Why Police and Accident Towing Costs More than "Ordinary Towing"

While all towing seems alike to those outside the towing industry, there are a number of costs that are associated with police, accident, and Impound towing that are not involved in "ordinary towing".

Pennsylvania Tow Companies provide immediate response with equipment, and operators prepared to perform a wide barite of jobs without any advance notice.

The following reasons are why police, accident, and impound towing costs more than "ordinary towing"

  • Availability
    • Providing 24 hour - 7 days per week service has costs that are not associated with Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
    • Another availability cost is that of owning enough trucks to insure immediate response.
    • Providing immediate availability also includes the additional costs incurred in walking away from other jobs.
  • Capabilities
    • Cost for equipment that must be available such as recovery straps, blocking, chains, dollies, shovel, and broom, absorbent and other items. The cost of this equipment can run into thousands of dollars.
  • Training
    • Police, accident, and impounds requires skills that are not called for in "ordinary towing"
  • Write-Offs
    • The costs of unclaimed vehicles towed for police agencies, as well as the abandoned vehicles that are towed, stored, processed and disposed of can be significant.
    • While some of the motoring public seems to think that there is great value in salvaged vehicles, if this were the case, vehicles would not be abandoned along Pennsylvania roads by the thousands. One Study shows that 30% of impounded vehicles will be abandoned.
  • Administrative Expense
    • Expensed to impound, inventory and notify owners of vehicles as well as labor expenses to escort owners, adjusters, police officers and other into the impound area are all cost that are directly attributed to accident, impound and recovery towing. Invoices need to be more comprehensive since there is a need to document clearly what services were performed. The driver must be careful to list complete vehicle descriptions including VINs, and a good deal of time is spent in explaining what was observed. Valuable need to be inventories and stored for owner. Additionally, increased labor costs are generated by accident and impound towing as we produce many telephone calls regarding the vehicles from police and others. An "ordinary tow" however, requires only a simple invoice with much less information.
  • Exposure
    • Tow operators must work wherever the vehicle happens to be.
    • There are hazards from exposure to bodily fluids, jagged metal, battery acid and other vehicle chemicals as well as cargo. There are environmental hazards to deal with, such as poison ivy and oak, brambles and brush, rain, snow, fog, ice and searing sun.
  • Service
    • The cost of performing the tow or recovery service itself includes items not included with private tows. The Pennsylvania Vehicle Code makes the tower liable for cleaning accident debris, removing it from the highway, and disposing of the debris.
    • Service within 1 hour, or whenever we can schedule it, is quite different than service within 15 minutes.

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