Vehicles-for-Hire & Transport · 5 min read · Last updated
Driving a tow truck in Toronto is licensed work: tow truck drivers must obtain a licence to drive or operate a tow truck. The main exception is the owner behind the wheel of their own truck — everyone else, chiefly employees and hired drivers, needs this licence. Here is who it covers and how to get it.
The City of Toronto lists this under its “Driver” category: “Tow truck drivers must obtain a licence to drive or operate a tow truck.”
Who needs this licence?
The licence covers people who drive or operate a tow truck — in practice, the employees and hired drivers of towing businesses. If you are taking shifts in a truck someone else owns, you need the Tow Truck Driver licence before the first tow.
The exemption runs one way: an individual owner may drive their own truck without this licence, but the moment anyone else takes the wheel — an employee, a shift driver, a family member helping out on a busy night — that person needs the driver licence. Fleets of any size run entirely on licensed drivers, which is why owners and drivers usually get their applications moving together.
What documents do you need?
- Government-issued identification (two pieces, at least one with a photo)
- An Ontario driver's licence of the class required for the trucks you will drive
- The police and screening checks the City requests for tow truck drivers
- Any driving-record documentation and other items on the City's checklist
Screening matters in towing — drivers meet the public at stressful moments, often at night, often around money — so order the checks early and expect them to be the slowest part of the file.
Zoning and premises requirements
There is no premises attached to a driver's licence: the work happens at roadsides, collision scenes and parking lots. What replaces zoning is conduct — the rules for stopping and staging, approaching scenes, and soliciting work are strict precisely because towing meets people on their worst days. Where the trucks and towed vehicles are stored is the owner's premises question, not the driver's.
Inspections and approvals
For a driver, scrutiny is personal rather than mechanical: screening at application, the state of your provincial driving record, and field enforcement by Municipal Licensing & Standards, which checks driver licensing and conduct where towing happens. The truck's own condition and equipment belong to the owner's licence — carry your licence, and leave the truck's file to its owner.
How much does it cost?
The driver licence carries an application fee and an annual renewal fee, set in the City's licensing fee schedule, confirmed during the application and paid to the City directly. Sort out with your employer who carries the cost before you file — practices vary across the industry.
How to apply
Apply to Municipal Licensing & Standards — through the City's online Business Licence & Permit portal, available since January 2026, or in person — with identification, the provincial driver's licence, screening checks and the checklist items complete.
If a towing company is hiring you, coordinate timing with them; if you are assembling the file yourself, Permits2Go's workspace tracks each document so the application lands complete.
Renewals and staying compliant
Renew annually and keep the provincial driver's licence valid — the City licence sits on top of it, and losing the base takes the whole stack down. Report the changes the City requires, and treat your record as your résumé: in towing, a clean licence history is what the better employers hire on.
Quick quiz: test what you learned
Three questions, all answered in this guide. Click an answer to check it.
1. Who needs a Tow Truck Driver licence in Toronto?
The driver licence covers people at the wheel of someone else's truck; individual owners driving their own tow truck are exempt.
2. An owner hires an employee to drive the company tow truck. What does the employee need?
The exemption belongs to the individual owner personally; every other person who drives the truck must hold the driver licence.
3. Which licence covers the tow truck's own standards, equipment and insurance?
Toronto splits the file: the owner licence carries the vehicle's obligations, and the driver licence carries the human ones — screening, record and conduct.
Skip the paperwork
Tell Permits2Go about your business and it assembles the licence application for you — document checklists, e-signatures and a guided workspace for Toronto, with more cities on the way.
This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Licensing requirements, by-laws and fees change and vary by municipality — always confirm the current rules with the City before you apply.