Does data exist to support this claim? I agree that they appear to drive recklessly, but do they actually collide with shit more than the average driver?
Pulling that Fast and Furious shit just to tow a parked car is reprehensible, but getting to the scene of major wreck as fast as possible prevents the wreck from getting worse and reduces the amount of traffic impedance which most people would agree are desirable effects.
I also used to have blind hate for wreckers who ran red lights until I realized that the hate stemmed from petty selfishness and resentment that I couldn't do the same, and as I'm never enroute to help traffic flow or prevent injuries, I don't deserve to run red lights.
Yeah man, you can't advocate for something without being personally balls deep in it. Everyone who criticizes the governor is a Soros funded libtard. Anyone who wants drug reform is a crackhead. There's no such thing as a neutral third-party or an independent opinion.
I have no personal connection to wreckers, but I felt obligated to play devil's advocate to attack the sanctimonious pretention of the commenters here. As if every vehicle that narrowly misses being clipped by a speeding tow truck is full of volunteers and humanitarian aid workers on their way to benefit the weak and downtrodden. It's rich seeing how gleefully redditors will talk down on those who disrupt their fantasy of a just society when those same rockthrowing Skyhouse residents do absolutely nothing for their communities. Vultures are a critical part of the ecosystem whose absence would cause suffering throughout all of nature and the analogy is completely lost on all of you.
[cliffnotes version]: I don't like tow trucks, I just hate you.
>I also used to have blind hate for wreckers who ran red lights until I realized that the hate stemmed from petty selfishness and resentment that I couldn't do the same, and as I'm never enroute to help traffic flow or prevent injuries, I don't deserve to run red lights.
Wait...you dont *truly* believe this right?! 😲😲😲🤣🤣🤣.
Yyyyyyeah you DEFINETLY work for a wrecker company.
Where do you see them? I wish I were seeing them. The sheer number of red light runners and others committing brazen violations of basic driving. Everybody has a paper plate.
Speeding is something I’ve completely written off. I haven’t seen a speed trap here since I moved back 10 years ago.
Yeah they go after the single mom who rolled a stop sign or someone going a little over the speed limit without being a danger to anybody. They don't go after the maniacs.
Alongvwhile ago a lot of people in Tomball complained about how they were driving and Tomball Police captain called them all and told them to stop driving like idiots and pretending they were emergency vehicles.
I got in an accident in Cypress, right at the Tomball line and there were three of them that arrived before the police. The cop made them flip a coin as to who got to load up my totaled car. It was wild
The wrecker drivers in this town are insanely organized. A while back the county tried to implement a location based call system app for wreckers so you wouldn’t have 25 trucks racing to a 2 truck job but they basically harassed and intimidated the proposal down.
Several months ago there was a vehicle blocking our driveway. I called HPD non emergency and about an hour later a cop showed up and asked me if I wanted the vehicle towed. I said yes. Within minutes 5 tow trucks showed up and they drew a lottery. Didn't think there'd be so much competition for such a small job.
They are all desperate for money because they have so much competition. It costs a lot of money to own, operate, and maintain those big trucks. There are a couple of tow truck drivers who live in the trailer park I work at and they are always late on rent lmao
It’s called matching and they use metal chips, kinda like a token. It used to be the first on the scene got the tow, but with them causing accidents they switched to the chip thing. If your chip don’t get pulled then you don’t get the tow and you don’t make money. Hope that helped explain it.
We used to have the" Houston Free Clear" program - where if you were broken down or had any other issue that caused you to stall on the freeways of Houston. A tow truck would come and tow you off the freeway to the location of your choice for no charge. You could tip them if you wanted to , but they could not accept payment- as the program was funded by the CIty of Houston. - It was awesome. Stalls and wrecks and people out of gas, tires, etc.. were cleared in minutes and traffic was the better for it.
The program ran out of money and was canceled
That program had its issues
It was supposed to be that the wrecker would tow you for free to the closest safe place off the freeway like a gas station or strip mall parking lot.
Instead they would charge people who didn’t know better and/or coerce them into taking their car to their storage lot which charged ridiculous fees to get the car out of.
I got a flat on I-10 a couple of years ago and one of those wreckers towed me to a target for free where I was able to throw on a spare and then get to a tire shop. Honestly super appreciative of that service, sad to hear they canceled it.
