Louisiana Towing Bills Explained

A few lines of legislation can flip towing and storage operations on their head, especially when the public assumes the tower is always the problem. We sit down with Jared Vornado, owner of Vornado and Sons Towing and Recovery in Denham Springs and president of the Towing and Recovery Professionals of Louisiana, to walk through what’s happening at the Louisiana Capitol and what it means on the ground for towers, storage yards, rental car companies, and drivers who just want their personal property back fast. 

We break down Senate Bill 431, the weekend access proposal sparked by a real-world dispute, and why the goal of fair access can still create unintended burdens if the language turns into a permanent “gotcha” rule. Then we shift to House Bill 728, a push to close loopholes that let out-of-state companies do intrastate work in Louisiana while avoiding Louisiana insurance and compliance, undercutting the operators who play by the rules. 

The biggest fight is Senate Bill 263, backed by rental car pressure and tied to the Louisiana Towing and Storage Act. We talk through shorter notification timelines, stricter documentation requirements, and the high-stakes penalty that could wipe out storage charges over a missed notice. Jared explains why the real bottleneck is often the Louisiana OMV process for out-of-state registrations, why towers shouldn’t be forced to search inside vehicles for paperwork, and what smarter solutions could look like, including third-party lookups and VIN-based search tools. If you operate in towing and recovery, manage fleet risk, or care about fair consumer access, this one is essential. Subscribe for more, share this with a towing pro in your network, and leave a review with your biggest question about these bills.

Transcript

Host Welcome And Guest Setup

SPEAKER_05 0:20

We have two folks. One of them has been in the past for 40 years. The other has come in life for many years. Who also is the general manager of product supply. No other than Wells and April Wilburn. Well and April, I turn it over to you.

SPEAKER_07 0:40

Well, thank you, DJ. As always, I appreciate the kind words. Um how are you doing today, DJ?

SPEAKER_05 0:48

I am doing fantastic. And because of our guests, I'm even doing better.

SPEAKER_07 0:55

That's awesome. You feel feel good?

SPEAKER_05 0:58

Yeah, I feel good and I appreciate all the prayers from all of our twenty plus thousand listeners.

SPEAKER_07 1:03

A lot of people ask about you, they really do. So that's why I just wanted to do that uh check up to see how you're doing. April, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_03 1:12

I am doing great. Uh the you know, the weather is weird. It was hot this weekend, then it got cold, and now it's just perfect out there. It's like in the low eighties and no humidity and there's a nice breeze. We could use some rain, but that's the that's another story. Uh I'm doing fantastic. Got some good people with me and we're gonna have a great conversation.

Meet Jared Vornado And The Stakes

SPEAKER_07 1:30

Absolutely. I'm doing well also. I'm excited about our returning guest today. Um he's uh been uh on a podcast with us. He's actually hosted the podcast for me once or twice. So I uh there's a whole lot going on in Louisiana, so I reached out to uh Jared and um to talk to him and asked him if he was available for this podcast. He said, sure, the only problem is he's picking up his brand new rotator in the dealership in Dallas and driving it uh about four hours back in uh home base just outside of Baton Rouge there. So I appreciate the fact that he's on this main voyage of his of this new rotator, he's pulled over to talk to us. So, Jared, we really appreciate that. Would you uh mind introducing yourself to to our podcast guest today?

SPEAKER_04 2:21

Sure, not a problem. My name is Jared Vornado. I own Vornado and Sons Tollen and Recovery in Denham Springs, but I'm also president of the Tottenham Recovery Professionals of Louisiana, which is the only um uh towing association in the state of Louisiana.

SPEAKER_07 2:38

And you guys just had a whole lot going on legislately, didn't you?

SPEAKER_04 2:42

Yes, we do. Um we've got three bills right now um that we're working on. Um one that we support, two that we don't. Um, but uh if you got time, we'll discuss it.

SPEAKER_07 2:58

Yeah, absolutely. We got all the time you got. Um so just real quick, wasn't there one that just got y'all defeated? And then the these there's three more coming in legislation, is that correct?

