The South Carolina Trucking Assn. (SCTA) has joined a national network of tow truck operators formed to promote more consistent towing charges and end abuses truck drivers claim can cost them thousands of dollars per tow.

The endorsement follows several months of investigation conducted by national and state trucking associations whose members say the problem has reached the crisis stage.
In South Carolina, as in most states, when an accident occurs, a vehicle owner has the option of requesting a preferred tower, provided it can arrive in a timely manner. If not, the officer at the scene will call the next tower on what is referred to as the "rotation list."
These tows are considered non-consensual, and truckers claim that they have no control over the rates and charges forced on them at the scene by the tow truck operators. Changes to state regulations that govern management of and participation in the rotation list were stalled in the legislature this year.
"Our members have been complaining that all too often in these situations, they get reamed by unscrupulous towers," says Rick Todd, president of the SCTA.
"The American Towing Alliance (AToA) aims to reduce costs and delays associated with sanctioned tows and will provide a measure of protection, through a national towing decal program, for prohibitively expensive non- consensual takeaways. We can't wait on the legislature to help us with this untenable situation," says Todd who also chairs the Trucking Assn. Executives Council, which initiated the research.
Chris Carlson, Chief Operating Officer of the American Towing Alliance (AToA) explains that incident mitigation is made simple by a single 800 call for recovery services. AToA handles all dispatching and reviews all bills presented to truckers on a standardized invoice.
He adds that AToA only recruits towers they consider the best, and that they strictly monitor their performance. "I have no problem throwing the bad ones out of the program," said Carlson.
The program is seen as important to truckers in keeping down overhead required to research and establish towing relationships and in tracking, managing and paying for towing services. In addition to cost savings, the program is expected to provide other time and cost saving benefits, including reduced trucker stress and faster incident mitigation. "We provide a highly responsive, single point of contact following an incident," says Carlson. "This means less time on the scene, which often generates negative publicity, reduced down-time for recoverable equipment, and improved cycle time for delivering recoverable payload."
According to SCTA, truck fleet owners who have a substantial amount of equipment out there running interstate routes, should see the most significant savings. They claim that most abuses and price gouging occurs while their equipment is away from home, especially in another state. "The majority of complaints stem from a tow between a local tower who gets the call and a trucker based somewhere else. With our network, this should help keep things on a reasonable level, no matter where the trucker is from," says Todd.
Owners of two heavy-duty towing companies founded AToA. After nearly 24 months of operation, they have a network of 1,400 towers and a customer base that owns and operates 125,000 rigs. Companies interested in the program may call SCTA at (803) 799-4306.