Public Transportation- House
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Bills discussed (11)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB498
Act 581
· 7 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…OF RAIL EMPLOYEES IN REPORTS INVOLVING RAILROAD FATALITIES. SB498 J. Petty TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF DRIVER A…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF DRIVER AND VEHICLE RECORDS AND TO PROTECT DRIVER … | J. Petty | Notification that SB498 is now Act 581 |
|
HB1897
· 6 mentions in agenda, transcript, chapter
Matched: “…ERNING THE ACCESS OF ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLES TO UNPAVED ROADS. HB1897 Painter TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS TOWING AND RECOVERY REFORM A…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS TOWING AND RECOVERY REFORM AND EFFICIENCY ACT OF 2025; TO AMEND … | Painter | Recommended for study in the Interim by the … |
|
HB1944
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ou. Next we're gonna go to Representative Volt, uh, she had House Bill 1944. She has an amendment that we're gonna be handing out, so g…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE AND RENEWAL OF A SPECIAL LICENSE PLATE TO PROMOTE AND SUPPORT … | Vaught | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1914
· 3 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ut objection, Representative Long, you're recognized to run House Bill 1914. If you will identify yourself, you may proceed. Thank you,”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS MOTOR CARRIER ACT, 1955; AND TO REQUIRE AN … | Long | Died in House at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1550
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 04/03/25 @ 8:45 AM) Removed HB1550 House Committee on Public Transportation Thursday, April 3,…”
|
CONCERNING EXPEDITED SECURITY SCREENINGS AT AN AIRPORT. | Andrews | Recommended for study in the Interim by the … |
|
HB1913
Act 928
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…SAS TOWING AND RECOVERY BOARD; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1913 J. Moore TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DRIVER'S LICENSES; AND…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DRIVER'S LICENSES; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE QUALIFICATIONS … | J. Moore | Notification that HB1913 is now Act 928 |
|
SB261
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB261 A. Clark TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF AN AL…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF AN ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLE ON CERTAIN ROADS; AND … | A. Clark | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB397
Act 931
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB397 D. Wallace TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION OF…”
|
TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION OF RAIL EMPLOYEES IN REPORTS INVOLVING RAILROAD FATALITIES. | D. Wallace | Notification that SB397 is now Act 931 |
|
HB1284
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…M PUBLIC DISCLOSURE. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1284 Unger TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE SUSPENSION OR REVOCAT…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF A PERSON'S DRIVER'S LICENSE FOR … | Unger | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1371
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…D TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A RESTRICTED DRIVER'S PERMIT. HB1371 Wardlaw TO REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE COMPLETION OF A H…”
|
TO REPEAL THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE COMPLETION OF A HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION COURSE FOR THE … | Wardlaw | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1623
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. HB1623 J. Moore TO EXEMPT H-2A VISA PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE…”
|
TO EXEMPT H-2A VISA PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE A VALID INTERNATIONAL DRIVER'S LICENSE OR PERMIT … | J. Moore | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
Machine transcript
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Chairs, we will get started here in just a second. Okay. They were trying to
Speaker 3
0:07
do something for a little bit on this one, so I sent them illegal, so that one won't be heard today.
Okay, all right, okay. Okay, thank you, everyone. We will begin
the Public Transportation Committee meeting. First of all, we're going to start with that. We're going to go out over it a little bit.
We have representative running bills all over. You know, we've got the end of the session. It's kind of a tight schedule, so we're going to try to move along. So without objection, Representative Long, you're recognized to run House Bill 1914. If you will identify yourself, you may proceed. Thank you,
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
0:52
Mr. Chairman. Wayne Long, House District 39. Ready to proceed? Go ahead.
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
1:00
good morning committee um this is a very simple bill uh it came it came from a really complicated long bill we we worked for weeks trying to to come up with something to address the problem of folks driving commercial commercial vehicles that are not proficient in english and in meeting with the agencies state police and state highway police we come up with the idea of running this bill currently federal law requires a person with a cdl to be proficient in english but state law
there's there's not a state law that requires that so consequently the state highway police can enforce this but the state police county sheriffs and local police departments are unable to do anything about folks that they catch that are driving and can't communicate in english which It's a real problem because if they have an accident, they can't communicate with the police authorities on what happened Also, they have trouble maybe reading the signs and everything so
That's pretty much all there is to the bill Be happy to try to answer
any questions Any questions from committee? Anyone here to speak for against the bill do you have a question a representative steel
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
2:27
you recognize okay thank you mr chairman uh representative long um how how would we know i was trying to see on there
is it a test no sir it actually is just um you know in an encounter with the police officer
uh you probably you know with an accident so this
is something that if someone has stopped and they
yes sir they're not going out looking for folks and trying to stop them you know and harass them now this is primarily going to be uh that if they come up in a traffic stop or an accident and like i said this basically this uh exactly mirrors federal law and it goes exactly with the same fine which is 500 for the first defense it could go up to a thousand dollars for subsequent fences
i'm not sure on the federal level but i'm i'm just curious is uh if the if someone with a cdl goes through texas and goes over into mexico should they be fluid in spanish as well i don't know what don't know what mexico requires i know they're a
lot more strict about people going that way than they are about people so they may be already doing it i don't know sir thank you mr chairman yes sir uh
Speaker 29
3:36
representatives childers you recognize thank you mr chairman representative
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
3:43
long i know we've had testimony earlier in the session about uh already on the books that they have to speak english proficiently because i think that's a current law am i not mistaken federal law yes sir okay and we had uh the highway police come here and talk about that they try that they do enforce it he told us that the chief told us they do enforce it uh and then we also had another bill that was passed by representative hawk that kind of was amended to include this is Is this just kind of on top of that, or is it
doing the same thing it kind of sounds like to me?
Representative Tracy Steele
Unverified
4:15
Can you help me with that? Yeah, Representative Hawke's bill was addressing more about the non-domicile licenses. So currently there's five states that accept licenses from other countries, and his bill was basically adding Arkansas to a state that could accept a CDL from another country to enable somebody to be able to drive in Arkansas. The difference here is we're just trying to make sure
that nobody gets through the cracks as far as not being able to speak English. Follow-up.
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
4:51
Follow-up. And I agree 100%. I mean, they need to speak English, and I'm perfectly fine with that. But I thought, and maybe I've slept since then, that Representative Hawk did amend it in the Senate to include this language that they had to speak English proficiently. I thought that happened, but maybe I missed something. I'm no expert on his bills. I'm sorry. All right. Thank you.
Speaker 24
5:09
Any other questions from the committee? All right. Seeing none.
Anyone here to speak for or against the bill?
Seeing none. Representative Long, you ready to close? I'm closing the bill. Thank you, sir. What's the will of the committee? Representative McElroy, is that a due pass? Due pass. I have a recommendation. Due pass. Any discussion? No. Seeing none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, same
like sign. Congratulations, your bill passes. Thank you, committee. I appreciate it. Okay, thank you. Next, we're going to go to Representative Vaught. House Bill 1944, she has an amendment that we're going to be handing out,
so give us just a minute, unless we've already
done that. Have we done that yet? Okay, all right. Amendment will be coming to you. Representative Vaught, give us just a minute to do that. I appreciate Representative Richmond sitting in as vice chair. I would imagine that our vice chair represented Milligan's somewhere in Lake City
where they had a tornado come through last night. So let's remember them as we move along. He's been the vice chair before, so that's what he's doing usually. All right, we got it out. Okay, Representative Vaught, would you identify yourself, and you may proceed with the amendment.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
6:43
Dan Vaught, District 87. It's just adding Senator Boyd as my co-sponsor. Any
questions or comments from the committee? Questions.
Speaker 45
6:54
Representative Richmond, you recognize. Put your puncher button. Is Boyd the
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
6:59
only? I knew that was going to be
the question. I'm sorry. Any questions from committee? Can I get a motion? Representative Childress has adopted the amendment.
Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? I'm like saying hearing none. Okay, your
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
7:18
amendment passes. You may proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee. So the Arkansas EMS Foundation came to me and asked,
could we please create a license plate like the firefighters have for their memorial? Just do it for the EMS. So I got with DF&A to figure out what plates were not selling enough license plates and one that we could take out, and it was the Grand Lodge. And I think it was either 27 or 127 that had been sold, and you need 500 to stay active. So this is just creating a license plate for
them and removing one off of the books.
