Towing Issues: motorcycle towing, emergency roadside assistance, rv coverage

Question
I dropped my heavy motorcycle on a small road in north west New Jersey. At the police suggestion a AAA participating tow company picked up the bike and towed it 16 miles to store it until three nights later it was picked up by my mechanic. Now I find I am not AAA covered and the towing charge is $530 is this not predatory in nature and circumstances? I am thinking small claim court, I got the application already but he has yet to send me the itemized charges on the bill which I will need to pursue this. How can 32 miles and 3 nights cost $530 ?

Answer
A few issues come into play with this issue...

First of all, AAA is a "motorist Emergency Roadside assistance program" where it generally covers broke down vehicles and things like that.

AAA also has several different levels of "coverage" and the last time I looked at the programs (each state is also different in what they offer and cover under them), motorcycles were covered under the "AAA PLUS or AAA PLUS RV" coverage, not the standard AAA programs...

That being said, since this was also an accident, as a rule AAA would only cover if the there was "NO INSURANCE COVERAGE" available to the vehicle...


Now as to the pricing, you mentioned NEW JERSEY, where in many locations the towers are regulated by City or County regulations which include prices... New Jersey also has that "predatory towing act" which is getting revised as it had a loophole in it where if you did any towing, then you had to follow the states set rates...

Prices, well I can not really say a heck of a lot as I can not see the bill break down either, but towing a motorcycle be it wrecked or not, does take some special equipment and methods over what is required for car tows..

Storage, well as an average I am going to say that from 40.00 to 75.00 a day is what I have heard from various areas of the state (remember I am in Alabama and only get stuff I can find or in talking to other towers on line about prices)

Yes you can go the small claims court route, that is always an option, and the other one is if you have "regular insurance covering the motorcycle including collision" you can either turn it over to them, or you can pay and apply for a refund of "some, all or none" (standard disclaimer here) of the moneys you paid out.


Good luck and I hope the bill break down does help decide what you are going to do...

(PS I would love to get a copy of the bill to look at and maybe make a few more suggestions)