Towing Companies Cry Foul At Crown's Monopoly

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Towing Companies Cry Foul At Crown’s Monopoly

by Thomas MacMillan | Apr 12, 2010 10:01 am

(21) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: City Hall

Thomas MacMIllan Photo As a result of what he calls an illegal city policy, Vin DiLauro has seen a drastic decline in towing business at Columbus Auto Body. He’s been forced to shave five hours off all his employees’ weekly schedules—just so he can break even.

DiLauro runs the family auto body shop on Columbus Avenue. He’s one of eight tow company operators who officially submitted a petition to the Board of Aldermen on Wednesday requesting a public hearing on two towing policies which were recently changed. They claim the changes amount to a violation of city ordinances. DiLauro said the new policies may cause his and other towing companies to go out of business.

The petition, drafted by attorney Robert Oliver, claims the city is illegally disregarding towing ordinances in two ways. First, lowering the amount towers can charge for certain tows violates an ordinance establishing towing fees. And second, contracting with only one company—Crown Towing—for the removal of all cars with overdue taxes violates an ordinance requiring the city to share the work among municipal towers.

Read the petition here. The matter is headed for the Board of Aldermen’s Finance Committee.

Last fall, the city entered into an agreement with Crown that gave the company the exclusive contract to “boot” and tow all cars whose owners are behind in the car taxes or have over $200 in tickets. Previously, booting was performed by a company called VioAlert, and towing for overdue taxes was done by nine different tow companies, according to a standard rotation.

That rotation is still in place for all other types of tows, like street sweeping and accidents.

At the time of the change, city Controller Mark Pietrosimone said it was necessary in order to streamline towing procedures. Towing all cars to one lot would reduce police workload and make it easier for car owners to find their towed vehicles, Pietrosimone said. The system would increase accountability and decrease confusion, he argued.

DiLauro and his fellow tow operators argue that the rotation system previously in place was working just fine before the Crown contract.

“The Code of Ordinances established a carefully regulated system for municipal towing services which has worked well for decades and avoided scandal, politics and favoritism,” the petition states.

Section 29-118(d) of the Code of Ordinances requires the chief of police to rotate towing work through municipal towers “on a reasonably fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory basis.”

The city has ignored this regulation by contracting with Crown, the petition states. “Assignment to one tower alone violates the ordinance.”

The towers also object in their petition to allowing Crown to collect back taxes owed to the city: “Permitting a private company and its truck driver to collect the money – often quite sizeable sums—is manifestly unwise and carries the risk of loss or misappropriation of the moneys.” Not only is it risky, it also violates the law, the petition states.

Asked if the city’s contract with Crown is illegal, city spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said, “This service was RFP’d. In this process we followed appropriate protocol.”

Rate Change

The towers’ petition further objects to a recent change in towing rates enacted without aldermanic approval. The towers claim that the standard rate for towing cars from accidents has been $88. Recently, however, the city has changed the rate to $77.

According to the petition, the $88 fee is established in two documents, the “City of New Haven Municipal Tow Policy” and the “City Authorized Tow Fees” schedule. “If the tow rates are to be changed, that is for the Board of Alderman to legislate not for city bureaucrats to change,” the petition states.

“Their allegation is absurd,” said Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts.

The change in towing rates was the result of a review of towing ordinances last fall, which indicated that tows should be charged at $77, Smuts said. “It’s one of the most clear statements in the ordinances.”

The claim that the $88 is established in city regulations is “categorically a false statement,” Smuts said.

Business Takes A Hit

In a conversation in his office on Columbus Avenue, DiLauro laid out his grievances against the city. He started with complaints about the city’s process for creating its contract with Crown.

Last fall, when the city was considering moving to a single tow company for booting and tax towing, DiLauro put in a bid for the contract. He said at the time that he would have Columbus do the booting, but preserve the rotation list for towing.

