow companies in the area charge.

Matters of discretion

But Unlimited’s invoice for Berke’s tow became social media fodder after a local criminal justice reform activist, Meg Keller, posted it on Facebook and accused Unlimited Towing of preying on people when they’re vulnerable. Keller and Berke are friends, they each said.

Keller alleged on Facebook that Unlimited offered its discount on the condition that she take down her negative post about them, something Unlimited denied.

Unlimited offered the $205 discount to help Berke get his car back, since he was struggling to come up with the money, according to Graham. Unlimited offers discounts to cut people a break or avoid resentful customers who are unhappy they were towed in the first place, Graham said.

Graham acknowledged that Unlimited incorrectly charged Berke for an additional day of storage, as Keller alleged in her Facebook post, but the $205 discount was more than the mistaken $75 daily fee.

Unlimited has a 4.9-star rating on Google, which had 126 reviews as of Friday.

“We try to keep everybody happy because you don’t know who that person knows,” said Nate Kershner, the tow truck operator at Unlimited who impounded Berke’s car.

The Watchdog found no comprehensive data on how much tows from traffic stops or wrecks cost motorists in Pennsylvania.

What happens to a vehicle after a traffic stop or a crash, and how much a tow costs, can vary widely depending on the nature of the incident, where it takes place and the discretion of both police and towing operators, said Lt. Steve Heinly of the West Lampeter Police Department.

In some cases, like a suspended license or expired registration, West Lampeter Police officers may try to help the motorist avoid a towing bill, Heinly said. Patrol officers may offer to drive the motorist’s car to a nearby parking lot.

“You have to get permission from the owner of the property to do something like that, but it saves them from getting a tow bill,” Heinly said.

Towing ain’t easy

Tows are, by nature, not a planned event, so it’s understandable that an owner might be shocked by an unexpected bill in the hundreds of dollars — sometimes exceeding $1,000 — especially when their auto insurance is not footing the bill.

Towing operators, meanwhile, often are working on small margins due to the cost of insurance, gas and labor, Null said. And that’s on top of expensive trucks and equipment that can cost more than $1 million per vehicle, according to Null. Most tow companies have profit margins at or below 7%, she said.

Some motorists who recover their impounded cars may not know or care much about how much it costs to tow their car because their car insurance company is footing the bill.

But motorists without adequate insurance or a suspended license sometimes can’t afford to reclaim their vehicle, she said. And the costs to move them to a car auction and get vehicles resold are often not worth it, according to Null.

There are no statewide regulations on how much towing companies charge their customers, but they generally charge the most when they respond to a call from police, whether for an emergency or a traffic stop, Null said.

A typical car breakdown, when a motorist calls a tow company to move a disabled vehicle, most likely to a repair shop, does not require an immediate response, so it is much cheaper, operators said.

“Your breakdown is like going to the family doctor, traffic stops are like going to urgent care, accidents are like going to the emergency room,” said Null, a former nurse.

Towing fees from crashes tend to be more expensive than traffic stops, Null said, because damaged cars are more difficult to tow. Tows that need an immediate response and happen after business hours also usually mean additional fees, Null said.

And much like health care, it also pays to have good insurance and a plan for emergencies.

Just as emergency patients can sometimes direct ambulance drivers to which hospital within a safe distance to take them, motorists on the scene of a crash or traffic stop have a say in which tow company responds, if the officers at the scene are satisfied the tow operator can get to the scene quickly enough, operators said.

Under Pennsylvania’s Towing and Towing Storage Facility Standards Act of 2012, motorists choose which tow operator to call “in consultation with law enforcement.”

Law enforcement can overrule the motorist if a vehicle is impeding traffic and the tow operator can’t get to the scene “in a timely fashion,” according to the 2012 law.

“A lot of the time people will say, ‘So-and-so is towing the car, they’ll be here in 15 minutes’ – then, the officer waits 15, 20 minutes and that tow didn’t show up,” Graham of Unlimited Towing said.

Lt. Sosnoski of the Susquehanna Regional Police wrote in an email that the department does not have any contracts with towing companies and uses different operators depending on the situation. “It all depends on the incident location, the tow companies availability and time frame of when they can be there,” Sosnoski said.

State law also sets some basic requirements for towing operators to post signs and hours at their locations, post their fees and allow “reasonable access” for vehicles to be reclaimed.

Municipalities can set more specific rules for towing companies, operators said. For instance, York and Lancaster cities have ordinances that set additional requirements for towing operators that include standards for insurance coverage, storage lots, how quickly vehicles must be released and more.

Some municipalities may also limit by ordinance how much tow operators can charge, Heinly said.

Towing operators also said they sometimes will agree to tow an individual’s car to their home, instead of to the impound lot — as long as the motorist doesn’t have any issues with their car insurance or registration.

Kershner said he has done that. But in Berke’s case, the officer said it wasn’t an option because Berke walked away from the scene so quickly.

“Before I could even get the vehicle loaded and speak to him about any other options besides him coming down and picking it up from us, he was already walking away and walking to Sheetz in Marietta,” Kershner told The Watchdog.

On the road

There are some bad actors in the towing business. One operator in the Pittsburgh area pleaded guilty last month to felony theft by deception and insurance fraud and misdemeanor charges for charging customers’ insurance companies exorbitant towing fees.

The operator, Vincent G. Fannick, charged $9,460 and $13,105 for single, short-trip tows, according to the state attorney general’s office, whose insurance fraud division worked on the case. In one instance, according to the attorney general’s office, Fannick charged $9,805 to tow a vehicle one-third of a mile.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission regulates most “motor carriers” that transport either goods or people within the commonwealth, but emergency towing is among the activities exempt from regulation, according to the PUC website.

Dave Hixson, a spokesman for the state Public Utility Commission, wrote in an email that roadside assistance services, including emergency towing, are not subject to the commission’s jurisdiction.

“Motor carriers are evaluated for technical and financial fitness before a PUC certificate is issued and undergo periodic safety reviews” when they are subject to the state agency, Hixson wrote.

In July, Unlimited applied for the certificate for the first time, according to PUC records. The company listed its desire to transport motor vehicles and equipment. Their approved certificate as motor carrier took effect Oct. 6, according to PUC records.

To protect themselves, vehicle owners should take their car insurance seriously and not simply pay for liability coverage, the minimum requirement in Pennsylvania. That coverage only helps pay for certain costs if a driver is found to be at fault in a crash, Graham said.

Many car insurance companies offer policies that cover all or part of a towing bill. There’s also roadside assistance plans from insurance companies or from organizations like AAA.

A $69 annual membership with AAA, for instance, covers four tows of up to 5 miles in distance, according to Central Penn AAA. Fees are applied to longer tows.

It’s also just helpful to know how towing works and the process of getting your vehicle, Kershner said. Most people he tows don’t, he said.

One useful fact: a motorist unable to drive their insured vehicle due to a citation like a suspended license can temporarily leave their vehicle on a public road if it is safely removed from traffic.

“As long as they come back and get it,” Heinly said.

If the vehicle remains there for more than 72 hours, Heinly said, it can then be towed.

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