“Zero tolerance!” he demands. “Any convictions and they lose their licence.” The man at the podium is a resident speaking to councillors about licensing tow truck drivers in Richmond Hill.

Tow truck drivers in Toronto, Vaughan and Markham have recently been licensed. Richmond Hill has never licensed tow trucks because they never were a problem. Over the past two years, residents have been reaching out to the police and members of council, seeking to regulate an industry that lives by its own rules.

We hear from a young woman about an afternoon accident that occurred two years ago. She is lied to by the tow truck driver: “We were dispatched by the police.” Even so, she calls her parents for help. With her parents doing what they could, she still is hustled into having her car towed and stored for days for a grand total of $1,152 in cash — no receipt. After lengthy negotiations and “very rude comments” from the company’s dispatcher, the towing charges were reduced to $800. Ultimately, her insurance company had to be involved. The young woman’s family said, “At the end, the insurance company paid a lot of money to this towing company because they had our car for more than a week before they released it to the body shop.”

For the past year, the town has worked with the public, police, insurance companies, towing companies, CAA and councillors to draft a bylaw that regulates its tow trucks. It was amazing to hear some members of council try to delay the passing of this bylaw when in fact, from a public perspective, it’s been long overdue.