Storage fees after a tow

Three yards, side by side

The table sets the storage rules for a crashed light vehicle in each state’s regulated area next to one another. Amounts include GST.

Two notes on the table. Queensland’s page gives the 72 free hours and the notice rule but no figure for the days after; the daily cap on Transport and Main Roads’ tow truck scheme page, $31.00, is for cars towed from private property. And in Western Australia the $95 fee is meant to cover everything asked of the yard while the car is there, such as moving it within the yard or letting the owner see it during business hours.

Nine days in the yard

Waiting on an insurer is exactly where Western Australia’s Consumer Protection sees trouble: it lists storage fees building up while an insurer has yet to pay the towing invoice among the common problems to be aware of, and notes that towing companies generally keep a car until every fee is paid.

The destination sets the meter

Storage only runs if the car goes to a yard. In Victoria, the owner or driver can ask whether the depot will keep it under cover or outside, and what each costs. Queensland’s government suggests a tow home can buy time to decide, while warning that it may mean paying for a second tow later and that holding yard storage can be costly. Western Australia’s transport department makes the same point about towing home and talking to the insurer first.

While the car sits in the yard

In Victoria, a vehicle taken to a tow truck depot must be kept in a secure area the whole time it is there. Western Australia adds limits on moving it: the yard may move a crashed car only to release it, to take it somewhere the owner or driver has approved in writing, or to protect it from fire or a natural disaster, and after a move for that last reason it must tell the owner or driver in writing, within 24 hours, why the car was moved and where to.

Queensland’s rules for cars towed from private property include a duty on the operator to take all reasonable precautions against loss of, or damage to, the car and anything left inside it, both on the truck and in the holding yard.

Getting the car, and what is in it, back

In Victoria, once every charge is paid, the depot must release the car during business hours, 8am to 5pm on weekdays. Some depots outside Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula are exempt from those hours, but must still answer a mobile phone and give a reasonable level of service. Cash, credit and debit cards must all be accepted.

Western Australia sets the clock in business hours. After the towing and storage charges are paid, the car must be released within 4 business hours, counting only 9am to 5pm on business days, and moved to a spot near the yard’s entrance, so the owner can choose who tows it onward. An owner or their insurer who asks to reach the car, for instance to take out personal belongings, must be let in within 4 business hours, and the yard may not charge for that or refuse it. The yard must accept at least two ways of paying, and must give an invoice within 4 business hours of being asked.

In Queensland, the crash towing page says the operator cannot charge to view the vehicle during normal business hours.