News

Hello, hope all is well and everyone has been enjoying the weekend as best as possible.

We have some extremely important news to share with our membership with respect to issues surrounding the ongoing unprofessional and criminal conduct of the predatory operators known as "THE CHASERS" that have infiltrated our Province.

We have recently been notified by The Alberta Government that a new ORDER IN COUNCIL has been issued amending the USE OF HIGHWAY RULES OF THE ROAD under the TRAFFIC SAFETY ACT (copy attached hereto). The amendment now makes it an offence under the TRAFFIC SAFETY ACT for the driver of a tow truck to stop or park the tow truck on a highway within 200 m of a damaged or disabled motor vehicle unless directed or requested by a peace officer, emergency vehicle personnel or the owner or driver of the motor vehicle. This will be an extremely useful tool for Law Enforcement in the efforts to combat the actions of these predatory actors who are not only victimizing vehicle owners and/or operators, defrauding insurance companies but also bringing disrespect to the image of our industry. While the fine penalty is not yet known it is expected that it will also include demerit points on an offender's driver's licence.

This new initiative by the Government is greatly welcomed and will be more enforced in the larger metropolitan cities of the Province where the predators are primarily operating but in addition will now provide protection for all rural and suburban areas and their respective towing industry operators.

The action taken by the Government comes on the heels of your Association being recognized as a professional group and a major stakeholder to the issues involved. We were invited to participate in a series of three virtual online round tables with bureaucrats from all areas of the Government in which regulation of our industry was a possibility and could have been considered. While we are not attempting to take full credit for deflecting the idea of regulations we believe that our input and contributions played a significant part in deflecting that possibility.

We are proud to have represented our entire membership and the industry at large in The Province of Alberta with this matter and believe that the final result is a true testament to what our unified and professional Association has to offer to all industry members.

Thank you and best regards,

Garry LEACH
PRESIDENT