Eight hundred dollars to tow an SUV and trailer five miles?

A certain Burien towing company just charged a Renton woman $408 to tow an empty U-haul Trailer from Renton to Burien. They also charged her about $400 more to tow her car the same distance. Appearantly, these seemingly ridiculous rates are their “posted rates” for such service, so presumedly they are what you would be charged if you hired them to take your car to the shop.

Sadly, this woman did not even want her vehicle towed. She had it parked at her Renton apartment complex, for the next day’s big move, and the apartment manger arranged a “private non-consent” towing. The woman tells me she was not parked in any of the complex’s marked and cross-hatched fire lanes, and she was not blocking traffic. But she says the owner has painted every curb red in the whole parking lot, and there is no place for a car-trailer rig to queue or park without being next to a red curb…she tried to do her best.

But she is not so upset about the fact that her vehicle was towed as she is about the how much that the tow cost her. She says she was billed over $800 by the towing company, to get her vehicle back a few hours after they took it from her complex. And they only tranported it about five miles.

I rooted around in some legal paperwork on the tow company’s website, and realized that this woman is incredibly lucky that the towing company did not store her car and trailer for any length of time. Their standard agreement with apartment owners says that they would have billed her $3000 per month for storage (for a car and trailer), again without her consent. At this rate, their lot may be the most expensive parking in the Seattle area, far exceeding prices charged at Seatac Airport, Quest Field, and Seattle Waterfront lots. In fact, the tow company could rent a five bedroom house in Belleve, and store cars in the garage, and it would be less expensive than the price they charge for their lot.

The tow company also features automobile auctions on their site…no doubt many of which are vehicles that people living paycheck-to-paycheck could never afford to get out of hawk. I wonder how many working people have lost their jobs because they can’t get to work because a towing company has charged them $800 for a five-mile tow, or $3000 a month to store their car. When this happens, and I know it does occasionally, the taxpayers cover it with Section 8, aid, foodstamps, and who knows, maybe even foster care for the kids.

This woman did the right thing though….fortunatly, she had enough money and had the presence of mind to pay the ridiculous fee, and get her car and trailer back before the tow company owned her car. After making her successful move, she has asked the Renton Council if we can find a way to better regulate such unfair circumstances.

I don’t know if state legislators give the Renton Council this power or not, but I intend to look into it. Meanwhile, I would ask the tow companies to voluntarily not charge more to non-consent customers than they do to consenting ones…it’s common decency and fairness. The tow companies’ role is to remove hazards and trespasses, not to issue fines on people and then keep the money! And if $408 is in-fact the going rate for this company to tow an empty U-haul trailer from Renton to Burien, and $400 is the price for towing a car the same five miles, then I’ll challenge this towing company to prominently post this rate on their website…I’m sure their potential customer base would like to know.