Senate Bill 431 Weekend Availability

SPEAKER_04 3:13

No, it wasn't defeated. The uh the one you're referencing was is Senate Bill 431. Um basically it says it's gonna require or it started to say it was gonna require tolling companies to be open seven days a week. Um, the morning of the hearing, he amended it and said uh basically we just have to be available. The office doesn't have to be staffed, um, but be available for four hours on Saturday, four hours on Sunday for people to remove their personal property. We'd still be allowed to accept the gate fee. Um he Senator Fall had a personal issue. Um, a tolling company refused to let uh let him get the personals for his father who was handicapped. Kind of a bad deal, but uh super nice guy. I spoke with him for about an hour last night. He's willing to work with us and try and uh create whatever works best for all of us, but to make it fair to the public that you know there's got to be some kind of uh way for them to get their personals. Um so we're working on that. And then there is two other bills. Um one of them that we're from the toll association standpoint, we're highly um for. It's House Bill 728. Um what this does, and there was some false information that got put out on TOE Talk um on Facebook, but this is this is the the meat and potatoes of it.

SPEAKER_07 4:52

What's the problem on Facebook? Stop the press.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

Uh I know it's a shocker. It's a shocker. Um it's no different than like that's okay. It's no different than what Texas does. Um, you know, an out-of-state company can tow a vehicle into Texas, but they have to leave. Or if their customer is in Texas, they can pick that vehicle up, but they have to leave. They can't do intrastate work. Um there was a loophole between Title 55 and Title 32 in Louisiana. Um, and so this is the they've rewritten the bill to basically say if you're an out-of-state company, you cannot come in the state of Louisiana and do intrastate work, meaning you have to have a designated pickup or drop-off location and you must return back to your home base.

SPEAKER_07 5:39

Yeah, well, that's that's been the standard for years, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 5:44

Well, it it was, but there's there's there was some some companies that had came in from out-of-state and um opened up business running out of state license plates, um, out-of-state insurance in the state of Louisiana to operate under Louisiana law, you were you have to have a Louisiana toe tag and you have to have Louisiana insurance. Um and so what this did is is close that loophole to where if you're not a Louisiana resident company following by the guidelines, you have to go home. So the and that was because of the insurance being so high in the state of Louisiana, there was some companies that made some fake companies out of state, registered their trucks there, and they're still doing business in the state of Louisiana. The uh third bill that is a huge battle is Senate Bill 263. This bill was pushed through by Enterprise Runner Car. Um I know this is another shocker, but Louisiana database is still in the stone ages. And so for an out-of-state vehicle, that's a vehicle that's registered out of state, it may take us up to anywhere between three to six months to get back that information depending on the state it's registered in. Enterprise is upset because they were losing vehicles or would be hit with you know six months' storage when they went through to get their vehicle because they weren't notified. And so instead of doing their research and figuring out the problem, of course, they attacked the towing industry and said, You're gonna change the way you do business. Um, and I'll I'll read you a little um basically what it says. Um the Louisiana Towing and Storage Act to enhance the procedures for establishing vehicle ownership in the state of origin for stored vehicles. The bill mandates that within five business days of attaining a vehicle, the owner of a towing company's storage or parking facility must make a good faith effort to determine the vehicle's registration state by examining various sources, including the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles database and other relevant documentation. Additionally, the time frame for notifying vehicle owners and lien holders has been reduced from 10 to 7 business days with specific notice requirements outlined, including details about the vehicle and the right to request an administrative hearing. Notably, if the facility fails to comply with these notice requirements, they cannot impose storage charges. The bill also stipulates that when surrendering a stored vehicle.

SPEAKER_07 8:41

So hang hang hang on a second. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

Let's ask the question.

SPEAKER_07 8:45

If they don't serve time notice in time, they miss it by a day or two. Uh you know, to the to the owner, leanholder, whatever, they don't get any charges or they don't get the that storage any storage charges. Even though okay. So they they give up all storage charges that they failed to notify a time.

SPEAKER_06 9:09

Correct. Well, that'll seem totally fair to the tower.

SPEAKER_07 9:14

But anyway, I'm sorry for interrupted.

SPEAKER_04 9:17

It's okay. The bill also stipulates that when surrendering a stored vehicle, towing storage operators must accept various forms of documentation as proof of interest in the vehicle, such as electronic or paper titles and contracts. Furthermore, it requires operators to provide an itemized invoice detailing the towing and storage charges, as well as to allow inspection of the vehicle and the release of personal property not affixed to it within one hour of the request. The legislation clarifies that a rental vehicle agreement does not establish agency for the purpose of releasing the vehicle, but mandates that personal property belongings to the renter must be returned promptly. The proposed changes are set to take effect on August 1st.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Um summarize that for us, um Jared.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

So I I want to reiterate one part that they left out in this little excerpt that was in our uh in the bill that they sent us.

