The N.C. Highway Patrol is tightening the system for calling wreckers to crash scenes after complaints about price gouging, snarly tow truck drivers and even stolen money.
Highway Patrol officials told the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee Thursday that motorists complained that tow truck operators, called to the scene by troopers, were tacking on a host of added charges, such as a fee for sweeping up taillight glass, as well as treating car owners disrespectfully and, in some cases, stealing items out of cars.
"The public holds the highway patrol accountable for what happens at that accident scene," Col. Walter Wilson, the patrol's commander, told the committee.
Wilson emphasized that the patrol's first priority is safety.
More after the jump.
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Patrol officials will require towing companies to submit new bids in order to be put on the rotation of operators called to accident scenes. The bids must be an all-inclusive price at least for the first hour within an assigned zone. A lieutenant within each highway patrol district will be assigned to compile the bids, figure out the median price and contact companies whose bids are 15 percent or more above the median. They can bid one more time but after that are cut from the roster if they exceed the 15 percent limit.
The new guidelines were set up in consultation with various towing industry groups.
"We're not trying to...regulate the industry in some way," said Lt. Jeff Babb, who is overseeing the new guidelines.
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