Trenton, NJ Business Licensing & Operations: Towing Companies (2026)

Chapter 283, Towing and Storage, governs vehicles towed under contract with the City on a rotating basis; it explicitly does not apply to tows from private property under private contracts (§ 283-1). The Police Director maintains the towing list under § 283-3, and a tow vendor pays a $500 application fee for a one-year contract covering the cost of investigating and processing it. Applications are available from the Police Department starting July 1 and are due with the fee by September 15, with decisions rendered by December 15 for the following calendar year (§ 283-4).

Section 283-6 sets detailed equipment and operating standards: vendors must respond within 20 minutes of a request unless weather or scene obstruction prevents it, operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, keep at least two wheel-lift and two flatbed light-duty trucks of 14,500 pounds GVW or more, maintain an inside secured facility for at least five vehicles and an outside facility for at least 700 vehicles within three miles of Police Headquarters at 225 N. Clinton Avenue, and carry State of New Jersey tow truck stickers and certification.

No satellite storage lots are allowed; all vehicles must be kept at the vendor's contracted location. Vendors and their operators cannot have been convicted of a crime or motor vehicle infraction within the past five years that affects public safety, and violent crime or moral turpitude convictions are an automatic disqualification at any time (§ 283-6T). The list rotates monthly among contracted vendors and a vendor's spot on it is non-transferable (§ 283-7).