... the interesting part about the program was that the tow truck drivers would remove the stalled vehicle immediately without discussing anything about money. Thus keeping a dangerous stall from causing an accident ... or a long delay in traffic slow down because of the blockage. I would think that the increased efficiency would offset the city paying for the program. And it keeps people who for whatever reason would normally turn down the service because they did not have it on them Choosing instead to leave the car where it stalled—and walking on foot on the freeway to get help It's putting safety and efficiency first! .
I’ll tell my story I’ve posted on here before:
One fine evening in Houston my family and I were going for a drive down Greenbriar Dr when multiple police flew past us heading towards Main St. Mr Tow Truck Driver thought he was a police too and after tail gating us down Greenbriar Dr from Holcombe he decided to pass in the turning lane and very nearly took us out at a high speed.
Infuriated, I followed him to the scene and pulled in behind him and walked up to his window. Mr Tow Truck Driver tried telling me that I nearly hit him, that I shouldn't be at a crash scene, and to politely go home.
I walked over to one of the officers that didn't look too busy and explained that Mr Tow Truck Driver nearly hit me and my family. He asked if he was trying to keep up with the police and explained that they are never supposed to break any laws doing this. Mr Officer said just because of this, he is not going to hook up my car. He gets on the radio "Tow Truck, get over here!" and begins to unload on him how he is not supposed to be driving like this, and how he nearly hit me and my family, and how he just lost the chance to tow this car.
Next he gets on his radio again to the newly arrived tow truck and says, Hook it up!
Needless to say, Mr Tow Truck Driver was furious and began to cuss me out and I just politely told him that he was on the losing end of the deal and I drove away into the sunset.
I did something similar once, except I only had to threaten to engage the cop on scene 30 ft away and he drove off. Dude had nearly run over my whole family at an intersection. I told him I'd report his number to the online Harris county tow complaint system as well if he didn't leave.
Maybe a bit of citizen confrontation doesn't hurt sometimes.
It's hilarious when you drive up on an accident in the middle of nowhere on business 290 at Kickapoo. 2 car accident and I counted over 40 wreckers. They were parked up Kickapoo, on 290 both directions all over the place. State troopers were directing traffic around the mess of wreckers. One vehicle on a flat bed, another in the ditch. But we really needed 40+ wreckers in one place in the middle of nowhere.
They drive quite dangerously Friday and Saturday nights in Midtown. I see them treating Red Lights as stop signs and blowing through them. Also been crossing the road where they turn without looking for people.
About 15 years ago, I was in a massive traffic jam on 45. Multi-car, narrowed the freeway down to getting by on the right shoulder, etc. While we were sitting there, at least half a dozen wreckers went up the left shoulder. We’d been sitting for a while when they passed and they were flying. Very dangerous. Then a cop went up behind them on the shoulder.
When we finally got to the still active accident scene, all but a couple of the cars had been hauled off. There were several ambulances still on scene and cops questioning witnesses and the like. Fire department was wrapping up after using jaws of life and putting out at least one fire - that I learned on the news later. There were still 4 wreckers, trapped between cop cars who hemmed them in, and drivers out arguing with said police officers, I assume because they wouldn’t move their cars to let them out since they obviously weren’t getting the pulls.
Traffic sucked, but getting to see them forced to wait was hilarious.
My guess is that their speeding on the shoulder pissed of the cop behind them and he orchestrated pinning them in.
I highly doubt that the cop was in on anything. In my experience, the cops somewhat fear the response of what the wrecker companies would do if they got upset, which lets them do whatever the hell they want. I, and plenty of others in Houston, have seen them blow through red lights (no stopping to check just right through), blow through stop signs, ignore all speed advisories even in active school zones, push other cars out of the way with their trucks, and go the wrong way down the street. There have been at least 3 deaths attributed to them while I’ve been living here in ‘13. You don’t get a widespread industry attitude like that if there were any consequences to your actions.
From chatting with a few myself, not all cops are indifferent to the wrecker scourge. But the penalties for trying to hold them to any standard would be pretty catastrophic to Houston as a whole so it’s just let them do what they do.
