CITY WRECKER ROTATION FOLLOW-UP

A follow-up to a story we told you about several weeks ago regarding the City of Dothan`s wrecker rotation service. Apparently companies had been pulling and storing your car for large sums of money, but now City Commissioners announced a change in the system at yesterday`s City Commission Meeting. Len White, Dothan City Attorney, says, "the people will be provided a list of prices on scene to choose from. That`s something you won`t have to worry about anymore...price guaging by wrecker companies on the city`s rotation." And City Commissioner Don Clements says, "I think what you`ll see is the prices they are charging will come down...one of the main changes from the past is, from the time they pick up your car, they had a storage fee attached to the end of it at $20 a day that has been eliminated for the first 10 days." In the past, many who charged 50 to 60 dollars to pull during regular business hours, have been charging an average of $185.00 while on rotation, including storage costs. The city can`t tell the wrecker companies what to charge, but they can give you the choice to pay it, or not. Don Clements also said, "We can`t control price setting because it`s price fixing, and we don`t want to get involved in that, one of the things we can do, is take what they charge an individual, and for two weeks average it our and put it on a sheet and present it to people involved in wrecks and let them choose." In addition, some companies have been racking up dough by listing their business several times on the rotation list under different names...not anymore according to the new policy, which states that each wrecker service "will be allowed one listing per year...regardless of how many licensed services he or she owns with separate business addresses for each service." All of these changes, according to Commissioner Clements, are designed to get your car towed without your wallet going along with it. Wrecker services that violate the new policy, will automatically be suspended from the rotation list for a period of one year.