It was a packed council chambers April 18 as members of the Wellington County Towing Association squared off against opponents of a proposed Wellington County towing solicitation bylaw.
Several delegations were booked.
County OPP Inspector Scott Smith spoke at the start of the session. He explained, “What we are finding in many areas … when we have collisions, we have a number of tow operators attending the scene with the sole purpose of soliciting business.”
He cited a letter from Puslinch councillor Susan Fielding who had an experience with a number of tow trucks showing up more concerned about getting business than anything else. It took Fielding three days to find out where her vehicle was taken.
Smith said in Wellington, it is conceivable for a passing tow truck to hook up a vehicle and have it towed several hundred kilometres away. He said because of that, the OPP, through the Wellington County Police Services Board, had asked for a bylaw.
Wellington North was the last council to be approached.
Four councils had already approved it, and Centre Wellington and Erin requested amendments. The bylaw at Wellington North included that amendment, approved via the Police Services Board the previous week.
That move was to address a concern if a tower stumbled upon an accident scene he would automatically have to park 200 metres away.
“That was not what we wanted. We wanted to keep people away from soliciting.”
Smith said there are issues that responding to accident scenes becomes a tow operator’s primary business as various operators rush to the scene.
“The nuts and bolts of this particular bylaw are around solicitation. If that is the only reason you are there, then you have to be 200 metres back. If you happen to come across the accident and you stop to offer aid, you are still are not allowed to solicit.”
Smith was emphatic it the vehicle owner’s choice who tows the vehicle – unless police need it moved immediately – such as if it is in a busy intersection. If the person is incapacitated, the police would make the choice.
Mayor Ray Tout asked if any solicitation charges had been laid in Wellington County.
Smith said charges cannot be laid until the bylaw is passed.
Councillor Mark Goetz asked if there is a percentage of times police make the decision on who is called.
Smith said he did not have that information.
Part of council’s package included a letter from Fielding strongly supporting the bylaw.
“Since I have had a personal experience with the very situation this bylaw intends to prevent, I would urge your council to pass it,” she wrote.
She was in a collision several years ago.
“Within minutes, there were several tow trucks on scene. None of the drivers offered assistance to the victims even though they had arrived before any emergency personnel. They simply stood on the roadside looking like hawks ready to dive in on their prey. It took three days and hours of phone calls to finally locate the car at a tow yard north of Toronto.
“Obviously, some unscrupulous non-local tow truck driver had managed to commandeer my vehicle against the instructions of the police and myself.”
Fielding wrote, “It is my strong belief that the accident scene solicitation bylaw being proposed by Wellington OPP will give officers at accidents scenes the power to control the towing practices in the best interest of the accident victims.”
Making a pitch against the bylaw was Roy Loveless, who described himself as an up-and-coming tow truck operator in Wellington County. He said he has been travelling to other municipalities asking councils to drop the bylaw.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that the bylaw does not need to be dropped [entirely]because I agree with the no solicitation portion of it.”
But he still believes it needs amendments. He agrees with the concept if there are a sufficient number of tow trucks on the scene, additional tow trucks are not to stop.
But, Loveless claimed he often came upon accident scenes – and to be told he had to walk 200 metres – is simply unfair.
He stated he is a first responder and carries a fire extinguisher, bolt cutters, and first aid kit, to provide help.
“Any good Samaritan is considered a first responder.”
He later tried to discount Fielding’s experience because it happened outside of Wellington County.
“What goes on outside of Wellington County is not our concern,” Loveless said. “We cannot control what happens outside of Wellington County.”
He questioned the need to implement the bylaw in the first place. “Around here there is no problem.”
Councillor Dan Yake asked if all tow truck operators are considered first responders.
Yake said, “To carry a fire extinguisher and a pair of bolt cutters doesn’t match what our firefighters do or the training of paramedics. If it is me, I’m going to be more comfortable with the firefighter or the paramedic than the tow truck operator with a fire extinguisher and a part of bolt cutters.”
Yake said if he was first on the scene, his first action would be to decide who to call for help, “not to take an action which could possibly put those lives at risk.”
Loveless said, “I spend my entire day going up and down the highway looking for people that need assistance … I’m not waiting for the phone calls to come.”
Further, he hates the term “pirate” or “chaser.”
“When I’m driving up and down the road, I’m there to find people who need help.”
Tout asked about minimum insurance and training requirements.
