It is best, if you can afford it, to pay the wrecker service, to tow your vehicle to the shop, to avoid an added expense when paying your repair bill.
When it comes to nonconsent towing, such as "taking" your vehicle without your permission, those towing fees cannot be any higher than what a wrecker service has submitted to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulations.
What I do know happens for a fact, is that a wrecker service that does not have a tow truck large enough to tow a vehicle, will use another wrecker service, but write in a higher fee, so the consumer will pay more than what the first wrecker service paid to have the vehicle towed the vehicle storage facility. Take for instance, Rick Wrecker Service will charge Kay Towing Service $250 to tow the vehicle and Kay Towing Service will turnaround and charge Consumer $1000. Of course the receipt that the wrecker driver for Rick Wrecker Service will paid from will indicate the correct amount of $250.
This is very common in the towing of large vehicles such as tractor trailers and large trucks over 26,000 GVW. In several towns across Texas, wrecker services without heavy duty wreckers, are breaking into large vehicles, hot wiring the ignition, then driving the trucks to the storage facility, then producing a fraudulent wrecker receipt for towing, when the vehicle was driven.
Of course, a lot of wrecker drivers would never do illegal things like this, but there are large number that wouldn't think twice about tampering with a governmental record, a 2nd degree felony, to increase their income.
The public must realize, that you never want to allow a wrecker driver to tow your vehicle, regardless of the reason if he/she does not show you the state issued wrecker operator license, as shown below:
It would also be at your best interest, to require that a wrecker driver show you there picture drivers license to verify the name on the above license is actually the same the person. These licenses are already showing up in flea markets.
Between wrecker service owners giving kickbacks for business to shops and parking facilities, to failing to withhold federal income taxes from "employees", to wrecker drivers stealing personal effects of vehicles they tow, you just have to wonder how many people in the towing industry actually sit on the front of church on Sunday mornings.
But, there are a few wrecker services that are honest, hardworking people, who make difference in people's lives.
It would also be at your best interest, to require that a wrecker driver show you there picture drivers license to verify the name on the above license is actually the same the person. These licenses are already showing up in flea markets.Between wrecker service owners giving kickbacks for business to shops and parking facilities, to failing to withhold federal income taxes from "employees", to wrecker drivers stealing personal effects of vehicles they tow, you just have to wonder how many people in the towing industry actually sit on the front of church on Sunday mornings.
But, there are a few wrecker services that are honest, hardworking people, who make difference in people's lives.
