Towing association says crash ‘chasers’ are hurting industry’s reputation

The Professional Towing Association of Ontario says some bad apples are giving the rest of the industry a bad reputation.

Last week, seven tow trucks from four different companies responded to a two-vehicle crash in Cambridge — even though neither driver called for one.

It’s all part of a practice called “chasing” which is becoming more prevalent in Waterloo Region.

Towing association president, Gary Vandenheuval, said these unsolicited tows can prove pretty lucrative and “chasers” will monitor police radios and apps like Google and Waze for collisions.

“They also have spotters in areas that will call them and let them know there’s an accident at a certain location. There’s lots of different ways that they try to find these accidents,” said Vandenheuval while on The Mike Farwell Show.

In the Cambridge incident, two of the tow truck drivers got into a physical fight and police laid a total of 21 charges under the Highway Traffic Act and the Towing and Storage Safety Enforcement Act.

Vandenheuval said the “chasing” problem worsened locally after the province set up restricted towing zones on 400 series highways in the GTA. While it fixed the issue in those areas, the “chasers” are now commuting to other regions.

“So the market got smaller for them in the GTA, so they just expanded out to different areas.”

He stressed that most tow truck drivers are good, law-abiding citizens who work hard to make an honest living.

While the association is working with the Ministry of Transportation on ways to eliminate the problem, Vandenheuval said awareness is also key, as these “chasers” are exploiting vulnerable people who are in crisis on the side of the road.

“These guys are really smooth at what they do,” said Vandenheuval. “What I would suggest is if you’ve been involved in an accident, call the police, and if you need a tow truck, inform them that you need a tow truck and have them call one of their vetted companies.”

He said if for people involved in a crash and someone comes up to them, soliciting a tow, “You should be very wary about it.”

Vandenheuval added there have been some successes in Ontario already, like with the GTA highways and in the City of London.

“London was a key area where they had chasing going on for years. The police department and MTO got involved, and started pushing hard back on chasers in that area and they’ve done a great job of removing the majority of the chasers in London.”

He said Waterloo Region will likely have to do the same, with ramped-up continuous enforcement. “When you make it difficult on the bad guys, they tend to go away.”