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
7:55
And I'd appreciate a good vote. Any questions for committee? Excuse me. representative children's you recognize representative vault just as a former ems worker for about eight years i appreciate you bringing this i think a
lot of times you know ems workers gets overlooked so thank you for bringing this forward thank
you i'm glad to carry it for them any other questions anyone here to speak for against the bill seeing none what's the will of the committee representative steel you
recognize move do pass have a motion do pass We're as amended have a motion do
pass as amended any discussion all in favor say aye Any opposed same like sign hearing none. Congratulations. Thank you so much Okay Okay up said burks are you are you prepared to run senate bill 498 if you will go ahead and
approach identify yourself and you may
Speaker 62
9:16
proceed okay thank you mr chairman nick burks state representative district 14 southwest bentonville centerton members of the committee this is a cleanup bill brought to me by dfna which updates arkansas laws on motor vehicle and driver records to verify privacy protections
while ensuring that law enforcement and other authorized entities can continue to access records as needed for official duties first this bill simply brings arkansas law into alignment with federal regulations arkansas currently declares driver and motor vehicle records to be public records, while the federal government requires substantial protections. And so SB 498 resolves this conflict and provides additional protections to our driving records in Arkansas, specifically only allowing access to the vehicle
owner, law enforcement, courts, and legal representatives under defined legal conditions. Second, SB 498 creates a single standard for releasing those driver and motor vehicle records rather than having multiple standards across different code sections. Finally, current Arkansas law prohibits the disclosure of the digital driver's license photo other than by the approval of the driver. This bill adds that these photographs can be disclosed to both law enforcement and courts and so that information can be effectively utilized
for official purposes. Thank you for your time. There are representatives from DF&A to help answer there any questions um and i appreciate a good vote any questions from
committee seeing none anyone here to speak for against the bill mr burks you'd like to close
Speaker 62
10:57
i'm closed for my bill and i make a motion
to pass the proper time have a motion to pass any discussion from committee seeing none all in favor say hi any opposed same like sign hearing none congratulations your bill passes
Speaker 66
11:09
thank you committee okay uh uh committee we're gonna we're
Speaker 67
11:23
gonna recess for about five minutes so just uh or maybe maybe a little bit longer should be any longer than that
Representative Kendra Moore
Unverified
12:09
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, members of the committee. I swear to you that this will be a much less controversial driver's license bill than the previous one I presented before this committee, and I would hope that you would do me a favor. I've got a good friend of mine who has a stepson who was 17 years old. He got his learner's permit. He was driving with
his mother, got into a little fender bender. He did everything by the book. Fender benders sometimes happen regardless of who you are. They exchanged insurance. They called the police, filed a report, and everything was fine. In fact, it really didn't do any damage to the other person's car. It did more damage to his car he continued he turned 18 and then on his after his 18th birthday he took
the final portions of his driver's license exams passed them and then was told you cannot get your driver's license you have to wait a full year until after the period of time has elapsed from when you got into that fender bender to when you can get your license. Now that rule exists for a reason but there's another rule that exists and it's called the ability to get an intermediate driver's license. What screwed up is that if he had taken his exams before his 18th birthday
he would have been able to get that intermediate driver's license but simply because he turned 18 and became an illegal adult he can no longer qualify for that intermediate license so what that's going to make him do if we don't pass this law he's going to go to college this fall and not be able to drive himself from point a to point b now an intermediate driver's license is slightly more restricted you can only have so many passengers in the car i believe there's a curfew from when you can drive and not drive but what this bill does it does not punish him for turning
18 but it will give him the ability to get from point a to point b within reasonable measures and treat him equitably under the law for doing the right thing in that little fender bender and with that i'll take any questions any
questions from committee seeing none anyone here to speak for against the bill Seeing none, oh, excuse me, Representative McElroy, you recognize?
Speaker 75
14:54
Motion at the proper time. Okay, seeing none, are you prepared to close? I'm
Representative Kendra Moore
Unverified
15:00
closed for my bill, and I would appreciate a good vote. Thank you, committee. Representative
McElroy, you recognize? Motion due passed. Have a motion due passed. Any discussion from committee? Seeing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, same like, aye. I'm hearing none. Congratulations, your bill passes. Thank you, committee. Okay, we're going to take a short recess. Okay.
Unknown speaker
15:49
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Thank you for your patience. Committee will resume. Representative Painter, you're recognized to run House Bill 1897. I understand you have
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
24:07
an amendment to -- we'll be handing that out if you'll hold on for just a minute. All right.
Mr. Chair, if it's okay with you, I'd like to have Secretary Bissett to join me at the table no problem
give us just a minute to hand the and then after you introduce
yourself we'll let those at
the table introduce themselves also okay
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
24:57
representative painting you may proceed
okay thank you mr. chair Stetson Painter district 3
Baxter and Fulton counties I want to first state that I do appreciate the towers that have reached out to me had their concerns we in this amendment are hearing those concerns that some of them have voiced their concerns were about the 20% cap they wanted to see 40 range we try to get as close as we could so we came in agreement on 35% so that's in this amendment also they had concerns about felon the felony part they would like to
see it as a misdemeanor and we met that request and lowered that down to a misdemeanor we also included they had some in some questions about insurance and making sure that truckers, if they're doing a transload on towing property, that they have valid proof of insurance, and it's current, and also that they would be held liable for any damages that might happen. That's in that amendment as well. And so this is what that does. The AG's office reached out to us last night about some of due process concerns.
We took those concerns and put that in the amendment. That's what the amendment does. And if y'all want to say anything about amendment, if not, we'd be open to questions.
Any questions from the committee on the amendment? Seeing none. Excuse me. Representative Holt. Thank you,
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
26:27
Mr. Chair. On page 20, that going from a felony to a misdemeanor, I mean, why was that their biggest? I know a felony is what it is, but
why was that a concern for them, getting it down to a misdemeanor?
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
26:40
They believed that it might hurt, you know, if somebody did something wrong accidentally, not, you know, not on purposely that that penalty was really high.
And so and it might hurt, you know, if I remember correctly, also help getting more towing drivers and so forth like that. And so we heard that accommodate. We heard that. So we'll accommodate you on that. OK, thank you. Any
other questions from committee on the amendment? Seeing none, do I have a motion from committee? Representative Childers, motion, do pass? I have a motion, do pass on amendment, any discussion? All in favor say aye.
Aye. Okay, you may proceed with the
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
27:21
bill, Representative Painter. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. HB 1897 is the Towing Recovery Reform and Efficiency Act, and I'm
going to let Secretary Bissett and Lacey from the Department too as well to go in more depth with this since it's coming from the agency. Mr. Secretary, if you
will, introduce yourself and any other witnesses you've got with you, and we'll proceed. Thank
Speaker 102
27:45
you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the committee,
Daryl Bassett, Secretary of Labor. I
Speaker 103
27:51
have accompanying me, my general counsel, and we're just going to talk about, in general, the bill and what the intent of the bill is, recognizing that time is of the essence today, so we'll be brief. Our department has a bifurcated responsibility, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. That is to, one, preserve business and industries, to promote business and industry,
but also we have a responsibility to the consumers. Over time, we have had a number of concerns lodged from business and industry as well as consumers regarding this particular division that is within my department. What this bill attempts to do is be somewhat solemn-aic. That is to address the interest of the consumer as well as the interest of business and industry. What we're trying to do in this bill and what I think we effectively do is accurately define the actions that would be considered predatory towing.
Predatory towing is an issue that continues to rear its ugly head as I talk to consumers around the state and as I talk to industry. This is a concern that is real. It is valid, and in some cases it has been substantiated. So the goal of this bill is also, Mr. Chairman, is to protect Arkansas consumers and businesses from any unlawful, deceptive, or improper towing practices. Not to say that it is pervasive. It is not. It is not. By and large, we have an industry, a towing industry, that goes by the book, and they are excellent.
However, we do have some actors in the industry, as there are actors in most industries, who sometimes skirt that line. And so in the interest of protecting consumers, we have this bill. This ensures, we hope, that the towing and the recovery board will also be able to take immediate action where immediate action is necessary. Our current rules and regulations regarding this particular division are somewhat ambiguous. And I say that being somewhat careful, but it is somewhat ambiguous.
There has been a tremendous amount of concern over the 20 percent, and now I think it's 35 percent, regarding the percentage. It's somewhat befuddling for me, quite frankly, because it is a particular provision that we place in this bill as we were being solemn-egg that helps not only the consumer, the owner of the cargo, but it also helps the tow truck operators.
