Bee Line Transport put forward as city's towing contractor
See full story in The News & Advance...The Lynchburg Towing Advisory Board recommended city council award the city’s towing and vehicle recovery services contract to Bee Line Transport, a local company that currently holds the city’s towing contract.
The towing contract is primarily used to tow city-owned fleet vehicles, including refuse and fire trucks, and vehicles that the Lynchburg Police Department requests to be towed. The contract also covers the towing of derelict vehicles requested by the city.
For the towing contract, the city received bids from three companies: Bee Line Transport, Cash’s Garage and Mitchell’s Towing and Recovery.
At Lynchburg City Council’s work session meeting last week, Stephanie Suter, the city’s procurement manager, said one of the companies was eliminated from further consideration because it does not have the necessary equipment.
In an email to The News & Advance, Suter said Mitchell’s Towing and Recovery was eliminated from consideration because it has the capability to tow only Class I vehicles, not the heavier vehicles in the city’s fleet.
If city council approves the board’s recommendation, this will be the third time in a row that Bee Line has won the city’s towing contract. Bee Line was first awarded the city’s towing contract in 2012 and again in 2018.
Suter said that Bee Line is being recommended again as the city’s towing contractor for many reasons, including the fact it employs 14 tow truck operators who live within five miles of the company’s facility “for rapid response time.”
Bee Line also has a large equipment fleet that can respond to multiple calls at once for towing the city’s heaviest equipment and has an after-hours answering service that allows for quick dispatch to incidents, Suter said.
During the public comment period at city council’s meeting Tuesday night, Kevin Jones, owner of Bee Line, said the dispatch operators in the company’s office use “state-of-the-art software,” including tracking systems on each of the company’s vehicles.
“I am confident the Bee Line operators will always be as professional on the scene as your local police, fire and rescue first responders,” Jones said.
The towing contract is primarily used to tow city-owned fleet vehicles, including refuse and fire trucks, and vehicles that the Lynchburg Police Department requests to be towed. The contract also covers the towing of derelict vehicles requested by the city.
For the towing contract, the city received bids from three companies: Bee Line Transport, Cash’s Garage and Mitchell’s Towing and Recovery.
At Lynchburg City Council’s work session meeting last week, Stephanie Suter, the city’s procurement manager, said one of the companies was eliminated from further consideration because it does not have the necessary equipment.
In an email to The News & Advance, Suter said Mitchell’s Towing and Recovery was eliminated from consideration because it has the capability to tow only Class I vehicles, not the heavier vehicles in the city’s fleet.
If city council approves the board’s recommendation, this will be the third time in a row that Bee Line has won the city’s towing contract. Bee Line was first awarded the city’s towing contract in 2012 and again in 2018.
Suter said that Bee Line is being recommended again as the city’s towing contractor for many reasons, including the fact it employs 14 tow truck operators who live within five miles of the company’s facility “for rapid response time.”
Bee Line also has a large equipment fleet that can respond to multiple calls at once for towing the city’s heaviest equipment and has an after-hours answering service that allows for quick dispatch to incidents, Suter said.
During the public comment period at city council’s meeting Tuesday night, Kevin Jones, owner of Bee Line, said the dispatch operators in the company’s office use “state-of-the-art software,” including tracking systems on each of the company’s vehicles.
“I am confident the Bee Line operators will always be as professional on the scene as your local police, fire and rescue first responders,” Jones said.
