Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Tow truck operators: commercial motor requirements in South Australia

Cover for vehicles used for business, including utilities, vans and trucks, and liability for damage they cause.

Data as at

Verified for South Australia

  • Licence liability condition: Yes, but it is narrower than public liability and it only binds roster operators. Regulation 28(1) of the Motor Vehicles (Accident Towing Roster Scheme) Regulations 2015 requires a tow truck operator holding a position on an accident towing roster to maintain at all times a policy of insurance with a recognised insurer in respect of all liability that may be incurred in respect of any loss, theft or damage to any vehicle, vehicle accessory or any item in or about a vehicle being towed, or that has been towed, in compliance with an accident towing direction. That is cover for the customer's vehicle and its contents — goods in transit rather than public liability. Whether an operator who never joins the roster carries any insurance condition was not established. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: The policy must be maintained at all times while the operator holds a roster position. The Regulations do not prescribe a lodgement mechanism in the text read. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Tow truck certificates in South Australia are issued under the Motor Vehicles Act 1959 through the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, and conduct on the government accident towing roster is governed by the Motor Vehicles (Accident Towing Roster Scheme) Regulations 2015. SA · effective 2026-08-24 South Australia Government · 2026-08-24

What contracts commonly ask for

Principals and head contractors set their own insurance requirements, and those are frequently higher than a licence condition. The requirement that binds is the higher of the two, and both have to be read from the actual document.

What this cover costs

This site publishes no cost benchmark for this cover. A benchmark needs a real sample of documents, and none is published until the sample is large enough to compute a median honestly. A benchmark from a handful of policies is a guess with a decimal point.

Sources