How Much Does It Cost to Tow a Car in Colorado? Boulder Guide

Published 17 September 2026

Boulder Towing Company hears one question about price more than any other: how much does it cost to tow a car in Colorado? The answer has two halves. For a tow ordered by a property owner or a police officer, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission caps every line on the bill. For a tow you call for yourself there is no state price, only the quote you agree to before the truck moves.

Here is the PUC's schedule from March 15, 2026, then the mileage and fuel surcharge rules, the Towing Bill of Rights, and where to complain. Every dollar figure below is the PUC's and describes a nonconsensual tow; none is our price.

Colorado's towing carriers answer to the PUC under 4 CCR 723-6. Rule 6501 defines a nonconsensual tow as the transport of a vehicle from private property without the prior consent of its owner, operator, agent, lienholder or insurer, and a private property impound, or PPI, as one authorized by the property owner. A law enforcement-ordered tow stays inside the rules even when you agree to it, unless you keep the right to stop the tow and choose your own carrier.

Rule 6511, the rate rule, caps exactly two things: private property impounds, and law enforcement-ordered tows, calculated by the hour. It has no schedule for a consensual tow; the PUC's Towing Task Force said in October 2022 that carriers doing consensual work are not required to use any set pricing structure. What the state does require, per the Colorado Legislative Council's December 2022 brief, is disclosure of all rates and charges before the tow, including estimated mileage and storage.

The PUC posts the schedule on its towing-rates page and resets it every March 15 for inflation on the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood consumer price index; the current figures carry a 2.28 percent adjustment. Each is a ceiling a carrier may not exceed, not a price it must charge.

The figures drift: the April 30, 2024 schedule put the impound base at $239.88, and the Legislative Council recorded a late-2022 base of $211.11, so check the effective date on any schedule you are handed. The lines as of March 15, 2026, all Colorado PUC figures:

• Private property impound, base rate - $250.91 under 10,000 lb GVWR, which covers nearly every car, SUV and pickup; $288.57 to 19,000 lb; $388.96 to 33,000 lb; $439.15 above.
• Law enforcement-ordered tow and recovery - $286.15 per hour under 10,000 lb, rising by weight class to $516.48 per hour above 33,000 lb.
• Storage - $48.19 per 24 hours under 10,000 lb, $59.45 at 10,000 lb or more, or $1.82 per foot.
• Drop charge - $97.70 under 10,000 lb on commercial property only; none on residential property since August 10, 2022.
• After-hours release - $106.06. Notification fee - $75.00 after a tow from private property, $150.00 from public property.

Mileage on an impound is $3.80 per mile under rule 6511, capped at 12 billable miles within ten miles of either side of I-25 and 16.5 miles for mountain and eastern plains communities farther out. On top of it sits a fuel surcharge, applied whenever diesel exceeds a $2.60 base on the U.S. Department of Energy's weekly Rocky Mountain price: for September 2026 it is $1.07 per mile, a maximum of $4.87 including the base. It was $0.25 in February and $1.11 in June, so a bill should carry the figure for the month of the tow.

Storage has its own clock: until the carrier has completed the owner notification that HB22-1314 requires within 10 days, only the first 24 hours, prorated by the hour, may be charged, so a car that sat a week before the letter went out should not show a week of storage. The after-hours release fee applies only if you collect the car outside business hours.

House Bill 22-1314, in force since August 10, 2022, is the Towing Bill of Rights; House Bill 24-1051 amended it from August 7, 2024, and the text sits in C.R.S. 40-10.1-405. A carrier must release the car on request, at no charge, if it is still on the property when you arrive. You may retrieve a towed car by paying fifteen percent of the fees, not to exceed sixty dollars, and signing the PUC's release form for the balance; belongings come out within 30 days of notice without paying the towing fees.

A residential tow needs a 24-hour written notice on the windshield first, with exceptions such as a blocked driveway or a fire zone; no tow for an expired plate unless an officer orders it; photographs before the tow, or the law presumes the carrier caused any damage; cash and major credit cards accepted. Under HB24-1051 each tow needs the property owner's written permission within 24 hours, signs must be in English and Spanish, and violations fall under the Colorado Consumer Protection Act.

If a line runs over the schedule, or the yard refuses the partial-payment release, the PUC's Consumer Assistance line is 303-894-2070 or 800-456-0858, with a complaint form on its towing page; its enforcement returned $280,289 to consumers in 2022-2024. If the car is simply gone, start with what to do when your car has been towed in Boulder.

None of the figures above prices the tow most people in Boulder actually need, the one after the car quits on 28th Street or will not start in Table Mesa. That tow is consensual: the PUC neither caps nor floors it, so the number you hear on the phone is your whole protection, and it should be one complete figure, not a starting point.

That is how Boulder Towing Company's wheel-lift and flatbed trucks are dispatched: where the car is, what it is, what happened and where it is going, then one figure and the arrival window before you decide. Distance, the truck the vehicle needs and any winching first move it; the hour does not.

So when a Colorado towing rate is quoted anywhere, ask which tow it describes. What goes into the other number, the one you agree to, is on Boulder Towing Company's cost page for a tow you call for yourself.