Towing Officials Say Their Bills Often Reflect Exceptional Costs

Some towing operators will tell you that one reason they have to raise their rates is because trucking is getting safer. There are fewer truck crashes, they say, but towing’s overhead is only going up.

	Michael James - Transport Topics
	Tow crews work to remove an empty storage tank that fell off a tractor-trailer and closed part of Interstate 495 near Washington, D.C.

Other reasons for towing bills being a lot heftier than motor carriers expect, according to Peter O’Connell, legislative counsel for the Towing and Recovery Association of America, are demand by police for speedy removal of broken down trucks, wrecks and spilled cargo to clear traffic lanes, and special handling requirements at the crash or breakdown site.

At the same time, there are steps, involving the police and truck owners as well, that may help in holding down towing expenses and resolving conflicts over fees and practices.

Because the number of big rig crashes is declining — down 6% between 1988 and 1998, according to federal statistics — O’Connell says the cost of heavy-capacity wreckers, at $150,000 to $300,000 for each unit, and keeping personnel on duty must be spread over fewer incidents. “When a truck goes out for several hundred dollars an hour, there’s a lot of overhead that goes with it. A company has to take that into account.”

Besides overhead, there is pressure from the police to clear broken down or wrecked trucks and spilled cargo as quickly as possible — often under restrictions on site access and positioning of equipment. And rapid response is not cheap, especially if the job is complicated.

“Our first priority is to open the highway — whatever it takes,” says Sgt. Tom Martin of the Virginia State Police in Leesburg, Va., who has patrolled some of the nation’s most congested roads in the Washington, D.C., area and has monitored the cleanup of hundreds of accidents involving big rigs over his 26-year career.

For the full story, see the Jan. 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.