It ensures that they're going to get 35% of the value of the cargo up front, and then they can still have a lien on the cargo. So potentially, they're looking at 135%. That is a positive for the industry and it's also a positive for the cargo owner because no longer do they have to wait for their cargo because they've got to go out find a surety bond for 100 percent of it and and hold it up and be held up they can get their cargo they can get it to market they can
make the sales they can pay the tow truck operator that's a provision I think that we needed to really explain and I've got my general counsel here would you care to elaborate on exactly that position uh that provision rather and just speak to the committee on
that would you please identify yourself and then
Speaker 106
31:36
you may proceed yes lacy kirchner general counsel for the department of labor and licensing
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
31:41
as the secretary stated that now 35 it is a fee it is 35 of the towing invoice for all of
the services so ultimately the tow company can actually potentially get 135 of their fees for the tow service so currently under state law we do not have a way for cargo owners to retrieve their cargo unless they pay the entirety of the towing bill which is not necessarily their responsibility so in this instance the cargo owner can come in they can pay a fee which is if this goes through will be 35 percent of the total invoice then the tow business can still
either perfect their lien on the truck and trailer if no one has paid that bill or receive 100% of the invoice for that truck and trailer towing services. So it's going to be an additional fee that the company gets, not just the simple 35% and the tow company doesn't get anything else. We understand that tow companies struggle sometimes getting their invoices paid either because of insurance lack of insurance or what may but at least this will give an opportunity
for them to have something up front but also giving the cargo owners the opportunity to get their cargo and get it out to whichever consumers or manufacturing plants or whatever that cargo may be out back into the
Speaker 102
33:15
public thank you uh thank you general counsel uh if mr chairman if i
Speaker 103
33:21
might just add to that? Sure. Okay. Another concern, of course, is there's not a person in this room or a person in Arkansas for that matter, Mr. Chairman, who has not been affected in some way or know someone that has been affected by the by the towing industry. We all know or we've had some exposure to that to that particular that particular industry. And so but what we have learned from the from the
complaints that we've gotten in from around the state is that there seems to be a lack of transparency on the invoice. People are wondering what they are actually being charged for when they get towed. These are regular consumers. Now, I'm not talking about the mega people. I'm not talking about the Walmarts or the Tysons. I'm talking about the everyday folk like us who wonder what is going into this invoice. This bill assigns maximum towing rates and says that those maximum towing rates will be posted on the towing and recovery
boards website for easy access to consumers. So all consumers are going to understand what the rates are. They're going to be able to go on the website and ascertain whether or not they've been overcharged. And then secondly, the tow businesses, as currently there are no provisions where they will accept payments. This bill also requests that the towing businesses require at least -- that they accept at least
two forms of payment. Not everyone in Arkansas is similarly situated where they need alternatives. We think this gives the consumers a range of alternatives and multiple ways to pay. And that kind of encapsulates what this bill is all about. I'll take questions. represent pain you have anything to add i
Chair
Unverified
35:17
think the secretary said it best all right we are ready for questions uh representative
hulk you recognize thank you mr chair okay i
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
35:26
want to go back to the
cargo owners and the 35 okay so uh just stay with me on this for a minute because i the last session i had a constituent right she paid eighty thousand dollars for a brand new vehicle right paid cash for had to get it delivered from detroit and it was on a truck came down the truck had an accident right and they tow the truck they tow her tahoe to the tow yard right she waited six months before she got that car because they had to pay as you said they had to
pay the the whole truck so are
we saying in this bill that she now has to pay
35 to get her cargo uh to get her car that she's already paid
Speaker 124
36:11
$80,000 for? She would have the option to be able to pay a 35% fee of
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
36:17
the invoice to be able to get her vehicle back. Currently, if she wanted to get her vehicle back, the only way she would have been able to do that was to pay the entirety of the tow bill. Tow companies are under no obligation to release her vehicle to her without being paid currently in full. So under
this provision yes if she chose to and didn't want to go through the trucking the company that was bringing her vehicle in transporting it if she didn't want to wait for them to pay the invoice or insurance to kick in then yes she could pay a 35 percent of the tow invoice and we're talking the invoice not 35 percent of her v of what her vehicle would be worth but the towing invoice itself then yes she could pay that fee it's trying it is a trying to help is it perfect no but is it
a good start and trying to give people who didn't have an option in the first place something yes i believe it is and that it will help i mean i understand there's still going to be that i just
Speaker 126
37:22
think and i'm gonna if i can have some latitude um i just i think she just paid
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
37:27
eighty thousand dollars for a car why is it her responsibility because the truck had an accident that she now has to pay to get that thing out of the tow yard because once again she's it's her hard-earned money that she's paid for that vehicle to have it delivered down she shouldn't be having
to pay the 35 percent on the accident i'm sorry i there's no world that you can tell me that
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
37:52
that's that's her responsibility and i understand that entirely and agree with you that it shouldn't be her responsibility it's the option is there and I will say to in the way we have it drafted at the moment it says the cargo owner or their representative so arguably the transport company whatever contract she has with the transport company could also step in and just pay the 35% and it's an up to 35%
so that's gonna be again up to that leaves it does leave some discretion to the tow business themselves on how much that fee is but it could be that the transportation company who should be fully responsible for the invoice could go ahead and do 35% of it and then let it entirely be the transportation it's just we wanted to ensure that the name cargo owner was listed in there so that there if there is an instance I mean I've heard another instance of something
very similar recently happened with a gentleman who had a Lamborghini and it took it was a lot for him to get that Lamborghini and I understand that it shouldn't be the cargo owner's responsibility to have to pay it but I also believe that that could somewhat be worked out to that the transport it would give the transport company an option to do that as well as the representative of the owner of the cargo
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
39:12
and I think I mean I hear what you're saying I just wish that there could be some language that could because
it just doesn't seem like we're protecting the arkansan consumer it
just to me it just doesn't seem like we're doing that if we're if we're sitting there saying you're paying cash you're you're using your money to buy something at no fault of your own is this truck on or this vehicle or whatever it might be in transportation back at no
fault of your own it's now gotten towed and you're gonna have to pay potentially pay more
Speaker 102
39:45
to get something you've already paid for. Representative Hawke, you're, again, if I may address, your
Speaker 103
39:50
question is well taken. Yeah. It is, it is well taken. The, the issue is how then do we work and be, as I said
in my opening remarks, how do we help the, how do we help the business and then help the consumer as well. 35%, I get your point. It is still 35%, but it's not 100%. Currently, it's 100%. Currently, it's 100%. So how do we then give the business and industry, give the towing industry something and then help mitigate the damage to the consumer? The 35% is that
way now that does not mean that the consumer himself or herself has to pay the 35% the tow the trucking company the truck owner that actually caused the accident then the the consumer has the option to go to them and they can pay the 35% the it we don't care
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
40:54
who pays it but we've also seen here recently that that had been doing that had been happening like the Lamborghini or like
my person that it sat there for six months right like I mean so I almost wish that we could have
something in the bill that there was a caveat that if the consumer right wanted to go and they couldn't work
something out with the the transporter they would let's say five percent for the consumer right because once again I get it that the towing company has they have fees and stuff but there was not a fee for a for a car sitting on the back of a trailer to sit on a parking lot that you can't tell me there's a fee for that. And the fee was towing the 18-wheeler to their yard and then it's sitting on their yard. And so I just wish that we could have something in the bill that says
if said consumer can't work anything out with the transporter and they have to come up there, it is a much reduced rate for that person that owns the cargo to be
able to get their product that they've paid for. That's all I'm saying. I have
Speaker 102
41:58
no rebuttal to that, sir. And I think that that would be something
Chair
Unverified
42:05
that we could work on thank you representative Barry recognized thank you mr. chairman get get in that might just a little bit more placer thank you how about
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
42:16
that there you go is there a difference in dealing
with perishable cargo and non-perishable cargo as far
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
42:28
as the fee percentage or in what no i mean you
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
42:32
do if you've got a truckload of lettuce you're trying to get or keep cool that's a lot
different than nuts and bolts in the back of the truck i
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
42:43
agree with you entirely but as far as the whether or not the cargo owner currently could get that lettuce versus those nuts and bolts
because it is a perishable no there's no provision currently that would allow them to get that the cargo owner to get that property faster unless they pay the entire tow bill so that they are treated the exact same
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
43:05
so your perishable cargo is going to ruin it could potentially ruin unless
they have some means of hooking it up or something yes sir and then you get into a different issue with the health department and stuff uh and one more question if you're here uh we've talked about
35% what's an average of 35% on a toll bill or I mean what it what well I will understand
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
43:36
my question yes sir no no no you're perfectly good and the problem with kind of giving an average is simply that currently that's partly why we brought this bill before y'all is because we've got issues with people overcharging and so roughly it could depend I mean some of these tow truck I
mean some of the things could go from anywhere from you know just your couple of thousand dollars up into your eighty ninety thousand dollar bills I'm
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
44:12
talking about an 18-wheeler yes yes it has an
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
44:14
accident on the interstate so you're potentially looking at that being one of your probably 70 80 thousand dollar bills um so that would be approximately 24 000 it would be that 35 now again that's if they go to the maximum of the 35 they don't have to they can go lower um but yes that would be about where it is roughly
i don't want to say that those numbers are 100 accurate simply because a lot of what the invoices is based on how much work was actually done on the scene, you know, if it was a cleanup versus just simply towing the trucks, also what equipment had to be used. And then, again, you go back to is the invoice accurate in that it doesn't overcharge anyone, and that's still an issue that we're seeing currently,
Speaker 106
45:07
but the bill itself should help address that beyond the 35%. Mr. Representative,
Speaker 102
45:12
just to add to that, General Counsel Kirshner has spoken accurately. One of the things, as I
Speaker 103
45:18
mentioned earlier, what we're trying to do is create transparency in the invoicing. You asked for an average. Well, we can't give you an average. And the reason we can't give you an average is because a lot of this is up to the people out there doing the work and how they're valuing this.
And so what we get back at the department are complaints about lack of transparency in the invoicing and how much, well, what value is placed on my cargo? How did we, how did you place this value on my cargo? Why am I having to pay, as Representative Hawke says, 35% of this value? Who established that value? This bill will allow the board and allow the department to start creating mechanisms where there is more transparency so that we can get at averages.
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
46:08
But I hope that answers your question. It does. You know, the whole thing of this bill is it's very confusing to, I mean, you get a different story whoever comes to pick your truck up, I guess. And that's what makes it all confusing to, it would to me anyway.
Speaker 102
46:31
Okay, thank you. Well, it's confusing to consumers, and that's kind of why we're here to you asking for some help in kind of getting this thing streamlined in such a way
Speaker 103
46:40
where the consumers at least know what they're responsible for and they know what they're having to
Speaker 86
46:47
pay for. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 152
46:54
Sir. Representative McElroy. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, I'm a trucker,
Representative Mark D. McElroy
Unverified
46:59
and I'm coming from, say, Mexico, with a pretty cheap truck, I have an accident on a freeway. The towing company comes out there, cleans it up, takes it in.
They come up with 35% of the tow bill to release the cargo, okay? The cargo's gone, and the truck's not worth $10,000. And they've gone back to Mexico. Now, what about the other 65% of the bill that's owed to the towing company? How do you secure that? Of course, you know, that's kind of like a loan. But what covers that other 65%?
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
47:54
Representative, it's kind of the same situation you're in currently. That would be that the tow company can perfect that lien. and sell i understand it's probably a cheaper truck and i have heard that that is an issue that there's issues that some of these truck drivers with some of these cheaper trucks do not have insurance so the truck the towing industry is facing some of that um but that would still be their recourse currently except for yes you're right they could they could sell that cargo which again I understand that that's not a perfect solution for anyone but it's a place
to start simply because currently there's nothing I mean currently it is your cargo you either pay that whole bill that is most likely not your fault in the first place to have to should have to pay or your cargo sits there until somebody is willing to do it or it
Sarah Moore
Unverified
48:52
gets sold off in the perfection of the lien
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
48:57
process. Unfortunately, I would hate to say that it's a cost of doing business sometimes, but I think to a certain degree that it kind of is.
