How a 30-year no-bid contract, a bulk mail permit, and $50-a-day storage fees extract $45 million a year from Chicago drivers — by design.
In 2017 alone, Chicago impounded 93,857 vehicles. One in three were never reclaimed by their owners. The city sold roughly 24,000 of those vehicles — an average of 66 per day — to its contracted towing vendor at scrap prices averaging less than $200 per car.
The buyer of those vehicles is United Road Towing (URT), the same company the city pays to tow them. URT has held towing contracts with Chicago for over 30 years. Its current contract is worth an estimated $60 million over five years. URT faced no competition for its most recent contract in 2016. Its last competitive bid was in 2010 — and it was not the lowest bidder.
2016 Ford Mustang — $176.09
2014 Audi A3 — $147.15
2011 Mercedes M-Class — $143.33
1998 GMC Savana (wheelchair van with $10,000 lift) — $15.00
Chicago drivers lose two things when their car is towed: cash (fees paid to retrieve the vehicle) and cars (vehicles never reclaimed, sold at scrap). Here’s where the money flows:
The contract pays URT to tow the cars. Then URT buys the cars it towed. The notification system that determines whether owners can reclaim their vehicles in time — before fees exceed the car’s value — is controlled by the City. The City sends that notification by bulk mail.
Chicago Municipal Code § 9-92-070(a) is explicit: when the City tows a registered vehicle, it must send the owner a notice of impoundment by certified mail. The statute says “certified mail” twice. There is no ambiguity.
Certified mail requires a USPS tracking number, a delivery attempt, and a signature or notice at the recipient’s address. It creates a paper trail proving when the notice was sent and whether it was received.
The City does not send certified mail.
Physical evidence from a February 2026 tow confirms that the City sends impoundment notices as presorted first-class bulk mail under USPS Permit No. 3238. This is the same class of mail used for advertising flyers and credit card offers. There is no tracking, no signature, no delivery confirmation, and no accountability.
A bulk mailing permit is not a one-off mistake. It is an institutional arrangement with the U.S. Postal Service for mass mailings. The City obtained and maintains this permit specifically for sending these notices through a method the statute does not authorize.
At $50/day in storage fees across ~94,000 annual tows, every day of notification delay generates revenue for the system and moves vehicles closer to the point where owners abandon them into URT’s scrap pipeline. The financial incentive to use slow, untrackable mail is enormous.
“Towing without telling — that is literally taking peoples’ cars without giving them any notification by mail.”
Attorney Jacie Zolna, Santiago v. City of ChicagoThe Municipal Code (§ 9-92-080(b)) sets towing and storage fees based on vehicle weight. For vehicles under 8,000 lbs — which is 95% of all towed vehicles — the code says $150 towing and $25/day storage.
The City charges $250 towing and $50/day storage. These are the rates the code assigns to vehicles over 8,000 lbs. The City’s own website contradicts itself across different pages:
| Source | Tow Fee (<8,000 lbs) | Storage (<8,000 lbs) |
|---|---|---|
| Municipal Code (published) | $150 | $25/day |
| City website: “Common Towing Questions” | $150 | $20/day first 5 days, $35 after |
| City website: “Illegally Parked Vehicles” | $250 | — |
| Actual impoundment notice (Feb 2026) | $250 | $50/day |
A City budget document (COFA Revenue Proposal) explicitly describes the $150/$25 rates as current and proposes increasing them as a future measure, noting that “changes would require updates to the Municipal Code.” No amending ordinance appears in the published code’s amendment history.
If no amending ordinance exists, the City is collecting $100 per tow in unauthorized fees across approximately 95,000 vehicles per year. That is roughly $9.5 million annually in excess tow fees alone, before the storage fee overcharge.
Step back and look at the system as a whole:
This is not a system with occasional failures. The notification delay is not a bug. It is the mechanism by which vehicles flow from owners into URT’s inventory. The bulk mail permit is the valve. The $50/day storage fee is the clock.
Case No. 1:19-cv-04652, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Andrea Santiago, a senior citizen with multiple sclerosis confined to a wheelchair, had her specially equipped van — with a $10,000 wheelchair lift — declared abandoned and towed while legally parked on her street. She received no notice by mail. The City sold her van to United Road Towing for $15. URT sold it to a scrap yard for $615. The van and the wheelchair lift were destroyed.
A federal judge granted class action status in November 2020, covering thousands of vehicles towed and disposed of without proper notice. The City appealed. The case remains active.
The Santiago case established the phrase “towing without telling” and centers on the City’s failure to notify vehicle owners by mail as required by statute. Physical evidence of the City’s bulk mail permit — proving institutional noncompliance with the certified mail requirement — goes to the core of this class action.
Every person who knows their rights is one less person this system can exploit unchallenged. Here is what to do if your car is towed in Chicago — and who to contact if you have evidence of systemic violations.
Go to the tow location. Photograph every sign — and the absence of signs. Photograph faded text, rusted poles, missing directional arrows, and the general streetscape. Under Illinois law (625 ILCS 5/11-305(c)), sign-based restrictions cannot be enforced if the sign is not legible to an ordinarily observant person.
When the impoundment notice arrives, keep the envelope. If it says “PRSRT FIRST CLASS” or bears a permit number instead of a green certified mail sticker, it was not sent by certified mail as required by § 9-92-070(a). That envelope is evidence.
Request tow photographs, operator reports, and signage records from DSS, DOAH, and CDOT. Even if results arrive late, the FOIA paper trail proves you tried to access evidence through every available channel. Request the amending ordinance authorizing current fees.
You have 15 days. Paying fees does not waive your right to contest. Under § 9-92-080(b)(i), if the tow is found erroneous, “no fees shall be assessed.” Check whether the tow basis on your hearing notice matches the citation. If it doesn’t, that mismatch may be dispositive.
If you have evidence of notification failures — especially the envelope — it may be relevant to the active federal class action.
Jacie C. Zolna — Myron M. Cherry & AssociatesIf you have documented evidence of systemic statutory noncompliance benefiting a specific contractor, this may be relevant to federal public corruption investigators.
FBI Chicago Field Office