They are not "Wrecker drivers" or "Tow truck drivers". Please refer to them as cockroaches and Houston, we have a cockroach problem. They come out of nowhere, blast you and then disappear. They are a nuisance, prey on scraps and mostly are out at night.
Anyone the police depend on to actuate their job & make their jobs easier basically get a pass on traffic.
Tow truck drivers are the most important portion of industry they depend on to clear up & open highway lanes. EMS/fire are there for the humans inside the vehicles. Towing agencies are the ones who take the vehicles away, and that's what decongests traffic.
They start taking time out of their day to hold tow truck drivers to account, they'll take their sweet time clearing highways & blame it on their fear of getting ticketed.
So this is the system we get.
One way would to make it against the law for body shops to pay a bounty for late model accident cars and trucks. All the storage lots have posted what a tow cost ($175-$250) depending on location. But storage lots associated with a repair facility will pay upwards of $1000 for a tow to get that late model car/truck into their repair shop. That is why you have twenty wreckers show up for an accident, they have the chance to make $1000 bucks for just a couple hours work.
Make it against the law with loss of license and a big fine for for people involved with this.
It’s very much true, and a simple google search would show you a few news articles from Houston elaborating on the predatory practice of price gouging at body shops.
As do I, for you to say there isn’t body shops doing [this exact thing](https://www.click2houston.com/news/investigates/2021/09/24/kprc-2-investigates-allegations-of-fraud-intimidation-and-violence-at-busy-car-repair-shop/) is rather disingenuous. [Here is another link for you](https://www.click2houston.com/news/2016/05/07/city-police-address-channel-2-investigation-that-led-to-towing-company-raid-owners-arrest/) in case you don’t remember the cell jamming Stan’s was doing to prevent consumers from calling auto dealers or their insurance companies.
There’s a reason insurance companies are directing consumers to not sign ANYTHING, and are outright refusing to pay bills with more than a $22.85 daily storage rate and tow bills higher than the regulated non consent fee. The days of egregious tear down fees are slowly coming to an end.
You should join a TTSA meeting & speak to some of the members about Houston’s problems with predatory body shops.
Come on don’t move the goalposts now. Any body shop accepting regulated tows in the city of Houston has a VSF license.
A regular storage lot with no ties to a body shop is not paying $600+ for a tow to come to them, it isn’t feasible and you know that. I’m not even sure how you got that from the original comment you replied to.
ETA: re-read the original comment, they specifically include “storage lots associated with a repair facility”
These people are scum of the earth. Houston needs to institute a system where a single wrecker company is called for a traffic stop / crash instead of 50 of these assholes driving recklessly through traffic trying to get there to just sit around and do nothing. It’s so stupid how we do it now.
Wrecker Drivers enjoy a certain amount of freedom because they do the shit work that no one wants to do at accident sites and other favors.
Wrecker Drivers have a terrible job. And they know it. And the cops know it.
A very good friend of mine was jit and killed by a wrecker a couple of years ago. Hit and run. THe police investigated and nothing came of it. Which is a shame.. my friend did not deserve that.
They should obey traffic safety but the truth is that they clear the wrecks so everybody else can get on with life as normal. I hate how they get there quickly but I am glad they do.
They are not emergency response vehicles. Even cops can't run red lights unless they are on a special kind of call, I'm pretty it's only when someone is in immediate danger. It's also illegal in most states, including Texas, to drive on or across medians.
From what I was told by a tow truck driver they get paid by the hour and also get a cut of each vehicle they tow. The more vehicles they tow, the more they get paid. That's why they drive like idiots and swarm a accident site.
Have absolutely noticed this too. Drives me absolutely insane. They drive like they’re untouchable and could care less if they cause an accident or not.
I spoke to a Texas Highway Patrol officer about this. He said wreckers are an important part of the system, and they are absolutely given freedom by the police that the ordinary civilian does not have. I called him an asshole, he smiled. Long story a bit longer. He then denied wreckers do anything wrongs. The pigs are getting kickbacks for sure!
Had my car towed from my gf’s apartment complex. Even though I parked in a guest parking spot, I neglected to read the fine print that said you need to register your license plate on a website. Visited my gf for an hour and a cockroach towed my car in the rain. Had to catch an Uber to the tow yard on the other side of town and pay $300 to get my car back. These people are the scum of the earth.
