Pittsburgh, PA Parking Rules: Towing & Impound Rights (2026)

Section 525.05 defines a parking area as any place in the city, wholly or partially enclosed or open, where motor vehicles are parked or stored for any period of time, whether or not consideration is paid or received. Within that definition the section does four things. It caps the towing charge at the annual fee schedule figure, it caps storage at the schedule figure and forbids any storage charge at all for the first twelve hours, it bars billing the driver for anything other than towing and storage (no gate fees, no administrative add-ons, no separate release charges), and it requires the tower to accept a VISA, Mastercharge or American Express card from anyone paying those fees. Subsection (f) is the drop-fee rule: where a tow truck has already made contact with a vehicle but has not yet pulled it out of its parking space, the operator must advise the owner that the vehicle will be released immediately on payment within five minutes in cash or by card, and that payment cannot exceed the schedule towing fee. Subsection (f) reaches only towers that are not under contract with the City of Pittsburgh; a contract tower charges the release fee stated in the annual schedule under subsection (g). Either fee is chargeable only if the vehicle is on a flatbed, in the process of being pulled onto a flatbed, or connected in any way to a tow truck.

Chapter 764 sits behind that price rule as a licensing regime. The License Officer is the Director of Public Safety or a designee, and no tow business or tow truck operator may perform a non-consensual tow, which the Code also calls a trespass tow, without a City license. Companies that perform only consensual tows, and state-licensed salvors who do no trespass towing, may license voluntarily but are not required to. A business applicant files a certificate of insurance naming the City of Pittsburgh as certificate holder and evidencing general liability, automotive liability, garage keeper's, motor truck cargo including on-hook coverage, and Pennsylvania workers' compensation, and must satisfy the Director of Public Safety that it holds a secure impound facility fenced to a minimum of six feet, lighted and equipped with a lock, or an enclosed building. Each tow truck carries the business license number on both sides in boldface lettering not less than three inches in height, in the form PGH TOW LIC. TB12345, plus a color-coded windshield sticker for the license year. Each driver carries a five inch by five inch photo identification badge bearing a face photograph not less than three inches by three inches, and must have it in possession at all times while operating a tow vehicle. Licenses expire on December 31 and renew between November 1 and December 31.

Section 764.21 sets the four conditions for a valid non-consensual tow from private property. The operator must first obtain the property owner's or agent's written consent for each vehicle, manually signed on a hardcopy document that gives the date and time of the request and describes the make, color and plate number. The lot must comply with the signage requirements of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S. § 101 et seq., and with applicable City Code provisions. If the owner or operator arrives before the vehicle is connected to or loaded onto the tow truck and offers to remove it immediately, the tow truck operator may not proceed, and a tow that proceeds anyway is deemed a non-valid non-consensual tow. Finally the tow business must report the removal and the present storage place, with the vehicle description, the VIN and the tag number, to the Bureau of Police through an internet-based centralized and multi-jurisdictional electronic repository within one hour of depositing the vehicle at its storage point.

City-ordered tows follow a separate track. Under Chapter 523 the City Treasurer operates the official vehicle pounds and may designate additional garages or lots in an emergency, removal is authorized by the Superintendent of Police using City equipment or a contract tower, and the Treasurer must keep the vehicle safe while the Bureau of Police logs a long list of identifying details along with the costs of outstanding summonses and the towing and storage charges. Before an owner or agent may take an impounded vehicle out of a City pound, a third-party towing contractor's facility or any other third-party facility, section 523.05 requires payment of all costs or fees in the section 525.02 schedule. One limitation the Code itself records is worth knowing before you argue about a bill: former sections 523.06 and 523.07, on payment under protest and on a protest hearing, were repealed by Ordinance 11-2005 effective March 22, 2005, so the impounding chapter no longer supplies a pay-under-protest route on the City pound side. Statewide private-lot towing standards at 75 Pa.C.S. § 3356 do not take effect until April 2028, so these Pittsburgh chapters are what actually governs a trespass tow in the city today.