The era of the free rush hour “relocation” tow is nearly over.
The D.C. Council on Tuesday tentatively approved legislation establishing a “vehicle conveyance fee,” perhaps as much as $100, for relocating an illegally parked car during the morning or evening rush hours. The still-to-be-established fee would be on top of the $100 ticket that all drivers receive for leaving their cars in designated rush hour lanes between 7 and 9:30 a.m. and 4 and 6:30 p.m.
“Our roads become clogged because of the significant amount of illegal parking,” said Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who has oversight of the Department of Public Works and its towing operations. “We don’t want to punish people. We just want them out of the way.”
The council must approve the bill on a second vote in November for it to become law.
Public Works’ 28 tow trucks move about 80 cars a day from rush hour lanes, usually via a quick courtesy relocation a few blocks away. Although the agency charges a $100 fee for towing a vehicle to the Blue Plains Impoundment Lot, it has no authority to charge for simply moving a car from one street to another.
A contractor the department hired to help with the towing effort moves vehicles, about 20 a day, to a private lot on I Street Southeast. That tow also is free to the vehicle’s owner. Public Works, and by extension the District’s taxpayers, pays the contractor up to $175 per vehicle towed.
The long trip to Blue Plains, while cost-effective, drastically reduces the number of vehicles each tow truck can remove from rush hour lanes. By charging an “affordable” conveyance fee, Graham said, the city can recover its costs and relocate more vehicles.
“This is not a revenue generator,” he said. “The whole point of this is to clear the major arteries.”
Public Works will use the fee to contract with additional private tow companies, putting more cranes on the road and alleviating demands on city vehicles, agency director William Howland told the council earlier this year. And it will “rightfully shift the financial burden from District taxpayers to the owner of the vehicle.”
