I know a thing or 2 about Tow-Joe's
March 28, 2022 5:33 AM Subscribe
Back alley deals, fake crashes, arson, and even murder—nothing is off limits in the ruthless world of Canada's towing companies. From The Drive, an interesting look at Canada's towing industry.
In the context of the Truckers occupation of Ottawa, not only were the police unwilling to even ask tow truck companies to remove the blockades, several members of the Ottawa Police Service were previously known to be criminally linked to fraud and collusion to commit crimes with the tow truck operators. One OPS member was allegedly an owner of a tow operation himself.
Those three officers have now resigned, following the blockade.
I'm hoping any inquiry in the police performance during the blockade digs deep into this criminal link between the police membership and the crime families that operate the towing companies. But I'm not holding my breath either.
posted by bonehead at 6:43 AM on March 28, 2022 [10 favorites]
Those three officers have now resigned, following the blockade.
I'm hoping any inquiry in the police performance during the blockade digs deep into this criminal link between the police membership and the crime families that operate the towing companies. But I'm not holding my breath either.
posted by bonehead at 6:43 AM on March 28, 2022 [10 favorites]
Cue up Steve Goodman's "Lincoln Park Pirates." (Not Canadian, but at least Great Lakes adjacent, eh?)
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:53 AM on March 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:53 AM on March 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Regarding the CAA…it should be common knowledge that your membership fees also pay for lobbying against bike lanes and dedicated transit right-of-ways and last time I looked at their literature, still lobbying for a number of expressways, including the Allen/Spadina extension.
posted by brachiopod at 7:00 AM on March 28, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by brachiopod at 7:00 AM on March 28, 2022 [13 favorites]
As an aside, Re: CAA/AAA "I'm not a big fan of AAA's well-known lobbying activities, and even if I made peace with the politics, their relentless direct-mail campaign has put them on my shit list forever." Hopefully someone can answer a similar question for Canada and other countries.
posted by lalochezia at 7:20 AM on March 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by lalochezia at 7:20 AM on March 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm actually surprised to learn that this is as big a problem in Toronto as it is in most major American cities. I had attributed it to corrupt police practices in the US, but clearly the problem runs deeper. Some armchair analysis: all the problems attributed to towing companies are actually attributable to two things: privatization, and the insane lengths we go to to support private passenger vehicles.
Privatization is obvious; if tow companies were municipal or state-run organizations, there would be all manner of open-records requirements to reduce fraud, and there wouldn't be the element of competition to get to the accident scene first.
The car issue is more complex. If you start from the position that everyone is going to drive everywhere, then you quickly realize that you're gonna need a whole lot of parking spaces, especially in areas of higher density. Parking spaces, by their very nature, are an absurdly expensive waste of resources. Either the government can subsidize them (i.e. part of the street is converted to free or below-market parking), or landlords can step in with private options. In both cases, you need some way to make sure no one abuses the available parking options, or else you're going to get someone leaving their car somewhere for months at a time. Since we're dealing with private towing companies and a combination of private and public parking spaces, now we have a problem: preventing people from abusing the parking system requires building up a legal framework that lets you call in a private towing company to remove someone's car from a privately-owned lot. It sounds simple at first, until you start thinking through the extremely small differences between a legal tow and grand theft auto. It's a bizarre confluence of legal gotchas, which we've collectively decided to solve by essentially indemnifying towing companies against huge swathes of property law. And we've put hurdles in place to stop there from being too many towing companies, essentially creating a cartel of truck operators who get to extract private wealth from public commons.
I for one am shocked (SHOCKED) that this legally-sanctioned cartel is doing exactly what every cartel in this history of time has done to protect their ability to make money.
posted by Mayor West at 7:26 AM on March 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
Privatization is obvious; if tow companies were municipal or state-run organizations, there would be all manner of open-records requirements to reduce fraud, and there wouldn't be the element of competition to get to the accident scene first.
