State nothing but a broken record on our shonky tow-truck industry

Words can be cheap in politics, but in the real world, words without corresponding action can be very costly.

Take the tow truck industry in WA. It’s been unregulated and lawless for years with a growing list of dubious operators able to charge whatever towing fees they want, knowing they’ve got the average motorist and their insurance companies over a barrel.

A tow-truck operator clashes with a motorist in Perth’s southern suburbs.Credit: Nine News Perth

The extortion, organised crime, standover tactics and turf wars have been exposed time and time again.

As a reporter behind some of the worrying headlines, I sound like a broken record whenever I point out that the tow-truck cowboys and crooks are no closer to being tamed.

But this week an industry insider with decades of experience sent a desperate letter to politicians and bureaucrats asking why nothing significant had been done despite good people taking risks by providing evidence and speaking out.

Attached to the letter was even more proof of the rot the state government has allowed to set in.

Exhibit A was a $20,000 invoice from a tow truck company that towed a vehicle 16 kilometres.

Exhibit B was a $55,000 invoice for moving a truck from Riverside Drive to Wattle Grove.

“Our services for the same job would have been approximately $3500 plus GST,” the insider’s letter read.

“We urge the government to take action now to stop the flow of companies coming from the east to try their hand in the wild west.

“To them, it is literally like a modern-day gold rush and they are flooding the state because they know they can become millionaires while insurance companies and private people become the victims.”

The dodgy operators are coming to WA to set up shop because years ago the eastern states shut down the ability for them to pluck towing and storage fees out of thin air like they can still do here.

Over east it’s called capped pricing and all the McGowan and Cook governments have done since 2019 is make promises to introduce it.

Year after year, ministers have repeated the hollow rhetoric.

“Regulation in WA is long overdue and is essential to ensure that consumers are properly protected whilst improving safety and confidence in the industry,” Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said in March 2022.

Premier Roger Cook was the commerce minister more than two years ago when he came out swinging.

“Ethical operators report that they are disadvantaged by the tactics of some unscrupulous drivers who threaten, mislead and harass people to get business,” he said.

“The consensus is that this behaviour needs to be stamped out.”

And still, the industry is waiting.

“Nothing has been done,” the insider wrote. “Now, the majority of tow companies in Perth are charging excessive prices and using unethical and illegal practices to get jobs.

“Unfortunately, the companies that are charging fair and reasonable prices are few and far between these days.”

One of the most complained about cost-of-living pressures on households right now is ever-increasing insurance premiums.

When an insurance company is faced with a $55,000 towing invoice and simply pays up without arguing the case, it’s hard to believe that isn’t somehow clawed back from policyholders.

Ask yourself, the next time your car insurance premium increases more than $200 in a year, whether extortionate towing fees have played a part – and then question what the insurance companies are doing about ending the rip-off.

In NSW, for example, the maximum fee that can be charged for a tow is $270.

In WA, shonky companies send several tow trucks to the scene of a crash and charge for them even though only one truck was needed.

Storage fees in NSW are capped at $29 per 24 hours. In WA, the going rate can exceed $200 per day.

Criminals are weeded out of tow trucking on the east coast via “fit and proper person” rules, which have also been promised as part of reforms in WA.

The Cook government’s response to the latest evidence of malpractice was to tell me the long-overdue industry regulations were “imminent”.

In May, last year the Transport Minister made the same claim when explaining the powerful changes were progressing as quickly as possible.

Talk about sounding like a broken record.

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