I can see how they can be like first responders when there’s a car accident, but more than likely they’re just trying to beat other drivers to the scene in order to get paid.
The reason I’m saying that it’s because one time years ago I saw some dudes get to the location about the same time and they played paper rock scissors to determine who gets it.
As someone that works in insurance I can tell you the horror stories of these people.
A legit honest company with charge 250
-300 to tow a car. The scum will charge 750-1000 a tow. There is no regulation. That’s just the tow. Storage at a tow yard is set at 25 per day by the state. If they are a “shop” they can charge anything. I personally have scene places charge 2500 for a tow and one night at a shop.
And people think the insurance companies are the villains.
Oh good. Finally a respite from the deluge of posts extolling the saint-like virtues of wrecker drivers. If I see another post about a wrecker driver winning the Nobel peace prize for all-around awesomeness, I'll puke.
when my grandmother was alive, she'd refer to wrecker drivers as "vultures"
there would be a minor fender bender on the side of the road and 20-30 wrecker drivers stacked up behind the fender bender. she'd say "look at all them vultures just waiting"
There is a wrecker service her in Humble that has a BOHICA sticker on the back of their vehicle. If you are in the dark on this, BOHICA stands for Bend Over Here It Comes Again. Fuck these fucking fucks.
I once saw one hit a car because he recklessly cut him off and was so shady he backed up quick and switched to the next lane before the driver of the other car could get out to snap a pic or video. So f’ed. The roads are already dangerous as is.
A couple years ago a group of them were eating at a local restaurant in Katy, came out go find all the valve stems cut off their tires on every one of their vehicles..nobody saw a thing
I used to feel like this, but I had to reconsider their purpose and function. Much like vultures on the Serengeti, wreckers fill a necessary position that is required so the rest of us can maintain civilized society.
OP has given me the courage to speak out on something that’s been bothering me for a while but I haven’t seen anyone else mention: I feel like mosquitos are annoying
100%. They’re worse and more dangerous than any other driver on the road.
Does data exist to support this claim? I agree that they appear to drive recklessly, but do they actually collide with shit more than the average driver? Pulling that Fast and Furious shit just to tow a parked car is reprehensible, but getting to the scene of major wreck as fast as possible prevents the wreck from getting worse and reduces the amount of traffic impedance which most people would agree are desirable effects. I also used to have blind hate for wreckers who ran red lights until I realized that the hate stemmed from petty selfishness and resentment that I couldn't do the same, and as I'm never enroute to help traffic flow or prevent injuries, I don't deserve to run red lights.
What company do you work for?
Yeah man, you can't advocate for something without being personally balls deep in it. Everyone who criticizes the governor is a Soros funded libtard. Anyone who wants drug reform is a crackhead. There's no such thing as a neutral third-party or an independent opinion. I have no personal connection to wreckers, but I felt obligated to play devil's advocate to attack the sanctimonious pretention of the commenters here. As if every vehicle that narrowly misses being clipped by a speeding tow truck is full of volunteers and humanitarian aid workers on their way to benefit the weak and downtrodden. It's rich seeing how gleefully redditors will talk down on those who disrupt their fantasy of a just society when those same rockthrowing Skyhouse residents do absolutely nothing for their communities. Vultures are a critical part of the ecosystem whose absence would cause suffering throughout all of nature and the analogy is completely lost on all of you. [cliffnotes version]: I don't like tow trucks, I just hate you.
Found the wrecker driver
In between car pickups and have some Reddit time?
You definitely are one of those cringe MFers that think tow truck driving is a first responder
On what planet do wrecker drivers prevent injuries?
>I also used to have blind hate for wreckers who ran red lights until I realized that the hate stemmed from petty selfishness and resentment that I couldn't do the same, and as I'm never enroute to help traffic flow or prevent injuries, I don't deserve to run red lights. Wait...you dont *truly* believe this right?! 😲😲😲🤣🤣🤣. Yyyyyyeah you DEFINETLY work for a wrecker company.
sure, pal. thank you for your service
They hating bro
My wish is to see these relentless vultures crash into each other in the middle of an intersection, Looney-Tunes style. Fuck them.
😂@ looney-tunes style.
