Cascadia Journal

Portland, as well as other cities throughout the region, has had an ongoing problem with predatory tow truck operators.  Ostensibly, they are providing a service to private parking lot owners in enforcing parking restrictions within the parking lots of businesses and apartment complexes.

The main problem with this situation is that the individual drivers are making the decision whether or not to tow a particular vehicle.  In a typical situation, the driver patrols the lot where the company has a contract to provide service.  When the driver sees a violator, he will immediately pick up the vehicle and tow it to the lot.  When he does so, he will be paid a large commission based upon the number of cars he can tow in this manner.  Obviously, this does not create a situation where the driver is acting in an objective manner.  indeed, the system seems to reward drivers who take vehicles, whether or not they are legitimately taken.

Indeed, there are too many cases where cars are present in a parking lot for legitimate purposes — making deliveries, picking up passengers, a tenant driving a vehicle other than their usual car — where a car might be parked in a place where it shouldn’t.  In most cases, there is little or no clear signage describing what activities are not permitted on the property, only unposted rules that must still be followed to the letter.  None of these situations are taken into account by the tow truck driver.  Indeed, if a driver should return to the car while the tow truck driver is present, the usual situation is that they will be met not with a discussion of why the car was improperly parked, but with a diatribe (typically in salty language) of the driver complaining that he will not be getting his commission.  This situation needs to stop.

We have recently seen the story of the lady in Wilsonville who had her car towed away from her while she was being the victim of an assault.  Even the presence of the police officer on the scene was not enough to prevent the tow operator from taking the vehicle away from the scene.  Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.  A recent Oregonian article gives many more examples.  Any situation that permits this type of activity without having someone apply some common sense is deplorable and should not be allowed.

The following is a statement from a Portland cab driver that I know.   It illustrates just how silly this situation has become:

I drive a taxicab in Portland that is designed to transport passengers in wheelchairs and other disabled persons.  A couple of months ago, I was assisting a wheelchair user out of the vehicle and into his apartment in a Portland Housing Authority managed building in Northwest Portland.  I had just picked him up from a hospital and he was unable to push himself, so I helped him down my ramp and up to his door about 50 feet from the taxi.

I was, of course, not a tenant of the building, and a sign did warn that any vehicle parked there would be towed.  It did seem reasonable to me, however, that I should be able to park there long enough to discharge my passenger from the van and wheel him up to hid nearby door.  Apparently that is not the case. While I was still within clear sight, a Retriever Towing truck backed up to my taxi, intending to hook it up and lift it with the wheelchair ramp still extended.

A tenant yelled to me that there was a problem and I returned to see what was going on.  I returned to explain that I was there only for a minute, but that did not resolve the situation.  Fortunately, a relative of my passenger came out to assist and take him into the house.  This allowed me to close the doors and pull away before I was towed.

My friend tells me that this is not an isolated case, and that one of their company’s taxicabs was actually towed last Summer, when the driver had parked outside an apartment building long enough to go up to their passenger’s front door to tell them he was there.  Hardly a situation where anyone was being harmed by the car being there temporarily.  However, this story is played out, in the City of Portland alone, about 11,000 times per year.

The Oregon Legislature (as well as Washington) will be considering a bill to regulate “bounty hunting” by towing companies during the current session.  In itself, the concept of a property owner enforcing parking regulations on their own property is not a bad thing.  However, the rules need to be clearly posted, and a system needs to be in place to ensure that there is actually a problem before the vehicle is towed.  Requiring specific posting of the property is one solution.  Instilling some common sense may be another, although that might be harder to legislate.  Requiring a complaint from someone other than the tow operator themselves, perhaps a call from the property owner or manager, would make a lot more sense and be fair for all concerned.

There is a reason that we don’t give our police the right to both charge an individual with a crime and also get a percentage of a ticket.  At least I would credit the officer with the insight to know what is reasonable behavior and what is not.  In the case of the tow-truck drivers, we are allowing them to collect the “fine” even if a “crime” was not committed.

This group has shown that they cannot be responsible enough to determine themselves when a car should or should not be towed.  There are too many cases of auto theft here being hidden as legitimate towing services.  It should not be too hard to require a third party (the police or a property owner/manager) to make a complaint before the tow is allowed.  It is absolutely clear that some plan must be put into place to keep the public from being victims of this practice any longer.

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