A task force charged with finding solutions to the state’s problems with predatory towing is preparing to recommend that Maryland form a state Board of Towing to license and regulate towing companies.

At a meeting in College Park, the Task Force to Study Motor-Vehicle Towing Practices discussed draft legislation that drew heavily from Virginia’s towing regulations as well as from the state’s rules governing electricians and would give this new board the power to shut down “rogue” towing companies.

Recommendations from previous state towing task forces were never enacted, leaving the problem of what the current group’s members called “renegades” and “profiteers” who are too aggressive to tow a car or who overcharge their customers.

However, beyond the basic idea of a state board regulating towing companies, the members of the task force – which includes about two each of towing company officials, police officers, state delegates, Motor Vehicle Administration officials, insurance company executives and members of the general public lacked consensus.

Towers were concerned about the makeup of the board, which in the proposal would be similar to that of the task force. They would rather see Maryland more closely follow Virginia’s example and have the board made up mostly of representatives from the towing industry.

“We should be allowed to regulate ourselves,” said Fred Scheler, president of Towing and Recovery Professionals of Maryland. “If the insurance company is going to come and sit on my board, I want to go sit on the insurance company’s board.”

In an earlier task force meeting, Scheler had said it’s in the towing industry’s best interest to see “snatch-and-grab” “gypsy towers” – often independent operations with no fixed address that are limited to a pickup truck and a driver – shut down because they make reputable companies look bad.

The task force is due to provide its recommendations to the state by the end of the year, but College Park City Manager Joe Nagro, the chair of the task force, plans to ask for a few more weeks to hammer out the details of their recommendations.

-Senior staff writer Brady Holt