By Heather Gann
Alabama state Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, has filed a bill that would update existing law to require tow truck drivers to report vehicles immediately after towing them.
Currently, a person in possession of an unclaimed vehicle is required to report the vehicle to the Department of Revenue’s unclaimed vehicle portal “within five calendar days after the vehicle was considered unclaimed,” according to the law’s text.
Treadaway said that shortening this window and helping people find their cars faster would alleviate anxiety that it had been stolen and help prevent costly daily fees.
“Bottom line, if you get towed off a private lot, if you were at a restaurant, if you were in a wreck, and your family’s trying to find it, it’s been stolen and recovered somewhere, these vehicles will go into the portal immediately instead of having to wait five days,” he said.
“It’s better for everybody involved, especially the citizens.”
He added that he hoped this would “cut down on a large number” of towing complaints he has received from people in his district coming out of downtown Birmingham.
Local towing company Parking Enforcement Systems (PES) has been the subject of widespread public complaint for over a decade.
In Birmingham City Council meetings to update local towing ordinances in late 2023, Steven Weil, vice president of Weil Wrecker Services, suggested shortening the window to register vehicles with the Department of Revenue to curtail people’s negative experiences with PES.
The company has been named in an ongoing class action lawsuit that accuses it of illegal towing and overcharging customers.
In addition to PES, the suit names downtown lot owner Robert Crook and his business group CRC, contending they violate the law due to having a monetary interest in PES by owning the tow lot the company operates on. The suit claims that Crook provides PES with financial incentives to tow from other lots he owns.
PES has also been named in an ongoing wrongful death suit filed by the mother of a man shot to death by a Birmingham tow truck driver over two years ago.
The suit also names Crook and Central City Developers, LLC. who pay PES to tow from their lots.
It claims they were complicit in 29-year-old Adarius Jamar Peterson’s death because they continued a business relationship with PES after ongoing “intimidating and violent conduct” from the company.
Representatives for PES and Crook did not respond to repeated requests for comment but have denied the claims brought against them in the class action suit, White’s complaint, and Peterson’s complaint, according to court documents.
Representatives for Central City Developers did not respond to repeated requests for comment but have denied the claims brought against them in Peterson’s complaint, according to court documents.