In that instance, when it comes to the big trucks, I don't know that I would say that that instance is as prominent everyday occurrence as just your typical toes of, you know, everyday consumers' vehicles. But I do know that it does happen, and we have tried to find ways to help with that as well. But I think a lot of that is going to end up ultimately needing to fall back with insurance and the highway department, both state and nationally,
to ensure that those truck drivers do have insurance and can't just skirt back to Mexico or some other corner of the
Speaker 102
49:46
country. Thank you so much. Absolutely. And, you know, what I want to just emphasize is that is exactly the
Speaker 103
49:53
position that we're in now, Mr. Representative. If you've got, say, someone coming in from Mexico with a dilapidated truck and they're hauling whatever, and it's barely made it across state lines, and it has an accident,
and the tow truck, the tow operators go out, clean it up. If the argument is that, well, we don't know if we're going to get our money, that's the position that the industry is in right now. With this bill, if you've got someone that's driving that truck, they're going to make a decision. Is my truck worth it? Is my cargo worth it? Well, if they're going to leave the truck, they're probably going to leave the cargo, too. And the tow truck operator is not going to get anything. In this instance, they're more likely to give 35% of the cargo, and that way the tow truck operator at least gets 35%.
Representative Brad Hall
Unverified
50:49
Currently, they could get zero. Thank you so much. Representative Hall, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, what are the penalties for the bad actors for the towing companies? Because, hey, if I'm a towing guy and I get the call and I go out there and all of a sudden I'm hooking up to it, I'm like, hey, there's a Lamborghini on the back of this sucker. This is a $90,000 tow, you know. My price is going to go up. So are there any recourse to those folks?
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
51:20
I'm going to let my legal team. Currently the recourse is not as far as in the criminal court system. It's not there for that kind of instance. That's what this bill is wanting to do with that misdemeanor is to address when the invoices and the prices have gone up simply based off what that cargo is. Because that Lamborghini, yes, if we knock that tow bill up high enough, then we've got the lien on the Lamborghini and we can sell that Lamborghini and make millions.
Maybe. I don't know how much Lamborghinis go for right now. But as far as from the board standpoint, they can, I mean, they can issue their fines. They can suspend license, revoke license. I mean, but that's as far as the board can go. The board can't hold anybody even more responsible. And sometimes, you know, they don't even necessarily pay the restitution back to the board for those instances either. And so, yes, that is what part of this idea of this criminal charge at the end of the bill that we dumped down from the felony to the misdemeanor was to address.
Is that kind of instance where the pricing of the invoice is going up simply because of who owns it, because, you know, your bigger companies, you know, the name on the side of the truck, what the cargo is, those are the instances we want to try to have a stronger teeth as to what to do with. And that way that gives law enforcement and the prosecutor and the judicial system some way to also counter that instance too. Because
Speaker 106
52:56
this is a nationwide problem. It's not just an Arkansas problem.
Predatory towing is national. And
Speaker 102
53:03
what we have, Mr. Representative, you should know that this bill is trying to
Speaker 103
53:08
address as well. We don't have maximum fees that can be charged currently by the tow business. There are no maximum fees. There are no maximum fees on storage fees. There's no maximum fees on administrative fees. All of these fees have no cap. This bill will allow us to put caps on those fees.
Thank you. Mr. Pissett, elaborate on that storage fee. Anybody can charge anything? There's nothing set in how we regulate that?
Speaker 103
53:46
We have no rules. We have no current rules, no maximum fees regarding storage or administrative fees. There's no transparency with regard to those types of fees that the consumer can look at and tell where we are.
They vary based on the operator. Thank
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
54:09
you. Representative Steinman. Thank you,
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
54:13
Mr. Chair. so i need some education here i guess a little bit and uh would uh appreciate that so i have
there's a million dollar cargo um the accident cost a hundred thousand dollars um and let's say the trucking company just said hey we're sorry you know we don't have that much coverage once
that million dollar cargo is sold for a million dollars and that tow bill is paid for a hundred thousand dollars do the excess proceeds go back to the cargo owner yeah no I want
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
54:53
to be careful in that response because I don't have that statute right here in front of me there is a provision and I'm sorry for apologize for not having it right here in front of me to answer that there is a
a provision in the law that does speak on when a vehicle is sold for higher than what the tow bill is on that but I will happily get you that answer back because I want to get it perfectly correct for you. Right I'm just
Representative Trey Steimel
Unverified
55:23
curious on that and the reason being is that we have you know we talk about predatory towing not that you know I mean there's a lot of great tow companies out there there's some some bad actors i'm sure as well but we just don't want you know to rj's point earlier
we don't want our consumers being taken advantage of and them selling that million dollar cargo and then paying their a hundred thousand dollar tow bill and then pocketing another 900 000 without getting it back to the uh to the consumer so thank you review steimer we've got some some
people here from the towing board perhaps they can answer your question when they come to the table if you want to redirect that
Chair
Unverified
56:00
again we get further representative puree you recognize thank you
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
56:05
chair so just to make this very simple i've hired i hired somebody to haul my dozer from point a to
point b they have an accident my dozer is in good shape they've got the dozer there the bill's ten thousand dollars current law i'm going to have to pay ten thousand dollars whether i mean i'll fight it out with my insurance or whoever but current law i have to pay ten thousand dollars correct yes sir if we pass this law i would only have to pay 3 500 up front and then fight it out with the insurance later
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
56:35
is that correct sir okay thank you welcome representative hall thank you kind of piggybacking off what he said though he's paying 3
500 to get that car that cargo out but
that's not coming off the 10 000 the the towing the the bill is still 10 000
correct so there's a fee of thirty five hundred dollars plus what the bill is yes
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
56:57
sir currently as it's drafted yes sir it was to try to ensure that they could still go after the correct individuals for paying the entire tow service the idea behind it was to give the cargo owner some option to be able to offer something to get their cargo because we have heard multiple instances where people have offered
something to the tow companies for you know for instance for the vehicle we've had one that said i'll pay you 20 000 to get my vehicle on a 40 to 50 000 tow bill and the tow operator said no so it's trying to give the cargo owner an opportunity and then yes the transport company or whoever is actually responsible the lien holder of the vehicle that was towed would then yes have to deal with the entirety of the invoice. Now granted that doesn't stop them in any way from
negotiating with the tow company saying okay look we've already paid a 35 percent to get the cargo can we now just pay the rest of this and everybody breaks even. That doesn't nothing in here would prevent that but yes you're correct it is a fee an additional fee but it is a fee in which may be used. It is not an automatically charged fee. It is only if the cargo owner wants to pursue that. It's just to give them an option. But why wouldn't we take that off the invoice?
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
58:18
So what we're saying is that the tow company is now getting the double dip off this deal because
they're getting a double dip in the fact that they're going to make money off the cargo, right, and then they're going to make money again off the tow once again at no fault to the consumer. So the tow company is getting a double dip on the deal by adding that fee. And if we were to say, okay, 35% is the deal, right, they come and pay that. That is going to be taken off of the invoice, right?
I think that would, I mean, I'm speaking for me, but that would make a lot more sense
Speaker 115
58:59
than allowing the tow company to double
Speaker 102
59:02
dip off that one transaction. That's arguable. Representative Hawk, you are, as usual, always astute. The thing
Speaker 103
59:08
is, right now it's 100%. The cargo owner has to pay 100%. That's just the way it is. And so I get your point about the 35%.
I do. But we're trying to be able to do something for the consumer
Speaker 107
59:25
as well as the industry. And I do get your point. I get it. But we could amend it
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
59:32
in this bill to where we could say that they couldn't double dip and there's not the
fee. I guess that's what I'm coming at is that I think that the intentions are good. I'm not saying that the intentions are good. i just think that some of the language in this where we're not allowing to double dip we we say okay you want to do the 35 that's going to come off the toe bill right i think that would be
something that that would make a lot of sense because now you know like if i'm a realtor right and so i'm going to sell a house i'm going to say okay well i'm going to get my commission off this house but i'm also going to charge you a 500 professional fee for me just being you know being a good guy like you know i'm double dipping off the transaction it was in
hulk yes sir let me come I've got others in there. Okay, I apologize. Okay. Representative
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:00:23
Childers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Secretary, Mr. Secretary, I have a question, but I'm going to kind of lead you into that.
And I'm representing my constituents, and that's what my job is. So I've had some concerns that this 35% that they're going to be able to collect, and it could be an out-of-state company, they're potentially never going to get the rest of their money. Or do you have a concern that this could take some of these tow truck operators to say, hey, we're not going to do any more big truck stuff because we're losing money and we can't make it? Is that a concern of yours that some of these say, hey, we're going to get out of that marketplace and then we're down to limited numbers?
And I have an interstate running through my district, so it's important to us. So I guess I'm just more or less asking you, have you thought about that, and is that a concern that some of these guys will quit that arena because it's tough to make
Speaker 102
1:01:13
it if they potentially lose money on these? No, I wouldn't
Speaker 103
1:01:16
be surprised. It's not a concern for me, but I wouldn't be surprised if some would say that. But I don't see how anyone would kill their business plan and take money out of their own pockets by removing themselves from any kind of rotation where they would make money.
The only way you lose money in this scenario is the scenario that one of the representatives gave over here for someone who was driving a jalopy and he had a wreck and it wasn't of value to him. There's no major trucker who's coming through Arkansas and hauling cargo that's going to walk away from the entire deal. There's no trucker, no trucking company is going to walk away from their cargo and their truck and leave the towing company without getting paid at all.
So no, sir, I don't have any concern about that at all. I don't know a trucking company that really looks at their bottom line that would say, I'm going to walk away from the ability to make money out here on the highway because now these people only have to pay me 35% on the cargo. That doesn't make business sense. So no, sir, that's not a concern of mine. Okay, Representative Hawke, you want to finish up?
No, I think I've said it. Okay. We do.
