Thursday, January 1, 2009

Proof Of Reincarnation In Dallas: Lone Star Towing Tries To Come Back Under Other Names

Flickr.com Photo

According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, click here, officials in Dallas are trying hard to avoid another "vehicle-towing debacle" during Cotton Bowl festivities.

An entity called "Lone Star Towing" was...

...associated with a big PR black eye for the city of Dallas due to a previous incident. As discussed here on Towing Utopia, (click for blog post, and also click here) the company snatched vehicles under dubious excuses, and many locals suspect individuals who were associated with Lone Star created "towing traps" to lure the unwary.

Now the article in the Dallas Morning News discusses Lone Star using a tactic common in the predatory towing biz...though the article doesn't make mention of the bigger national pattern, or how common this tactic is. But the article does point out individuals associated with Lone Star--now apparently defunct due to its license being revoked--are trying to come back as "Champion Tows" and "Ideal Towing."

Some other information I picked up, hanging around the virtual gas stations of the internet, says both businesses are located at this address:

8035 East RL Thornton Boulevard, Dallas.

Good to know.

Meanwhile, public officials in Dallas are engaged in a classic case of locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen, closely watching to make sure predatory towing doesn't happen during the Cotton Bowl even while Lone Star reconstitutes itself under their very noses.

You can't get rid of "bad apples" in the towing business, at least not in the present historical period of poor regulation. Only systemic changes will make a difference, especially those changes which use technology to track what is happening with towing, and make the information available to all concerned in the "towing life cycle."

Click here for an article in which "towing life cycle" is used as a term. Love that term. It's so...holistic.

P.S. Am I the only one who notices that ugly Gap billboard ruining the Dallas skyline in the photo above?

No...no, it can't just be me.

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