After the city chose Crown, DiLauro was told his application had been incomplete. But in the meantime, the city had called in Crown and worked out all the details, including the collection of taxes by Crown employees.

In an email, city spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said that all members of the municipal towing list were invited to respond to the request for proposals (RFP). “Crown responded in a manner that was very comprehensive and met all the desired goals the City wanted to accomplish,” Mayorga said. “The other respondent did not provide a complete RFP response (Columbus Auto).”

“Why didn’t they call us in to tell us we didn’t fill out the application properly?” DiLauro asked.

“The administration is circumventing the Board of Aldermen,” he said. “The towing ordinance is pretty explicit.”

“The administration is all of a sudden trying to eliminate us,” he went on. “They gave everything to Crown.”

DiLauro said he and other towers sat down with city officials last fall and sent letters requesting that the rotation system be preserved, to no avail.

The disgruntled towers considered suing the city, DiLauro said. But they decided to call for a public hearing instead. “If the Board of Aldermen has an opportunity to hear this,” he said, “they will act in the proper and fair way.”

“The city’s got enough lawsuits, don’t they?” he said later.

As a result of the city towing new policies, Columbus has lost some 30 percent of its business, DiLauro said.

“The other day we didn’t get a [towing] call for over 24 hours,” he said.

Previously, Columbus would get at least one call during each of three daily shifts, DiLauro said. Since the changes last fall, he’s paying his employees more and more often to sit and wait for towing calls.

As a result, Columbus has had to do some belt-tightening. After a meeting with his staff six weeks ago, DiLauro asked all his employees to work an hour less each day. That change has allowed his business to continue to break even and avoid layoffs, DiLauro said.

DiLauro said he couldn’t fathom why the city had abandoned the rotation system. “I just don’t understand the reasoning behind it.”

Towing companies like his are now struggling to stay afloat, DiLauro said. That means jobs and taxes hang in the balance. “I know the city wants to keep businesses here.”

If things continue unchanged, Columbus will be forced to downsize or go out of business after 82 years, he said.

Hill Alderwoman Andrea Jackson-Brooks, in whose ward several of the towers operate, voiced support for their petition.

“I would side with the towers, with the information I have,” she said. “It sounds pretty reasonable.”

Jackson-Brooks said the towers contacted her after their attempts to communicate with the administration were unsuccessful. She said she was told the chief of police had prepared a response, but that response has not appeared.

Comments

posted by: Stuffedbread on April 12, 2010 10:24am

The law is clear the only person under state law authorized to collect taxes is the Tax Collector, also look at the city charter surely not a towing company.

posted by: Wooster St. Resident on April 12, 2010 11:12am

I have a question about the towing. The city used to have the tow trucks move our cars on street cleaning days. We were still ticketed and had to pay towing fees. However, we did not have to go to the lots to retrieve our cars. A few years ago, the city discontinued this practice, and had cars completely removed from the street.

If this change happened city-wide, I probably wouldn’t have a problem with it. However, I learned that in the St. Ronan neighborhood, this practice of simply moving the cars has continued. What’s up with that? Most of those people have driveways anyway. What are they doing parking in the street?

posted by: westvillelo on April 12, 2010 12:09pm

I find it very disturbing that people would be expected to pay their back due taxes to a company that is A)not a city office or B)to a person that has no city credentials at all.

posted by: robn on April 12, 2010 12:34pm

Maybe I don’t care if the towing companies feelings are hurt because i hate towing companies. Almost as low as a repo man.

posted by: asdf on April 12, 2010 1:05pm

I’m not crying for the tow truck companies. The towing policies of these companies is practically predatory. As mentioned above, they used to move cars around the corner and charge a much smaller fee, now cars get taken away, often several miles away. Probably not coincidentally, when that happened the fee for towing went up dramatically. They also show up at 4:01 when parking is allowed from 9:00 to 4:00. The loss to the city in loss of productivity and commerce has to be pretty significant. A shadow economy has been established on the exploitation of unsuspecting victims, who don’t realize they are parking illegally. Why should we all subsidize the towers?