SPEAKER_07 10:23

Part of the I don't mean to interrupt, but I've got to uh point out something that we we failed to do as well.

SPEAKER_05 11:42

Welcome back, listeners. Of course, you know you're listening to the Telling News Now podcast. This is a podcast that's available to you all over Western April. Willburns are available every week on this podcast. We want to remind all of you, you can download and listen on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, Sitcher, iHeartMedia, or wherever you get your podcast. We can't thank you enough for telling your friends about this podcast, and I hope you continue doing it. Or Wes, I'll turn it back over to you. This has been Gary, and Jared has brought so much good information to all of us that I hope you're taking note.

SPEAKER_07 12:31

Yeah, Jared, it is good information, and I definitely appreciate you taking time on your maiden voice with your new rotator. I didn't we didn't even tell the people what you got. Tell tell us what what your truck is exactly. It's a T-880 twin steer uh 1150 five inch with a knee button. Oh, that's awesome. And y'all, can I see on Facebook you already have the flag put on it?

SPEAKER_04 12:56

Yes, sir. I I picked it up from Texas trucker sales. They uh they painted it and was finished with it about a week ago and just haven't had time to get up there to get it yet.

What To Tell Your Legislator

SPEAKER_07 13:06

Yeah, well about 30 years ago your company established that that flag look. It's a gorgeous look. If anybody's ever seen it on one of your trucks, um the flag scene truck is definitely awesome. Thank you. Thank you for taking time to stop and making the promotion for this uh conversation. So we got a good idea, I think, of what the bills are. And we're talking about doing a summary of them, but part of that summary ought to be what if there's a people listening in Louisiana, which are a whole lot of Louisiana listeners on the podcast. If they're listening, what they need to call up or write to their state representative and say what if they're for this bill or against this bill, showing up saying, right?

SPEAKER_06 13:56

Sure.

SPEAKER_07 13:57

Um so and the the first bill was the the main subject was having to be open on the weekends, right?

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Uh the first bill was the uh yeah, the uh Senate Bill 431, um, and that is Senator Fall and the towing industry got together and really showed up and showed out, and they they emailed and called everybody on the Senate committee. Um, and like I said, Senator Full is a very understanding man. I I I spent an hour on the phone with him last night. Um, he wants to work with us. My goal is to get him to actually kill the bill and allow us, along with state police, to just go in and edit what's there for Title 55 to eliminate an extra law on the books for somebody to get mad and go and alter that we've got to go back and battle. Um, so I think we can we can all come to an agreement on something. Um, because look, in in the situation where uh it wasn't somebody else's vehicle and and they were riding and they needed to get their personals, um, this was somebody that needed some medical equipment and and was not able to get to it until Monday. Um so I I sympathize with him on it. You know, we're we're working together with that.

SPEAKER_07 15:27

What's our bill number?

SPEAKER_04 15:29

Uh Senate Bill 431.

SPEAKER_07 15:32

So if you're taking notes at home to make your phone call, so if you haven't called or emailed, Senate Bill 431, uh oppose the bill or kill the bill. How do you word it?

House Bill 728 Out Of State Towers

SPEAKER_04 15:44

Uh it really at this point is is you know, ask him to, you know, obviously oppose it and and ask him if you would kill it. Um it like I said, it it we don't need another bill on the book or another law on the books for towing. That's that's what title 55 and 32 is are there for. The laws are already in place, they just need some fine-tuning.

SPEAKER_07 16:09

Okay. So that was the first bill.

SPEAKER_04 16:14

Yes, the second bill is House Bill 728, and that is pertaining to the uh out-of-state towers. Um if you're against this bill and you're operating in the state of Louisiana, I would love to have a conversation with you. Um to be honest with you. Um it it's aggravating to see these guys come in from out of state and set up shop and just continue to operate and and without any regulations.

SPEAKER_07 16:50

Oh yeah, a very unlevel playing field at that point. I definitely have appreciation for how that must or the people are doing it the right way.