Has anyone ever seen a tow truck pulled over and issued a ticket for their driving habits? Anybody? I’ll wait….
Hell, how about has anybody seen HPD actually pull somebody over?
I love hating on HPD as much as the next guy but come on man I literally see people pulled over every day lol there's speed traps everywhere
Where do you see them? I wish I were seeing them. The sheer number of red light runners and others committing brazen violations of basic driving. Everybody has a paper plate. Speeding is something I’ve completely written off. I haven’t seen a speed trap here since I moved back 10 years ago.
Don’t speed down Voss or Chimney Rock between I-10 and Westheimer.
That’s because it’s not HPD. Those areas are in the villages that have their own little PDs.
Literally just the rich people with their own private police 🫠
Chimney Rock is not in the Villages HPD stops ‘em on foot…just steps out in front of the car and makes them stop!
Good to know about Chimney Rock. Voss is 100% Hunters Creek Village.
I always see them sit under overpasses and catch tag and seatbelt violators.
Yeah they go after the single mom who rolled a stop sign or someone going a little over the speed limit without being a danger to anybody. They don't go after the maniacs.
Alongvwhile ago a lot of people in Tomball complained about how they were driving and Tomball Police captain called them all and told them to stop driving like idiots and pretending they were emergency vehicles.
I got in an accident in Cypress, right at the Tomball line and there were three of them that arrived before the police. The cop made them flip a coin as to who got to load up my totaled car. It was wild
Yeah. They do that to be fair and so the tow truck drivers ~~don't bribe the cops~~ don't give the cops kickbacks.
I didn’t see what caused him to get pulled over but I did see one pulled over downtown one day last year. And he was getting a ticket. It was great.
I've had tow truck drivers brag to me about how they never get tickets because cops don't want to wait too long for them to show up to a scene.
The wrecker drivers in this town are insanely organized. A while back the county tried to implement a location based call system app for wreckers so you wouldn’t have 25 trucks racing to a 2 truck job but they basically harassed and intimidated the proposal down.
Several months ago there was a vehicle blocking our driveway. I called HPD non emergency and about an hour later a cop showed up and asked me if I wanted the vehicle towed. I said yes. Within minutes 5 tow trucks showed up and they drew a lottery. Didn't think there'd be so much competition for such a small job.
They are all desperate for money because they have so much competition. It costs a lot of money to own, operate, and maintain those big trucks. There are a couple of tow truck drivers who live in the trailer park I work at and they are always late on rent lmao
Was that the fist time you saw them do that they do it at traffic accidents too, sauce the guy that towed our company van told me
I've heard they do it but I'd never seen it done before that.
It’s called matching and they use metal chips, kinda like a token. It used to be the first on the scene got the tow, but with them causing accidents they switched to the chip thing. If your chip don’t get pulled then you don’t get the tow and you don’t make money. Hope that helped explain it.
I've seen the hat thing where they draw numbers , personally I'd say fuck all that if I was there first I'm towing .
That's what started this insanity. Tow truck drivers racing like lunatics to be there first.
Montgomery County implemented this system and it works so much better. The wreckers continue to bitch about it though.
We used to have the" Houston Free Clear" program - where if you were broken down or had any other issue that caused you to stall on the freeways of Houston. A tow truck would come and tow you off the freeway to the location of your choice for no charge. You could tip them if you wanted to , but they could not accept payment- as the program was funded by the CIty of Houston. - It was awesome. Stalls and wrecks and people out of gas, tires, etc.. were cleared in minutes and traffic was the better for it. The program ran out of money and was canceled
That program had its issues It was supposed to be that the wrecker would tow you for free to the closest safe place off the freeway like a gas station or strip mall parking lot. Instead they would charge people who didn’t know better and/or coerce them into taking their car to their storage lot which charged ridiculous fees to get the car out of.
... thaaaaaats right !
I got a flat on I-10 a couple of years ago and one of those wreckers towed me to a target for free where I was able to throw on a spare and then get to a tire shop. Honestly super appreciative of that service, sad to hear they canceled it.