The car issue is more complex. If you start from the position that everyone is going to drive everywhere, then you quickly realize that you're gonna need a whole lot of parking spaces, especially in areas of higher density. Parking spaces, by their very nature, are an absurdly expensive waste of resources. Either the government can subsidize them (i.e. part of the street is converted to free or below-market parking), or landlords can step in with private options. In both cases, you need some way to make sure no one abuses the available parking options, or else you're going to get someone leaving their car somewhere for months at a time. Since we're dealing with private towing companies and a combination of private and public parking spaces, now we have a problem: preventing people from abusing the parking system requires building up a legal framework that lets you call in a private towing company to remove someone's car from a privately-owned lot. It sounds simple at first, until you start thinking through the extremely small differences between a legal tow and grand theft auto. It's a bizarre confluence of legal gotchas, which we've collectively decided to solve by essentially indemnifying towing companies against huge swathes of property law. And we've put hurdles in place to stop there from being too many towing companies, essentially creating a cartel of truck operators who get to extract private wealth from public commons.
I for one am shocked (SHOCKED) that this legally-sanctioned cartel is doing exactly what every cartel in this history of time has done to protect their ability to make money.
posted by Mayor West at 7:26 AM on March 28, 2022 [11 favorites]
their relentless direct-mail campaign has put them on my shit list forever." Hopefully someone can answer a similar question for Canada and other countries.
I'm a member of BCAA. I guess I get something in the mail around membership renewal time. And they just emailed last week about their AGM. That's about it.
posted by philip-random at 8:04 AM on March 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm a member of BCAA. I guess I get something in the mail around membership renewal time. And they just emailed last week about their AGM. That's about it.
posted by philip-random at 8:04 AM on March 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
My armchair theory is that when you give for-profit companies extraordinary powers usually reserved for the state (confiscating private property), it goes to their head. 'Hey, they outright GAVE us almost unrestricted (and unmonitored) power over enforcement and lucrative fine collection. Hmm, what other shit can we pull?'
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:21 AM on March 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:21 AM on March 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
Does this nonsense happen in other provinces that have provincial auto insurance plans, like BC or QC? Because tow fraud, plus padding repair estimates, plus ridiculous storage fees, all go to make Ontario's GDP look better
As there seems to be a "crackdown" every five years or so, it's clear we're not dealing with the problem at source. Too many coppers are picking up side dollars from dodgy tow companies to make the problem go away.
I was unlucky enough to be stuck in traffic caused by a tow-truck funeral cortege at an entrance to the DVP once. Talk about Mad Max shit: huge trucks, horns blaring, were hopping kerbs and central medians. Guys were hanging off the back of the trucks screaming and throwing beer cans at cars. Where were the police? Escorting them, of course ...
→
I wish there were an alternative
posted by scruss at 9:46 AM on March 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
As there seems to be a "crackdown" every five years or so, it's clear we're not dealing with the problem at source. Too many coppers are picking up side dollars from dodgy tow companies to make the problem go away.
I was unlucky enough to be stuck in traffic caused by a tow-truck funeral cortege at an entrance to the DVP once. Talk about Mad Max shit: huge trucks, horns blaring, were hopping kerbs and central medians. Guys were hanging off the back of the trucks screaming and throwing beer cans at cars. Where were the police? Escorting them, of course ...
→
Regarding the CAA…it should be common knowledge that your membership fees also pay for lobbying against bike lanes and dedicated transit right-of-ways
I wish there were an alternative
posted by scruss at 9:46 AM on March 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Just a point of clarification, it's not "Canada's towing industry", it's Toronto's towing industry. One region of Canada. Regulations and issues vary from province to province.
This is not to say there aren't tow issues elsewhere. Being from Vancouver, Busters Towing who had a monopoly with city hall, was notorious here in the 60's and 70's for rampant abuses.
But can we stop conflating Canada with Ontario, specifically Toronto?
posted by Zedcaster at 11:31 AM on March 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
This is not to say there aren't tow issues elsewhere. Being from Vancouver, Busters Towing who had a monopoly with city hall, was notorious here in the 60's and 70's for rampant abuses.
