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-   -   Mumbai Towing Service: Is this how our cars are towed? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/56646-mumbai-towing-service-how-our-cars-towed-2.html)

I NEVER Park on the street in the city. I always use the Pay&Parks. Even the fishbone slots in park avenue is not safe in Cochin.

But... I sometimes feel like deflating all the tyres and towing without lifting some of the cars, parked by total MORONs with absolutely no concern for the law, civic sense, or consideration for other users of the road. Costlier the car, worse the violation, normally.

I know, I know. What did the CAR do wrong? Nothing. Maybe that is an occupational hazard of serving a MORON owner.

that is ridiculously ridiculous man! there are better ways of towing a car. somebody needs to teach such people some lesson. this is just not acceptable. imagine getting your car back in such a condition.

Oh god!!!

I hope you weren't the unlucky fellow taking all these videos?

A simple solution is to have the MNS flag in Mumbai and for all other states, a flag of the ruling party!

We can't expect much from these goons who are only after money and nothing else! :Frustrati

This is insane! What is more painful is the attitude of some readers here who say "nothing can be done, so live with it, etc". Unless this attitude changes, we will truly have to live with all the ills in society. Something has to be done about this menace. Difficult for one person, but if people come together it can be much easier. Perhaps something like a PIL... are there any legal eagles here?

Raccoon, even with the risk of this treatment, people park at all kinds of places in all kinds of ways.

First: Make clearly identified parking slots
Second: People, park properly
Third: Do the enforcement properly, ie tow only wrongly parked cars, tow properly, without damage, and charge the fine and tow fees.

This is bound to happen because of the tow trucks Mumbai Traffic police out source the job to. These tucks are generations old and equipped with hooks and rubber tubes to tow a vehicle. These outsourced truck operators get money on the number of cars towed. This system encourages them to tow as many cars as possible and are always in a rush. They don't care if the car is being damaged or no as long as it is done fast.

The system needs to be changed in order to change the attitude of these towing guys. The system of parking tickets should be introduced and the fines be doubled or more. The fine should go up with repeated offense. Towing should be the last option unless the wrongly parked car needs to be moved immediately.

With Mumbai police being equipped with digital records the above rule can be implemented. No matter what, the owner of the car should be given the ticket even if someone else was driving. A form should be introduced with the help of which the actual driver can claim responsibility else the owner should be penalized.

I guess I am hoping for too much but hey what's wrong in that. I want my tax money to work.

Parking tickets? If I got one stuck under my wiper, I'd drive off and throw it in the bin at home, if not right there on the road. What would the average driver/car owner do, then?

But I do agree that towing should be the last option. Wheel clamps would be a much more practical solution in our country, where registration records can be completely out of date.

Also in my particular case, it's a TN-reg car in Delhi. Parking challans sent home after noting the vehicle number etc won't work-- the cops will neither be able to find out my registered address nor will they have jurisdiction to send a challan to TN. Theoretically, both my points in the last sentence are incorrect, but practically that's the reality. The police simply won't bother.

Disclaimer: this isn't the reason I haven't altered my vehicle's registration to Delhi :D

Hey Frank,

Thats no surprise mate, I have myself experienced the damage these morons can do. 3 yeras ago, the front bumper of my Accent was broken in two places by these morons. Unfortunately I had an emergency to attend to and did not notice it at the time. Later when I actually saw what they had done, I felt like killing someone :Frustrati
And whats up with their charges? 100 bucks is the actual fine and 200 for towing across a short distance? And destroying the bumper too?
Anything even remotely connected with the government is a pain to deal with. I'm sure everyone knows that most of these towing services are run by relatives of the cops. :deadhorse

Edit : Yes Frank, if you arrive to see your car about to be towed, legally you should just pay the 100 rupee fine & they should release your car without the towing charges being levied. Of course, I did mention the word "legally", didn't I?

And no, I will not put an MNS flag on my car. To me, that would look worse than a broken bumper.

I totally agree to what you are saying. But all the new cars now require PAN card for registration and 'if the will' is there and a system in place the owner can be traced very easily.

Example of intention: When the "No Drinking and Driving campaign" was started everyone said it wont work. The attitude was "ek do mahina chalega phir money making racket ban jayega". But thankfully majority of it is successful. Police is now able to maintain records. There should be a crack down on people who get cars registered on wrong address with sever penalty or even car confiscated. Over a period of time the entire circle will fall in place.

:OT One more solution to wrong address is that every car should have a road worthy certificate which need to be renewed every year. While issuing this certificate the car should be checked if it is suitable for road etc and its registration/owners details. Yes this would mean extra hassle for car owner and some tax money for government but I wont mind it to make driving safer.

Wheel clamps are good idea and the penalty for cutting/braking them should be jail.

i was digging through my archive of pics. and found the pics of the time my Zen was towed away. the worst part was, that there was no NO PARKING board there. they bent and scratched my bumper even then.
Another fellow's 2 month old Optra met the same fate and we both were arguing. Even then I sent photos to mid-day.
But that time was a long time ago, and we didnt have high resolution auto focus macro shots. hence they didnt act on it. but still, i shall post the photos. the white one is my zen and the black one is the optra.

PS: sorry for the noisy pictures, had to edit them to make the damage visible.

In Poona the towing chaps do a video recording of the vehicle and the place it was parked etc. Seems this isn't the case in other cities?

In spite of this my bike was lifted off from a place where the white marking line was almost totally faded. The line was hardly showing even on their video! So its not like it makes a huge difference, but its better than nothing!

This towing menace has to go... some other system has to come in place. Damaging public property is not the way to go for any goverment. I dont know why such things are not made an election issue in this country. We are too busy with non-issues I guess...

Certainly not! In Delhi you come out from the shop or office or restaurant that you'd been in for a few minutes, and look around for your vehicle. When you can't see it anywhere you think perhaps you parked further ahead and your brain is going slow with the heat/cold. When you still can't find it, you start asking people around if they've seen a tow truck come by recently-- but at the back of your head you're thinking, "What if it's been stolen?!" Finally someone tells you where the local police station and tow depot is. You take a cycle rick down to there and gaze with horror to see your beloved car sitting on top of a large pile of garbage! Then you take out your licence and vehicle RC and start yelling at all the people there (as with any government-associated place, there'll be at least ten people standing around doing nothing except scratching their crotches), but at the back of your head you know the simple truth: there's no proof of your wrongdoing beyond the word of the tow crew, but you're not going to contest it in court; you're just going to pay the fine and drive away, testing your handbrake for damage and cursing your luck at being born in this country.

Its sad indeed. However, there are some instances where I feel some people deserve this kind of treatment for their cars. Particularly in Bangalore, people dont give a damn for the no-parking signs. Fine is just 100 Rs. Parking for 4 hours in legitimate places is almost the same cost. So people risk it. If this is the treatment they get for the cars, atleast they will think twice. On many occasions I have had to take alternate routes just because of road block by haywire parking. However, Towing is not the solution. 15x fine is the only solution.

My uncle's Lancer had a similar experience, few months back, when he went to pic up the towed car.

The car has a big dent on its front bumper & few scratches & dents on one side of the car.

Overall cost of repair in few thousands.



Actually these towers are not the full time govt. employees. Govt has given the contract to pvt parties. So they just not bother about any thing.