28/08/2026
Major concerns Regarding WA’s Accident Towing Regulations
The combined Perth and Peel regions extend approximately 158 kilometres from north to south and cover more than 12,800 square kilometres.
With an estimated 1.4 to 1.9 million vehicles operating across these regions, providing timely and adequate accident towing services is critical to maintaining road safety and minimising traffic disruption.
However, as of Tuesday, the Department of Transport has authorised only 18 towing businesses to conduct accident towing across the Perth and Peel regions.
As a result, 38 towing businesses have been left without the ability to undertake accident towing work, following what many operators consider to be an extremely limited application period.
We believe serious questions need to be asked of the current process.
Providing towing operators with approximately 13 working days to submit their applications, while advising that assessments may take six to eight weeks, raises significant concerns about the practical implementation of these regulations and the potential impact on the availability of towing services across metropolitan Perth and Peel.
Minister Rita Saffioti, the industry deserves answers.
A regulatory framework of this scale needs to ensure there are sufficient qualified and experienced towing operators available to respond to incidents across such a large geographical area.
If adequate towing coverage is not maintained, there is a genuine risk of longer incident response times, increased traffic congestion and unnecessary safety risks for motorists and emergency personnel.
We support appropriate regulation and accountability within the towing industry. However, the implementation process must also be fair, transparent, practical and focused on road safety.
The priority should be ensuring that WA motorists have access to a reliable and adequately resourced accident towing network when they need it most.
This is not simply an industry issue — it is a road safety and public safety issue.
Big shout out to WA Tow Truck Owners and Drivers Association for their endless efforts to advocate for WA towies 🇦🇺
READ HERE: https://thewest.com.au/politics/state-politics/authorities-rush-to-approve-tow-truck-applications-days-out-from-deadline-as-tough-regulations-loom-c-22791157
