WITH NO regulatory framework in place, the multimillion-dollar wrecking business is wide open to corruption, with many players in the industry raking in huge sums.
Unlike other transport service providers who work from set rates, such as haulage operators, wrecker operators charge arbitrarily for their services.
Last year, wrecker operators contracted to the Transport Authority earned $24 million, while the agency collected $25 million.
Millions of dollars more in revenue from the wrecking business is generated by the activities of other state agencies,ß including parish councils and the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
Too many single operators
"There are too many single operators out there who are connected with agents of the state and such a situation breeds corruption," Cary Gordon, director of 1-888 WRECKER, one of the largest operators islandwide, tells The Sunday Gleaner. "The industry needs to be regulated!"
This industry started about 15 years ago and has grown into a big money earner for small and large investors alike.
But it has also created an avenue for reported corruption between wrecker services, agents of the state and the motoring public.
From units with the latest computerised devices to ordinary pick-up trucks with creative contraptions, operators in this lucrative trade are seen lurking in no-parking areas or parked as predators along the roadway, more often than not in the vicinity of a traffic operation being conducted by the police.
The JCF has the overall responsibility for traffic management throughout the island.
The municipal authorities have the portfolio for parking regu-lations in their respective towns, and are responsible for putting measures in place to maintain an efficient traffic flow.
The Transport Authority has direct responsibility for regulating and monitoring public passenger transportation in Jamaica.
Criticism and condemnation
"I am not afraid to tell you that the police have a good relationship with the wrecker services. we have to call upon them some irregular hours, from time to time. If a good relationship did not exist, they would not respond," said Superin-tendent Steve McGregor, divisional commander for the parish of St James. "To say there is a (con-tractual) arrangement involving the police, I have no evidence of any such thing. It is more of a relationship."
However, this "relationship" has drawn criticism and condemnation from the citizenry, who accuses the police of favouring some wrecker services, with whom they carry out allegedly corrupt practices.
An operator (who has requested anonymity) has been in the wrecker business for more than nine years, and tells The Sunday Gleaner that he has an arrangement with the police for preferential consideration when a motor vehicle is being seized.
"The competition is fierce, and while operators won't admit it, it is how the wrecker business is conducted in Jamaica. You cannot sit around and just wait on a one call here, and one call there. It just does not make financial sense," the wrecker operator relates. "When I just started, I sat down and only got one call in two weeks. That could not even cover the cost of my petrol."
He says the police use wreckers to coerce offending motorists into paying money, because motorists know that it is going to mean a lot more expense, if the vehicle is towed.
"I have no problem with that. The success of my business is testimony that I am using them (the police) as well. It is a win-win for both of us - I take care of them, and they look out for me," the operator discloses.
McGregor concedes that he has received complaints about corrupt acts involving police officers and wrecker operators in his division but he says no one has been willing to make an official report.
"We are, therefore, unable to act against the allegedly corrupt members," he argues.
