[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Committee of the Township of New Hanover 12-12-2006 by Ord. No. 2006-04; amended in its entirety 4-12-2010 by Ord. No. 2010-01. Subsequent amendments noted where applicable.]
The purposes of this chapter are:
A. 
To establish requirements and procedures for entities providing towing and storage services to the Township Police Department;
B. 
To establish, in the best interest of public safety, a uniform policy for the towing and storage of motor vehicles towed and stored at the request of the Township Police Department;
C. 
To establish fees for towing and storage services.
All towing services to be provided in the Township of New Hanover shall be performed by private towing contractors on a rotating basis. A list of eligible contractors will be determined and list of approved tow operators will be maintained by the Chief of Police as specified in § 165-5 below.
The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
BASIC TOWING SERVICE
The removal and transportation of a motor vehicle from a highway, street, or other public or private road, or a parking area, or from a storage facility, and other services normally incident thereto, but does not include recovery of a motor vehicle from a position beyond the right-of-way or berm.
INSIDE STORAGE
A vehicle storage facility that is completely indoors, having one or more openings in the walls for storage and removal of motor vehicles and that is secured by a locking device on each opening.
MOTOR VEHICLE
Includes all vehicles propelled otherwise than by muscular power, except such vehicles as motorized bicycles. Examples of common motor vehicles are, but not limited to, passenger cars of all types, pickup trucks, motorcycles, passenger vans, commercial trucks and vans, buses, taxis and limousines.
MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT
An occurrence in which a motor vehicle comes in contact with any other object for which the motor vehicle must be towed or removed for placement in a storage facility. This includes all situations which are accidents as to the operator of the motor vehicle even if caused by the intentional acts of a perpetrator where the perpetrator was not the operator of the motor vehicle or otherwise involved with the operator of the motor vehicle.
OUTSIDE SECURED
A motor vehicle storage facility that is not indoors and is secured by a fence, wall or other man-made barrier that is at least six feet high and is installed with a passive alarm system or a similar on-site security measure. The facility must be lighted at night.
OUTSIDE UNSECURED
A motor vehicle storage facility that is not indoors and is not secured as defined above.
STORAGE FACILITY
Any place, or building, where an authorized tow operator conducts business and maintains an area for towed vehicles to be temporarily stored. No such storage facility shall be located a distance of more than seven miles from the Township.
TOW OPERATOR
A person engaged in the business of towing and storing motor vehicles or offering the services of a tow vehicle or tow truck. For purposes of this chapter and its provisions concerning rotation under § 165-8, a "tow operator" shall include related persons or entities which have significant common ownership or control. Each tow operator shall list any related tow operators and the rotation shall treat these related persons or entities as though they are one tow operator.
TOW VEHICLE or TOW TRUCK
Those vehicles equipped with a boom or booms, winches, slings, tilt bed, wheel lifts or under-reach equipment and also specialized flat-bed vehicles for this purpose, for the removal or transport of motor vehicles, employed for the purpose of towing, transporting, conveying and/or removing motor vehicles from one place to another for which a charge or fee is extracted.
TOW VEHICLE'S BASE OF SERVICE
The towing operator's principal place of business where the tow vehicle is stationed when not in use. No such base of service shall be located a distance of more than seven miles from the Township.
TOWNSHIP
The Township of New Hanover.
[Amended 3-11-2025 by Ord. No. 2025-02]
Day time towing (8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.) flatbed or conventional
$200 per tow
After hours (between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.) and holiday towing, any time flatbed or conventional
$250 per tow
Winching, except normal recovery by flatbed
$125 per tow
Clean-up of accident sites
$80 per hour; minimum half-hour charge
Medium duty tow (10,001 lbs to 26,000 lbs)
$275 + $4 per mile; additional $50 if driveshaft removed
Heavy duty tow (26,001 lbs and more)
$500 per tow; additional $50 if driveshaft removed
Four wheel drive off-road tow with winch
$350
Specialized equipment (i.e., chainsaws, jacks, cribbing, generators, air compressors)
$200 per incident/request
Optional specialized equipment-forklifts, backhoes, cranes
$450 per incident/request
Speedy dry
$35 per bag or bucket
Yard removal/administrative fees
$75
ATV/quad or off-road type vehicle recovery
$225 flat fee
Outside storage (on lot more than 2 hours) M-F
Saturday and Sunday and holidays
$60 per day
$40 per day
Inside storage (on lot more than 2 hours)
Saturday and Sunday and Holidays
$85 per day
$65 per day
A. 
An application form shall be completed by any party interested in performing private towing services. The application can be obtained from the Township Police Department in a form to be determined by the Chief of Police and updated or revised from time to time. An application fee of $500 is required, which is nonrefundable and is to be paid at the time of submitting the application in addition to other applicable fees mandated by the State of New Jersey.
B. 
