The numbers are in. Sorta.
The Miami Beach Administration calculated that in fiscal year 11/12 the average public tow cost $234.17. From that the estimated total annual gross for both Beach Towing and Tremont Towing was $2,550,111.30.
Those numbers however come with an asterisk. They are based solely on the limited information the two towing companies were willing to give the city. The numbers for private towing are off the table according to lawyers from both companies. Even within that set of information staff had to assign numbers to plug up some holes.
Last November the Commission approved a fee hike for the city’s two towing companies. Both companies cited a need for the hike in order to turn a profit, yet both Beach and Tremont refused to open their books to the city.
In place of a full ledger, the companies offered the city a reported 14,000 scattered receipts. At that same meeting it became painfully obvious that city staff had not crunched the numbers and were using “guesstimates” to determine the numbers used by the commissioners to vote.
City Staff was directed by the Commission to crunch these numbers and find out annual gross revenue generated by public tows, tows made on public lands, and the average two fee. This time around it’s only a little more concrete.
In a Letter To the Commission published February, the administration continually points out that the numbers are “based on the information available.” An audit of the methods and data entered found no errors within the numbers made available. Still the document made sure warn that “no representations were made regarding the reliability accuracy and sufficiency of the information available and/or provided by” Beach and Tremont.
Some of that available information needed some assumptions to bring back a workable number. For instance the amount police tows brought in. According to document, police tows had a different method of recording, and the numbers are either missing or “would require substantial efforts and cost to research.”
Therefore a formula was created based on the public tows numbers racked up by the Parking Department, and simply inserted into police side of the calculations.
The breakdown was as follows:
There were 10,983 public tows. Of that the Parking Department accounted for 76.4% or 8,392. The Police Department had 23.6% or 2,591.
Of the Parking’s 8,392 only 8,035 had monetary information, and generated $1,881,578.31for both companies. Do some division and you get $234.17 per tow.
Put the average with the counted tows and the city got $2,550,111.30 for the annual gross.
You can stop counting now.
About Frank M
