PUC demonstrates new towing data-collection tool; industry seeks clarity on rates, insurance and scope

Speaker 2, a presenter identified in the transcript as speaking for the Public Utilities Commission, demonstrated a Google-form towing data-collection tool the commission plans to post on its website shortly after the new year and said the form will require annual submissions reporting the previous calendar year.

The session, attended by about 50 participants, reviewed required identification fields (carrier name and the PUC-issued permit number), a ZIP-code field for primary operating area, contact email for follow-up and a series of operational questions including counts of tow trucks by GVWR, annual tow volumes separated into consensual, nonconsensual and law‑enforcement-ordered tows, consensual rate components (hook fee, mileage, storage) limited to vehicles with GVWR of 10,000 pounds or less, optional other-fee descriptions, and a required field for total insurance premiums paid in the prior calendar year.

"Please use this form to submit accurate operational information for the previous calendar year," Speaker 2 said during the demonstration, and he emphasized that the first submissions will cover 2025 data. He cited statute 40-10.1403, subsections (e) and (f), and rule 6503(c) as the legal basis for the reporting requirement and said the commission may withhold permitting if a carrier does not meet the submission requirement: "the answer is yes, we can," he told attendees when asked about withholding permits for noncompliance.

Why the PUC wants the data: Speaker 2 said aggregated information will give the commission, the towing task force and the legislature a better picture of industry size, tow-volume patterns, insurance trends and geographic coverage gaps — information policymakers can use when considering rate regulation or insurance-threshold decisions. He said commission staff intend to analyze the submissions in aggregate and have no current plan to target individual carriers based on the data.

Industry participants raised several recurring concerns. Multiple callers said companies maintain multiple rate structures (cash customers, motor-club contracts, insurer rates) and warned that a single rate field risks producing misleading averages. Several speakers urged the commission to collect a consistent benchmark — for example, a "cash rate" for a typical private-customer consensual tow — rather than a rate tied to total tow counts. Speaker 9 suggested phrasing the question as "What would your rate be for a cash-paying customer on a consensual tow?" so the figure would not be tied to the number of tows a company reports.

Attendees also asked the commission to capture the share of nonconsensual or law-enforcement tows for which carriers are not paid. Speaker 5 told the commission that many nonconsensual or law-enforcement dispatches produce no payment, and asked whether the form could track the percentage of tows that yield no compensation. Speaker 2 acknowledged the point and said the commission would consider adding a related metric in a future iteration but probably would not include it in the first release.

On insurance, carriers described rapidly rising insurance premiums and equipment costs. Speaker 2 pointed to the form's required total-premiums field and described typical policy types carriers use (minimum: Form E general liability and Form H cargo; also Form 14 garage keepers for storage and a workers-compensation Form WC if the carrier has employees) and asked businesses to report total premiums paid for the prior calendar year.

Speaker 2 and several participants discussed implementation timing and flexibility: the form will go live after the turn of the year, submissions for the prior calendar year are due by Feb. 1 under rule 6503(c), and the commission said it will monitor feedback and may adjust the form on a year-to-year basis to improve accuracy. Staff also said they plan to post the recording and, if useful, a concise training video alongside the form.

The meeting closed with Speaker 2 reminding attendees that the requirement is statutory, that carriers should use January to gather their data before the Feb. 1 deadline, and that failing to submit required data could hold up future permit renewals.