As an aside, why don’t I ever see people who double park or park in handicapped spaces illegally towed?

It is easy to make a mistake and park in the wrong place on a street sweeping day. I almost missed a flight, because I had my car towed when I stopped by work to get a couple of things done and inadvertently parked at a meter (which I paid) that was marked for street sweeping that day.

posted by: dcoon on April 12, 2010 1:40pm

I wonder what DiLauro did to get thrown off the municipal teat? Anyone with eyes can see that these guys have been in bed with the city gov’t for years. Hell, I’ve seen cops riding around in tow trucks.
I’d call it a quality of life issue. Meaning, if a few towing companies went out of business the city would be a nicer place to live. Maybe we won’t have tow trucks backing down streets at 40 miles an hour anymore.
Giving these guys the ability to collect back taxes is just plain crazy. City for Sale!

posted by: jayj on April 12, 2010 2:52pm

so I am suppose to feel sorry for the towers because they are only collecting $77.00 of my money and not $88.00? I think $77.00 for towing is more than reasonable. And where in this article did say that their taxes are being paid to the towing company? Isn’t it getting applied to the individuals accounts?
Lastly, I am sure glad that Andrea Jackson-Brooks isn’t my alderwoman - I want an alderperson who is going to be on my side and trying to keep my money in my pocket.

posted by: Westvillelocal on April 12, 2010 3:16pm

“After the city chose Crown, DiLauro was told his application had been incomplete. But in the meantime, the city had called in Crown and worked out all the details, including the collection of taxes by Crown employees.”

posted by: asdf on April 12, 2010 5:06pm

as another aside…since the tow companies are all for law and order in the city…I’ve seen the Crown tow trucks drive the wrong way down Crown street many, many times, because, apparently, it is too inconvenient for them to go the right way. I’ve even seen them do it in front of cop cars and not get ticketed. Imagine how infuriating it is to pay these guys $77.00 for inadvertently parking in the wrong place and then watch them intentionally endanger the lives of others and get away with it.

posted by: fairhavendoc on April 12, 2010 7:12pm

why not have a competitive bidding process for this stuff and let the market work it out? i bet the towing fees will go down, and i bet a few inefficiencies will get eliminated as well.

posted by: Jay on April 12, 2010 8:32pm

You think the city is making the tow companies lower their prices to help out Joe Citizen/ You’re crazy - the city will turn around and raise the ticket fees on you!!

posted by: anon on April 12, 2010 9:18pm

Crown is the least professional in terms of interacting with people whose cars have been towed. They are surly, they have a big German Shepard they allow to growl at you.

My car was towed for street sweeping by Crown. They dissappeared with the car for over two hours.

I waited at the lot. Crown refused to say where it took my car. I told them I could call the police over it, and they they rudely dared me to, which kind of scared me so I didn’t.

The car finally showed up, the driver refused to say where he went with it. The ticket on my windshield was for another car on another street, not mine, not even my model, not for my car at all, not even on my street.

they are supposed to drive to the lot, not somewhere else. the lot is a 10 minute drive from my street.

posted by: Crown rip off on April 13, 2010 5:07am

Last week my daughters car was towed for taxes.Crowns driver attempted to collect 330 dollars plus 93 dollars towing fee.The driver had only hooked on to the car and was still on scene. My daughter went to city hall where it was found after an hour wait that she owed only 131 dollars. Maybe Mr Smuts can explain Crowns drivers attempt to [collect] over 200 dollars more than that owed from my daughter.The tax collectors office spent the hour researching why the higher fee was being collected because their records indicated the lower fee. Simple explanation.Someone was going to POCKET the difference ay my daughters expense !!!!!! ...

posted by: asdf on April 13, 2010 8:00am

crown rip off and anon—-

I felt the fee for towing seemed unregulated. Basically, they told me what I owed and I accepted it (unfortunately, I don’t remember how much). My car didn’t even have a ticket on it when I got my car back and nowhere was it posted how much it should cost. The whole enterprise seems like a scam to me.