All right, Representative, we've got Representative Berry. Thank you,
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
1:02:39
Mr. Chairman. You mentioned something I hadn't thought of, rotation. Is that rotation done statewide? I'm talking about interstate coverage, I guess. Is that rotation done statewide or countywide, or how is that rotation done for? I believe, and I don't want to
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:03:02
get this entirely wrong, but I think it might actually be by troop for the state troopers.
I think they might have it, the rotation list is done by the different troop areas that the state troopers cover. but yes it is the state police has their own rotation policy their own rotation policies and their own rotation list and that's the same for a lot of local law enforcement as well and that's
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
1:03:29
probably a sticky issue too for the for the tow operators i would i don't know
that for sure but i'm i'm assuming it might be all right thank
Speaker 115
1:03:40
you well it's a sticky issue for those
who can't find a way to get on the rotation. For those who
Speaker 103
1:03:47
are on the rotation, they're being taken care of. What I get from the ones who can't seem to get on the rotation is that's where I get the complaints. How in the world do we get on this rotation? Because their complaint is that they always get the same people on the rotation. So it's a sticky wicket for some and not for
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
1:04:09
others, sir. Mr. Chairman, I shouldn't have probably even brought that up.
That may be a little off the
subject. I don't know. I don't see where it's off the subject. It could be there's some bad players in
that. We don't know what the issue is or what's going on there. But anyway, Representative Richmond, you recognize? Kind
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:04:29
of along the same line. I'm right here in front of you, even though the name is incorrect. I know who you are. Concerning the rotation on this, a state trooper makes the call on that in most cases, I take it. Does the truck driver, the trucking company, or consumer, whoever, do they have any decision-making input as far as whether or not they're going to accept that towing company?
Maybe they've dealt with that towing company before, and they're going, we don't want to go through the difficulty we had last time. Do they have any input, or are they just stuck? with whoever the state troopers call
they have the option to call their own but i will say from what i have heard now i don't want to speak for state troopers because that's not my place but from what i have heard sometimes it is based on how fast and how local the tow truck driver is in order to clear the accident off the interstate i do know that there has been some debates and
discussions on that that sometimes it is if your tow truck driver that you want to call is two hours away and it's going to keep the traffic from being stopped that long then yes i believe the state troopers do have whichever whoever is next on their rotation policy take over even if that's not necessarily who the consumer wanted but the consumer yes can say i want to call this tow company now how that plays
Sarah Moore
Unverified
1:05:53
out on an accident scene i can't speak to that okay thank
you that does help any other questions committee okay thank you we've got some testimony
we there's I've got two sheets here and
I don't know what order we we are to go in but I'm gonna start with mr. hook - is
that correct Charles J. Hook. All right, how about Greg Weiss? Is there a Greg Weiss here? Okay, I
can't read the name. Okay, come on up. Come on up and introduce yourself.
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:06:38
Speak against the bill, if you will. And I'm sorry, just. Okay, key in your
mic there and introduce yourself. Yes, sir. There you go, just once. Hello, can you hear me now? Put it down where we
can hear you. No, you were on. Punch it again. I'm sorry. It's green,
Speaker 210
1:06:59
you're on. Okay, good. Pull the mic down to you. I can't hear well, so I talk loud sometimes, so please forgive me. We like loud talking. We can hear it. Okay.
All right, I've got a couple. Introduce yourself first, please. Okay. I'm Charles Tankersley. I'm one of the owners with
Speaker 212
1:07:15
J-Hook Towing Recovery out of North Little Rock. I've got some rebuttal on some of this stuff I want to bring up. My big concern is people coming onto our property. Now, I've heard that to come onto property to do a transload, they would bring proper insurance. There's no such thing as proper insurance.
Most people have a million-dollar coverage with a million-dollar blanket. That's $2 million. I say we accept that. They're out there doing a transload. People from another company is doing the transload. Guy slips and falls out of the truck. He's 25, 30 years old. He's got a wife at home, just had three kids. She's disabled. They're going to sue everybody that's involved in this thing for not $2 million. They're going to sue them for $20 million.
So what happens is the insurance company says, oh, man, let's do our part. Here's your $2 million. Insurance companies out of it because that's all that binder was good for. Well, then now you've got $18 million on a $20 million lawsuit, and now you're into a three or four or five up to a six-year period where you're trying to get out of something we had nothing to do with. I mean, we just happen to be the company that got the last phone call for the tow. We're the company that they're doing the transload on.
It's just a losing situation. Now, the percentage of times that that would happen is few, I would admit. But I've had the opportunity to talk to three or four lawyers in the last couple of days and said, hey, tell us about this. These are people that do insurance-type claims. And I said, tell me about this. And there are over 45 million cases of personal injuries filed annually. There's over $60 billion spent on negotiating insurance, personal injury insurance claims.
Now, out of that $60 to $80 billion, 95% of them are settled. That's the settling price. If it was not settled, you're looking over $200 billion. But there's $60 to $80 billion. That's the reduced value after it's negotiated at 95% ratio. but why would i'm all for checks and balances we we want to be transparent i don't know how other people do it uh but we want to be able to itemize our bill we did one yesterday just
yesterday uh did a transload and it was not a very big transload in time we itemized the bill it had 20 different segments to it we itemized every person what equipment so on so forth now I haven't been in the towing business that long. My partners and I invested in this business three or four years ago. But I have been in business for a long time in multiple companies. And transparency, I think, is imperative in any business.
I think that that should be regulated. And my understanding, it is regulated. It's regulated through what's now the tow board. I don't think they're, for us, we never had an open blanket where we could charge what we wanted to. We've let our prices be known to the state. This is what we're going to charge an hour for this machine or that machine, and this is how much we get for emergency supervision, blah, blah, blah, whether it's, you know, implement weather or whatever. We make all that known.
I don't really understand where the idea that nobody knows what we're going to charge. And what do you do then? Well, what you do is do what that board is set up to do, as I understand it. And what I bargained to buy into was that if you are an unsatisfied customer, you contact the tow board. Now, the tow board needs to do their job. And the job would be for the consumer and the tow company and the state and the insurance company
is to sit on that board with experienced people and go, no, this is not fair. These rates are good. These rates are too high. Let's get these down here in workable order and negotiate it that way. But the idea that any companies in the 15 or 20 that I've owned
Speaker 210
1:11:52
over years that you could charge what you want to with no accountability, I don't understand that. I know that that's not the way we do business.
Speaker 212
1:12:05
So I don't have a problem in our business. I don't have a problem with transparency. But the policing of transparency is no good if nobody's going to regulate it. But the tow board is the one that I have always looked to be concerned to regulate. Now, sometimes you have people that argue just to be arguing. Now, you can't make them happy. If there's a $1,000 bill, you say, give me a dollar, we're good. They're going to bitch and raise hell. Well, when they do, they can go to the tow board. The tow board is going to call you, and you've got to either fix it, mend it, or eat it.
And so that's the way we operate in our business. I can't speak for anyone else because I ain't been in this business a long time. That's the way we do it. We don't give any bills for which we're not prepared to give fair market breakdown. If it ain't fair, the one yesterday goes, hey, these items here, what about this? This is a little high. I said, well, let's just go back into fair market rates, and I sent them those rates for those machines for a whole host of different businesses, not the tow business, but rental equipment business, that sort of thing.
they said you know that's now i understand yeah that's fair we called and we can't rent one no cheaper so that's how they they did it but they just they weren't in the business to know that that number for 110 dollars an hour for that particular specialty machine was fair when it was going to cost them in excess of that just to rent it that's one thing the other thing on this insurance deal, you know, the gentleman made, I can't hear real well, so I'm back here, but what
I heard was some verbiage about there's no tow company going to go out of business because of whatever, but I'm going to tell you, no longer than I've been in this business, there's a lot of good tow companies out there. 99% of them work their butts off, and they do a great job. There's one percent that's that's not doing their job they're trying to take care take care of themselves and not the consumer but that's in any business you go to any business there are people that that
give the name i don't care if you're in the food business i don't care if you're in the transportation business you're in a furniture business name it there are some bad apples in the bunch trying to mandate or set rules in place and i like rules uh but i have plenty of them myself in my company but trying to mandate rules that would that would protect everybody but the towing company is just not fair
Speaker 210
1:14:40
now uh the the the there was some language that that i jotted down
about uh the paying of the bills i think that should be transparent at fair market rates i think there ought to be someone to look at those rates if there's a problem that's the toll board or Whoever y'all want to look at the rates is fine with me.
Speaker 212
1:15:02
It would be fair market value. The cost of business, somebody said, well, that's just the cost of business. I agree with that 100%, but it shouldn't be the cost of the business for the tow company. The tow company is the last people to get called.
The people that ought to be bearing that 35% or any information pertaining to that should be the first people that brokered the load. If the broker has got it, the broker should say, hey, now, I've got to be transparent here. I've got to tell. It's a rule. Lord forbid, but if you haul for us and you haul our cars and you haul our produce, whatever you haul, in the event there's an accident, there's a 35% provision to get this cargo released,
we will take care of it. They should be the ones. we're the last guy called we're the guy after somebody had a wreck we i mean we're just sitting out there waiting on the phone to ring we had nothing to do with this now we're going to take a hickey because we got a we got a bad apple now there was something said about produce i agree that 100 i don't know what other people do we have never let a load of produce or perishable food go bad what we do is uh we simply keep their reefer unit going uh if uh if and we tell them we
say look you got you got apples on here you got steak on here whatever you've got your reefer running we're going to keep it running we'll keep it fueled uh we'll charge you for the fuel and uh we'll we won't let you load go bad that's what we do uh we make that commitment to do that and we charge them simply for the cost of the fuel because it's sitting on a yard and we have one of our service guys go buy and put fuel. So we don't let foods go bad. Is there companies out there that go, I don't care what they do.
