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2006 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Transportation
Subcommittee Towing

Watkins (Chairman), Blevins, McDougle

Clerk: Bonnie W. Shelhorse
Staff: Alan Wambold, Stephanie Bishop
Date of Meeting: January 24, 2006
Time and Place: 4:00pm/3rd Fl.East, Conf. Rm.

S.B. 134

Patron: O'Brien

Tow trucks; towing and recovery operators; local-option regulations; regulation by Board for Towing and Recovery Operators; civil penalty.  Transfers the definition of "tow truck" from its present location to § 46.2-100 (the general definitions applicable to all of Title 46.2 (Motor Vehicles)) and uses this defined term ("tow truck") to replace references to the undefined terms "wrecker" and "towing and recovery vehicle." The bill allows a mechanic's lien for "towing, storage, and recovery" in addition to the present "keeping, supporting, and care,"; increases the present three-day limit for garage keepers to obtain vehicle data from DMV and provide written notice to the owner of the stored vehicle to a seven-day limit; raises the so-called "junk car" threshold from the present $5,000 to $10,000 and increases from  $25 per day to $50 per day the amount owed for storage if a vehicle is towed, unclaimed, and sold. The bill also revises the procedures by which towing and storage companies may seek to recover their fees and charges for towing away and storing immobilized and abandoned vehicles and provides that, when stolen vehicles are recovered, owners of the recovered vehicles pay the towing and storage charges and can be reimbursed from the appropriation for criminal charges. In addition, it provides that local towing regulations can be no less restrictive than those imposed by the new Board for Towing and Recovery Operators and requires that signs used to provide notice that a trespassing vehicle will be towed include at least the nonemergency telephone number of the local law-enforcement agency or the telephone number of the towing and recovery business authorized to perform the tows. The measure also expands localities' ability to regulate "trespass tows" by ordinance and provides that, in the event a vehicle is towed from one locality to be stored in another, the ordinances of the locality from which the vehicle was towed shall apply, and prohibits local requirements that towing and recovery businesses provide service as repair facilities, body shops, or filling stations. Under this measure, localities would be authorized by ordinance to require photographic evidence to justify "trespass tows," posting of signs providing notice of where towed vehicles may be reclaimed and the name and telephone number of local consumer affairs offices, obtaining so-called "second signatures" from property owner agents prior to tows.  The bill additionally prohibits certain relationships between towing and recovery businesses and the agents of property owners from whose property trespassing vehicles are towed by the towing and recovery businesses. The maximum allowable hookup and initial towing fee for trespass tows of passenger cars would be increased from $85 to $125, unless local ordinance sets a different limit, and the amount of additional fees for late night, weekend, and holiday tows would be raised from $10 to $25. The bill reduces from 24 hours to 12 hours the period of initial storage for which no storage or safekeeping charge can be imposed, allows local governments, by ordinance, to (i) prohibit storage charges for periods of time when owners cannot reclaim their vehicles because the towing and recovery business is closed and (ii) place caps on the charges that these businesses may impose and requires that any such limits be subject to "periodic and timely" adjustments. Local towing advisory boards would be required to consist of an equal number of representatives of local law-enforcement agencies and representatives of towing and recovery operators, plus one "civilian," and would have to meet at least once per year at the call of the chairman, who is to be chosen annually by a majority vote of the board. Finally, the bill establishes a new Board of Towing and Recovery Operators to license and regulate the towing and recovery industry and tow truck drivers.

A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 43-32, 43-34, 46.2-100, 46.2-649.1, 46.2-1028, 46.2-1070, 46.2-1150, 46.2-1209, 46.2-1217, 46.2-1224, 46.2-1231, 46.2-1232, 46.2-1233.1, 46.2-1233.2, and 46.2-2100, and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding in Title 46.2 a chapter numbered 28, consisting of sections numbered 46.2-2800 through 46.2-2828, relating to tow trucks, wreckers, towing and recovery vehicles, and the Board for Towing and Recovery Operators; civil penalty.

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