Is it “Son of Towgate,” or simply good old American capitalism?

A recent amendment to the Utah Highway Patrol towing contract in Morgan County has one local tow company owner crying foul, saying the new arrangement will cost him $70,000 in business this year. However, other area tow-truck operators question that figure, and say the new arrangement is simply free enterprise at work.

Dale Winterton, owner of Winterton Automotive Towing in Morgan, Ogden and Layton, says UHP’s new rotation schedule for calling tow trucks to Morgan County wrecks may put him out of business.

The UHP has contracts with towing companies in various counties throughout the state. Whenever UHP needs a vehicle towed — often called a non-consent tow — it uses a “tow rotation” schedule compiled from eligible tow operators in that county. Until recently, that rotation schedule in Morgan County involved only the two companies that had both business licenses and impound yards in the county.

However, in January, following in the wake of a petition signed by 33 of 35 Weber County towing companies, UHP decided to combine Weber and Morgan counties, and include those Weber County tow companies in the Morgan County rotation schedule. Now, instead of being one of only two tow-truck operators sharing the UHP rotation in the county, Winterton is in a rotation involving some 39 spots.

’Cutthroat’ industry

Winterton claims the amended rotation contract targets him unfairly. He says it smacks of “towgate,” the 15-year-old scandal in which three Ogden police officers were fired for giving preferential business to one tow company in exchange for favors.

But Lt. Chris Simmons, UHP commander over Weber and Morgan counties, says — if anything — this amendment avoids the possibility of favoritism toward one company.

“This does the opposite of the ‘towgate’ allegation,” Simmons said. “It opens the rotation up.”

Winterton calls the towing industry “very cutthroat.” He believes the amended UHP contract is the result of bad blood between him and Casey Snyder, owner of Lost Recovery Inc., in Ogden. Winterton worked for 13 years as a tow-truck driver at Snyder’s repossession company. Depending upon who’s telling the story, 3 ½ years ago Winterton either quit or was fired from Snyder’s repo business.

Winterton says this amended contract is nothing short of retaliation.

“All Lost Recovery wants is to hurt my business,” Winterton said. “That extra two or three tows a year they get (in the Morgan rotation) isn’t going to help them, but all the tows I’m losing will hurt me. He’s doing that on purpose.”

Snyder denies that hurting Winterton’s business is his intent with moving into the Morgan rotation.

“It’s free enterprise,” he said. “We should be able to grow our business and be in that area.”

And Snyder insists he feels no ill will toward Winterton.

“He’s got the bad blood between us,” Snyder said. “We have no issues with him. He used to work for me, and left on bad terms. But you can’t dwell on the past.

“We’re all adults,” Snyder concludes. “He needs to grow up.”

Snyder says he did help circulate the petition to open up the tow rotation, but insists it wasn’t his idea.

As entertaining as all this may be, Steve Gary, owner of AMS Towing in Ogden, says it’s just business-as-usual for the tow industry.

“This Morgan County thing is not an anomaly,” Gary said. “It happens all over the state.”

Gary says that, especially in rural counties, favoritism reigns. And, he says, tow companies create new towing businesses just to get more spots on these non-consent tow rotations. According to Gary, there are 25 tow companies in Weber County “that can be traced back to seven to 10 guys.”

“People play name games and paper games,” he said. “It’s a shell game.”

Gary says if Winterton was only participating in the Morgan County rotation, and not in the Weber and Davis county rotations, he never would have signed the petition.

“If he was truly just a Morgan County tower, then I’d think the Highway Patrol did something wrong,” Gary said. “But he’s been participating in the Weber County rotation.”

Multiple impound lots

However, Winterton counters that there’s one important difference: He was told he had to have separate business licenses and impound lots in the counties in which he operates.

“I operate out of Weber and Davis, too, but they require things out of me they’re not requiring of others,” Winterton said. “My answer? Let ’em come up (to Morgan County). But then they should have to have a business license and a tow yard here in the county.”

Logan Wilde, chairman of the Morgan County Council, sides with Winterton, and says he’s been in touch with public safety officials about allowing tow companies from outside the county to operate there.

“My issue is, when you allow a company to come into a county without going through the legal process, you’re circumnavigating the law,” he said.

Wilde is concerned that most of the revenue from the amended rotation now goes to Weber County.

“It’s bad economics, and bad politics,” he said. “For a government official to change some rules just for one county, I question the motives. If you wanna do it, do it like Salt Lake County, or Davis County. You don’t get on the rotation unless you’re a supporting member of the community.”

Issue of response times

Morgan County Sheriff Blaine Breshears says his office has its own tow rotation, and that it will continue to use tow companies with business licenses and tow yards in the county.

