With members of the Wellington County Tow Group looking on, it took Guelph-Eramosa Township council little time to pass a bylaw to regulate tow truck operations in the municipality.
The bylaw is from county council, and OPP Inspector Scott Smith said it has to be passed by all local councils, before the county passes it. It was done at the Police Services Board after incidents with “outlaw” towing companies.
Smith said there have been “fist fights about who gets to tow,” and, “I don’t need tow trucks racing around county roads.”
He said tow truck operators from outside the county monitor police calls, and solicit towing work at accident and stalled cars when they hear police call for a local tow truck. “The pirates” often offer cut rates but a driver accepting an offer is at the mercy of the operator for sudden increases and the location the vehicle is towed.
Drivers may choose whomever they want. Police keep lists towing companies in their cruisers, and ask drivers to choose one. If drivers accept an out-of-county tow truck driver’s offer, police can do nothing about it, and it is often too late to cancel a legitimate call to a local, taxpaying, towing business. Smith told council the only operators following the piracy practice come from outside the county.
The bylaw has several prohibitions. They include:
– no person shall solicit or convey an offer of services of a tow truck while that person is within 200 metres of the scene of an accident or apparent accident or a vehicle involved in any accident on any highway;
– no person shall park or stop or stand a tow truck on any highway within 200 metres of an accident or apparent accident or a vehicle involved in an accident;
– those sections do not apply to a person at the scene at the direction of a police officer, a firefighter, a person engaged in the carrying out of the provisions of the Highway Traffic Act or engaged in highway maintenance, or a person involved in the accident;
– any person operating a tow truck or any other vehicle parked, stopped, or standing within 200 metres of the scene of an accident or a vehicle involved in an accident must move their tow truck or motor vehicle to a location 200 metres away or to any other location directed by the officer.
The fines for breaking the bylaw could get costly. Anyone who breaks the bylaw, on conviction, is liable to a penalty of up to $5,000. Those convicted a second time within 24 months is liable to a minimum penalty of $2,000. Under those same conditions, a third offence carries a fine of $5,000.
Anyone who fails to move a vehicle or tow truck upon being directed to do so by an officer is deemed to be obstructing that officer and subject to a penalty not to exceed $5,000 upon conviction.
Any person who hinders or obstructs a person exercising a power or performing a duty under the bylaw is guilty of an offence and, on conviction, is liable to a fine not to exceed $5,000.
The bylaw also gives police, municipal enforcement officers or an officer appointed for carrying out the provisions of the bylaw the power to seize an impound a tow truck or other motor vehicle that is parked, stopped, or standing in contravention of the bylaw.
Finally, the draft bylaw states that if the courts should strike down any one of the provisions in the bylaw, all the other provisions would remain in force.
The OPP consulted with the Wellington County Tow Group, and it supported the bylaw.
“With this kind of bylaw, we can keep those piranhas away,” Smith said on Monday night.
He said the police list of drivers is the Wellington Tow Group, and “If a tow truck arrives [without being called], I know he is a bandit.”
Councillor Doug Breen said, “I’ve heard some horror stories,” about people getting ripped off by tow truck drivers. He added, “It [the bylaw] makes sense.”
Council gave three readings to the bylaw.
