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Tow truck plan seeks to put brakes on scams

Operators and consumers have called for industry regulation, but Gov. Bush says he hasn't made up his mind on whether to sign the bill.

By STEVE BOUSQUET
Published May 29, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - When an industry in Florida wants to clean up its tawdry image, it asks the Legislature for something most businesses oppose: stricter government regulation.

Dance studios did it. So did moving and storage firms. Now it's the towing industry's turn.

Amid the clamor of consumer complaints about tow truck ripoffs, some operators see closer state supervision as a way to improve their reputations. At the same time, they hope the new burdens will drive out their fly-by-night, uninsured competitors.

"They either need to compete legally and have the insurance that they're supposed to, or yes, they need to be out of business," said Mike Seamon, executive vice president of the Professional Wrecker Operators of Florida, the group pushing for new regulations.

The organization wants annual registration fees of $515, mandatory 16 hours of driver training, a $23 fingerprinting of all owners, and third-degree felonies for violations. The group claims 345 operators statewide.

A driver convicted of a felony or motor vehicle crime could not tow vehicles for seven years, and drivers would be required to take at least two forms of payment from motorists. Cash-only transactions would be illegal.

Enforcement would be assigned to 10 new employees in the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Opposition to the regulations is being led by AAA Auto Club South, which claims to represent more than 3-million motorists in Florida. AAA says the regulations are unnecessary and warns that the public will end up paying "for this needless regulation. The result? A tax on a motorist's misfortune," says AAA, which contracts with nearly 500 towing firms statewide to answer AAA members' calls for help.

Also opposed: a new group of tow truck operators called the Florida Independent Towers and Recovery Association. Its lobbyist, Ed DuPuy, said that having 10 people regulate the Florida towing industry would be "a joke" to give people "a false sense of security."

Within the next week, Gov. Jeb Bush must decide whether to sign the towing bill, which went through more than a dozen legislative committees and passed by overwhelming margins.

Bush, a conservative who has advocated freeing private enterprise from the shackles of big government, says he hasn't made up his mind.

"My instincts are that we don't have to create a regulatory system around industries, unless there's a need," Bush said. "On the other hand, if there's enough consumer complaints about tow truck companies, if there's enough bad actors, then regulation's appropriate. So I'll be looking at the bill from that perspective."

The legislation was motivated in part by the changing nature of the tow truck industry.

Operators who want more regulation say "gypsy" operators cruise highways like vultures, looking for accidents or breakdowns. A motorist who flags down a passing tow truck agrees to a "consent tow," and a competitor who's on the local police department's rotation list loses a customer.

Pamela Leverock, who runs Leverock's Towing and Transport in St. Petersburg, wrote to Bush and urged him to sign the bill. Leverock told Bush she loses business to rivals who undercut her prices because they have little overhead: They work from home, drive old equipment and don't pay insurance or workers' compensation, she claimed.

"In what way could fingerprinting, training and continuing to educate the individual entrusted with a motorist's vehicle and safety not be in the motorist's best interest?" Leverock asked Bush.

If plumbers must be licensed and take continuing education courses, Leverock asked Bush, why shouldn't tow truck operators, who handle $40,000 SUVs on a daily basis at a time when their owners are stranded or vulnerable?

Pinellas County Commission Chairman John Morroni also urged Bush to sign the bill. Morroni said in an e-mail to Bush that "the business owners themselves are okay with it, and that it is very important to them that their industry weed out the bad apples by being regulated."

In urging a Bush veto, Thomas O'Brien of Tampa-based AAA Auto Club South told Bush the regulations would be a burden to hundreds of "mom-and-pop" companies struggling with rising gas and insurance costs, especially in rural areas.

O'Brien told Bush that towing company abuses can be enforced by existing laws and that the bill was a way for the organization to profit by offering to run training courses for its members.

Seamon denied that, but said his group already offers training classes to members at reduced prices, as most trade groups would.

"We're not making money off the training," Seamon said.

The bill in question (Senate Bill 276) was pushed by the Professional Wrecker Operators of Florida, guided through both houses by its lobbyist, Bob Levy, and sponsored by one of Levy's closest political allies, Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa.

"We're going after the Joe Bob, who throws a harness on the back of his pickup truck and calls himself a tower," Crist said. "We're saying, "Look, buddy. You better have the right equipment. You better have insurance. And you better not be a convicted felon.' "

Steve Bousquet can be reached at bousquet@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 29, 2005, 01:04:12]