Columbus, IN Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)

Section 10.30.110 of the Columbus Municipal Code is the city's price ceiling for tows ordered under its oversize and disabled vehicle chapter. The maximum an authorized towing service can charge for towing or removal of a vehicle under the chapter is one hundred dollars, except where special equipment is required. The maximum for storage is twenty-five dollars per day, and the number of days runs from the day the vehicle was towed to the storage facility.

Section 10.30.020 defines a towing service as a business that engages in moving or removing disabled vehicles and, once removed, stores or impounds them. The tows that trigger the cap start with an officer's notice tag under § 10.30.060, which warns that the vehicle will be removed after seventy-two hours and that the owner is responsible for removal, storage and disposal costs. After seventy-two hours the officer requires the vehicle towed to a storage area.

The chapter then sets the paperwork. Under § 10.30.080 the police department prepares an abandoned vehicle report within thirty-one days after removal to storage and asks the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles for the owner's and any lienholder's name and address. Under § 10.30.070 a properly identified owner or lienholder who appears before disposal and pays all proper costs gets the vehicle released, with a release recording signature, name, address, vehicle, costs and date. Unreleased vehicles are declared abandoned and disposed of under Indiana Code 9-22-1, which the city's own text cites in §§ 10.30.070 and 10.30.090.

Section 10.30.100 protects the owner, lessee or occupant of the property and the police department from liability for loss or damage during removal, storage or disposition. Chapter 10.30 contains a price cap and procedure but no permit or license scheme for towing businesses. Chapter 10.48 handles abandoned, unlicensed and inoperable vehicles differently: § 10.48.110 ties towing and storage charges to the amount charged to other users of the same or comparable services.