In a recent Examiner article Councilman Robert Curran says that he wants to stop independent tow trucks that are not authorized to tow cars from accident scenes from towing from accident scenes. He says these unauthorized trucks are ripping people off and he wants to protect motorists.
At first glance this seems like a good idea. Baltimore grants medallions to certain tow companies that allow them to tow from city accident scenes. Of course this limits competition and limited competition usually results in higher costs for the consumer. The medallion trucks are required to tow cars to the city’s impound lot where the car owner is charged a "storage fee" by the city. The unauthorized independent trucks can tow a car to any location. Independent tow truck drivers say they provide the best towing deals.
Councilman Curran says: "I'm not trying to help the tow companies with this bill."
The bill does help the medallion tow companies though. The medallion companies will maintain a lucrative monopoly in the Baltimore accident market and the city impound lot will continue to charge storage fees for the cars brought in by these companies.
A quick check of the campaign finance database shows that on 10/20/2004 Frankford Towing Inc. (a medallion towing company) gave Friends of Bob Curran $500. Frankford Towing gave $3000 to Friends For Sheila Dixon on 09/07/2007.
Comments
Good work Meister. While campaign contributions don't always necessarily point to unethical or unlawful political activity; it certainly does shed more light on the decision-making factors that sometimes predict politician behavior.
Let me get this straight: Under the proposed bill I would be required to have my vehicle towed and impounded by the city after an accident? Even if I am there and able to make my own arraignments? If so that would be outrageous. Especially given what we all know about that lot.
The law currently says that only authorized tow trucks can tow your from an accident in Baltimore. They tow you to the city impound lot. What has been happening is that unauthorized trucks have been showing up at accident scenes and towing away cars to any lot they want to be towed to. Councilman Curran wants to make sure the current law is enforced and that unauthorized trucks do not tow from accidents. He basically wants to continue to limit our freedom to choose who tows us from an accident scene.
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