SPEAKER_04 16:59

Yeah. Um, and then the last bill now hang on a second.

SPEAKER_07 17:03

Let's let's what is that second bill? What's the number again?

SPEAKER_04 17:07

House Bill 728.

SPEAKER_07 17:10

And we're in favor of that or against it?

SPEAKER_04 17:15

We are in favor of it, yes.

Senate Bill 263 Storage Notice Fight

SPEAKER_07 17:17

Okay, so it's gonna put the burden on the people not doing it right.

unknown 17:21

Correct.

SPEAKER_07 17:24

All right. Go ahead. What's our third one?

SPEAKER_04 17:27

Senate Bill 263. And uh, like I said, what what this is is enterprise trying to make us do things. So one of the things that has got left out in this um legislative snippet, um, in the bill, they wanted us. So let me back up. In Louisiana, office the motor vehicle. Um, when you get a vehicle in, you have to send notification to office motor vehicle to say, hey, we've got this vehicle, we need the vehicle information back. They it there's third-party companies that we could use to do that and get it much faster than through office motor vehicle. The problem is if we do that and go through a third party and get that information, office motor vehicle finds the and during the paperwork process, if they find that, they will kick the paperwork process back, and you have to start it all over again, and you lose your storage. So it's we're we're our hands are forced to use off the motor vehicle, whereas we could use toll lane and get it within a very short amount of time, and motor vehicle doesn't allow that. So we brought that to their attention. Office the motor vehicle said, no, that's not the case, but they couldn't save what the case was, they wouldn't admit their faults. Um, the other part of this is in their proposal for us to find out who the vehicle belongs to. They wanted us to have to dig through a vehicle, open a glove box, find a registration, read an inspection sticker, um, whatever we could do to find that. And we were like, absolutely not. We're not going in a vehicle digging through it to try and find this information, because that opens us up for some kind of liability of the customer saying, Well, you know, my watch is missing, or or my personal belongings have been stolen, and y'all went in the vehicle to find out who it belonged to. So we're definitely opposed to that. Um ultimately this bill falls on the hands of office motor vehicle until we can get them to fess up to their shortcomings of uh slow and painful time frame of getting information. I I don't know where this bill is gonna go. Uh we're fighting it tooth and nail. We've hired a lobbyist and uh we're we're gonna fight it.

SPEAKER_07 20:10

So the association's hired a lobbyist.

SPEAKER_06 20:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 20:14

That's excellent. I hope everybody's listening. If you're involved in the telebusiness in Louisiana, you need to be a part of the association and help fund that. Lobbyists are when they're making the school also is a huge deal.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

Also, if you're in other estate too and you're a part of an association, these are good things if you um get educated on for your state because you know if this has already happened to you andor if if it hasn't educated coming.

SPEAKER_07 20:44

So let me get this straight. They you have two you towed a vehicle, you held it for what, two or three days, I guess you almost gotta get started to get the paperwork done by seven if you can. Right. So you you realize the car is probably not moving you're what's realistic, three or four days in?

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Um most people send it in the the first day it comes in. Um that way because office of motor vehicle is so slow about what they do, um you want to send it in as fast as you can.

SPEAKER_07 21:20

That's where I was headed with that. I file the paperwork today. How long does uh does the office of motor vehicles generally take to get you the information back? Are they getting it within that seven business days?

SPEAKER_06 21:36

If it's an out-of-state vehicle, absolutely not. In state they are, though. In state they are, yeah. Yeah, out of state though is no problem with how to work from what I know. With processing the car and notifying people.

SPEAKER_04 21:58

And not to complain. not to completely beat up on office motor vehicle. They do have a new program that they are um slowly trying to work in, but they're having to move information from the old computer to the old program to the new computer or program. And they are actively working. They do have a plan. Unfortunately, we had a a a Zoom meeting with um also Motor Vehicles, State Police, Enterprise attorneys, senators, and and they completely did everything they could to deflect that it was they're the biggest part of the problem.

SPEAKER_06 22:43

Yeah, I bet it is So what's the what what's the future on that do you think?

SPEAKER_07 22:56

What's going to happen?

