LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) – If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic because of an accident, you know how important it is to have towing services able to clear the roadway quickly. Imagine the chaos if a broken-down vehicle blocks the road and no one comes to clear it.
Towing companies across the state say they are losing money on such calls and are having to raise their rates.
When an accident occurs, the police call a towing service that is called from a rotating list. The service cleans up the car and takes it to its towing yard, where it hopes to one day receive payment.
But Adrien Benoit, vice president of Elite Recovery Towing in Lake Charles, says people often leave their vehicles behind.
“When there is an accident, the companies are called out of rotation to respond to the accident. We go out and clean up the scene. We bring the vehicles back to our facility and store them. Once they are here, it is up to the owners to pick up their vehicle and pay the bill. 47% of the vehicles are released to us,” said Benoit.
And he says there is more to the work than meets the eye.
“We have to do the paperwork. We have to file the paperwork with the state. We have to send letters to the registered owner. And we have to sit on that vehicle for three to six months before we can get a permit to sell it and then finally get it off our property.”
Benoit says the cost of labor, insurance and equipment is going up. Their heavy-duty truck costs a million dollars. Benoit says the companies want to provide a public service but can’t keep losing money.
“There will come a point where many companies will withdraw from the rotation list because we simply can’t afford it anymore,” Benoit said.
“This will cause congested roads. It will take 3-4 hours for a tow truck to arrive to clear the road. Right now we can get there in 30 minutes or less.”
Rates for such non-consensual towing services are set by the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Business owners asked for 30 percent at this week’s commission meeting, but commissioners want documentation from towing companies to prove losses from non-consensual towing services.
For the time being, they granted a temporary tariff increase of 15%.
The tariff issue could be raised again at the Commission’s September meeting.
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