Johnson Towing & Recovery

To Whom It May Concern,
Whiteside County Police Dept called us out to the railroad crossing at Jackson St in Morrison IL at 10:30 am. They called us and told us that a semi car hauler was stuck on the tracks with two cars loaded and they wanted us to get over there as quickly as possible to get this truck removed. They did not know the condition Of the issue and told us to hurry there. So, we took two rotators out there because we did not know the condition and the police wanted it removed immediately. It is a half hour over to Morrison, we were on the site for 1 hour and 10 minutes and it is another half hour back to our port. We also had to sit on scene and wait until the driver could come up with payment Then he did not provide payment and we were not sitting In Morrison all afternoon until we got payment, so we escorted the driver back to our terminal,
The county and state police departments have an allowed minimum hourly charge that we can charge on a bill. It is 3 hours for any driveaway vehicle and 4 hours for any towaway vehicle. We would normally tow the vehicle If the owner does not have payment on scene. This time we agreed to escort the vehicle back to our shop and save the tow fee. We also took two rotators out there and only charged for the one, We only charged for the extra person even though we had two rotators on scene, for the police, who requested we get out there as quickly as possible. The rigging and recovery supervisors are valid charges. We had to pay to send our employees down to a class to learn how to safely rig and recover vehicles in various situations. This one required two people to properly rig the rear end of the trailer and maneuver back to a spot over the tracks where it was not stuck. One of our employees on scene stated that he was heavily needed for rigging and guiding of the trailer over the tracks. This is a very dangerous situation due to the fact a train could have came at any minute and done a lot more damage, as it has happened at those tracks before.
As for the payment situation, we do not have to accept credit/debit card payments. we have had numerous situations where we have gotten into a problem with people cancelling or having fraudulent cards. So, we gave him the option to pay with certified funds or cash. We were not going to sit in Morrison all afternoon waiting for payment to be made so we allowed him to sit in our towing lot until he could get the proper payment, Also, he dd not have 10 minutes to make payment, he had 10 minutes before we were closing the gate and he could come back when he had payment. We were not rushing his payment; we just could not sit and wait all day due to other work that needed done. Once he had the payment, we came back, and he was able to leave-
All in all, our bill is fair and less than what it should have been, The work done was longer than 20 minutes, as the customer falsely stated. We gave him a few options to make payment for his bill and allowed him to sit at our tow yard to gather the payment. The police were very adamant about getting to Morrison as soon as possible and getting the truck and trailer off the tracks as quickly as we could. We were very prompt and thorough on the job.