I don't care. It ain't my apples. It ain't my lettuce. So let it be. I just don't think that's good business. I think you should just do your best to do your best. Now, if he brings it on the yard and you're doing your best and you're keeping it fueled and you write the hours down, we write the hours down, and it's been there for four days at 24 hours a day, you can look at the hour meter to see we've let it run, then we've done that. We've had some. About the time they got on the lot, the engine shut down.
We'll call them and say, hey, your motor shut down. We can't do anything about it. Motor shut down. We've had them send another reefer out there, and they've paid us to take it from one trailer to another. And, again, that should all be fair market rates. But the idea that people can charge what they want and
Speaker 210
1:17:49
no transparency, that's never been the way we've operated. I don't think across the board it is done that way. The idea of letting somebody on your property when there is no, I've talked to my insurance company today that covers our G&L and that sort of thing,
Speaker 212
1:18:04
there is no blanket insurance policy. You get what you pay for. We've got a customer that we obtained in northwest Arkansas we have a location there uh we want to do business with them and they said well we can't let
Speaker 210
1:18:15
you do it i said why is that said you have two million dollar insurance and i said okay so what would you like to have so we need a minimum of 10 million dollars insurance i said my gosh i talked to my general manager i said i don't know if we want to do their business turns out i went to visit with them and they said look we ain't really happy with 10 million dollars and i said why i said well
a guy came out here and opened the back of his tailgate up with welding on it fell on his legs crushed his legs we were sued for 20 i think it was 22 million dollars as 22 million dollars they got six years to make that claim they can come in and five years and nine ten eleven months and go i got hurt well it ended up costing them about 12 million dollars by the time they did that 95 negotiation i'm going to tell you 85 90 of the tow companies in arkansas it would put them out
of business and probably 25 or 30 percent of the tow companies
Speaker 212
1:19:10
if they don't collect their fee and and and they collect 35 percent and the guy goes back to mexico we have a lot of guys with you know turbines on their head and flip-flops never see them we have more problems with them if we release that for 35 percent for 35 percent and we never see them again you'll have 25 percent your tow companies go out of business it's not a question of hey i don't want to let that guy go
Speaker 210
1:19:39
they can't afford it i mean it's just not affordable that's the problem is and and they're you know there's a limit there's a there's a limited amount of of uh tow companies that that are on rotation talk about rotation there's a limited amount and there's a reason they either they either have a bad record or they're they're not uh qualified or they don't have a lot of you have to have a certain size record so many of this so many they can't financially
Speaker 212
1:20:09
make those numbers work so if you start having the fallout of of tow companies it may be uh it may be a
situation where they they can afford it but they choose not to afford it uh you know our we're fairly lucky in that respect but you know we're not beyond just saying you know we're one of the largest uh heavy recovery companies in in the state and we're about not beyond going hey wait a minute you know if we get three or four hickeys a year and we go back and we look we've lost a half a million dollars uh we're
Speaker 210
1:20:46
not gonna we're not gonna do a recovery for that trucking company
or that trucking company or that trucking company and we're on the rotation there's two or three others they're the same way what we're gonna do now you got the interstate shut down you know we don't want to tell the highway department and the state police no they're all our friends we don't want to tell them no but we also don't want to lose another half a million dollars on john doe trucking so now they got a truck shut down they got fuel everywhere they got environmental issues they got a guy in the hospital they don't know what they're going to do you're having
secondary wrecks for five miles back and there's an argument on call someone else because i lost half a million dollars last year so I just believe that I believe y'all's concerns I believe the concerns are fair but I think you're using the toll company as a safety net to to cure these concerns it's just not fair we're the last people called as long as we provide transparency with fair pricing we
should be left alone and if that those few out there that
Speaker 212
1:21:58
ain't willing to show the transparency of a bill and stand behind a good fair number, then I don't care what the problem is. But
Speaker 210
1:22:06
for us, we're going to provide transparency, and we're going to expect to get paid. Now, you take the guy. I don't mean to cut you off, but we've got a lot of testimony. If
you can go ahead and wrap it up. No, sir, I think
Speaker 210
1:22:19
there's a few other things, but I think somebody else can pick those up. I
think you have a question, Representative Richman? Yeah, I do.
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:22:27
Very quickly, you were talking about, a minute ago, you talked about losing a half a million dollars on this thing. What is the overhead? You go out, you pick up a vehicle for some reason, whatever it is, you
take it, you store it. What is the overhead that creates that potential loss? Okay,
Speaker 210
1:22:47
the biggest thing that we could see is we do a lot of major accidents where the truck is
Speaker 212
1:22:53
destroyed, the trailers burn up uh half the car goes good i've done several did some here last week where
Speaker 210
1:23:00
half the car goes good call up insurance hey was anything salvageable yes sir we repalletized this wrapped it it's in our building for storage it's not out in the weather blah blah if they come in there and pick up we got a we got a bill of eighteen thousand dollars now we're out there with two and a half million dollars worth of equipment drivers getting run over all the time bad dangerous business they're going to come get you got a you know 18 that you know a 10 12 18 thousand dollar bill they're going to get half the load half the load is going to be worth
four thousand dollars they're going to get half the load this perishable they're going to pay 35 of half the load we're sitting there on pins and needles we're going to lose our butt
Speaker 212
1:23:46
and sure enough the the the insurance company leaves the truck there so that we
Speaker 210
1:23:51
can sell it for salvage it ain't worth nothing you can't get twenty five hundred dollars out of a burnt truck and trailer nothing cost you that much get salved out strip it out where they'll even take it so if you start having those type of situations even if they get the whole deal and that's the reason
Speaker 212
1:24:09
And I don't want to tie people's stuff up. I'm sympathetic to the $80,000 car and Lamborghini and all that. But it should be the people that hired the trucking company to make
Speaker 210
1:24:21
sure they had insurance, make sure they had an insurance company that would act quickly, make sure that they know. If one of your trucks has an accident, you or me, the broker, are going to have to pay 35% to get that $800,000, or in your case, a million-dollar load, we're going to have to pay that.
You can't put that on a tow guy that's going to go bankrupt because of that. He didn't hire them people. He didn't have the opportunity to verify their insurance or if that trucking company has had 55 wrecks that year. We're just sitting back here waiting on that phone call trying to do our little job. I think you're pointing fingers at the wrong bunch. It needs to be people to hire these people, not the one that just comes and picks up the pieces. All right, I'm not
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:25:07
going to follow up for the sake of time, but I'm not sure I got an answer out of that.
Thank you. Any other questions from the committee? Thank you for your testimony. Okay, thank
you. Sorry to take so long, sir. Okay, we're going to go ahead and take one more against, and then we'll let some speak for. How about Greg Weiss? Greg?
Speaker 225
1:25:33
Greg, I'm not trying to rush you, but try to be, don't get repetitive for me. You go. Okay. Yes, sir. I was going to give my time to Steve Rogers if I could. That's fine. Okay. Thank you. You don't want to speak?
Speaker 226
1:25:43
No, sir. Okay. All right. Who do you... Steve Rogers. Okay. Do you want Mr. Paz first or Mr. Rogers first? Who do we want first? Does it make any difference? Mr. Rogers? I'll tell
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:26:00
you what. Hold on just a minute. Let me let someone speak four. We've had two speak again. So let me call you up. So how
about Tim, Mr. Moody, Tim Moody here to speak for.
Oh, let me turn this thing off. It's on. It's on.
Speaker 228
1:26:24
All you have to do is introduce yourself and you may begin. My name's Tim Moody. I'm with Jay Hook Tolling and Recovery out of North Little Rock. I've been in the Tolling and Recovery business 46 years. I'm from Dallas, Texas. And I'd just like to share with you what we're seeing. I've been here since 2006, and I'm the one that helped build J-Hook from the ground up. I'm on the state police rotation in several different locations.
The truck that the gentleman back here was talking about, I worked that wreck. I want to explain that to you real quick, just to kind of clear the air. But that belonged to Jack Cooper. Jack Cooper had a load of tie holes on there, and Jack Cooper had a wreck, knocked the front end off the truck. I'm going to make it real short. And it took Jack Cooper all that time to get a mechanic out here to get their tie hole off the top. That wasn't the same one? Oh, okay, that was a different one? All right, so, and that's fine. But, you know, we see a lot of semi-trucks that come through. I work a lot of big truck wrecks, a lot.
And the majority of the ones we see are people from out of the country. Your Tyson's, your J.B. Hunt's, your Hurricane Express, your PAM, your J.B., you know, All these big major companies, they pay us the next day. We have no problems at all. The ones that are coming through from different states, different countries, that only have $5,000 worth of cargo insurance, that's where we're having problems at. The cargo gets all over the highway. We have to go out there and work 12 to 14 hours cleaning all this stuff up.
