More than 50 people
turned out to rally in front of San Francisco Auto Return towing
company September 7 to angrily chide the company for exorbitant fees
and tampering with the cars once they are towed to the company.
The worker advocacy
group POWER or People Organized to Win Employment Rights, in San
Francisco, is leading the effort to bring attention to the issue. The
group presented the company with an award for “The Most Corrupt
Business of 2009” in the form of a big rat with a crown. No one from
the company was present to accept the honor.
POWER community
organizer Beatriz Herrera says at least ten of their core organizing
group of 30 members have had their cars towed. At least four of them
say that when they have retrieved their vehicles items were missing.
POWER member Carlos
Estrada said that his wife was pulled over for allegedly not stopping
for a pedestrian but that “this wasn’t true.” He told El Tecolote that the pedestrian had “already reached the other side of the street.”
The car was towed to
Auto Return and was there for two days. It cost Estrada $580 to get the
car out and the family lost two days of work. “We had a full tank of
gas when they took it in. When we got it out the tank was empty and our
radio speakers were gone.”
Judson True, spokesman
for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA), the city
and county agency that contracts with Auto Return said that if items
are missing from vehicles there is a claims process through Auto
Return. “We take those claims very seriously. We would be happy to work
with those individuals. If there’s something that’s going on we want to
get to the bottom of it but at this time there is no reason to think
that there is.”
In July El Tecolote
reported that Auto Return, which handles towed vehicles for the Dept.
of Parking & Traffic, charges between $244.25 or $287.75 depending
on the vehicle size. After four hours another $43.00 is charged. After
that, once the car has been in the garage for one day, the rate is
$51.50 per day. That doesn’t include unpaid tickets.
For low and
middle-income residents, it can be difficult to collect enough money to
get their cars out. If they are using their cars to get to work located
in areas not easily accessible by public transportation, a lost work
day as well as towing fees can make a big difference in a paycheck that
supports a family.
If someone is driving
without a license and is pulled over, their vehicle is automatically
held in the facility for 30 days adding up costs to at least $2,000 to
get a vehicle out.
“[Some] immigrant drivers have no licenses and police know that and they target them,” said Herrera.
One
family told Herrera that there car had been towed twice in as many
weeks at the same location in the Mission by the same police officer.
“We would be happy to
sit down and talk about what their concerns are based on. We never
condone any kind of community profiling. Towing is about enforcing,”
said True.
According to a company profile in www.allbusiness.com,
Tegsco Llc dba SF Auto Return makes $3.7-million a year and provides
half a million per month to San Francisco in referral, administrative
and citations fees…,
San Francisco city
audit documents show that from August 2005 to July 2006 the City
received almost $6 million in referral, administrative and citation
fees from Auto Return.
This includes:
Referral fees $1,295,200
Administrative fees $3,211,850
Citation fees $1,489,943
Total amount paid to city: $5,996,993
For fiscal year 2009, 66,288 vehicles were towed in San Francisco, according to True.
“The cost
of towing and storage has a big impact on working families. We
understand everyone is going through economic crisis and the community
is particularly vulnerable. They are making funds off people just
trying to get to work and get kids to school.”