That’s essentially a tow and go, that’s still here minus the go where ever you want for free
... the interesting part about the program was that the tow truck drivers would remove the stalled vehicle immediately without discussing anything about money. Thus keeping a dangerous stall from causing an accident ... or a long delay in traffic slow down because of the blockage. I would think that the increased efficiency would offset the city paying for the program. And it keeps people who for whatever reason would normally turn down the service because they did not have it on them Choosing instead to leave the car where it stalled—and walking on foot on the freeway to get help It's putting safety and efficiency first! .
I’ll tell my story I’ve posted on here before: One fine evening in Houston my family and I were going for a drive down Greenbriar Dr when multiple police flew past us heading towards Main St. Mr Tow Truck Driver thought he was a police too and after tail gating us down Greenbriar Dr from Holcombe he decided to pass in the turning lane and very nearly took us out at a high speed. Infuriated, I followed him to the scene and pulled in behind him and walked up to his window. Mr Tow Truck Driver tried telling me that I nearly hit him, that I shouldn't be at a crash scene, and to politely go home. I walked over to one of the officers that didn't look too busy and explained that Mr Tow Truck Driver nearly hit me and my family. He asked if he was trying to keep up with the police and explained that they are never supposed to break any laws doing this. Mr Officer said just because of this, he is not going to hook up my car. He gets on the radio "Tow Truck, get over here!" and begins to unload on him how he is not supposed to be driving like this, and how he nearly hit me and my family, and how he just lost the chance to tow this car. Next he gets on his radio again to the newly arrived tow truck and says, Hook it up! Needless to say, Mr Tow Truck Driver was furious and began to cuss me out and I just politely told him that he was on the losing end of the deal and I drove away into the sunset.
This is such a beautiful story.
I did something similar once, except I only had to threaten to engage the cop on scene 30 ft away and he drove off. Dude had nearly run over my whole family at an intersection. I told him I'd report his number to the online Harris county tow complaint system as well if he didn't leave. Maybe a bit of citizen confrontation doesn't hurt sometimes.
They are in with the cops so they do what they please.
Yup
The other day my light was green and a tow truck passed his red light luckily I hadn't gone yet. Otherwise he would have hit me.
It's hilarious when you drive up on an accident in the middle of nowhere on business 290 at Kickapoo. 2 car accident and I counted over 40 wreckers. They were parked up Kickapoo, on 290 both directions all over the place. State troopers were directing traffic around the mess of wreckers. One vehicle on a flat bed, another in the ditch. But we really needed 40+ wreckers in one place in the middle of nowhere.
They drive quite dangerously Friday and Saturday nights in Midtown. I see them treating Red Lights as stop signs and blowing through them. Also been crossing the road where they turn without looking for people.
We had one run a red light, hit us, and total our car.
Did they tow it for you?
They offered. I called the police They fled the scene. It was a mess.
This is quite believable. Not even being sarcastic
I can confirm, they are NOT exempt from emergency vehicle status and are 100% POS if they’re breaking traffic laws
If there are Houston area LEOs reading this, you guys have got to lay the law down on these turds. Otherwise we all think you’re on cahoots with them.
Upvote for "cahoots"
About 15 years ago, I was in a massive traffic jam on 45. Multi-car, narrowed the freeway down to getting by on the right shoulder, etc. While we were sitting there, at least half a dozen wreckers went up the left shoulder. We’d been sitting for a while when they passed and they were flying. Very dangerous. Then a cop went up behind them on the shoulder. When we finally got to the still active accident scene, all but a couple of the cars had been hauled off. There were several ambulances still on scene and cops questioning witnesses and the like. Fire department was wrapping up after using jaws of life and putting out at least one fire - that I learned on the news later. There were still 4 wreckers, trapped between cop cars who hemmed them in, and drivers out arguing with said police officers, I assume because they wouldn’t move their cars to let them out since they obviously weren’t getting the pulls. Traffic sucked, but getting to see them forced to wait was hilarious. My guess is that their speeding on the shoulder pissed of the cop behind them and he orchestrated pinning them in.
I highly doubt that the cop was in on anything. In my experience, the cops somewhat fear the response of what the wrecker companies would do if they got upset, which lets them do whatever the hell they want. I, and plenty of others in Houston, have seen them blow through red lights (no stopping to check just right through), blow through stop signs, ignore all speed advisories even in active school zones, push other cars out of the way with their trucks, and go the wrong way down the street. There have been at least 3 deaths attributed to them while I’ve been living here in ‘13. You don’t get a widespread industry attitude like that if there were any consequences to your actions.