I’ve had my car towed twice—once with Crown and once with Columbus. Columbus was professional about it, Crown was awful to deal with.

posted by: dcoon on April 13, 2010 9:38am

It was utter freakin mayhem on Orange Street this morning at 9am. A goon squad of about 7 towing companies and their buddies the cops were towing everybody so the sweepers could get through.
This is a city facilitated scam and everyone knows it. ...

posted by: Jim on April 13, 2010 10:43am

To everyone complaining about Crown collecting tay money.. This is a convenience for you people who failed to pay your taxes. You are delinquent and yet you still complain when the city makes it easier for you to get your car after hours. If this system doesn’t work, then you’ll be forced to wait without a car until the tax office is open, Mon-Fri 9a-5p. So if you want your car back at night or on the weekend, you need the 24/7 availability of the tow company. In addition, its easier to go to one place to pay up and get your car, than to travel to several places in order to get the task done.
But if you would pay your freakin taxes on time in the first place, this entire situation could be avoided. If you can’t afford your car, loose it.

posted by: Derek on April 13, 2010 11:31am

Having been through this I’ll say that while it may be a “convenience” to me that crown will take my tax payment to release my car rather than forcing me to wait for city hall hours, it’s pretty galling that the city can’t be bothered to issue any kind of warning that your car has been put onto Crown’s tax-tow list. I was delinquent yes, mea culpa, but if the city can catch that so quickly and efficiently they should be able to drop a card in the mail to let me know I’m liable to get towed. They do that with parking tickets.
On the subject of this article - as long as the city is reviewing this contract regularly and allowing other towers to put in bids for it I have no problem w/ one company handling all the tax towing - sure makes it easier to find your car. I’ll also second the feeling in this thread that there are too many of these predatory towing companies in this town. Finally, with the exception of those kids on ATVs there’s now single segment of New Haven traffic that are more reckless, careless and downright threatening than the tow truck drivers. They should be targeted for traffic enforcement until they can learn to drive according to the law.

posted by: Whitney Ave resident on April 13, 2010 3:49pm

The towers aren’t all bad - they’re out there in the snow, the rain - you call them when you don’t want to get your pretty little hands dirty changing a tire or when you foolishly locked your keys in your car - they’re just trying to make a living. So you get towed for street cleaning - so what - learn to read the signs - there are plenty of them out there.

posted by: JB on April 13, 2010 4:48pm

Crown is unprofessional as heck.

I wonder about their political donations?

posted by: Critic on April 14, 2010 6:50am

... Note: if your vehicle is damaged in towing, the tower’s insurer is supposed to pay for it. Though most of them have lapsed insurance because the city doesn’t check on that kind of stuff before allowing them to provide city services.

posted by: E-rock on April 14, 2010 8:23am

“Sitting around waiting” for a towing call isn’t good business practice. Do some advertising. Do some marketing. Partner-up with a few auto repair shops. Get onboard with AAA or BetterWorldClub (a business similar to AAA but also gives lifts to bicyclists).

As a former “customer” of the towing companies, I’m less than sympathetic of the $77 tow fee- but understand the pain of businesses. If the administration circumvented policy and awarded the contract illegally, other towers will get in on the game for sure.

But if procedure was followed, if Crown did everything right and was awarded the contract fair & square, tough cookies. It’s time to be a little proactive instead of reactive. Go FIND business, instead of waiting for them to come to you! Your drivers should be salesmen too. Tell them to SLOW DOWN so we drivers can actually read the phone number (and you’ll save gas, wear & tear on the vehicle).

Go through legal channels first. No avail? CHANGE your business model a bit; evolve or go extinct. Don’t complain though when you’re NOT DOING ANYTHING to change! So business doesn’t come a’calling? Go out and find it!

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