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I need to hire a towing company for a commercial property


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I own a property near downtown.  It is well signed, "Private property, violators towed."  Which mostly worked for the past few years.  But increasingly, my neighbors are choosing to ignore the warning (there is a ton of legal and free street parking that is literally about 60 feet away, but it's just a lot easier to leave your car right in the guy's parking lot that says "no parking."

So I need to make a contract with a tow company and start enforcing it.  

Words of advice on who to hire?  And how to convey to them who I want towed and who not to tow?

This would all be insanely easy if people would just heed a very reasonable and simple request.

Also, I'm aware of this board's tow truck sociopath, so if you know the name of his company, help me keep away.

Advice appreciated.

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12 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

Pretty sure they’ll come do it at no cost to you. They make their money when someone has to pay $350 to get it from their yard.  

This is true. I had an employee whose boyfriend towed cars. We were having some parking issues so his company came out and put up signs. No big deal.

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Drive to a nearby property and look at their towing signs. Call the number on the sign; phone must be answered 24/7. Tell them you want to sign a towing contract for your property. Install proper signage; Texas towing sign regulations are very specific. Towing company will likely offer cheap signs for free. If you want higher quality, you can get them done many places at your own cost.

The contract will be no cost to you. The contract will have various options as to who can authorize a tow.

I’ve done it. It’s quite easy. 

Bernard

Edited by Bernard
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18 hours ago, Jkwellborn said:


Is this for real? I’ve gotta be missing the sarcasm on my phone.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/crime/amp/Austin-man-convicted-rock-throwing-brain-dead-11074043.php
 

This guy was a poster here - I think he regularly gave advice on how to fight unethical towing companies, and seemed to enjoy being a defender/advocate for victims.  
 

“Sociopath” wasn’t a strong enough word.  

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4 minutes ago, Bernard said:

Drive to a nearby property and look at their towing signs. Call the number on the sign; phone must be answered 24/7. Tell them you want to sign a towing contract for your property. Install proper signage; Texas towing sign regulations are very specific. Towing company will likely offer cheap signs for free. If you want higher quality, you can get them done many places.

The contract will be no cost to you. The contract will have various options as to who can authorize a tow.

I’ve done it. It’s quite easy. 

Bernard

Thank you. 
 

I kind of knew something like that was the deal, but I wasn’t sure how much control I would surrender to them to tow anyone they wanted, or how the guardrails worked to keep from getting myself or my clients towed by mistake.  
 

Also reluctant to ugly up my property with towing warnings, but the alternative is getting constantly pissed off at my immediate neighbors.  

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19 minutes ago, Paul Wesley said:

Thank you. 
 

I kind of knew something like that was the deal, but I wasn’t sure how much control I would surrender to them to tow anyone they wanted, or how the guardrails worked to keep from getting myself or my clients towed by mistake.  
 

Also reluctant to ugly up my property with towing warnings, but the alternative is getting constantly pissed off at my immediate neighbors.  

The contract I signed was a boiler plate agreement. Easy boxes to check and blanks to insert names of those who can authorize a tow. It can range from you giving the tow company carte blanche to tow any violators on their own to having them tow only when you specifically call and say “tow this mofo right now”.

Unfortunately, there’s no getting around the sign requirement. I was worried about ugly signs. In the end, they weren’t the eye sore I expected.

Bernard

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50 minutes ago, Paul Wesley said:

Thank you. 
 

I kind of knew something like that was the deal, but I wasn’t sure how much control I would surrender to them to tow anyone they wanted, or how the guardrails worked to keep from getting myself or my clients towed by mistake.  
 

Also reluctant to ugly up my property with towing warnings, but the alternative is getting constantly pissed off at my immediate neighbors.  

Yeah, that was my issue. When we put in new signage we did away with the towing signs. It hasn't been an issue lately but I'm sure at some point I'll have to put them back up.

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https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/crime/amp/Austin-man-convicted-rock-throwing-brain-dead-11074043.php
 
This guy was a poster here - I think he regularly gave advice on how to fight unethical towing companies, and seemed to enjoy being a defender/advocate for victims.  
 
“Sociopath” wasn’t a strong enough word.  

No, I remember TxTow and a bunch of the stuff that went down. I just meant was fudge real when he said he thought someone was.
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18 hours ago, NoRagrets said:

I need help with big rigs - towing companies really don’t want to tow them because someone could be sleeping in the cab or something, so it’s a liability issue.

Can you install some bollards in a way that makes maneuvering a big rig difficult, but still allow cars, and not be ugly?

I’ve used these guys: https://www.bollardbarrier.com/

Bernard

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18 hours ago, NoRagrets said:

I need help with big rigs - towing companies really don’t want to tow them because someone could be sleeping in the cab or something, so it’s a liability issue.

Just tell South Austin's mom to find a new parking lot. If she leaves, the truckers will leave.

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