The Maine State Legislature passed a Resolve in 2025, that became law on June 15, 2025, without the signature of Governor Mills. The Resolve emanated from constituent concerns regarding towing practices, especially non-consensual towing. The majority of concerns appear to regard excessive fees for towing and the storage of abandoned vehicles. Conversely, towing companies have expressed issues with abandoned vehicles and the impact on their businesses when vehicle owners abandon their vehicle or refuse to pay legitimate towing invoices. This often results in numerous vehicles left in towing company impound yards, and weeks of work to obtain titles in order for towing companies to dispose of the vehicles in accordance with Maine law and often for less than the cost of the original tow.
Maine Motor Transport Association has clearly heard from our members who have received excessive and unjustified towing charges for commercial vehicle tows. These concerns initially prompted MMTA to pursue legislation in 2017 to attempt to stem the tide of excessive invoices. And while we were successful in 2017 to change the law to require itemized invoices and to prohibit the withholding by towing companies of certain personal items and perishable cargo. Our members, however, have unfortunately continued to receive excessive invoices that are hard to discern. Too often the position of many towing companies is that “it’s covered by insurance” without apparent regard to the impact that these invoices have on the cost of insurance for everybody. Currently, in Maine, there is no place to take these types of complaints, except to the Office of the Attorney General as an unfair trade practice.
In September of 2025, pursuant to the Resolve, the Secretary of State’s Office convened a working group of a wide range of concerned constituencies that included the Towing Industry, Insurance Industry, and MMTA who represented the Trucking Industry. The working group met regularly between September and February at which time the Secretary of State’s Office brought the group’s recommendations back to the Transportation Committee of the Maine Legislature. The Transportation Committee received the report and heard from the Secretary of State’s Office and determined that more work needs to be done on the issue before making changes to current law or rule. Thus, the working group will continue to meet, and the Secretary of State will bring a department bill to the next session of the legislature which will convene in January of 2027.
As MMTA continues to participate in the working group, we wanted to provide our members with a copy of the initial report FOUND HERE. We also ask that members let MMTA know when they receive invoices that cannot be justified. Providing copies of the invoices, as well as pictures, is the best way to assist us in advocating on your behalf. We are also interested in hearing from our towing members as we know of many quality towing companies who have never been mentioned as one of the companies that have engaged in unfair invoicing. The Association understands that this is a complicated and sensitive issue. We continue to seek the best solution to address the current problem.
Should you have questions or input, we welcome you to contact Tim or Brian at MMTA to discuss the issue.