Disgruntled students who park their cars on campus and get towed have a surprise waiting for them when they go to pick up their cars — the price of towing has doubled since last year.The price used to be $48.50 per tow, but Guy’s Towing, the company previously employed by the University, was not making a profit, so the contract went up for bids. Guy’s bid $200, but Gary Graham, Director of Parking, Traffic and Transportation, said he felt this price was too much for students to pay. The contract was put up for a second bid, and Guy’s was outbid by Brown’s Salvage at $98.50.Rusty Brown, co-owner of Brown’s Salvage, said raising the price was to enable the company to make money but also to discourage people from parking in a spot where they could be towed.”It used to be cheap [enough] to illegally park and take a chance on getting a ticket than risk missing class,” Brown said. “We are trying to get rid of that thought process.”Cars can be towed if they parked in a handicapped or reserved space, a fire lane or on a sidewalk, Graham said. Cars parked on yellow curbs may also be towed, Brown said. Parking lots are crowded and many students choose to “create” their own spots.”I got home on Sunday night and couldn’t find a parking spot so I parked beside four other people who had made their own spots in between East Laville and the Rec,” said Chris Branch, mass communication freshman. “I was the only one that got towed, and I had a ticket on top of the $100 towing fee.”Many students think the price is too high, but others plan on parking legally to avoid the whole situation.”I’m not planning on parking in spots where I’ll get towed, so I shouldn’t have to worry about [the fee],” said Adam Barilleau, economics senior.Most of the time the traffic control officers are alerted to cars parked illegally by phoned-in complaints, Graham said.Brown said they receive most of their complaints in the morning when people are arriving on campus. After Easy Streets ends at 4 p.m., he said they become more lenient because less people are on campus, and there are less Traffic Control Officers to patrol.There are 14 Traffic Control Officers and four supervisors, but not all of them are on shift at the same time.”People don’t realize that calling in tows and giving out tickets is only 35-40 percent of their job,” Graham said. “They act as crossing guards, set up reserved spaces and take care of a number of other duties.”There were about 10-15 tows per day for a couple of weeks, said James Roders, a driver for Brown’s. But Brown said the number has slowed to around six per day since people are getting more oriented with where they can park.But the number of tows since the beginning of the school year is about half of the number in the same time period last year. Brown said he attributes this mostly to the hurricanes, because the company shut down when the school shut down.”We had a whole week [without towing] for one hurricane … and a week where we didn’t tow much for orientation,” Brown said.Despite the smaller number of tows, Brown said the company is making enough money to cover costs, and that’s what they are concerned with right now. They don’t serve the public or have any other contracts.”We want to focus entirely on the University and do the best job we can for them,” Brown said.When they signed the contract, Brown’s promised to provide free roadside assistance to students. Brown said they haven’t had to follow through on this because most students call friends or relatives first for help if a car breaks down. He said the trucks are equipped with every piece of equipment a car could need, from jumper cables to a lock-opening wedge. The company has two wreckers and a third on standby for football games and other special events to keep lanes clear.Brown said the first two home games were slow because the fan turnout was lower than usual. The most common tows during games are DUIs.As for the theory of leaving your parking brake on to avoid your car being towed, Brown said that is not true.”We have something called go-jacks which we put on the car that allows us to tow a car in any position, even if the wheels won’t move,” he said.—-Contact Ellen Zielinski at [email protected]