Towing Issues: towing charges, tow dollies, small wheels

Question
I live in an apartment building in mass. the building does have towing if you do not have your sticker on your car. My sons friend was towed as should have been because of no sticker... My question is.. The tow company the building hired is about 20 miles away and they charge for the miles they travel round trip is there a law for involuntary towing distance? or can they choose people to tow any distance? also they removed and charged for removal of the drive shaft or something like that because it was a two wheel drive truck is that legal?

Answer
Well since the permit does not seem to be the issue here, it sounds like your sons friend knows that was the reason it was towed.

Now as to the distance involved and the cost.

20 miles is not really a big issue in a lot of places as there are only a few tow companies (not everyone does tow aways from private property)
But unless there is a "SPECIFIC ORDINANCE" in your town that requires them to have a physical location in the city you will be out of luck.

As to the driveline removal, it sounds like this might of been a pickup truck or worse yet, a jacked up pickup truck with big tires.
Sometimes, the tow company does not have the special equipment to load "MODIFIED VEHICLES" onto a flatbed tow truck or use tow dollies (the small wheels you see on the back of the tow truck) to do the call.
Or they did it to increase the price, as some tow companies look for any way to increase the prices. Now you might of had the vehicle "dollied" and that is what the cost is for.
Removal of the driveline is done to protect the transmission from potential damages during the tow. It is a CYA issue in most cases by the tow company so they can not be blamed for damages.

Costs, now if I remember correctly, Massachusetts regulates the towing rates, which means that the state set the rates which are charged for the services rendered.
In that case you are more or less out of luck on the price charged unless it is "OVER THE ALLOWABLE RATES"

I do not know as I am not there and did not see the tow and do not see the tow bill...

As to state laws, here is a link to one about towing and all the stuff that will apply in most of the cases.

http://law.onecle.com/massachusetts/266/120D.html

Hope this helped.