But can we stop conflating Canada with Ontario, specifically Toronto?
posted by Zedcaster at 11:31 AM on March 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
The phrase "Canada's Towing Industry" is in the title of the article so I don't think we are really the problem on this one.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:40 AM on March 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by jacquilynne at 11:40 AM on March 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
My armchair theory is that when you give for-profit companies extraordinary powers usually reserved for the state (confiscating private property), it goes to their head. 'Hey, they outright GAVE us almost unrestricted (and unmonitored) power over enforcement and lucrative fine collection. Hmm, what other shit can we pull?'
I'm pretty sure a large part of the problem in this case is that just like locksmiths, tow truck drivers all have the tools, skills and abilities to commit much larger crimes that often tend to go unpunished because perpetrators are not caught. Maybe the low level corruption between locksmiths and tow-truck drivers and associated law enforcement was initially a way of funnelling those people into less serious corruption crimes of favoritism and business advantage versus things like outright break and enter or stealing cars. Kind of like how it was organized crime that used to fund the polices' informal retirement pensions. Crumbs for everyone as long as nobody steals the whole loaf.
posted by srboisvert at 12:14 PM on March 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm pretty sure a large part of the problem in this case is that just like locksmiths, tow truck drivers all have the tools, skills and abilities to commit much larger crimes that often tend to go unpunished because perpetrators are not caught. Maybe the low level corruption between locksmiths and tow-truck drivers and associated law enforcement was initially a way of funnelling those people into less serious corruption crimes of favoritism and business advantage versus things like outright break and enter or stealing cars. Kind of like how it was organized crime that used to fund the polices' informal retirement pensions. Crumbs for everyone as long as nobody steals the whole loaf.
posted by srboisvert at 12:14 PM on March 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I can't speak to the situation in Canada, but my brother-in-law was a Texas tow truck (they call the truck a "wrecker" down there) driver for a time.
srboisvert I think has nailed part of it. Those kinds of jobs are ones where you can hang out your own metaphorical shingle pretty easily - just buy/borrow/lease a truck and you're in business. So folks who have already done time and are having a hard time getting a job because of their record can find a way to make a living with relatively little investment of money or training. Plus you make your own hours. And the people operating the tow lots are crooks too - they rip off the truck drivers just as much as you or I when we show up and they demand hundreds of dollars in cash to get your car back. So you have to develop - or the industry self-selects for - this tough guy attitude and connection to the right people and the protection it gives you. There's this sort of "I know a guy" network that is how people are drawn into that line of work (it's how my BIL got into it, through a cousin)... Layer on the complete lack of regulatory oversight and it's no wonder the industry has the reputation it does.
posted by misskaz at 4:20 PM on March 28, 2022
srboisvert I think has nailed part of it. Those kinds of jobs are ones where you can hang out your own metaphorical shingle pretty easily - just buy/borrow/lease a truck and you're in business. So folks who have already done time and are having a hard time getting a job because of their record can find a way to make a living with relatively little investment of money or training. Plus you make your own hours. And the people operating the tow lots are crooks too - they rip off the truck drivers just as much as you or I when we show up and they demand hundreds of dollars in cash to get your car back. So you have to develop - or the industry self-selects for - this tough guy attitude and connection to the right people and the protection it gives you. There's this sort of "I know a guy" network that is how people are drawn into that line of work (it's how my BIL got into it, through a cousin)... Layer on the complete lack of regulatory oversight and it's no wonder the industry has the reputation it does.
posted by misskaz at 4:20 PM on March 28, 2022
Are the tow trucks that mostly answer distressed-by-the-side-of-the-road calls often a different specialty? I'm feeling really lucky about the two that have picked me up. (one of them brought his girlfriend and kid to the middle of nowhere and I don't know if it was intentional de-threatening for me or just how that family got together time).
posted by clew at 5:29 PM on March 28, 2022
posted by clew at 5:29 PM on March 28, 2022
Corruption in the industry has been wide spread for a long time. My father was running four trucks in Manitoba 50 odd years ago when corruption in the public bidding process drove him out. And that was under a government single payer non profit auto insurance system (Autopac).
posted by Mitheral at 5:44 PM on March 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Mitheral at 5:44 PM on March 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by jacquilynne at 6:22 AM on March 28, 2022