Towing Issues: What time frame is 1 day, tow rates, small claims court

Question
Hi Richard, My 75 year old mother's car stopped on the side of a rural road (NJ# and she called me. I arrived, we left to take the keys to the tow company and upon return # 30 mins later#, the car was gone. After calling several municipalities, #the car was on the line of 2 townships), we were told where the car was. Note: car towed aprox. 3pm, It took us 1.5 hrs to find it. On phone with tow company and they stated we could not pick the car up until next day and would be charged 2 days. The car will only be there for 15 hours max.
#1. What determines a day?  They didn't attempt to locate us, we had to find them and then they were closed and stated we had to wait.
#2. I can not find any state guidelines on fees. We will be picking up the car tomorrow am with a total charge of $325.00. Who governs this fee?
Please advise, Thank you and happy holiday.

Answer
Well first of all, I have to point out that Law Enforcement towed (police departments) tend to have contracts with tow companies which have tow rates and storage rates in them. And unfortunately it is next to impossible to find them online.

Now as to storage, depending on the contracts, I hate to say that a lot of contracts are "calendar day" on storage.
That means that I can tow in a vehicle at 1150PM, and release it at 1215AM and it would be 2 calendar days.

But other contracts are based on a 24 hour basis where if it came in at 1150PM on Tuesday, it would still be 1 day till 1149PM on Wednesday. (at 1150 it becomes second day)

Now as to notifying you, it is done via mail a lot. And that takes time.

As to the charges, well that again goes back to the contracts with the agency or what ever the rates are allowed and set by the state...

Now New Jersey does have some new changes in the towing laws but most all of them, deal with tow aways from parking lots and such. Roadways are police controlled, so that is a big difference.

You always have the rights to go to Small Claims Court to see if you were wronged, and in some cases there are "tow hearings" which are done by the agency who had the vehicle towed.

Wish I could help more but its hard to find that kind of information.