How to become a millionair

[randy]

A friend recently had an older R1 stolen from his apartment/garage.  He filed the report and the bike was found.  So as I have a truck and trailer he asked me to go with him an pick the bike up.  It was in south Georgia somewhere.  He is a good friend from India and we attend track days together.  So he got a receipt from the impound facility.  Keep in mind, very few Police forces have an impound facility, it is all outsourced to private business.

Tow 175.00

Admin fee  125.00 (if pickup is after 30 days Admin fee is 200.00)

these are fixed costs so minimum cost is 300.00

daily impound fee is 25.00 for bike, 50.00 for standard car  75.00 for large car/trucks

 

So by time the impound company entered the information into the system and it triggered an alert with the police and the police contacted Libin, total costs were around 925.00.  Now keep in mind the bike was stolen on Saturday, impounded two weeks later on I think a Wednesday, but Libin was not contacted for 60 days.  

 

After some research it seems the "impound" lobby group is very strong.  And they have lobbied for a 120 day "pick up to recording" time elapse.  So it really is a huge conflict of interest, in that if they do not update their information in timely fashion they make more money.  In Libin's case the thief had put on different plates, so they did not realize it was Libin's bike until they ran the VIN.

 

Further research shows that most impound yards DOUBLE their rate if the vehicle is an accident  (even if it is drivable).  the reason is contrary to media hype, really about 90% of accident vehicles are insured.  so they really make good money on insurance payouts

 

of course all of this is now part of our insurance costs.

 

I spoke with the lady at the impound yard, just shooting the breeze as she completed the paper work.

 

She said for them a slow week is 20-25 impounds and a "good" week is 50 impounds.  Assuming an average of 400.00 per impound and say 20 per week for 26 weeks and 40 a week for 26 weeks, 208,000.00 + 416,000.00 = 624,000.00 per year.  This was a husband and wife team, been in the business for 30 years.  She said the key is getting in "good" with the local police departments so they are called first.  Second big item is having a paid for piece of land.  they had bought their shop/storage piece of land 32 years ago.  All paid for many years ago.

 

I know it is 24/7 work, and can be family unfriendly, and I am sure 30 years ago when they started rates were much lower, but still 600K PER YEAR towing/storing vehicles, that is a nice business.  Wow, I think I may have to talk to my youngest son about dropping out of college :-)  Any boards members friends with a local police department :-)  My son would be willing to move.

[John Ranalletta]

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She said the key is getting in "good" with the local police departments so they are called first. 

 

A doughnut wrapped in C-note occasionally does the trick.