SPEAKER_04 22:58

So the the we basically took their bill, um rewrote it, made some proposals that they would allow us to use a third party on an out-of-state vehicle. The other uh suggestion that we had was use a website um I don't remember the URL I believe it's it's findmyvehicle.com or something like that and make it to where if it's an out-of-state vehicle or all vehicles that you would go in and enter the VIN number on this database. So if Enterprise was looking for their vehicle they could search you know find my vehicle and type in the VIN number and it would pop up and go, hey this vehicle is at West's towing company and you know wherever they weren't really subjective to any change to their bill but they they've got to understand that our our hands are tied and it's not the towing company's fault. There was some things that got brought up that there was some towing companies playing games of holding it hostage because the registered owner had to come get the vehicle even though they sent a uh associate from the company to come get it. And so you know there's some bad business practices all the way around but uh ultimately the biggest problem is they're not getting notified to let them know where the vehicle is and that ultimately falls on the hands of Australia.

SPEAKER_07 24:40

They're not that's not an unreasonable thing we would ask you know and one of the things about it I was thinking about the searching through the vehicle trying to find the tech to a lot of times if the car's not registered in the state they something funny about the registration i.e in other words bad tags on the car etc when I say bad tags tags that don't belong so sometimes people take into account cars that end up as you have a whole item don't belong to some of the not nice people.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

Well and and the other part of the the the problem is used to uh rental companies had to have a you know commercial or rental rental tag they all had badges you know the little stickers on the back of the car saying hey this belongs to enterprise or you know Pittskee or or whoever and now it's regular private tags. So there there's we're limited on notification. If you if the vehicle was unlocked and you look at the registration it's not to enterprise rental it's to um I think uh EC holdings or something like that. If you don't have the keys you don't really know who that is right.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

I think they had to change the uh rental tag that uh on the indicators when the license late the criminals taking advantage of that yeah I think uh once you live in the airport and they see the equivalent see the rental tag they see a good mark so they change that that protects the citizen but it doesn't protect the tower so to speak.

Sponsor Break And Listener Resources

SPEAKER_07 26:27

Florida was eat up with that towards getting attacked in a rental car thing for a while. So speaking of getting attacked I gotta take another quick break and we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

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SPEAKER_05 27:42

That's 910 7479000 we look forward to serving you welcome back listeners of course you know you're listening to Telling News Now podcast this has been a great interview I want to remind all of you if you have an association you want to have information or you have a product that you would like to talk about with April and Wes Wilburn just dial our number right here in the podcast studio 706-4095603 and we would love to put your product on this air towing news now we also sell products from TonyEquipmentDirect.com if you're looking for training you can go to AMTOW R I sign up andor a call uh 636800 ATRI and if you want to write down that it's 636800 2874 and they'll tell you about the five bar throughout the country.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

And we're back with Jared Barnado he was talking about um the House bills and the Senate bills that he's uh struggling with providing for his last coach.

SPEAKER_04 28:52

Welcome back Jared do y'all have any questions so far?

SPEAKER_07 29:00

No I think we've covered it pretty good. I the only question I have is how can people get involved with the association or and or what should that next step be kind contacting their legislature I guess would be one of them.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

Contacting the legislature to tell them you know hey we don't like this bill get rid of it here's why be cordial please don't be ugly they are people too if you are interested in joining the association and you're not a member and you got some questions or would like to you know know more about it you can call me anytime you can reach me on my cell phone it's 225 620 7452. If you would like to email me my personal email is Jared J A R E D M Vernadov at gmail dot com.

Final Thanks And Equipment Plug

SPEAKER_07 29:53

Well Jared we certainly appreciate you pulling over and stopping and taking time to talk to us and congratulations on your new truck or congratulations I'm sorry you know that's what I normally say to anybody. But good luck with it and thanks for taking the time and if something pops up give us a call come back on or if we see something going on we'll ask you to come back as well. So thank you and be safe on your ride.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

Thank you I'm always available and uh like I said uh thanks to the great training from Wes Wilbur I I think I I feel pretty comfortable in in putting it in business.

SPEAKER_07 30:27

That's awesome. So I just want to let everybody know that I'm working here with April she's done a tremendous job with the website towing equipmentdirect.com now we don't have it like one of the huge corporations but we it's a good solid website we're working on it every day up here at shops making chain assemblies coming up with ideas like my medium duty to re trap kit so there's a lot of exciting stuff going on so make sure you check us out towing equipmentdirect dot com or call us at nine one oh seven four seven nine thousand thanks for listening be safe