Next time you take a chance and park your car illegally on an O'ahu street, you risk paying a lot more for the tow truck that will haul away your car, under a measure before the City Council.

Tow fees for abandoned cars, vehicles with expired license plates and illegally parked cars would increase from 16 percent to 67 percent, depending on the services involved.

The flat rate for a tow will rise from $55 to $65 and the costs of related services will also increase, including the mileage fee, which will rise from $6.50 a mile to $10 a mile.

Currently, if a car is towed five miles and stored for a week with no other charges, the fee is $107.50. Under the proposal, the fee would be $145.

Tow companies say high gas prices and the increased costs of storing abandoned and derelict vehicles are driving up the cost of doing business.

Tow companies' fees vary depending on how long the vehicle is in the tow yard, if it was towed after-hours, or if it required a complicated hookup.

The companies pay for the storage of abandoned vehicles until the city auctions the vehicle, said Tiarie Madali, All Island Automotive Towing manager. That can mean as much as three months of storage and no revenue, Madali said. The companies are paid for abandoned cars stored that are auctioned off, she said.

"It's hard to make money in this business," Madali said. "We need to increase fees to cover the cost of renting additional space for yards to store cars after we tow them."

The new rates do not affect the cost of towing for individuals who call a tow company or for insurance companies or auto repair companies, Madali said.

If the bill is approved by the City Council after a public hearing on Wednesday, the city would be responsible for setting towing fees on O'ahu instead of the state, which previously set the rates by legislative action.

City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said she has issues with many aspects of the proposed law. Mostly she wants the tow companies to install ATMs on their property or to accept credit cards. Currently, tow companies only accept cash, she said.

"There's a lot of details that have to be fixed in the bill," Kobayashi said. "That's why we're having a public hearing."

The last towing fee hike was three years ago when the state raised the fee to the $55 flat rate from $50.

Jan Wakayama, president of the Hawai'i State Towing Association, supports the measure, saying about 100 cars a day are towed island-wide, many of them abandoned or derelict.

The numbers have increased since April after the city council adopted a law requiring police and city motor vehicle inspectors to tow abandoned or derelict vehicles.

"Each year as cars become more disposable, there are more and more unclaimed cars to deal with," Wakayama said. "Real estate used for storage for unclaimed derelict and abandoned vehicles continues to rise."

Motorists like Ronnie Humphrey, of East Honolulu, are not in favor of paying more for towing. Recently she and her family were at Kaimana Beach, but when they were ready to head home, their car had been towed.

"We parked in the turnaround area and the sign had been knocked down," Humphrey said. "You should talk to my husband about paying the tow company. We were not very happy."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.