Tow truck drivers screwing people?
 

Is this true?

CBC News covered why tow truck drivers are always racing to the accident scene to make money.
And they seem to recommend their customers really bad body shops too.
But until I saw this, I have never noticed/heard of that. Are tow truck drivers typically like this? :confused:

Have you guys noticed this trend?

i feel like this is one of those instances where having ICBC around is advantageous to car owners in BC.

I haven't heard of this kind of thing happening before. Hell, I've had tow truck drivers drive right past me when I've broken down.

am i the only one who thought this was an NSFW thread related to porn?

Why would having ICBC help in these instances?

Is it because tow truck companies do not want to mess with Crown corporation?

I'm not 100% sure if this is the case but it may be more of a side effect. Shady shops doing shady things and offering kickbacks losing their status as being an icbc certified body shop. Therefore they can't milk the cashcow because your everyday car owner would rather take it to an accredited shop vs one thats not.

Absolutely.

If there's one major advantage to ICBC insurance, it's this. Cars have get towed to ICBC for their claim first, they don't go directly to bodyshops.

they can go to valet bodyshops, but again they all have to be on the up and up for ICBC to accredit them

Never heard of this happening here. Valet shops have too much to lose.

ICBC got rid of like 70% of there estimating staff. If your car is 5 years old or newer and isn't completely obliterated 90% it goes directly to a repair shop of your choice :pokerface:

But still, I think the shop has to take/send the photos to ICBC and they have to approve the work before anything happens.

Also, if you get into an accident and take your car to the shop and if you didn't get it back for 3+ months like the guy in the video, I bet you'd be calling ICBC asking for rental car or file a complaint about the shop.

oh definitely i was just saying

ICBC does not always look at a car right away, even right now there backed up. Some of these cars are held by towing companies until ICBC can estimate them. There was a news story few months ago where adjusters were complaining about the amount of money ICBC has to pay for towing and storage.

^yeah,
When i totaled my car, it was sitting at the tow yard for a good 2 weeks. It then got sent out to the icbc estimating facility to determine whether if it was a total loss or not.

im currently waiting for ICBC to tow my car after being rear ended. I have a Accredited ICBC Valet shop that it will go to but they won't tow it from my house till next week. Hopefully it doesnt sit in a tow yard for too long

For all the storage fees ICBC is paying for probably thousands of cars today, they could just hire more estimators.. because paying storage fee is virtually throwing cash in the drain. I wonder why they don't add more estimators.

Icbc wants out of the estimating game just like any other insurance company. They finally realized that having estimators/buildings for them to work in is a waste of money. Newer vehicles are so complicated that if you are not working on these vehicles you really have no business guessing on what it will take to repair the vehicle. Before Icbc use to try and control how a vehicle was repaired now most of there staff have very little idea how to fix a vehicle so now estimates are just checked that you are meeting certain guidelines

^ that. they only have a couple estimators at the bigger claim centres now (for things like questionable hit+runs that a shop isn't allowed to make a call on), and at their centralized facility to approve estimates shops send through. outside of that, it falls on shops a lot more to send in the photos with an estimate. would make sense, but despite this cost saving (cutting, if you will), the rates go up anyway :rukidding:

So estimators are becoming obsolete/useless because it's impossible to estimate accurate repair cost until you actually do it.

They should just eliminate the estimating process and send the car to the repair shop right away since keeping it in the tow truck yard until estimators can come look at it is waste of money.

If the car appears to be a right off, then send them to junk yard?

They already do that. My car was still driveable after it was rear ended. I filed my claim, got it estimated by the body shop and when it was deemed a write-off, dropped it off to icbc so they could assess the value. Pretty straightforward.

Had it not been driveable, I'm sure I could've just had it towed directly to the bodyshop, from the accident site. I know guys that had their cars towed home because they don't trust tow yards. Icbc shouldn't have a problem with either, since it's cheaper for them.

Well one thing that is different here in Vancouver vs in Ottawa vs the video is insurance in Ontario is private.. and there are more companies out there fighting for jobs (both insurance and fixing cars).. here we have a centralized system with ICBC. That's for accidents. For most intent and purposes there isn't much incentive for the tow truck drivers to suggest where to fix bang ups since nearly all shops are at capacity.

If people don't' go with OE / BCAA / CT road side services I can see tow truck drivers recommend different places to go for mechanic break downs.

Because increasing the # of estimators cost money (training, benefits), and people like you like to complain about them increasing cost and want them audited. You can't just "hire" an estimator with a snap of your fingers.

But if you think about the number of cars estimators can estimate a day, compare to numbers of cars sitting at tow truck yard, they might actually save money by moving cars outta tow truck yard.

Getting cars stored is incidental cost of doing business.. no one complains.. growing the company headcounts.. then news will say there ICBC is bloated! crap hits the fan, as an executive which one do you prefer?

I would argue, reasonable request for information is fair provided the information is properly analyzed and read. Micromanging using court of public opinion.. eg some person's GM tweet today, constrained companies from doing their business well.