RECOVERY FEES
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Re the recovery fee threat, I have been in the recovery business for 35 years so I have some idea of costing.
The Association of Chief Police Officers must be living in Cloud Cuckoo Land to think we can operate for £80. They class town, motorways and rural areas as one, but rural areas are a different aspect.
We are often called to serious accidents which can be a 45-mile round trip, including unclassified roads. We are requested for a complete lift, which means no wheels have to turn and no further damage incurred. We are also requested to reconstruct the accident, which means moving the vehicles to the start of the accident and then to the point of impact. This can take up to two hours and requires two men as one vehicle may be in a deep ditch.
As the Laura report states, working a Hiab in darkness and under electric cables they insist that two men are employed. The vehicles are then recovered to our premises for inspection by the police investigation officer. This may mean setting up the two vehicles in the impact position again. And then the police Vehicle Investigation Branch inspectors do a full vehicle examination on our premises.
We face the cost of insuring our vehicles and the large indemnity; the testing of vehicles and equipment training courses; and the responsibility of the owners' belongings. To be asked to do all this for .£.80 is a joke, Most operators in this area are loaded with 40 to 80 abandoned vehicles whose owners cannot be traced. We have to keep these vehicles for 90 days, after which we still cannot move them as no one will take them off our hands unless we pay. As we have not been paid for recovery or storage charges these vehicles are left to rot. The charge for recovering and storage should be left to the insurance people and recovery operators, as the assessors know who the rip-off merchants are.
W Fiissey,
East Yorkshire.