TAMPA — Getting your car back after a crash, an arrest or a private-property tow in Hillsborough County could cost more if county commissioners agree to a request from the towing industry.
The Hillsborough County Commission is set to hear a staff report Wednesday, Oct. 21, on proposals to raise the maximum rates towing companies can charge for police-ordered and trespass tows, add new charges for specialized recovery work and allow a temporary $25 fuel surcharge, ABC Action News reported.
Commissioners won't take a final vote Wednesday. They will review the requests and could direct county attorneys to draft rate changes for a later meeting, according to the station.
What the industry wants
The Hillsborough County Towing Association and the Professional Wrecker Operators of Florida submitted the proposals, citing higher costs for fuel, insurance, payroll, trucks, parts, repairs and taxes. The review began at the commission's Sept. 2 meeting, when a commissioner asked code enforcement and the county attorney's office to look at rates for law-enforcement-directed towing and to study a fuel surcharge.
For the most common category, Class A vehicles (generally up to 10,000 pounds, which covers most cars, SUVs and pickups, or boats 15 feet and under), the proposal would raise:
- Hookup: from $160 to $185, about 16% more
- Mileage: from $6 to $7 per mile
- Daily storage: from $35 to $40
Heavier vehicles would see similar increases. The Class B hookup would go from $200 to $230 and Class C from $475 to $545, with daily storage rising to $50 and $85. The after-hours fee to release a vehicle would go from $70 to $80.
The industry also wants set rates for heavy and specialty work, including $775 an hour for rotator crane service, $300 an hour for a Landoll or lowboy trailer, $250 an hour for a roll-off truck, $450 an hour for equipment such as loaders and forklifts, and $2,500 for a traffic-control support truck or trailer. Some categories would let operators bill the actual cost of disposing of hazardous or non-hazardous debris.
The $25 fuel surcharge
Under the industry's request, a flat $25 would be added to each covered tow whenever the federal government's diesel price for the Lower Atlantic region, which includes Florida, tops $4 a gallon. County staff found diesel-linked surcharges are increasingly common elsewhere, though none of the places it reviewed uses a flat fee, and concluded the flat model "may be reasonable," the station reported. The surcharge is the industry's idea, not a staff recommendation.
Michael McArthur, director of operations for Stepp's Towing Service in Tampa, told ABC Action News that trucks burn a lot of diesel while idling at crash scenes and loading vehicles, not just driving to and from calls.
“It'll put a very small dent into what we actually spend,” McArthur said, “but at least it's something to help the industry get through these times with the fuel prices the way they are.”
How Hillsborough compares
County staff compared the requests with rates in Broward, Miami-Dade, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk and Palm Beach counties and concluded the proposed increases are generally above average for similar counties that have updated rates recently. The proposed $185 Class A hookup would be about 20% above the $153.57 average in the county's comparison, and the $545 Class C hookup about 44% above average. The $230 Class B rate would land almost exactly on the average.
The industry pointed to Hillsborough's three-year review cycle as a reason to approve the full amounts.
Who would pay
The caps don't cover every tow. If your car breaks down and you call a tow company yourself, that company sets its own price. The county rates apply to two situations:
- Non-consensual tows, such as clearing wrecked cars from crash scenes or removing vehicles at the direction of law enforcement, including after an arrest or DUI stop.
- Trespass tows, when a vehicle or boat is removed from private property without the owner's consent.
Florida law requires counties to set maximum rates for towing and booting vehicles from private property. Hillsborough commissioners took over that job by ordinance after the county's Public Transportation Commission was dissolved in 2017.
McArthur said operators are required to be on call around the clock with specific equipment to meet police agencies' standards, and they often work beside fast-moving traffic. “We're not funded by the government like your fire rescue and ambulances and police,” he said. “We're in this all by ourselves.”
What's next
If commissioners want to move forward Wednesday, county attorneys would bring back an amended rate resolution for a vote at a future meeting. Meeting agendas are posted on the county's agendas, recaps and minutes page.