Quick Answer: Progressive Commercial's 2025 data puts tow truck insurance at a median of $355 per month per truck ($4,260 a year), with an average of $606, for liability and physical damage. By truck type, Logrock's 2026 estimates run $450 to $900 per month for light-duty roadside work, $500 to $1,100 for a single rollback with on-hook included, and $1,800 to $2,500 or more for heavy recovery. General liability, workers compensation, and garagekeepers are priced on top. Your exact premium depends on your trucks, drivers, radius, limits, and loss history, and is confirmed by a producer.
Nobody publishes one price for tow truck insurance because no two trucks carry the same risk. A rollback doing dealer transfers in Huntley and a rotator pulling semis off I-90 at night are different businesses to an underwriter. What we can do is put the published figures in one place, show them monthly and annually by truck type, and explain what moves your number.
If you want the long version, including how each coverage line and operation type is rated, see the complete tow truck insurance cost guide.
The table pulls together the published figures that break cost out by truck class. Figures are per truck for liability and physical damage, before garagekeepers, general liability, and workers compensation, unless the row says otherwise. Annual figures are the monthly figure times 12.
| Truck type | Per month | Per year | Source and date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any single tow truck, median | $355 | $4,260 | Progressive Commercial, 2025 new policies, per power unit, no driver violations |
| Any single tow truck, average | $606 | $7,272 | Progressive Commercial, 2025. The average sits above the median because a small number of high-cost policies pull it up |
| Light-duty, local roadside | $450 to $900 | $5,400 to $10,800 | Logrock, published February 19, 2026, updated September 1, 2026 |
| Rollback, one driver, local, clean record, on-hook included | $500 to $1,100 | $6,000 to $13,200 | Logrock worked example, same article |
| Heavy recovery / rotator | $1,800 to $2,500 or more | $21,600 to $30,000 or more | Logrock, published February 19, 2026, updated September 1, 2026 |
Progressive's figures come from its own 2025 new policies, which is why they anchor the table. Logrock's are published estimates, not bound premiums. Treat every row as a range to plan around, not a quote. Your exact premium depends on revenue, exposures, limits, and loss history, and is confirmed by a producer.
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Send us your trucks, drivers, and the contracts you run. We shop 20+ towing carriers and come back with actual quotes, with on-hook and garagekeepers sized to the vehicles you handle.
Get My Tow Truck QuoteInsureon (updated May 28, 2025) reports the following for tow truck businesses that apply through it: commercial auto $737 per month ($8,839 a year), general liability $58 per month ($700 a year), and workers compensation $650 per month ($7,795 a year, a figure it applies to tow truck and other trucking businesses together). Insureon labels these as averages but notes they come from median policy cost.
No published source we found gives a standalone monthly figure for on-hook or garagekeepers. Both are rated on the limit you buy and the value of the vehicles you handle.
Carriers reward telematics, dash cams, and strict driver standards. Hard markets also mean fewer quoting carriers and tighter underwriting, which is why submission timing matters as much as the submission itself.
Illinois note: Every tow truck operator in Illinois must carry at least a $500,000 combined single limit of truck liability, $500,000 of garagekeepers liability, and at least $25,000 of on-hook or garagekeepers coverage, plus workers compensation (625 ILCS 5/12-606). Police rotation lists and motor club contracts commonly require $1,000,000 of auto liability, with their own on-hook and garagekeepers minimums. Details in our guide to tow truck insurance in Illinois.
Each coverage below is one layer of a complete towing program. Most operators need all six working together, and a quote that looks cheap is usually missing one of them.
Pays third-party bodily injury and property damage when your truck is at fault. For interstate for-hire carriers at 10,001 lbs GVWR and up, the federal minimum is $750,000 combined single limit (49 CFR 387.9), and most contracts require $1,000,000.
Comprehensive and collision coverage that repairs or replaces your own tow trucks if they are damaged or stolen. Expect higher costs for advanced equipment and late-model units.
Covers damage to customer vehicles while they are being loaded, towed, or unloaded, including collision, fire, theft, and vandalism.
Protects customer vehicles in your care at your facility, for fire, theft, vandalism, or on-premises collision. Not the same as general liability, and not the same as on-hook.
Covers third-party slip and fall and operations liability that is not auto related, such as a visitor injured at your office.
Required in most states once you have employees, and essential in a roadside industry with high injury exposure.
Fleets with police rotation or motor club contracts usually add a commercial umbrella and hired and non-owned auto. Our towing insurance page covers the insurance schedules that police rotation, municipal, and motor club agreements ask for.
| Coverage | Protects the customer vehicle |
|---|---|
| On-hook towing | While being towed (collision, fire, theft, vandalism, load and unload) |
| Garagekeepers | On your premises (stored or serviced), for fire, theft, vandalism, collision |
Many claims happen after the tow, on the lot. A program with on-hook and no garagekeepers has a gap exactly where impound and storage operators get sued.
