Ruehle's Towing Awarded Shelby Township Contract

The Shelby Township Board of Trustees awarded Ruehle’s Towing of Mount Clemens the township towing contract.

Ruehle Towing beat out five other bids, including one that was more than 50 percent lower.

After nearly three hours of heated discussion and resident feedback, the board followed township consultant Russ Weipert’s recommendation and voted 5-1 in favor of Ruehle Towing.

Ruehle Towing will charge township residents $85 for a standard tow. The lowest bidder was Nightingale Service, charging $42. The highest bidder, Shelby Township Towing and Wrecker Service, with a standard tow fee of $100.

“We saw it coming. We knew what this board was all about. … It had nothing to do with pricing. ... It’s nothing but smoke and mirrors—that’s pretty much how politics go in Shelby Township,” said Nick Nightingale of Nightingale Service.

In December, the Board of Trustees voted to terminate Nightingale Service’s contract amid allegations of contract violations and over charges.

Weipert told the board that the Nightingale bid was too low, and did not follow the general guidelines for standard towing costs in Michigan. He cautioned that when bids are that low, the companies usually try to make up for the lost revenue in other ways. 

“In general a lot of the lowest bids get dropped right out of contention,” he said.

Weipert added that the decision was based on the best value, not the best price.

“I am just appalled by the fact that I am giving up 50 percent of my money because someone made the decision to exclude the lowest possible bidder,” Shelby resident Chuck Baffo told the board.

“In regard to pricing my research indicated about $100 is the going market range for towing,” said Trustee Michael Flynn. “We had about three companies that were in the $85 to $100-price range.”

Nightingale told the board he bid at such a low price not to save money, but to save the jobs of several employees.

“I wanted to secure my employees. We attempted to do a recall effort on Stathakis and Viar. My employees—they didn’t sign up for that program. Now, I feel bad that I’m going to have at least three wrecker drivers and a couple dispatchers that I’m going to have to let them go or cut their hours due to us losing this account,” he said.

Ruehle’s Towing main dispatch will remain in Mount Clemens, but the company has said it will have trucks in Shelby Township at all times, and vehicles towed in Shelby will be brought to Cass Collision on Hayes Road.

“It bothers me a lot that you’re going to be considering a company outside of Shelby—a company that will not be contributing a dollar in property taxes,” said Shelby Township resident Doug Herring.

At times, Shelby Township Police Chief Roland Woelkers had to speak with individual residents and remind them to calm down and follow the new rules of decorum, which state all members of the audience must not disturb the meeting by shouting and clapping.

After the vote was taken, several members of the audience shouted at the board and stormed out the door.