Washington—The American Trucking Associations commended the House Appropriations Committee for voting in support of a provision to crack down on predatory towing as part of the fiscal year 2025 transportation funding bill. The bill would direct FMCSA to facilitate discussions with local, state and private sector stakeholders to develop guidelines for towing and recovery regulations at all levels of government.
“Charging truck owners thousands of dollars for each unwanted tow and holding cargo hostage with excessive invoices are egregious practices that disrupt our supply chain,” said American Trucking Associations President & CEO Chris Spear. “ATA and our federation of state associations are fighting back against these predatory towers and ransom payments that target the truckers we depend on to deliver our nation’s goods. We welcome this important step forward to develop commonsense reforms that will inject more transparency and fairness into the system and hold unscrupulous companies accountable.”
Predatory towing entails any incident in which a towing operator severely overcharges; illegally seizes assets; damages assets by use of improper equipment; or illegitimately withholds release of a truck, trailer and/or cargo. According to a recent study by the American Transportation Research Institute, the most common types of predatory towing are excessive rates, experienced by 82.7% of motor carriers, and unwarranted extra service charges, experienced by 81.8% of carriers. A majority of carriers encountered additional issues such as truck release or access delays, cargo release delays, truck seizure without cause and tows misreported as consensual.
The report language on predatory towing was released after the House Appropriations Committee voted 31-26 last night to advance the bill to the House floor. Last month, ATA applauded a number of other victories for trucking that were folded into the legislation, including $200 million to expand truck parking as well as provisions that would:
- Preserve the fix ATA secured earlier this year to strengthen the Safe Driver Apprenticeship Pilot Program;
- Block a waiver requested by California that would create a patchwork of meal and rest break rules, undermining safety and the supply chain;
- Prevent the Federal Highway Administration from moving forward with its proposal to impose greenhouse gas emissions performance measures on state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations, contrary to congressional intent; and
- Prohibit the implementation of any congestion tolling programs, such as the one planned by New York City that has now been indefinitely suspended.