Every driver knows the two clocks. One is the 11-hour driving limit the ELD counts to the second; the other is the parking limit on whatever lot you finally find when the first one runs out. Donald Hicklin Jr. lost the second one by 30 minutes at Charlotte Travel Plaza on Sunset Road, just off Interstate 77, the day after a winter storm with the area under a state of emergency. His truck was towed. The invoice, first reported by WSOC-TV on August 19 and picked up by Land Line this week, came to $9,000.
The bill
NMLD Towing invoice, as reported by WSOC-TV
$7,000 — impound and towing
$1,500 — 'gate administrative fee'
$500 — vehicle storage, one day
“ They charge you to hook up to your truck. They charge you to disconnect from your truck. They also got an additional fee for towing your truck to the place. … Oh, it's beyond excessive. It's predatory! They just take advantage of the laws. ”
The sign said something else
The lot has rules, and they are posted at the entrance: all semi-trucks must sign in inside the store and park in a designated spot; parking is allowed for up to two days. The same sign carries an itemized fee schedule — a $3,500 impound fee, another $3,500 for vehicles over 8,000 pounds, a boot fee of up to $2,500, a 'specialty equipment' fee of up to $1,500, a $750 gate/admin fee, and daily storage of $25 to $250. WSOC noted the posted prices differed from what Hicklin was billed. Line them up and the $7,000 tow charge reads like the two $3,500 items stacked, while the $1,500 gate fee is double the $750 on the sign. Neither NMLD Towing nor the travel plaza is quoted in either report.
Land Line found this was not a first. A dispatch screenshot circulated among drivers in April 2025 warned about the same plaza and tows billed at more than $10,000, and a Yelp review posted this June shows an NMLD invoice with the same line items.
Why nobody capped it
According to the American Trucking Associations, only 12 states set maximum heavy-duty rates for nonconsensual tows from private property. North Carolina is not one of them — and its cities can't fill the gap: in King v. Town of Chapel Hill (2014) the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that municipalities have no authority to cap towing fees; only the General Assembly does. The legislature has moved twice since, both times narrowly. Senate Bill 311, effective December 1, 2025, made booting a commercial vehicle for parking enforcement a misdemeanor — but left towing legal as long as the cargo is promptly returned on request. House Bill 577, the 'Protect Our North Carolina Towers and Truckers Act,' creates a Commercial Motor Vehicle Towing and Recovery Commission to set reasonable rate ranges, but only for tows requested by law enforcement or a state agency. A private lot tow like Hicklin's is outside it. A broader bill with actual fee caps, a statewide tow database and signage rules was stripped of its towing language in June; its sponsors say they will refile when the General Assembly returns in January 2027.
'The Wild West of towing'
That is what WBTV has been calling Charlotte since it launched an investigative series under that name in February 2024, and the attention hasn't fixed it. In February, Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced a consent judgment against A1 Towing Solutions and its owner, David Satterfield, in what his office called North Carolina's first discriminatory towing case: the state alleged the company targeted Black drivers, booted and towed illegally, charged up to $4,400 to release a vehicle, and towed trucks delivering food, water and medical supplies during a declared emergency. The judgment requires $30,000 in restitution, with a penalty above $100,000 if the company breaks it.
Six hundred miles west, a similarly named but unrelated company, A1's Towing and Hauling in Memphis, was ordered by a federal court not to ticket, boot, tow, store 'or otherwise touch' any truck belonging to Western Express, MHT Group or Church Transportation and Logistics after the three carriers sued it under RICO. And the American Transportation Research Institute's 2023 study of predatory towing found that roughly 30% of crash-related heavy-truck tow invoices carried excessive rates or unwarranted charges, and that 82.7% of carriers had experienced them.
“ Yes, you have a right as a property owner, but it does not give anyone the right to take advantage of our community. ”
Ajmera told the station she is working with city staff on a system to refer repeat predatory towers to the Attorney General's office and to raise financial penalties. Given Chapel Hill, that is about as far as a city can go.
The parking shortage created the market; the lack of a cap set the price. Until one of those changes, the sign at the entrance is the only contract a driver gets — and, as this case shows, it isn't always the one that gets billed.
If it happens to you
Photograph the sign, your sign-in, your spot and the clock before you leave the truck — the posted schedule is your evidence if the invoice doesn't match it.
Ask for an itemized invoice and keep it. Under North Carolina's unfair and deceptive trade practices law, a successful claim can be tripled by the court.
Cargo: since December 1, 2025 a North Carolina tow for parking enforcement is legal only if the load is promptly returned on request. Demand it in writing.
Report it: the NC Attorney General's consumer protection office is the channel Charlotte itself is using for repeat offenders, and OOIDA collects predatory-towing cases for its state-by-state push.
Parking, towing, and the rules that follow you across state lines
Real cases, real invoices, and what the law actually says — on Qrylo.