The University began taking official bids Wednesday for its new towing contract. The Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation and prospective wrecking companies have the challenge of finding a price median that is not too high for students and not too low for the wrecking company.
The previous contract, held by Guy’s Towing, expired in June. Guy’s Towing declined to extend its contract for another 12 months.
Burt King, owner of Guy’s Towing, said it is not economically feasible to continue providing the University with towing service.
“We’ve been losing money for the last year and a half because of the changes [the University] made,” King said. “They fixed a lot of things on campus, which was good. They just need to change the towing contracts to fit the needs of the campus.”
The change King referred to includes Easy Streets, which has been a factor in decreasing the average number of tows per year.
“Essentially we’re not towing as many cars because of Easy Streets,” said Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation. “Easy Streets did exactly what it was supposed to do. Our tickets dropped by about 30 or 40 percent, so we’ve been keeping students from getting ticketed and towed … We just don’t need as many wreckers out here now.”
The average number of tows has decreased from 2,000 to 1,200 tows per fiscal year, according to the bid invitation released by the University Purchasing Office. With towing numbers decreasing, the company under contract is making less money by not having vehicles to tow.
“Under the contract we were required to have a truck and driver [on campus] from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.,” King said. “Before [Easy Streets], we were towing between 12 to 20 or more cars a day. After, we were towing maybe six cars a week.”
The University amended the contract requirements of the wrecker service for this upcoming year. The contracted towing company has the responsibility of providing one wrecker on campus continuously Monday through Friday, between 7 a.m and 4 p.m., with other wreckers available if necessary. After 4 p.m., the vender has to be on call with a 30-minute maximum response time.
The previous contract required at least three wreckers to be available with one wrecker continuously on campus from 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. The wrecker would be on call after hours.
“We were trying to tell LSU that service needs to be on an on-call basis only,” King said. “It is not profitable for us to have a truck and driver there all day. With the insurance, the fuel, the wages and everything else, we can’t recoup the expenses if we’re not towing cars.”
Another issue regards the dollar amount of the contract. The contract for Guy’s Towing included a $48 fee for each vehicle towed.
“Our bid of $48 is what we were paid [per car],” King said. “It was going to actually cost $200 a car for us to have someone sit there and not tow many cars.”
Guy’s, which was contracted for a total of two years, was never allowed to increase the $48 per car rate because prices must remain firm for the duration of the contract.
“It was a one-year contract with two one-year renewals,” King said. “We maintained the contract until the June deadline, and when they sent out the contract to renew, we said we were not going to renew it. We didn’t want to because we couldn’t afford to lose anymore money.”
Instead, Guy’s towing sent in a bid for $200 per car knowing that it would be rejected.
“Two-hundred dollars was way too much; there was no way we would accept it,” Graham said. “It didn’t make any sense. On one hand towing is a necessary evil, but on the other hand we don’t want to make it so burdensome on students that we can’t tow reasonably.”
The University intends on signing a contract with the lowest responsible bidder.
“We’ll go with the first one that is the lowest, and if they meet all the specifications, we come back and sign the contract.”
While there is no wrecking company currently under contract, Brown’s Salvage Inc. has taken up the load.
Russell Brown of Brown’s Salvage Inc., said they have agreed to temporarily provide towing service to the University until a contract is signed. Brown said they sent a bid in Wednesday asking $98.50 for each unofficial vehicle towed. An unofficial vehicle is a vehicle in University boundaries that do not belong to the University.
Gary Graham said he expects a company to be selected in the next few days.
—-Contact Tyler Harvey at [email protected]