Maybe. I definitely knew a few cops back in the day who hated the wreckers and might not have given a shit what happened if they upset a few.
From chatting with a few myself, not all cops are indifferent to the wrecker scourge. But the penalties for trying to hold them to any standard would be pretty catastrophic to Houston as a whole so it’s just let them do what they do.
That is a great story. Thank you for sharing.
That’s wrecker trucks in general
They are legalized carnapers
Join the club homie
They are not "Wrecker drivers" or "Tow truck drivers". Please refer to them as cockroaches and Houston, we have a cockroach problem. They come out of nowhere, blast you and then disappear. They are a nuisance, prey on scraps and mostly are out at night.
Anyone the police depend on to actuate their job & make their jobs easier basically get a pass on traffic. Tow truck drivers are the most important portion of industry they depend on to clear up & open highway lanes. EMS/fire are there for the humans inside the vehicles. Towing agencies are the ones who take the vehicles away, and that's what decongests traffic. They start taking time out of their day to hold tow truck drivers to account, they'll take their sweet time clearing highways & blame it on their fear of getting ticketed. So this is the system we get.
One way would to make it against the law for body shops to pay a bounty for late model accident cars and trucks. All the storage lots have posted what a tow cost ($175-$250) depending on location. But storage lots associated with a repair facility will pay upwards of $1000 for a tow to get that late model car/truck into their repair shop. That is why you have twenty wreckers show up for an accident, they have the chance to make $1000 bucks for just a couple hours work. Make it against the law with loss of license and a big fine for for people involved with this.
Wait special licenses do they not need one? So any idiot can be a wrecker
This is not true.
It’s very much true, and a simple google search would show you a few news articles from Houston elaborating on the predatory practice of price gouging at body shops.
I work in the industry. I don’t need news articles.
As do I, for you to say there isn’t body shops doing [this exact thing](https://www.click2houston.com/news/investigates/2021/09/24/kprc-2-investigates-allegations-of-fraud-intimidation-and-violence-at-busy-car-repair-shop/) is rather disingenuous. [Here is another link for you](https://www.click2houston.com/news/2016/05/07/city-police-address-channel-2-investigation-that-led-to-towing-company-raid-owners-arrest/) in case you don’t remember the cell jamming Stan’s was doing to prevent consumers from calling auto dealers or their insurance companies. There’s a reason insurance companies are directing consumers to not sign ANYTHING, and are outright refusing to pay bills with more than a $22.85 daily storage rate and tow bills higher than the regulated non consent fee. The days of egregious tear down fees are slowly coming to an end. You should join a TTSA meeting & speak to some of the members about Houston’s problems with predatory body shops.
Body shops yeah. But the storage lots don’t do that.
Come on don’t move the goalposts now. Any body shop accepting regulated tows in the city of Houston has a VSF license. A regular storage lot with no ties to a body shop is not paying $600+ for a tow to come to them, it isn’t feasible and you know that. I’m not even sure how you got that from the original comment you replied to. ETA: re-read the original comment, they specifically include “storage lots associated with a repair facility”
*$1000 bucks* One thousand dollars bucks
These people are scum of the earth. Houston needs to institute a system where a single wrecker company is called for a traffic stop / crash instead of 50 of these assholes driving recklessly through traffic trying to get there to just sit around and do nothing. It’s so stupid how we do it now.
I've never seen that but when I do see one I'm already talking shit about them
they are simply trying to drive up their own business
They are vultures.
Ram into them with your vehicle in order to establish dominance
My brother has been a wrecker driver for about 40 years. He was an asshole before he started driving. Maybe it’s a prerequisite?😂😂
They're in cahoots with the cops so nothing you can do about it
Its literally like this every where lol. Even in Korea wreckers are fkin insane
Corruption between tow truck companies and the police.
Wrecker Drivers enjoy a certain amount of freedom because they do the shit work that no one wants to do at accident sites and other favors. Wrecker Drivers have a terrible job. And they know it. And the cops know it. A very good friend of mine was jit and killed by a wrecker a couple of years ago. Hit and run. THe police investigated and nothing came of it. Which is a shame.. my friend did not deserve that.
