Hello, I'm Lynn Hurst. I want to thank you for the opportunity of serving as the President for 2008. I also want to thank Steve Weil for the great job he has been doing for so many years as our past President. I'm excited about the opportunities and challenges before us this coming year. First thing is to form a STATEWIDE legislative committee to contact their House and Senate representatives for the anti-dumping legislation that is waiting to be introduced, the Move-Over law that adds tow trucks to the other emergency vehicles, an on-line information system with Alabama Department of Revenue records for filing on abandoned vehicles, and, finally, a towing lien law for our industry in this state. In my opinion, the lien law would be the most significant piece of legislation we could ever get passed, but it is going to take a unified effort by ALL towers in our great state. On the legislation front, David Lowery has done a wonderful job representing us in Montgomery. It's nice having someone that can walk across the room and talk with State Department heads about problems we have. I want to challenge every member to get two new members (past members count) to get on board to help us make these changes. I would like to see ATRA grow to 100 members this year. Put your seatbelts on; this is going to be fun!
Proposed State Legislation Could Affect Alabama Towers
David Lowery has been busy watching all the new state legislation and trying to stop or change bills that could adversely affect towing companies in Alabama. A few of the bills that are of great interest to ATRA members are HB37, HB303, HB358, and HB379. We have provided the full text of a few of these bills as they were introduced into the House of Representatives. HB37 proposes that any vehicle impounded for lack of insurance must be held for up to one year if there are any pending court proceedings. HB303 proposes that any vehicle driven by an illegal alien (or anyone else without a valid driver's license) must be impounded AND that lienholders must be notified within 48 or 72 hours (both are included in the initial bill). HB358 proposes that insurance companies must pay towing and storage bills or come to an agreement with the wrecker service about the bill and disposal of the vehicle. It also provides for arbitration for problem resolutions before allowing full court proceedings. HB379 proposes to add wreckers to the list of emergency vehicles in the move-over law. Drivers would be required to change lanes or slow down when passing emergency vehicles in the road. A few of these bills propose to add to the existing state laws that regulate non-consentual tows, and that could hurt our businesses. We are working hard to get that wording changed or removed to conform to the already existing laws. Obviously, a few of these bills will greatly benefit towers, and we are working hard to get those passed this year. Keep checking for more updates- you can always join ATRA to get even more valuable information in our meetings and our newsletter!