And the majority of the time, the cargo is salvaged anyways. Once food hits the ground, the load is no good anyways. so just wanted you guys to kind of know if you got any questions for me I can answer it I'm gonna make it real short short because Steve Steve needs to speak and that's
Speaker 229
1:28:11
what I wanted to kind of explain to you guys what this towing industry is
Speaker 114
1:28:17
like any questions from committee okay seeing none oh
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:28:21
excuse me I'll be quick and this has nothing to you you talk about the produce that in
the ground and stuff like that I've thought about this for a little while that might help with this um i i've always thought it shouldn't be the towing company's responsibility to clean up the mess i've thought about that since last session when we had you guys rounding the capital with your tow trucks yeah that was me yeah is that something that is like
normal in most states where the to the towing company has to clean that up or is that would that be like highway department to come through and
Speaker 228
1:28:52
clean that up they you know they don't have enough people to do it and the tow companies have to have the equipment to do it you got to have
skid steers on on hand sky tracks but no that the highway department will not do anything they used to block traffic for us they don't block traffic anymore there's a tow truck driver killed every six days across america well we lost 37 last year being on the side of the highway working these accidents so our jobs are very very dangerous we're more likely to be killed before police ems for fire
thank you any other questions seeing none thank you for your test testimony anyone else to speak against the bill
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:29:32
other than mr rogers okay seeing none uh speaking for the
bill shannon newton from the trucking association shannon you know the procedure so
Speaker 233
1:29:56
yes sir thank you i also know that uh brevity is best and so i'll try to accomplish that with my
Speaker 234
1:30:02
remarks this morning um i'm sorry shannon newton you gave me credit for knowing what i was doing and then i missed the most important part shannon newton president
arkansas trekking association those of you who were on the committee two years ago remember the fact that our association introduced a piece of legislation that was specifically aimed at releasing the cargo and that was a major concern that we brought to this committee at that time and we got it out of this committee ultimately that bill did not pass out of the other end but due to the activity and attention that was stemmed from that there has been conversations ongoing for two years and the 24-page bill that you have in front of you is a culmination of those
concerns and conversations that have been taking place for the last two years. The majority of the bill is not trucking specific and so I'm a little bit concerned or frustrated or I feel like we've kind of dived off into one or two specific issues that are and we're losing the big picture of the reforms that are needed within the department specifically the towing and recovery board which is the entity that's charged with regulating the industry the reconstitution of that board to
have representation by people who are being towed as opposed to those who are doing the towing is very important and I would say that a lot of the issues that we've had have arisen by either lack of action by the board or a lack of concerns being brought to the board in the first place I'd venture to say that most of you had no idea that there was a towing and recovery board 18 months ago specific especially if you weren't on this committee and your constituents don't know that there's an entity that's supposed to serve as the clearinghouse for those complaints
and so what I've I guess been trying to raise is that the towing and recovery board doesn't really have an accurate representation of what's going on in the real world because the real world doesn't know that the towing and recovery board is the place to take those issues and so a component of this bill that we hadn't even has not even been said out loud is that all invoices if this were to become law would have to have that procedure of who to file your complaint with and who the authority is if you are over serviced overcharged or if you have a question about your bill that it should be taken to the towing and recovery board and i think that's very important because i do
think having that repository for all of the issues will help us be able to make better policy so those two things are in the bill that we haven't talked about that I think are really important the additional investigative authority for the towing undercover board the penalties the right regulation for admin and storage fees I think all those are really good pieces of the bill that we support and have been appreciate the opportunity to collaborate on this bill the 35 percent do I love that no do I think the possessory lien should extend to cargo that's not part
of the transaction absolutely not but that's where we are today and frankly i'm even a little bit more frustrated because i thought that was a compromise that was going to avoid this hearing lasting the 30 or 40 minutes that it is um but i just want the committee to know that there's been a lot of work put into this bill it is a very large bill and it is not perfect for any of the stakeholders but it is better than where we are today and with that being said i'll take any questions
any questions from committee seeing none thank you mr. Newton thank
you I appreciate it mr. Rogers you
Speaker 5
1:33:40
thorough as you can without that doing that I will
Steve Rogers
Unverified
1:33:46
sir thank you my name is Steve Rogers I am a an advisor for the foundation for responsible towing to my right is mr. Matt Ross he's
the owner of Pro Auto in Conway Arkansas and mr. Ross because of my loss of hearing will have to serve as my ears. My apologies. I formerly... Mr.
Speaker 240
1:34:14
Ross, you can tell him anything you want to then. Is
that right? Okay, you may proceed. I formerly served as the director
Steve Rogers
Unverified
1:34:22
of the Arkansas Towing and Recovery Board, and although I retired, I occasionally serve as an advisor for the Foundation for Responsible Towing. We would have had a bigger
a crowd for you today, Mr. Chairman, but the weather changed that. A lot of our towers are alongside other first responders today taking care of storm damage. Not just cars, but moving large trees and buildings and helping people recover from the tornadoes that swept Arkansas last night. House Bill 1897 restructures the tow board, eliminating a majority of the tow owner
appointees. Most of the complaints received deal with equipment used, house used, on-scene time, personnel, and notice to vehicle owners, items that tours deal with every day. Eliminating tow owners from the board seems to me to be counterproductive. House Bill 1897 regulates a tow where the vehicle owner and the tow company have an agreement. The tow board has never had any
authority over a consent tow. It's a contract between tow company and an individual. The distinction should be preserved. Regardless of who's appointed to the board, there's little room to discuss contract law or debate a word of mouth he said she said agreement. Some arguments just do not need to be had in administrative hearing. Language in House Bill 1897 impacts the possessory lien
on a tractor trailer unit. The new language takes away the notion that it is not one unit going down the road. It assumes that a trailer and its cargo, as an example, got to the middle of the road and wrecked itself on its own accord as a practical matter and to preserve the integrity of the possess re-lien, the tractor should be impounded as part of one unit. This bill sets fees for
storage when the best and easiest way to avoid storage fees is simply pay the invoice. Two, guidelines for fee schedules or those types of things really belong in rulemaking to get away from the long two-year cycle for our legislature. House Bill 1897 removes the lien from cargo if the transporter pays a fee based on a percentage of the invoice.
This provision guarantees a loss for the tow company for every big truck accident they work. This provision alone will absolutely drive tow companies away from non-consent towing. And it will apply to every accident. The language in this bill does not distinguish between cargo that is whole and cargo that has been compromised or damaged.
The provision creates the biggest loophole imaginable for non-payment. The result of adding a regulatory burden to any company, including a tow company, will cause them to adjust their business model. This bill, passed in its current form, will cause many good tow companies to abandon non-consent tows. Non-consent towing is a unique relationship and provider for the creation and fixing of a problem.
It's kind of like you create the problem. You drove caroling and had the accident. We fix it. You parked illegally in a parking lot space. We fix it. You break down on the side of the road, we fix it. Non-consent towing is already a difficult business to manage. Depending on the tow owner's business model and location, tow companies already lose income because 25 to 40 percent of their vehicles towed
are never redeemed by the owner. Today's scrap metal prices and public sales do not allow a company to recoup even a fraction of their losses. Finally, we're somewhat disheartened by the stories and rumors admonishing the tow board for not doing a good job. I can tell you that the last two and a half years of my tenure as director, the board returned $267,000 in restitution to vehicle owners.
And those were with the same board members, or at least a majority, as there are today. Today you have a director that has not scheduled a board hearing since January. Complaints are backed up. That is not the board's fault. They work when cases are ready. The director's response to any query, I worked for Secretary Bissett. I did, too.
I deeply respect Secretary Bissett, but if one of my board members asked me a question, I knew how to answer it. This is a tow board and a Department of Labor and licensing bill that asks you for more power that gives staff more responsibility. Perhaps they should eat the elephant they already have. On behalf of the tow industry, I would ask you to vote no on House Bill 1897,
and we would encourage the sponsor to move this bill to an interim study so that the tow industry could join the discussions others are having behind closed doors. Thank you. Mr. Rogers, you take a question? Representative Hawk, you recognize?
Chair
Unverified
1:41:20
Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for your testimony. I do take a
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:41:26
little bit of exception with what you're saying about the towing and recovery board Because
if the Toe and Recovering Board, if they were doing what they were doing, we would not have these bills in front of us.
And I would also say that when you talk about, you know, the fees in this bill, this is, once again, even though I'm not crazy about fees, it's giving consumers a right to get their stuff back. Whether there's a fee or not, would you not agree? Because the current model that we have, you guys just keep all the cargo and it just sits there until somebody pays up. this bill would allow for me, if I bought a car
or whatever, to be able to recover my stuff and
have to pay a fee. Would you
not agree that's a good part of
Steve Rogers
Unverified
1:42:15
this bill? You made a good point earlier, and Matt may can address that even more accurately than I, but I can share with you real quickly my experience and and and your scenario when a transporters involved in a minor minor accident or it's picked up for some of it breaks down it creates a dilemma for a lot of tow companies and we've dealt with that a lot
unfortunately the statute as it exists today nor does this bill as you noted Addresses that issue when a transporter and private ownership is involved. But I can assure you on multiple occasions, when the tow owner had possession and a lien already on the tractor and the trailer, we would help negotiate as a staff the release of that vehicle with no charge to the consumer.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:43:17
So you're already doing that? You're doing that now? We were. Okay. Yes, sir. We were. I wish my constituent would have had you as a tow company because that wasn't the case whenever she had her car towed in and they were not willing to negotiate at all. So I think that the reality of this is the reason for this bill is to put a level playing field for everybody because while the gentleman that was up here just a minute ago, it sounds like he does the right things.
You guys do the right things. But there are bad actors, like what my constituent dealt with, that just totally got screwed on the deal because her car sat there for six months. And so I think this bill, wouldn't you
Steve Rogers
Unverified
1:44:04
agree, kind of puts everybody on the same playing field? The Foundation for Responsible Towing, nor the Tow Board, have ever endorsed, supported, or helped bad actors, ever. And it's always been our intention never to be defined by the lowest common denominator.
And we will support good legislation. I am confident that the gentlemen and women in this room will support good legislation. But, Mr. Representative, we need to be involved in the discussions in the beginning. If there had not been a FOIA filed with the Department of Labor and Licensing, we wouldn't even have known that there was a bill in the works until it was introduced to
Speaker 245
1:44:53
the legislature the earlier part of last week, this week.
