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

Reading splits its towing rules across Chapter 576, Part 8 (Impounding and Immobilization of Vehicles) and the fee chapter at § 212-144. The City and the Reading Parking Authority may remove and impound a vehicle under § 576-802 for overtime parking or any other City parking ordinance, and, since the 2022 and 2023 amendments, for repeat violations of the Noise Ordinance in Chapter 387 or the Park Use Ordinance in Chapter 396, Part 3. Removal for noise or park violations reaches only repeat offenders, and the ordinance sets no lookback limit on the earlier offense. Sound equipment used in connection with an impounded vehicle may be seized as well.

Custody is tightly controlled. Section 576-804 allows removal and impounding only by "approved storage garages" designated by City Council. Each garage must show Council that it is bonded or carries liability insurance sufficient to indemnify owners against loss or damage while the vehicle is in the garage keeper’s custody, and it must file its schedule of towing and storage charges with Council. Once Council approves that schedule the garage must stick to it, and any garage that makes an unapproved charge is deleted from the approved list. Section 576-807 requires the City to keep a record of every impounded vehicle and to tell owners or their agents where the vehicle is stored at all reasonable times.

The § 576-826 fee schedule, last amended 9-9-2024 by Ord. No. 56-2024, prices day service from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on weekends) and night service from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. A service call runs $59 day and $74 night; an illegal parking tow $180 and $205; an accident tow $325 and $345, plus $50 for each additional half hour past the first; a snow emergency tow $200 and $215. Storage is $45 per day for illegal parking tows and $55 per day for accident and all other tows, each with a 24-hour grace period. Opening a locked vehicle is $25 or $40, dolly towing $60 or $75, and a rollback $150 or $175. Vehicles greater than 11,000 GVW are billed at $175 per hour and a 45-ton truck at $300 per hour. Releasing a vehicle outside the listed hours or on a legal holiday can add $75, and retrieving personal property from a vehicle stored longer than 20 days costs $55.

Section 576-808 preserves a drive-away right: no vehicle may be removed if the owner or the person then in charge of it is present and states a willingness and intention to move it immediately. That protection does not apply to noise or park ordinance tows, to unpaid violations or defaulted payment plans, or to immobilized vehicles. If the truck is already hooked up, § 576-826 charges a drop fee of $75 during the day, or $60 plus the service call at night, rising to $125 if the vehicle was fully loaded and ready to be towed away, and no charge is due if no substantial effort such as lowering the flatbed had begun.

Immobilization runs on its own track. Under § 576-603B, police and Parking Authority employees may boot or tow a vehicle carrying three or more parking violations, or outstanding fines totaling more than $200, and § 212-144 sets the booting fee at $100. Section 576-815 lets the Parking Authority tow a booted vehicle immediately, and § 576-817 subjects anyone who tampers with or removes a boot, or moves the vehicle before release, to an immediate tow plus the cost of repairing or replacing the device.