A major trucking trade group recently testified in favor of legislation that would protect truckers from predatory towing practices in the state of Missouri.
A pair of bills aimed at regulating the nonconsensual towing of commercial vehicles, HB745 and SB516, were recently introduced in the Missouri Senate and House by Sen. Justin Brown and Rep. Dave Griffith.
The bills seek to enact the following provisions:
- Require the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) to establish procedures to address certain nonconsensual towing practices related to the removal of commercial vehicles from roadways, a complaint filing and adjudication process, and provisions for permanently or temporarily prohibiting towing companies from performing nonconsensual tows if they violate the act.
- Ensure that if an owner or operator of a commercial vehicle requests the use of a specific towing company, law enforcement agencies shall honor that request, except under certain conditions.
- Regulates the release of vehicles if fees are disputed, prohibits per-pound charges for nonconsensual tows, provides that storage charges shall cease accruing upon the date a complaint is filed with the Department, and prohibits nonconsensual tows from creating liens on commercial vehicles or cargo.
- Requires towing companies to provide reasonable access to commercial vehicles that are the subject of a nonconsensual tow.
- Establishes a civil penalty of $25,000 per violation for tow companies performing a nonconsensual tow when prohibited from doing so by MODOT.
During a March 4 hearing in Jefferson City before the Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee, Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh spoke in favor of the legislation.
“There’s a lot of good towing companies out here, but you get unscrupulous ones that put egregious storage fees that you can’t even afford to get your equipment back to get it somewhere to get it fixed in the first place. And the only way, as a small business trucker, that you have a chance to pay the towing company, the repair, or any of these things is you’ve got to get your equipment back and get it fixed to get back on the road,” Pugh explained to lawmakers as he spoke in support of HB745 and SB516. “Now I’m a free market guy, but I also believe we have a right to have someone to go to when we’ve been wronged. And for too long in the state of Missouri, there’s nobody to go to when you get one of these bills.”
“Small-business truckers often get stuck with bills that are arbitrarily inflated by thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars,” said Pugh. “We appreciate the Missouri legislature’s interest in this issue and we look forward to continuing to work with them and other states to get small-business truckers a means of contesting predatory towing practices.”
