Part IV. Automobile Unit 5 Driver, Vehicle, and Road

CD Tape-4. THE MOST UNPOPULAR MEN IN LONDON

It’s half past eight in the morning and John Punch is starting his day’s work. Before he finishes, he and his mate, Dave Wilson, will be shouted at, argued with and sworn at. But that’s all in a day’s work for two of the most unpopular men in London. For John and Dave are a tow-away team. With their blue and white lorry they lift cars that have been illegally parked and take them away to the car pound.

Like most European cities London wasn’t built for cars, but every day millions of motorists enter the city and look for somewhere to park. But there simply isn’t enough parking space and so about half a million vehicles a day are parked where they shouldn’t be. On double yellow lines, on bends, on crossings, or just double parked. If one of these vehicles is seen by a traffic warden or a police officer a yellow sticker is placed on a windscreen. Any car with a yellow sticker can be towed away by any tow-away team that finds it and they don’t waste their time.

Within three minutes the vehicles are lifted onto the lorry and it’s on their way to the pound. If the owner arrives before the car has been lifted they are allowed to drive it away. But once it’s off the ground it’s too late. As John explains:

“Oh, no. Once we’ve lifted the car, we won’t put it down again. Well, if it’s a pregnant woman or a mother with lots of kids the car might be dropped. But we probably take it round the corner first so nobody would say. But normally we won’t put it down. Once it’s off the ground it’s off to the pound”.

At the pound a fee of £101 must be paid to get the car back again. And there is another £12 for every day that the car is left in the pound. And motorists don’t like that at all. Here is John again.

“People get very annoyed if they see us when we’re lifting their car. Most of them shout and scream at us and call us names. Other scribes the sob stories. You won’t believe some of them. One woman came out of the flower shop with a big bunch of roses. She told us that her old cramped mother was dying and her last wish was to see some red roses. Then we looked at the car and at roses and it said: “Happy anniversary, darling”.

And a lot of motorists try bribery. But it won’t work.

“No we never accept the bribe. It won’t be worth it. We’d lose our job immediately if anyone found out. A fifty clod bribes is no good if you lose your job for it”.

The tow-away men tell of one motorist who offered over one thousand pounds to a team. The police found that the car was full of drugs.

How do the tow-away men feel about being so unpopular?

“It’s used to upset me when I first started but now I don’t hip at this. Anyway we think we’re doing an important job. Cars shouldn’t be parked on bends and places like there. It’s dangerous. We’re that cases where far engines couldn’t get further emergencies because cars have been double-parked.

No, without us London would just stop and even more people would be annoyed then”.