QuestionQUESTION: Yesterday one of my employees broke down in my 2004 Ford Diesel, Dually,
crew cab 65 miles outside of Fresno while towing a 24' trailer that weighs less
than 10,000 lbs. Now this has happened before so I have an idea of what to
expect for towing charges when my employee called me to tell me he needed
it towed to the dealership. The truck and trailer were in a gas station parking
lot, so no tricky moves were required to get to hook it up. He used a medium
duty tow truck and towed the truck and trailer connected (no second tow for
the trailer) . About 10 minutes from the dealership the driver tells my
employee this tow is going to cost $1,800.00. That's about $30.00 per mile
one way or about $15.00 round trip. It is also 4 times more than I have ever
paid to have a truck and trailer towed. The driver was late causing him to get
to the dealership after hours and took the truck and trailer back to his yard
until today. Is it me, or is $1,800.00 very excessive? I've searched up rates
online and they seem to be in the $3.50 to $4.00 per mile range for medium
duty towing.
Thanks.
ANSWER: WOW that is real expensive tow rates there...
Something does not seem right here, and unfortunatly since this was a "private consent tow" the police will not get involved in most cases...
California DMV regulates towing companies and has a bunch of laws but nothing regulates rates like this...
Now I do have to say that some tow companies instead of charging a hook up and mileage do charge for services by the hour and its generally from time out to time in, but even then it seems high to me also...
Being that you are a business, I think you were taken advantage of by the tow company driver, and while its not a general problem, I wonder what the tow drivers receipt would of read that he turned into the office !!!
(Side note here I drive a heavy duty tow truck and did a 320 mile one way tow and did not even get that high, but then this is Alabama here also where I am)
Now what happened with the whole thing, since the dealer was closed and they had to tow it back to their yard overnight and then retow it in the morning...
Its still as stretch, but in that case I can see the bill getting up there with the 2 tows, but still not close to what you say was going to be charged...
What was the final tow bill and who paid it is what I would like to know.
If you have more questions or want to discuss this more you can contact me at flatman57@aol.com with "all experts follow up" in the subject line to get though the spam filters.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: This is the owner of the two truck company. What ended up happening is
that we "settled" on a lessor amount for more services. He dropped the truck
at the dealership and brought my guys and the trailer another 200 miles to
meet one of my other trucks. Total tow bill for all of that was $1,500.00
(including the previous tow). While I was going to dispute the charges on the
credit card if he stuck to the original bill, I'm having second thoughts. That
seems like an awful lot of towing for $1,500.00 and I want to be fair. Any
thoughts on that?
AnswerWell if they towed the truck 65 miles one way, (lets say away from the tow company) and then dropped it and then went 200 miles further, then its a 265 mile tow... And of course do not forget that they have to come back empty that 265 miles (remember this is what we are using as examples now)
At $ 4.00 a mile that would be $ 1060.00 just in mileage.. That does not include hook ups, pulling drivelines and such...
It sounds a bit more reasonable now price wise. Plus this additional information does help in providing a better answer.
And what is the price of fuel in California now, $ 5.00 a gallon with vehicles that get about 8 to 10 miles a gallon is expensive.
As to disputing the charges or what ever you want to do, well I can not tell you what to do, but it makes more sense now to me.
