HB 577 North Carolina House · 2025-2026 Session

Protect Towers and Truckers Act.

HB 577 creates a Towing and Recovery Commission within the North Carolina State Highway Patrol to resolve disputes over fees charged by towing services to law enforcement. It requires towing businesses to submit hourly rates to the commission for approval and establishes new permit requirements, including background checks (no felony convictions in the past 5-10 years), insurance, training, and proof of a compliant storage facility. The bill directly affects towing companies, truckers using the State Highway Patrol rotation system, and law enforcement agencies that contract for towing services. Key provisions include the commission’s authority to set reasonable fees, disqualify noncompliant tow services, and oversee permit applications with specific eligibility criteria.

Issues: ✓ Transportation

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 31, 2025 Last action Jun 11, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 2 comparisons

What changed between versions

Edition 1 → Edition 2 · 6 edits

MODERATE

The bill was significantly revised to rename and restructure the proposed Towing and Recovery Commission into a 'Commercial Motor Vehicle Towing and Recovery Commission.' The changes narrow the scope to focus specifically on commercial motor vehicles rather than all towing services, add detailed definitions, and modify the commission's powers from fee enforcement to fee range determination and dispute facilitation. These changes appear designed to address concerns about the original version's broad authority over towing fees while maintaining oversight for commercial vehicle incidents.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed from a general towing and recovery commission to specifically focus on commercial motor vehicles, as defined by existing state statutes. The commission's authority was also modified from having enforcement powers over individual fees to determining reasonable fee ranges and facilitating dispute resolution.

SCOPE

The commission name changed from 'Towing and Recovery Commission' to 'Commercial Motor Vehicle Towing and Recovery Commission,' narrowing its focus to commercial vehicles only.

DEFINITION

New definitions section was added to clarify terms like 'commercial motor vehicle,' 'tow operations,' and 'tower' with references to existing state statutes.

ENFORCEMENT

Commission powers changed from determining individual fee reasonableness and disqualifying towing services to determining fee ranges and creating a non-binding dispute resolution process.

Removed specific authority for the commission to publicly disclose towing rates and to determine individual fee reasonableness for specific incidents.

REQUIREMENT

Fee submission requirements were modified to apply to towers seeking inclusion on rotation lists, with a 30-day effective period for rate changes after resubmission.

TECHNICAL

Minor formatting changes including updated bill version number, committee substitute designation, and removal of sponsor information from the header.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Jun 11, 2025

Committee

Re-ref Com On Finance

lower

Jun 11, 2025

Lower · Passed

Reptd Fav Com Substitute

lower

Jun 10, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Added

lower

Jun 10, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Appropriations Added

lower

Jun 10, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Finance Added

lower

Jun 10, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Stricken

lower

Jun 10, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Finance Stricken

lower

Jun 10, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Appropriations Stricken

lower

Apr 3, 2025

Committee

Re-ref to the Com on Transportation, if favorable, Appropriations, if favorable, Finance, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Apr 3, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Stricken

lower

Apr 3, 2025

Committee

Serial Referral To Finance Stricken

lower

Apr 1, 2025

Committee

Ref to the Com on Appropriations, if favorable, Finance, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House

lower

Mar 31, 2025

Introduced

Filed

lower

2 primary · 11 co-sponsors