Massachusetts Trespass Towing Rate Caps: $132 Tow, $35 a Day Storage

The rate ceilings live in 220 CMR 272.00, Rates for the Towing of Motor Vehicles, a Department of Public Utilities rule whose stated regulatory authority is M.G.L. c. 159B, § 6B and c. 266, § 120D. Section 272.02 fixes the scope: the maximum charges apply only where the towing and transportation is ordered by the police or other public authority under § 6B, or is a trespass tow under § 120D. They do not apply where a police officer or other public employee places the call at the owner's own request to move the vehicle somewhere other than the carrier's garage, and the rule adds that if the owner asks at the scene for delivery to a location other than the carrier's garage, the maximum tow rate may not apply.

For a passenger automobile, motorcycle, motor bike or motor scooter, and for any vehicle capable of being transported by crane and dolly or on a ramp truck, 220 CMR 272.03(1) caps the charge for towing up to five miles at $132.00 per vehicle towed, and states that the figure applies regardless of day of week or time of day, so there is no lawful Massachusetts surcharge for a 2 a.m. tow or a Sunday tow. That same $132.00 must include one hour of service or waiting time computed from the time the tow truck arrives at the scene.

The two exclusions written into the schedule matter most to someone towed from a private lot. Section 272.03(2) allows a $51.00 per half hour charge once service or waiting time exceeds one hour, but says in terms that this charge "shall not apply to trespass tows or snow removal tows." Section 272.03(3) allows up to $132.00 for each additional service vehicle required, and carries the identical exclusion for trespass tows and snow removal tows. Both charges also require the starting and ending time to be recorded on the tow slip to be assessable at all. A trespass tow bill from a private Massachusetts lot that carries a waiting time line or a second truck line is charging you for something the rule does not permit.

What can lawfully be added is narrower. Under 272.03(4) a surcharge of $4.40 per mile may be assessed for each mile beyond the first five. Under 272.03(5) additional labor, where necessary to remove the vehicle from the scene or required by police or other public authority, is capped at $46.00 per man hour or any fraction of one, computed from leaving the carrier's garage until return, with a one hour minimum. Under 272.03(6) genuinely extraordinary services outside the carrier's capabilities, such as renting cranes or bulldozers or handling hazardous material, may be charged at no more than the amount of those services. Tolls are the owner's responsibility under 272.03(10). Mileage is measured round trip from the carrier's garage and back under 272.03(8), the carrier must take it from the service vehicle odometer and put the odometer readings on the tow slip, and fractions under five tenths are dropped while five tenths or more round up. Commercial motor vehicles run on a parallel schedule in 272.04: the same $132.00 maximum for up to five miles, but $6.60 per mile beyond five, with recovery charges set by the carrier.

A fuel surcharge exists but it is tightly controlled and, importantly, optional. Section 272.05 authorises one only when the average cost of diesel fuel in New England exceeds $3.196 per gallon, computed from the retail on highway price for New England reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration for the first three Mondays of the month. The Department's formula runs off an embedded fuel cost of $8.92 in the $132.00 basic tow rate and an embedded 6.8 per cent, and the Transportation Oversight Division issues an Administrative Order on the fourth Monday setting the Fuel Surcharge Factor for the following month, posted on the Department's website and on a recorded telephone message. To charge it, the tow slip must show each applicable fuel burning rate and charge with a sum total, the authorised Fuel Surcharge Factor, and the resulting surcharge amount. The authorisation expires on the last day of the month it covers, and 272.05(8) states flatly that application of the surcharge is voluntary.

Storage sits in the statute rather than the rule. M.G.L. c. 159B, § 6B caps storage of non-commercial passenger vehicles with a maximum capacity of nine persons at $35 per 24 hour period when involuntarily towed, and provides that this maximum applies only to lighted, outside storage facilities enclosed by a secure fence or other secure barrier at least six feet in height. Other outdoor storage facilities are entitled to a maximum storage rate of only one half that, which is $17.50 per 24 hour period. Section 6B also lets a city or town, by vote of its council or selectmen, set a lower municipal tow maximum, but never one exceeding the Department's, and requires the Department to decide a written request to adjust the maximum charges within 12 months.

The tow itself is governed by M.G.L. c. 266, § 120D. A vehicle may not be removed from a private way or improved or enclosed property unless the operator was forbidden to park there directly or by posted notice by the person in lawful control, and, absent the vehicle owner's consent, the person in lawful control must notify the chief of police or a designee, or in Boston the police commissioner or a designee, before removal. That notice must be in writing unless the chief specifies otherwise and must state the address towed from, the address towed to, the registration number, the name of the person in lawful control, and the name of the towing company. Notice runs to the police, not to you, so the police department is where to call for the destination address. Section 120D also requires the vehicle to be stored in a convenient location, and allows the tower, at his discretion, to charge one half of the usual towing fee if the owner appears before the towing is completed. Neither § 120D nor 220 CMR 272.00 gives a Massachusetts driver a right to retrieve personal property from inside the towed vehicle.

c. 266, § 120D a person who removes such a vehicle, or holds it after removal, and who has not complied in full with the section shall release it to its owner without assessing any charges for removal or storage. Full compliance is the test, so a missing element in the pre tow police notification, or a tow from a lot where no posted or direct notice forbade parking, cancels the whole bill rather than trimming it. Section 120D adds criminal fines of not more than $100 on the tower, not more than $100 on the tower's employer, and not more than $100 on anyone who purports to authorize a removal without having fully complied.

00 are enforceable through the Department of Public Utilities, which licenses companies to perform involuntary tows and takes complaints against towing companies through its Transportation Oversight Division; the Department does not regulate a tow the vehicle owner requested. The documentation requirements are the practical way to test a bill. 03(3) is not assessable unless the starting and ending times are recorded on the tow slip, and neither charge may be assessed on a trespass tow in any event. Mileage must come from the service vehicle odometer with the readings shown on the tow slip.

A fuel surcharge is chargeable only in a month for which the Department has issued an Administrative Order, only if the tow slip itemises the fuel burning charges, the Fuel Surcharge Factor and the resulting amount, and its application is voluntary. c. c. 255, § 39A, and requires every person engaged in towing under that section to file an annual financial statement with the Department on or before March 31, forfeiting $25 for each day the return is late.