Towing Issues: AAA Certification Suspension (Driver), flatbed driver, evil empire

Question

Me at my best   I am a female flatbed driver of 10yrs. and eight of those years were for AAA. My cert.# has been permanently suspended from AAA due to (mis-use)of my own AAA Plus membership card to have my personal vehicle towed. The contract station that employed me suggested I use my card and give them a plus call of 100 mile tow and they would compensate me $52.50 for allowing them to do this. I said ok...not knowing this was wrong at the time. After a year had gone by, my employer calls me into his office and says I'm sorry but the auto club has suspended you until further notice. It has been a year now since I was let go and I have fought this every day since, but cannot get my certification back to active. I've been on unemployment and can't find employment that is not AAA affiliated. Not to mention I am FEMALE which makes it very difficult...HELP with any advice..Sincerely,
Karie
AKA (Xray)

Answer
Well as much as I would love to provide information and help for you, I am at a loss as to really what happened.

The "evil empire" as many towers call it, has all kinds of rules and such, and can make life hard for anyone. Now as to your question, I guess I understand that you towed your own vehicle and the company you worked for billed for a 100 mile tow...  And you got paid the 52.50..


Lets see,  First trucks cost money to run, for fuel and wear and tear, we all know that. But even in a fantastic world you could not do a tow for free even as an employee benefit.
I think that what the real suspension was for, was the fact that you might have done a local tow and the company committed fraud and got caught by AAA for billing for the 100 miles...
(I am long since out of AAA towing, except for Motor homes on the heavy side)

But this would have paid to the contractor maybe 250.00 or so.  
In light of the contractor being dishonest in the billing, I really think they were told that they could lose the contract or get rid of you.  They took the easy way out.

Now I have to wonder why they would suspend your certification for using your membership (other than the fraud deal) since you pay for the membership (unless its a benefit) and you do drive a vehicle, which we all know does have a chance of breaking down. AAA bases its membership and contract rates to pay out the least amount and hope that members do not use the services they pay for with memberships.


Now I know you might have talked to a lawyer about this, and I am not sure what else to say here, but maybe the CTTA (California Tow Truck Association) might have some ideas on what might be done.


I really wish that I could provide an answer, but California is a world to its own, and the club out there is always trying new things...


Sorry.