Need a tow? What towing costs in Boulder, CO

Boulder Towing Company quotes a tow as one total before the truck leaves. But the first thing to know about towing cost in Boulder comes before that number: Colorado caps the price of a tow you did not ask for and leaves the one you did to you and the carrier. We handle towing across Boulder and the Front Range around the clock; this page covers both prices.

The Colorado Legislative Council's towing brief draws the line. A consensual tow is one the owner, the driver or their agent asks for. A nonconsensual tow is one an officer directs or a private property owner authorizes - the car in a fire lane, or the one ordered off US 36 after a crash.

Which one the PUC prices

Towing carriers answer to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission under 4 CCR 723-6. Rule 6511 sets maximum rates for two kinds of tow only: a private property impound, or PPI, and a law enforcement-ordered tow, billed by the hour. There is no schedule for a consensual tow - the PUC's own task force calls that rate a negotiated price. One rule your tow does carry, per the same brief, is disclosure of all rates and charges to be assessed, including estimated mileage and storage - that disclosure is the quote.

One definition matters at a crash: a tow an officer orders is nonconsensual even if you agree to it, unless you keep the right to call it off and choose your own carrier. Name your own company and it is your tow.

The Colorado PUC posts these maximums for a nonconsensual tow - a private property impound or a law enforcement-ordered tow - effective March 15, 2026 and reset for inflation each March 15. They are ceilings for a tow you did not ask for, not prices, and not our rates.

Private property impound, base rate

$250.91 under 10,000 lb GVWR, which covers most cars, pickups and SUVs; heavier classes go higher - Colorado PUC

Storage

$48.19 per 24 hours under 10,000 lb GVWR, $59.45 at 10,000 lb or more, or $1.82 per foot - Colorado PUC

Law enforcement-ordered tow and recovery

$286.15 per hour under 10,000 lb GVWR - Colorado PUC

Mileage and fuel surcharge

$3.80 per mile on an impound, plus a monthly fuel surcharge when diesel tops $2.60 a gallon - $1.07 for September 2026, so $4.87 per mile at most - Colorado PUC

After-hours release

$106.06 to collect a stored vehicle outside business hours - Colorado PUC

Drop charge

None on residential private property since August 10, 2022; on commercial property, up to $97.70 under 10,000 lb GVWR - Colorado PUC

Two rules ride with those lines: billable miles are capped at 12 for tows within ten miles of I-25 and 16.5 for mountain and plains communities farther out, and until the yard has sent the required notice, only the first 24 hours of storage may be billed, prorated by the hour.

The Towing Bill of Rights

House Bill 22-1314, in force since August 10, 2022, is the Towing Bill of Rights; House Bill 24-1051 tightened it from August 7, 2024. For a car towed from private property without consent:

• 24-hour written notice on the windshield before a tow from residential property, with listed exceptions, and no tow for expired plates unless an officer orders it.
• Release on the spot. Reach the car before it leaves and the carrier must release it on request, with no drop fee on residential property.
• Get it back for 15 percent of the fees, not to exceed $60 on the PUC's release form, owing the balance; belongings come out on request within 30 days, free.
• Photos before the tow, or the law presumes the carrier caused any damage, and lighting at the yard adequate to inspect the car before release.
• Written authorization from the property owner for each tow, signs in English and Spanish, and payment in cash or by major credit card.

A tow you ask for is priced on what the job takes. This is what Boulder Towing Company weighs before we give you a total.

Distance and route

Distance is the biggest lever. Martin Acres to a shop on Arapahoe Avenue is a short run; Louisville is about 9 miles, Longmont 15 or 16, Denver about 30, and a run that long is quoted on the full distance the truck covers. Route counts too: Nederland is 17 miles up Boulder Canyon on CO 119, with grades up to 10 percent, and Magnolia Road averages 9.1 percent and turns to dirt above the paved climb. Both take longer than the mileage suggests.

Time of day

We run around the clock, and we tell you the arrival window on the call. The hour does not change how we quote: an after-hours emergency tow at 3 a.m. is priced the same way as one at noon, as a total you hear first. On the PUC's schedule for nonconsensual tows, the after-hours release fee is the one line tied to the clock.

Flatbed or wheel-lift

A front-wheel-drive sedan can ride a wheel-lift on a short run with its drive wheels in the air. Many vehicles cannot: Subaru's own guide says a flatbed is the way to tow its all-wheel-drive cars, Tesla's Model 3 manual calls a flatbed the recommended method and warns that the tires must never be able to spin, and AAA puts motorcycles and low-riding cars on the flatbed too. So flatbed towing and long-distance transport are quoted as a different truck doing different work; beyond a light-duty truck's tow rating, we say so on the call.

• Loading and recovery time. A car on the pavement with its keys loads in minutes; one nosed into a snowbank in Shanahan Ridge or off the shoulder of Sugarloaf Road has to come back to solid ground first. That is winch-out recovery work, its own line on the quote.
• Tolls and handling. A toll road on the route goes in the quote, and so does foreseeable waiting - an officer, keys, a gate - or special handling such as a motorcycle's four-strap tie-down or an EV's tow mode.
• When a roadside fix is the better call. AAA puts a car battery about 35 percent weaker at 32°F and 60 percent weaker at 0°F, and a flat with a good spare needs a jack, so jump starts, tire changes, fuel delivery and lockouts are quoted as their own jobs.

A quote is only useful if it is complete. Here is what ours contains and what to ask any company.

The total, before dispatch

Ask for the total to complete the job before the truck rolls - not an hourly rate, not a number that starts with 'from'. A total means the company asked where the car is, what it is, where it is going and what happened.

Itemized

• Hook-up - the base charge for loading and moving the vehicle, and which truck
• Mileage - what the base includes and the rate for each mile past it
• Recovery - any winching before the tow, as its own line
• Storage - if the car will be held, the daily rate and the release hours
• Anything else - tolls, waiting time, handling, a second truck - named before the truck moves

The same name three times

The name you heard on the phone should be on the truck door and the invoice; if it is not, a dispatch service likely sold your call. Ask who is coming.

What an itemized bill from a tow yard must show

After a nonconsensual tow, every charge has to match a line on the PUC schedule, so ask for an itemized bill and check it: base rate by weight class, mileage within the cap plus the month's fuel surcharge, storage counted from the notice apart from the first 24 hours, an after-hours release fee only if you collected the car after hours, and no drop charge on residential property. The Bill of Rights terms above - cash or card, the 15 percent release, light to inspect the car - apply at the yard too.

Distance is the one part of the price you can estimate yourself. From Boulder, Gunbarrel is about 7 miles, Superior 8, Niwot and Louisville 9, Lafayette 11, Broomfield 13, Erie 14, Longmont 15 to 16, Lyons 16, Nederland 17 up the canyon and Golden 20 down CO 93.

A tow inside that circle is a local job; Denver, about 30 miles down US 36, or DIA at about 42, is priced on the full distance the truck covers.

A mountain address is priced on the road, not the map. In every Boulder ZIP, 80302 downtown to 80301 in Gunbarrel, the total comes first.