All applications for said services shall be investigated and evaluated by the Chief of Police or his designee, as to each applicant's qualifications and background and a report is to be made of the findings and filed with the application. Said report is to include a recommendation on approval or denial and must be made within 45 days of application submission. All applicants must sign a release for information to be obtained by the Police Department to complete the investigation and evaluation.
C. 
All applications are subject to approval of the Chief of Police. Only applicants which are competent and qualified and meet the conditions of this chapter shall be approved. All approved applicants are required to execute a contract with the Township to provide such services. The form of contract shall be prepared by the Chief of Police and approved by the appropriate reporting authority. All contracts must be uniform for all private towing contractors. Upon receipt of a fully executed contract and other applicable documentation required, any approved private towing contractor shall be added to the list of approved tow operators maintained by the Chief of Police.
D. 
Approved towing applicants who have complied with the provisions of this chapter and have submitted their $500 fee will be awarded a two-year contract to provide police towing services on a rotating basis to the Township Police Department. The contract year will run from April 15 to April 14. Contracts executed on April 15, 2010, will expire on April 14, 2012, and so on.
E. 
Any party aggrieved by the decision of the Chief of Police shall be entitled to a hearing before the Mayor and Township Committee. All requests for such hearing shall be submitted in writing no later than 10 days following the Chief of Police's decision. The hearing shall be held within 30 days of receipt of the written request unless both parties consent to an extension.
No tow operator application will be approved until the applicant has deposited with the Chief of Police a garage liability policy covering the operations of the owner's business, equipment, or other vehicles for any bodily injury or property damage. This policy shall be in the minimum amount of $1,000,000, for any one person injured or killed and a minimum amount of $3,000,000 for more than one person killed or injured in any accident and an additional $150,000 for any one incident for property damage. Each policy must contain an endorsement by the carrier providing 90 days' notice to both the Township and the insured in the event of any change in coverage of the policy.
A. 
The tow operator shall provide a continuous twenty-four-hour-a-day service each day of the year and shall provide an attendant or answering service for the purpose of receiving calls for service. The representative of the tow operator shall be available to release stored vehicles during the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. The tow operator shall assume all liability and shall indemnify and hold harmless the Township from such liability for damages sustained by vehicles while being towed or stored and for all personal injuries occurring to any of the firm's employees or other persons and shall maintain the required insurance coverage. The tow operator shall not release any vehicle directly impounded by the Township Police Department without authorization from the Police Department.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
B. 
Each separate contracted and approved tow operator will have and must maintain its own separate tow vehicle base of service as defined in § 165-3 above and its own tow yard or storage facility as defined in § 165-3 above. Tow operators are not permitted to "subcontract" any service requests to another company or individual. Any contracted and approved tow operator found to be subcontracting tows will be subject to immediate removal from the tow rotation and shall have its towing contract terminated.
C. 
For each instance of a Township Police requested tow which results in a removal of a vehicle by tow operator, the tow operator shall pay a $20 administrative fee to the Township. This fee shall be used to cover police administrative costs associated with the vehicle impound and release process. The required fee(s) will be paid in the form of a check for the previous month no later than the 10th of the following month. Checks shall be made payable to: New Hanover Township. Failure to pay the required fees to the Township on time on more than three occasions shall result in the termination of that tow operator's towing contract and removal from the Township's tow rotation.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
Towing services will rotate on a nondiscriminatory rotating basis. If the tow operator selected does not respond to the scene within 25 minutes after notification, the next available tow operator shall be summoned. If a tow operator fails to respond to a call three times within the twenty-five-minute period they may be removed from the rotation by the Chief of Police. A motorist or motor vehicle owner may summon a tow operator of his or her own choosing, except that any Township Police Officer at the scene of an incident requiring towing services shall be responsible for making the final determination as to when towing shall take place and which tow operator shall be called.
The responding tow operator shall be responsible for cleaning the scene of an accident of broken glass, metal, plastic or other debris by sweeping the road surface to the satisfaction of the police officer in charge of the scene.
A. 
The Chief of Police shall establish reasonable standard operating procedures (SOPs) for tow operators as he sees appropriate, from time to time, for the safety, well-being and protection of citizens and their property within his jurisdiction. Such SOPs shall include reasons for removal from the list of approved tow operators. All Police Department personnel and tow operators shall be made aware of these SOPs.
B. 
The Township Police Department shall maintain a tow log for recording the impoundment of vehicles and their release as required by Department standard operating procedures. Additionally, the Chief of Police or his designee will keep a separate record of the number of vehicles impounded or towed by each towing contractor each month for the purposes of assuring compliance with § 165-7C above.
Every person found guilty of violating any of the provisions of this chapter may, in addition to being removed from the towing list, be liable to a fine of not more than $500.
The Chief of Police is hereby designated to enforce the provisions of this chapter and any applicable rules and regulations or SOPs.