Loveless said there are no regulations for qualifications of a first responder.
Tout sad in small town Ontario, he too, would likely stop to see if he could help out.
“But there is a huge risk.”
Tout has concerns with someone without the same training as professional emergency services responding to accident scenes. He added there is a history of less-than- reputable operators.
“If I’m going to the cottage and am in an accident, I don’t want there to be someone with one hand on a band-aid and the other on my wallet.”
Again, Loveless asked for proof that has happened in Wellington County.
Tout maintained there remains a concern emergency services people may not be able to get to an accident because it is infested with various tow truck operators.
He agreed some operators play by the rules, but others do not. “They are the ones who create the problem.”
In support of the bylaw Paul Howatt, of the Ennottville Garage, said, “This bylaw will eliminate chasers from our of the county and from within the county.”
Howatt said it also means the vehicle will stay in the county, not in Brampton or Mississauga.
Howatt said, “This bylaw will give residents and travellers consumer protection.”
He said it has already passed in Dufferin County.
His letter to council added the Wellington County Tow Group (WCTG) “was formed for the purpose of Consumer Protection and Consumer Safety for the residents and visitors of Wellington County.”
He said the county is divided into four zones and members residing in those zones are on call day and night to respond and be on a scene within 30 minutes anywhere in their respective zones.
“We all had to have criminal checks, impound yards, training, and adequate equipment to handle the job. We all require proof of workers comp[ensation], adequate insurance, annual vehicle safety inspections. This by-law does not state they cannot tow in Wellington County. They just cannot solicit a tow at an accident scene.”
He added, “A chaser will always chase where the money is good and the kickbacks from body shops are great. We have 14 reputable tow companies within Wellington County that have worked hard in conjunction with the OPP to make Wellington County a better place and other counties are starting to follow our lead.”
Arthur businessman Trevor Roberts, owner and operator of Trevor Roberts Auto Repair & Towing, operating since 1995, also supported the bylaw.
He said it is about the roads in Wellington County and about stopping “chasers” in Wellington County, not rewriting of the Highway Traffic Act.
“I have worked in the automotive repair and towing industry since 1983. I consider myself a last responder. I want to be there to clean up after police are done their investigation, after the firefighters are done, and after the ambulance crew is gone. I don’t know why anyone would want to be in the tow truck and the first person on the scene.”
He said the bylaw is all about consumer protection, not the Highway Traffic Act.
Roberts said he is a licensed used car dealer. We had to join the OMVIC (Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council) in order to become a used car dealer. It involves training, a code of ethics, licensing fees, and insurance as well as proper zoning of the business location. This legislation was implemented to protect the consumer.”
He said, “I don’t think it’s wrong to want a towing operator to do the same. I don’t have a black pick-up truck I’m driving all around. I have my name on the side of my truck, on the side of my building. I pay taxes in Wellington County. I do not believe in listening to a scanner and chasing tow calls. I don’t need the business that bad.”
Roberts said, “A tow truck operator is not a first responder – fire departments, ambulance, and police are first responders.”
He contended the chances of a tow truck being the first on scene are small.
As well, he suggested almost everybody has a cell phone, so a passing motorist would be the first on scene; then the fire department; then police or ambulance.
“I don’t think it is a smart business practice to be out driving around in Wellington County waiting for the scanner to go off, so you can race to the accident as fast as you can in order to get a tow call.”
He said WCTG is a group of towing companies that get together and talk about business, training, equipment, and how to make the business better for everyone. Some are just towing companies, some have auto body shops, and some have repair garages.
“We provide a 30 minute response time for an accident call. This is an acceptable length of time by the OPP. If I can’t get there in that length of time, I will pass on the call.
He said, “If a new towing company was going to start up in any part of Wellington County they would be more than welcome to come to a WCTG meeting and join as long as they meet the requirements of the group and the Wellington County OPP.”
He said the talk is of chasers in the south part of the county, “but they are going to come here.”
Roberts said it is already happening in Dufferin County, which is why a bylaw was implemented there.
He added there are problems with tow operators to the west of Wellington who want to operate in the county.
Bob Goodliffe, of Bob’s Towing, in Guelph, has been a tower for 32 years.
“The only people against this bylaw are those preying on vulnerable people,” he said. “I’m not a first responder, I’m a tow truck operator.”
He said a person who listens to a scanner is not a first responder.
Council did not address the bylaw that night, but is hoping to do so at its next meeting.