Speaker 205
1:44:59
Okay. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:45:03
Yes, sir. Representative Richmond. Mr. Rogers, I'm going to ask you a question that I don't want you to answer. I want Representative Painter to answer it in closing, and so I'm just giving him notification, and that is, if you would, please address the non-consent towing, whether or not it's addressed in this bill, or how that's going to be done. Thank you, sir.
Any other questions for Mr. Rogers? Gentlemen?
Seeing none, thank you for your testimony.
Thank you. Anyone else to testify for against the bill that I missed? didn't see anyone else
Speaker 240
1:45:38
on the list representative painter you're recognized close as you
Chair
Unverified
1:45:48
see fit we may have another question or two i don't know but we'll deal with that
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:45:57
as we move forward if uh if i can i know some members had certain questions
during when they were asking folks up here but I do want to say for the record too I have talked to towing members so I do take a little offense to being projected as not up front or try to work I could tell you I have many conversations I have tried to work with tried to bend where we can work together where we can is this the 100% percent perfect bill no there has not
been a bill in this legislature so far that's been a hundred percent perfect but is it a step in the right direction yes and representative Hawk and I I will work with you on fixing that correction but the demands that some of the towers have may have asked for we have tried to accommodate the best we can to make sure we serve everybody them truckers the consumers also too is is we're not
good of ridding towers on the board they're still going to be there the amounts just different so I take a little exception to being saying that we're getting rid of all of them and so sorry it's just a little passionate real quick I just take offense when I try to go above board and then it makes looks like we're not. And I think you had a specific question on the non-consent. If you want to address
Speaker 106
1:47:31
that for the vice chair. Representative, would you mind stating exactly what, I'm a little
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:47:36
confused on what the actual question is. Well, it came up, non-consent towing, and that creates a concern about if somebody is forced to use a towing company, they don't agree to it, then, you know, they could just say well i'm not ever going to pay for that and how does
Speaker 138
1:47:58
this bill address that i can't say that this bill specifically addresses that instance simply because that is something that
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:48:06
i'm sure comes up currently now since if we're looking at it based off of a rotation policy
and who's come out to do it and the consumer didn't uh get to pick who they wanted i do know that the consumer could complain to the board if they did have an issue as far as paying that bill as if they thought it was too high or if something had happened during that the board would look at that but as far as does the bill specifically address that issue I would say it most likely does not specifically address it but it can help the bill overall can help some of those problems
and if the chair wouldn't mind I do have an answer to representative Stimel's question from earlier if that
would be okay for me to answer I got someone else in the queue then we'll get back to
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
1:49:11
that if he still wants to answer it represent a berry you're recognized
I am. I'm sorry about that. We've talked about towing 18-wheelers, basically the whole discussion here.
How does this bill, or does it affect, and I apologize, I haven't read it all, how does it affect our passenger vehicles? As I
Speaker 103
1:49:32
said briefly, yes, we've spent most of the time talking about 18-wheelers. But
Speaker 102
1:49:38
most of our complaints and our issues that come to my department, Mr. Representative, don't involve major truckers. And I understand
Speaker 103
1:49:45
that. They can solve their mom-and-pop issues. It addresses that, sir, completely, because what we are interested in doing with this bill is creating transparency
so that consumers know when they have an accident or they're being towed and they get an invoice, that that invoice specifically outlines everything that they're being charged for. Secondly, we designate in this bill, this gives us the opportunity to set maximum fees that can be charged by tow truck operators, not just the towing, but the administrative fees as well and the storage fees that are accompanying this.
And so that's, you know, in a nutshell, that's how we address those concerns because most of our complaints don't involve 18-wheelers. They don't involve wrecks that go on on the freeway. They're mom-and-pop kind of issues where the average Arkansan has an experience with a tow truck operator. And those are the kinds of, you know, believe you, you know, I am not anti-towing. They're part of my division.
They're a division. I'm not at war with myself here. What we're trying to do is be open and honest with the Arkansas consumer, and that's what this bill does.
Representative Stan Berry
Unverified
1:51:11
Bottom line is there's more issues with 18 Withers than there are passenger vehicles. Well, there's more money involved there, yes, sir. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Chad Puryear
Unverified
1:51:21
Chair. Representative Perry, do you recognize? Since I believe we're in the closing portion of the bill presented, I would like to make a
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
1:51:29
motion to pass at the proper time. At the proper time. representative Steinmann is you did you have a question okay seeing no more
questions represent painter excuse me I see one more question okay we're in
Speaker 262
1:51:46
taking a motion yet mr. chair I'm closed
Representative Stetson Painter
Unverified
1:51:55
and would respect a good a good vote okay thank
you uh representative hawk was that no excuse me for you you recognize motion
do pass i have a motion do pass we're now open for discussion as motion as amended is that correct yes sir okay we have a motion as amended uh from representative poor you now we're
open for discussion uh representative richmond you recognize
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
1:52:27
very quickly on this uh this is one of those bills that unfortunately it's difficult to decide who's the good guys
and who's the bad guys other than the insurance companies i think we can all agree that they're probably the bad
guys in most of this most of the time but i'm going to be a fortune teller if this bill fails or even if it passes that if things don't change you're going to be back here in two years and what you're going to see is even going to be more restrictive whether it's prices or anything else i would say to the towing folks and everybody involved in that and that this is for the people here as well that if you have a good idea please please bring it forward early on but you got to
get a handle on this stuff and the complaints and help the consumers because ultimately that's who votes for us is the consumers and so you're going to keep seeing this over and over again it's going to get worse now as far as the safety thing this is the real thing and I'm talking to my colleagues it's disturbing to me that we're having so many towing people get injured or killed on the roads they need some help on that and there may be a need for legislation here one of these days soon or at least in two years
to address that whether it's the state troopers or RDOT or somebody else needs to be involved to improve the safety on this thank you Representative Halk thank you Mr.
Representative RJ Hawk
Unverified
1:53:57
Chair committee members look it's been said this is not the perfect bill
this is my second time on this committee and we had a towing issue come up last go round and it was a hard fought we were here for two and a half hours but i will say that um representative painter is a man of his
word and i've known him now for two years and everything he's ever done to um accommodate and do he's held up to that and i normally don't give a yes vote to pass something out and let the senate try to screw it up and and do things but knowing that representative painter and represent or and senator hammer are on this bill uh i think that they will follow through with those requests that we want to have amended being that we're short on time um i still have concerns though that you know whether it's this bill secretary or what uh we've got to do something to protect consumers
more i i'm i will as long as i'm here i'm going to keep fighting for consumers uh and and i think that that's what we all should do and so uh with all that being said i'm going to be a yes vote on this because uh of my relationship with with representative painter and i know that he'll work to make this a
better bill thank you represent hawk any other questions or any other comment from committee seeing none I have a motion to
Chair
Unverified
1:55:18
do pass as amended all in favor say aye all opposed call the roll representative
Speaker 270
1:55:33
Womack representative Womack representative Whitaker representative Whitaker representative Richmond yes representative Richmond votes yes representative Barry representative Barry votes yes representative bro representative bro votes no representative McElroy representative McElroy votes no representative hawk representative hawk
representative hawk votes yes representative Carr representative Carr representative Puryear representative Puryear votes yes represent representative Duffield representative Duffield votes yes representative Shepard representative Shepard votes yes represent representative Steinwell representative style votes yes representative steel representative
steel representative Childress representative Childress votes yes representative Alyssa Brown representative Brown representative Hall representative Hall votes yes representative Burks representative Burks votes yes representative Taurus representative Taurus representative Milligan representative Milligan
Chair
Unverified
1:57:22
Bill passes with 11 votes. Committee is adjourned.
Agenda
Number Sponsor Subtitle
SB261 A. Clark TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF AN ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLE ON CERTAIN ROADS; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ACCESS OF ALL-TERRAIN VEHICLES TO UNPAVED ROADS.
HB1550 Andrews CONCERNING EXPEDITED SECURITY SCREENINGS AT AN AIRPORT.
HB1897 Painter TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS TOWING AND RECOVERY REFORM AND EFFICIENCY ACT OF 2025; TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS TOWING AND RECOVERY BOARD; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
Painter
HB1913 J. Moore TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DRIVER'S LICENSES; AND TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE QUALIFICATIONS FOR AN INTERMEDIATE DRIVER'S LICENSE.
HB1914 Long TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING THE ARKANSAS MOTOR CARRIER ACT, 1955; AND TO REQUIRE AN OPERATOR OF A COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE TO HAVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY.
Long
HB1944 Vaught TO AUTHORIZE THE ISSUANCE AND RENEWAL OF A SPECIAL LICENSE PLATE TO PROMOTE AND SUPPORT THE ARKANSAS EMS FOUNDATION; AND TO REPEAL THE GRAND LODGE OF ARKANSAS SPECIAL LICENSE PLATE.
Vaught
SB397 D. Wallace TO PROTECT CONFIDENTIAL PERSONAL INFORMATION OF RAIL EMPLOYEES IN REPORTS INVOLVING RAILROAD FATALITIES.
SB498 J. Petty TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DISCLOSURE OF DRIVER AND VEHICLE RECORDS AND TO PROTECT DRIVER AND VEHICLE RECORDS FROM PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.
Burks
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION- HOUSE, Apr 3, 2025 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Mike Holcomb Chair
Unverified
Speaker 3
Representative Wayne Long
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Representative Tracy Steele
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Speaker 29
Representative Paul Childress
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Speaker 24
Representative DeAnn Vaught
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Representative Marcus E. Richmond
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Representative Kendra Moore
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Speaker 75
Representative Stetson Painter
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Representative RJ Hawk
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Speaker 102
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Chair
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Representative Stan Berry
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Representative Mark D. McElroy
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Sarah Moore
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Representative Brad Hall
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Representative Mark Perry
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Representative Trey Steimel
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Representative Chad Puryear
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Steve Rogers
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