“The reason we did it this way is to support local businesses, and to ensure faster response time,” he said. “If we’re up on top of Big Mountain, it takes a half-hour to 40 minutes, just from Morgan. Coming from Weber County would take even longer.”

Breshears says he simply wants to clear the traffic hazard as quickly and safely as possible.

“It’s a public safety issue,” he said. “And, it seems you never have enough men. The longer you’re waiting (for a tow truck), the longer before your deputies are back in service.”

Winterton believes tow trucks coming from Weber County will increase that wait time.

“You’ll have troopers waiting two and three times longer to clear a wreck,” Winterton said.

Simmons agrees safety is paramount, but he also says including Weber County companies in the Morgan County rotation hasn’t increased response times significantly. Under the old contract, tow companies were required to respond within 20 minutes of a call. The amended contract increased that window to 30 minutes, but Simmons says the response time this year is still right around 22 minutes.

“Everybody talks about response times to the top of Big Mountain,” he said. “But I’ve been here four years, and we haven’t had one call to the top of Big Mountain.”

He also points out that opening up the rotation schedule doesn’t mean Morgan County residents are required to use a Weber County towing business.

Says Simmons: “The first thing a trooper asks a motorist on a consent tow is, ‘Do you have a preference on the tow truck?’ “

Simmons says he has no problem with Winterton advertising to encourage Morgan County residents to shop locally.

“If Dale wants to pass out business cards to every citizen in Morgan County, that would be fine by me,” he said.

UHP Sgt. Bryce Kohler, who oversees the towing rotation in Weber and Morgan counties, says the vast majority of towing companies in the area — 33 of 35 — were in favor of the contract amendment.

“One rotation (for both counties) cuts out a lot of confusion,” he said.

Compromise offer rejected

Only Winterton and Neil Schultz, of Ogden’s B&R Towing, didn’t sign the petition. Schultz is president of the Ogden Weber Towing Association.

“No one has had a problem with this, with the exception of Dale,” Kohler said. “We had two additional meetings to try to work with him.”

Kohler said he and Simmons offered Winterton the opportunity to double his spots in the new tow rotation.

“We said, ‘We understand this will affect your business; why not create two extra businesses for the rotation?’ ” Kohler said. “He was happy with that.”

However, Kohler says Winterton didn’t complete the applications for the two extra spots.

“We basically feel we’ve given him an opportunity to better his business — to double his business,” Kohler said. “Instead of two rotation spots, he’d have four. But he didn’t take advantage of that.”

Neil Schultz, the association president, says he doesn’t really have an opinion on the towing contract amendment.

“My opinion is, I wouldn’t have signed the petition,” he said.

However, now that it’s a done deal, Schultz says he’ll live with it.

Says Schultz: “Do I want to put Dale out of business? No. Do I want to hurt him? No. But I don’t have a dog in the fight. If it moved back to the way it was before, it wouldn’t bother me at all.”

Survival instincts

Schultz says it’s just tow-truck operators, being territorial.

“There’s always people who are very territorial, who want more business,” he said. “It’s no different than it’s been in this country for the last 40 or 50 years. If somebody can get a bigger piece of the pie, they’ll always reach for it. People saw an opportunity. I don’t think they necessarily wanted to hurt Dale.”

However, AMS Towing’s Steve Gary points out that it’s a finite pie everybody’s trying to split.

“If I put a new towing company on the road tomorrow, more cars aren’t going to crash,” he said. “My heartburn is that a lot of people are complaining about everybody else, while they’re doing the exact same thing. But you almost have to do it to survive in this business.”

Kohler says the non-consent tows that UHP doles out shouldn’t be making or breaking any tow company.

“If your business model depends on us, you’re in the wrong business,” he said.

Legal action threatened

Winterton says he’ll continue to fight the Morgan County contract amendment, and may even consider legal action.

“If somebody took $70,000 out of your income for the year, you’d fight, too,” he said. “If this thing stays the way it is, I have a lawsuit.”

Simmons is feeling frustration over the latest flap.

“Quite frankly, I’ve got a section to run,” he said. “I don’t have time to deal with this. It takes time away from UHP business.”

Simmons says he’s just trying to provide “the best possible product to the motoring public.” And, he calls the new contract “the perfect opportunity for free enterprise.” What’s more, the change isn’t set in stone.

“If we get to the end of the year and pull the numbers, and it hasn’t made us more effective, or it’s put troopers at risk, we’ll go back to the drawing board,” Simmons said. “I told Dale, ‘You’ve got to allow me a year to try this.’ “

But Winterton insists with his loss of business, he may not be there in a year.

“If this happens, I’m going to have to close up shop,” he said.

Contact Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, or msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SEMarkSaal.