Insurables — Australian business risk, sourced and dated

Tow truck operators: public liability requirements in Australia

Cover for legal liability to third parties for personal injury or property damage arising from business activities.

Data as at

Verified requirements, by state

  • Licence liability condition: Yes, and it is the most specific insurance condition of any occupation on this site — TWO distinct policies. The Tow Truck Industry Regulation 2020 requires the licensee to hold public liability insurance AND "on-hook" liability insurance. On-hook cover is the unusual one: it covers vehicles while they are being towed or are attached to the tow truck, which an ordinary public liability policy does not reach. A tow operator carrying only public liability is not compliant. NSW · effective 2020-09-01 NSW Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: Certificates of currency at application, and they are itemised rather than general: a certificate for public liability insurance covering the nominated place of business; for Category A towing work, a further certificate covering the holding yard or yards; and a certificate for on-hook insurance FOR EACH VEHICLE to be operated under the licence, or a completed exemption form where the operator works solely under clause 10 of the Regulation. Per-vehicle evidence means adding a truck is a licensing event, not just a purchase. NSW · effective 2020-09-01 NSW Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: NSW Fair Trading, under the Tow Truck Industry Act 1998 (NSW) and the Tow Truck Industry Regulation 2020 (NSW). Operator licences and driver certificates are separate; the insurance obligations sit on the operator licence. NSW · effective 2020-09-01 NSW Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance requirement of any kind, and this is the cleanest negative in the entire estate: the word "insurance" DOES NOT APPEAR ANYWHERE in either the Act or the Regulations. Both instruments were read in full — every Part, every Schedule. They cover licensing, accreditation, tow truck vehicle specifications, record-keeping, accident-scene rosters, demerit points and offences in detail, and impose no public liability, on-hook or other insurance obligation on a licence holder, operator, depot manager or driver. THE CROSS-BORDER POINT, and it is a real one: New South Wales DOES require tow truck operators to hold public liability and "on-hook" liability insurance, with certificates per vehicle. On the full text of the governing instruments, that requirement is a New South Wales outlier and does not generalise. An operator who assumes the NSW rule applies interstate is buying cover nobody is asking for; an operator moving the other way is losing cover they had. VIC · effective 2019-12-01 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence evidence required: None. Nothing to evidence. VIC · effective 2019-12-01 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licensing body: The Victorian Secretary responsible for transport, under the Accident Towing Services Act 2007 (Vic) and the Accident Towing Services Regulations 2019 (Vic). Victoria licenses the VEHICLE — a tow truck licence, regular or heavy — and separately accredits the people: towing operator accreditation, towing depot manager accreditation and tow truck driver accreditation. VIC · effective 2019-12-01 Building and Plumbing Commission · 2026-08-17
  • Licence liability condition: No insurance condition of any kind — not public liability, not on-hook. This is an unusually strong negative, because it rests on a full-text reading of both instruments rather than on a guidance page failing to mention the topic. The word "insurance" appears in the Act and Regulation only in two unrelated places, both of them RESTRICTIONS rather than requirements: an accredited person must not promote a business providing vehicle insurance or assisting with insurance claims while exercising the accreditation, and consideration must not be given or received for obtaining work in the field of vehicle insurance. Queensland regulates tow operators AWAY from the insurance industry rather than requiring them to carry insurance. THE CROSS-BORDER POINT, and it is a real one: New South Wales DOES require tow truck operators to hold public liability and "on-hook" liability insurance, with certificates per vehicle. On the full text of the governing instruments, that requirement is a New South Wales outlier and does not generalise. An operator who assumes the NSW rule applies interstate is buying cover nobody is asking for; an operator moving the other way is losing cover they had. QLD · effective 2025-01-10 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: None. There is no insurance requirement to evidence. QLD · effective 2025-01-10 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, under the Tow Truck Act 2023 (Qld) and the Tow Truck Regulation 2024 (Qld). Queensland ACCREDITS rather than licenses: "A person must not carry on a towing business unless the person holds a towing operator accreditation for the business", with separate accreditations for drivers and assistants. QLD · effective 2025-01-10 WorkSafe Queensland · 2026-08-13
