A tow truck operator is warning that towies will refuse to impound cars for police when the new fleeing driver laws come into force next month.
John Abbott, of Wairarapa Auto Services who has been towing cars for over 30 years said he's lost "tens of thousands of dollars" when impounding cars for police.
He said it often simply doesn't make financial sense for the offenders to pay to collect their vehicles.
"A lot of these cars we're picking up, no offence to them, but they're pieces of s**t. They really are, half of them don't got a warrant, they're not registered and that's the way it is and they [the owner] say 'oh, I'll just go and get another car'."
The former Labour Government introduced the new fleeing driver policy in August last year saying they wanted to crack down on the increasing trend of people trying to outrun the police.
In 2022 there were more than 8600 incidents where drivers fled the police, up from 6700 the year before.
Transport officials advised the former government that 10 to 15% of cars that are impounded for 28 days are abandoned. They expected that to rise to as high as 60% when they were impounded for 6 months.
Originally, the former Labour government proposed to introduce a financial assurance scheme to make sure tow truck companies were compensated, but that was dumped from the legislation.
Labour's police spokersperson Ginny Andersen said the Government decided "it wasn't fair for taxpayers to be funding offenders illegal activities".
1News asked Andersen if it was fair for her Government to introduce a policy it knew would leave tow truck companies out of pocket.
"It's important that people who flee Police are held accountable and it's important police have those tools should they wish to use it," Andersen replied.
Motor Trade Association's chief executive Lee Marshall said the reality is most vehicles that get impounded are not safe, often unwarranted and unregistered and their owners are unlikely to pay the impound fines.
"I think it only makes sense in that circumstance that the billing responsibility should really rest with the government but it continues to live with the towies," Marshall said.
Most towing businesses are small businesses by nature and we're aware of a number of them that have over $100,000 in outstanding towing fees and storage charges for work ordered by the police."
The new Transport Minister Simeon Brown told 1News he's aware of the industry's concerns and he is now seeking advice from officials about the financial assurance scheme that the former government scrapped.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell was also recently warned by police that the fleeing driver policy could poison their already strained relationship with tow truck companies, because so many more vehicles are likely to be abandoned.
"If this occurred, towage and storage operators could stop accepting police-ordered impoundments or risk significant financial loss in unpaid fees (approximately $2,250 per vehicle)".
"There are already limited towage operators available and willing to support police, particularly in provincial and rural areas," police said.
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