The lowest quote on the table is almost always the thinnest policy. Here is where the savings usually come from.
| How the cheap quote gets cheap | What it costs you at claim time |
|---|---|
| State-minimum liability | Fails every rotation and motor club contract that wants $1,000,000. You pay to rewrite mid-term. |
| On-hook left off or capped at $10,000 | A late-model pickup rolls off the bed and you own everything above the cap. |
| Garagekeepers on legal liability only | Hail flattens 30 cars on the impound lot. Legal liability pays nothing because you were not negligent. |
| Actual cash value on a heavy wrecker | A depreciation table decides what your rotator was worth, not the replacement invoice. |
| Drivers or trucks left off the schedule | The premium drops because the carrier is not insuring them. Neither are you. |
Before you buy on price alone, read our breakdown of what cheap tow truck insurance actually gets you. The right way to lower the number is below.
A rollback (flatbed carrier) is the most common first truck and usually the cheapest tow unit to insure, because loading a car onto a bed is gentler than dragging it on a wheel lift and most rollback work is dealer transfers, motor club calls, and local breakdowns. The one published example we found, Logrock's February 2026 estimate, puts a single-driver, local-radius rollback with on-hook included at $500 to $1,100 per month.
Two things push a rollback quote up. First, two-car carriers and rollbacks that regularly haul higher-value vehicles need a bigger on-hook limit, because the policy covers the load, not the truck. Second, if the same rollback does repossession work, carriers rate it as a repo unit regardless of how often, so keep repo and towing on separate trucks where you can.
A 2024 AAA Foundation analysis found that 123 roadside assistance providers were struck and killed between 2015 and 2021, nearly four times more than national crash databases captured, often at highway speeds, at night, and with distraction or impairment involved. Earlier NIOSH analysis of towing workers from 2011 to 2016 found an annual fatality rate roughly 15 times the private-industry average. That is why carriers scrutinize safety controls and training in underwriting.
What helps, and can earn credits: Move Over compliance, high-visibility gear, cones and arrow boards, dash cams and telematics, formal driver training, and documented incident-management procedures.
For interstate, for-hire towing, the federal minimum liability limit is $750,000 combined single limit for carriers of nonhazardous property at 10,001 lbs GVWR and up, though most contracts expect $1,000,000. Proof and filings follow 49 CFR Part 387, and carriers must keep the required financial responsibility on file to keep their authority active. Operators who also run cargo or transport units can coordinate towing with commercial trucking insurance under one account.
Progressive Commercial reports a median of $355 per month and an average of $606 per month for new tow truck customers in 2025, for liability and physical damage, per truck. Logrock's 2026 estimates run $450 to $900 per month for light-duty roadside work, $500 to $1,100 for a single rollback with on-hook included, and $1,800 to $2,500 or more for heavy recovery. Insureon reports a median of $737 per month for commercial auto among tow truck businesses that apply through it. Your price depends on drivers, trucks, limits, and state.
Progressive Commercial's 2025 median of $355 per month works out to about $4,260 a year per truck, and its $606 average to about $7,272. Insureon's commercial auto median is $8,839 a year. For heavy recovery, Logrock's estimate of $1,800 to $2,500 or more per month works out to $21,600 to $30,000 or more a year. Add general liability, workers compensation, and garagekeepers on top.
Commercial auto liability covers the damage your tow truck does to other people and their property. It does not cover the vehicle you are towing; that is on-hook coverage. It does not cover vehicles on your lot; that is garagekeepers. And it does not repair your own truck; that is physical damage. If you are a driver asking whether your personal auto policy pays for a tow, that is roadside assistance, a separate add-on, not liability.
On-hook coverage (sometimes called on-hook towing or towing cargo) pays for damage to a customer vehicle while it is being loaded, hauled, or unloaded by your truck. It is priced on the limit you buy per vehicle or per occurrence. Illinois requires every tow truck operator to carry at least $25,000 of on-hook or garagekeepers coverage (625 ILCS 5/12-606), and police rotation lists and motor clubs commonly set higher limits.
General liability covers third-party bodily injury and property damage that does not arise from auto use, such as a visitor injured at your office. Garagekeepers covers customer vehicles in your care at your premises for storage or service.
The federal minimum for interstate for-hire carriers of nonhazardous property is $750,000, but police rotation lists, motor clubs, and shippers frequently require $1,000,000. Your loss profile and assets should inform the final limit.
Industry-wide loss severity from repair costs, medical inflation, and litigation, combined with reduced carrier appetite, is pushing rates up across commercial auto. Strong safety practices, telematics, and an early, complete renewal submission can help offset the pressure.
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Reviewed by Neal Fusco, VP Commercial Lines
25+ years placing towing, trucking, and commercial auto coverage across Illinois and 40+ states.
Illinois licensed insurance producer #18515626
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