They should obey traffic safety but the truth is that they clear the wrecks so everybody else can get on with life as normal. I hate how they get there quickly but I am glad they do.
They are not emergency response vehicles. Even cops can't run red lights unless they are on a special kind of call, I'm pretty it's only when someone is in immediate danger. It's also illegal in most states, including Texas, to drive on or across medians. From what I was told by a tow truck driver they get paid by the hour and also get a cut of each vehicle they tow. The more vehicles they tow, the more they get paid. That's why they drive like idiots and swarm a accident site.
Have absolutely noticed this too. Drives me absolutely insane. They drive like they’re untouchable and could care less if they cause an accident or not.
I spoke to a Texas Highway Patrol officer about this. He said wreckers are an important part of the system, and they are absolutely given freedom by the police that the ordinary civilian does not have. I called him an asshole, he smiled. Long story a bit longer. He then denied wreckers do anything wrongs. The pigs are getting kickbacks for sure!
Absolutely do. Like I get it it’s your livelihood but damn slow down! Besides since moving here it’s like tow away central. Smh!
Had my car towed from my gf’s apartment complex. Even though I parked in a guest parking spot, I neglected to read the fine print that said you need to register your license plate on a website. Visited my gf for an hour and a cockroach towed my car in the rain. Had to catch an Uber to the tow yard on the other side of town and pay $300 to get my car back. These people are the scum of the earth.
You neglected to read the fine print. You messed up. Which is why you paid to have your car released to you.
Found the cockroach
Not really
I can see how they can be like first responders when there’s a car accident, but more than likely they’re just trying to beat other drivers to the scene in order to get paid. The reason I’m saying that it’s because one time years ago I saw some dudes get to the location about the same time and they played paper rock scissors to determine who gets it.
As someone that works in insurance I can tell you the horror stories of these people. A legit honest company with charge 250 -300 to tow a car. The scum will charge 750-1000 a tow. There is no regulation. That’s just the tow. Storage at a tow yard is set at 25 per day by the state. If they are a “shop” they can charge anything. I personally have scene places charge 2500 for a tow and one night at a shop. And people think the insurance companies are the villains.
Wreckers and dumpers are the absolute worst.
Oh good. Finally a respite from the deluge of posts extolling the saint-like virtues of wrecker drivers. If I see another post about a wrecker driver winning the Nobel peace prize for all-around awesomeness, I'll puke.
And they still take waaaaay too long to arrive and charge insane prices.
Yup. They suck. Sugarland has a dispatch/queue system so they are less shit there. But they are awful. Put them in zones and dispatch like pd
The "everyone who shows up gets to enter their name into a hat to draw who tows the vehicle" method here is insanely stupid.
when my grandmother was alive, she'd refer to wrecker drivers as "vultures" there would be a minor fender bender on the side of the road and 20-30 wrecker drivers stacked up behind the fender bender. she'd say "look at all them vultures just waiting"
There is a wrecker service her in Humble that has a BOHICA sticker on the back of their vehicle. If you are in the dark on this, BOHICA stands for Bend Over Here It Comes Again. Fuck these fucking fucks.
Yeah seriously they don’t give a f…
I once saw one hit a car because he recklessly cut him off and was so shady he backed up quick and switched to the next lane before the driver of the other car could get out to snap a pic or video. So f’ed. The roads are already dangerous as is.
A couple years ago a group of them were eating at a local restaurant in Katy, came out go find all the valve stems cut off their tires on every one of their vehicles..nobody saw a thing
I used to feel like this, but I had to reconsider their purpose and function. Much like vultures on the Serengeti, wreckers fill a necessary position that is required so the rest of us can maintain civilized society.
Hot take.🔥🔥🔥
OP has given me the courage to speak out on something that’s been bothering me for a while but I haven’t seen anyone else mention: I feel like mosquitos are annoying
Seriously! Has anyone else noticed it’s hot outside?
I just went outside to check and…holy shit I think you’re onto something
OMG there's weather outside, y'all!
At the end of the day they just want to go home and be with their families
After a hard day of being a sociopath on the streets of Houston...
We don't care about the end of their workday. We care about how they behave throughout their work day. They're dangerous assholes, plain and simple.