Towing Issues: notifying owners, certified mail, storage rates

Question
Is a tow company required to notify the owner a vehicle has been towed?  We loaned a vehicle to a friend (and don't need to be told that was a bad idea).  He eventually left the car unattended for 3 weeks at a market/gas station, and it was towed.  As far as I knew, it was still being driven every day.  The car sat in impound for another 3 weeks before we found out, second hand, that it had been towed in.  It took an additional week for us to locate the car.  The totally cost for towing and storage is now $1,500.  The car is not worth that much for sure.  My question is, does the tow company have any responsibility to try and contact the owner and let him know the car has been impounded?

Answer
yes as a rule the tow company notifies the vehicle owners via certified mail that the vehicle has been towed and is pending a lien sale...
But the problem is that their is no "national standard" for notification as it all depends on the state you are in. Some states require first notices within 24 hours, some states the lien process does not start for 30 to 45 days or more... YES some states let it go that long before they are "allowed to get the vehicle owner information"

And the information that they get is off the DMV records and if you have moved at all they might not get the correct information.
Add in the fact that in many cases they get the information mailed to them, and then they have to mail the letters to you... It does take time and unfortunately that time also costs money in daily storage rates..

Since I do not know what state this happened in, I am just providing "GENERAL ANSWERS"