  • Licence liability condition: No operative insurance requirement, but with a wrinkle worth knowing. The Act contains a POWER to make regulations prescribing, for a towing business authorisation application, "requirements for licensing, insurance and roadworthiness of tow trucks" — so Western Australia has given itself the ability to impose an insurance condition. On a full reading of the Towing Services Regulations 2025, that power HAS NOT BEEN EXERCISED: "insurance" appears only in the definition of an insurance company and in prohibitions on displaying an insurer's name or logo and on falsely claiming an association with one. A latent power, not a live obligation — and one that could be switched on by regulation without the Act changing. THE CROSS-BORDER POINT, and it is a real one: New South Wales DOES require tow truck operators to hold public liability and "on-hook" liability insurance, with certificates per vehicle. On the full text of the governing instruments, that requirement is a New South Wales outlier and does not generalise. An operator who assumes the NSW rule applies interstate is buying cover nobody is asking for; an operator moving the other way is losing cover they had. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licence evidence required: None currently. Watch the regulations rather than the Act, since that is where any requirement would appear. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • Licensing body: Western Australia under the Towing Services Act 2024 (WA) and the Towing Services Regulations 2025 (WA), through a towing business authorisation and a towing worker authorisation. NOTE A COMMENCEMENT ISSUE: on the compilation reviewed, the Part of the Act dealing with towing businesses had not yet come into operation and was to be proclaimed. Confirm the current commencement position before relying on this. WA · effective 2026-08-24 Consumer Protection WA · 2026-08-13
  • 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
  • Licence liability condition: Not applicable. With no tow truck licence in Tasmania there is no licence for an insurance condition to attach to. Cover for a tow operator here is driven by the value of what is on the hook and by whoever holds the accident towing contract, not by a licensing regulator. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: Not applicable. No tow truck licence exists in Tasmania. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Tasmania has no dedicated tow truck licensing scheme. No tow truck industry Act of the kind found in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland appears on the Tasmanian legislation register; searches surface only general Vehicle and Traffic Act and Regulations material on heavy vehicle charges, driver licensing and vehicle standards. TAS · effective 2026-08-24 Tasmania Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence liability condition: Not applicable. There is no occupational licence in the ACT for an insurance condition to attach to. A tow truck is also not a public passenger vehicle, so the $5,000,000 condition that binds taxis, rideshare and buses does not reach it. The only insurance touching a tow truck in ACT law is compulsory third party cover as a condition of registering the vehicle. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence evidence required: None from an occupational regulator, because there is no occupational licence. Heavy tow trucks remain subject to heavy vehicle national law obligations. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licensing body: Tow truck operating is not a licensed occupation in the ACT. No dedicated tow truck Act or Regulation exists on the Territory register, unlike New South Wales and Victoria. The phrase tow truck does not appear at all in the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999, and where it does appear in the vehicle registration Regulation it is always as a vehicle type — a truck built or used for towing broken-down or damaged vehicles — never as a licensed operator. ACT · effective 2026-08-25 Australian Capital Territory Government · 2026-08-24
  • Licence liability condition: Not applicable. With the sole instrument repealed there is no occupational licence in the Territory for an insurance condition to attach to. A tow truck still needs compulsory third party cover, but that attaches to registering the vehicle under the motor accidents compensation scheme, not to the operator. NT · effective 2026-08-25 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licence evidence required: Not applicable. No tow truck operator licence exists in the Northern Territory. NT · effective 2026-08-25 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25
  • Licensing body: Tow truck operating is not licensed in the Northern Territory, and it is one of the few cases where a scheme was deliberately removed rather than never created. The Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading (Tow Truck Operators Code of Practice) Regulations 1996 were repealed by section 11 of the Statute Law Amendment (Territory Economic Reconstruction) Act 2021, assented 31 August 2021, as part of implementing the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission's recommendations. The phrase tow truck appears zero times in the Motor Vehicles Act 1949, so nothing replaced it. NT · effective 2026-08-25 Northern Territory Government · 2026-08-25

By state and territory

Licensing is a state matter, so the requirement behind this cover changes at the border. These pages track the licence question in each jurisdiction.

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