VIC towing rules
Victorian accident towing fees and the allocation scheme
You run trucks in Victoria. Inside the controlled area the allocation centre decides who attends, and the accident towing maximums are gazetted every year, so the figure you may charge moves whether you noticed or not.
Regulator: Department of Transport and Planning, Victoria. Accident Towing Services Act 2007 (Vic). Victoria Government Gazette No. S 257, 22 May 2026. Figures last checked 19 August 2026.
How much can a tow truck charge for an accident tow in VIC?
In Victoria the maximum charge for towing a light vehicle from an accident is $289.60 including GST, inside the controlled area. Distance beyond 8 km adds $4.60 per kilometre. Work outside 8am to 5pm on a weekday adds a flat $98.80. These are maximums set under the Accident Towing Services Act 2007 (Vic).
Caps apply to accident tows of motor cars under 4.0 tonnes inside a declared controlled area. Outside the controlled area there is no gazetted maximum.
| Accident tow, light vehiclethe tow including the first kilometres, before after-hours is added | $289.60 |
|---|---|
| Distance beyond 8 km inside the controlled area | $4.60 per km |
| Outside 8am to 5pm on a weekdayA flat amount, not a percentage | plus $98.80 |
Source: Gazette S 257 (22 May 2026), notice under s212H of the Accident Towing Services Act 2007, applying from 1 July 2026. Last checked 19 August 2026. Transport Victoria, information for the towing industry, Essential Services Commission, accident towing
TowConnect warns you before you save a job priced above the cap, and offers the capped figure in one tap.
How much can you charge to store a vehicle in VIC?
In Victoria the maximum daily storage charge for a light vehicle is $22.20 including GST, locked yard, per day. A motorcycle is $6.80 per day. The gazette prints storage by cover rather than geography. The figures here are the locked-yard rates, which are the stricter of the two.
| Light vehicle, locked yard, per day | $22.20 per day |
|---|---|
| Motorcycle, locked yard, per day | $6.80 per day |
The gazette prints storage by cover rather than geography. The figures here are the locked-yard rates, which are the stricter of the two.
Source: Gazette S 257 (22 May 2026), notice under s212H of the Accident Towing Services Act 2007. Last checked 19 August 2026. Transport Victoria, information for the towing industry, Essential Services Commission, accident towing
One tap fills the capped rate on your yard's rate card, converted to your ex-tax basis, and the nightly accrual takes it from there.
What records must a VIC tow operator keep?
Victoria has no Fair Trading style register forms. What a Victorian operator has to be able to produce is the signed authority for each accident tow, the job number the allocation centre issued, and working that shows every charge sat inside the gazetted maximum for that year.
- A signed authority to tow for every accident job
- The allocation job number issued by the allocation centre
- Records supporting every fee charged against the gazetted maximum
Victorian register forms are not built. The four approved register forms TowConnect generates are the NSW ones.
What the law says, what the app does
The obligation, and the thing that handles it.
| VIC requires | TowConnect |
|---|---|
| Accident work inside the controlled area is allocated, and each tow carries a job number. | Arrival mode records that the job came from an allocation scheme, and the allocation job number sits on the job. |
| Gazetted maximums are inclusive of GST and change each year. | Each gazette is stored as a new dated entry. A job priced last year still reconciles against last year's figures. |
| The tow must be authorised by the person entitled to authorise it. | Signature on the driver's phone or a private link to the owner's own phone, with a full evidence trail and a frozen snapshot of what was signed. |
| Charges outside the controlled area are not capped. | TowConnect warns only where a cap exists, and says so rather than inventing one. |
VIC, specifically
The allocation centre decides who goes
Inside the controlled area a Victorian operator does not chase accident work. The allocation centre rosters it and issues a job number, and that number is what ties the tow to the scheme. It is the reason TowConnect asks how the job arrived before it asks anything else.
Watch this one
The Essential Services Commission has said it no longer reviews accident towing and storage charges after the 2026 amendments. The gazetted figures above are current. When whatever replaces that review publishes new amounts, they become a new dated entry and every workspace gets them at once.
The other states
Same product, different rules.
NSW
New South Wales
You run trucks in New South Wales. The state caps what you charge for an accident tow and for storage, and it wants five separate records kept. One of them has to ride in the truck.
QLD
Queensland
You run trucks in Queensland. The tow, the scene work and the first days of storage are one standard tow with one maximum, and that maximum is written in fee units, so the dollar figure changes every 1 July.
WA
Western Australia
You run trucks in Western Australia. The towing regime started on 10 January 2025; it is the newest of the four, and charging above the cap is an offence with the sharpest penalties of any state here.
General information, not legal advice. Figures shown are the ones the app uses, with the instrument and the date they came from.
Price a VIC job without guessing.
The cap is checked as you type it, in the office and at the scene. Start free, and bring your old data with you.