AB 266: Freeway Service Patrol Act: sponsorship agreement.

The Freeway Service Patrol Act authorizes and provides funding for freeway service patrols, operated pursuant to an agreement between the Department of the California Highway Patrol, the Department of Transportation, and a regional or local governmental entity, to provide emergency roadside assistance on traffic-congested urban freeways throughout the state. The act requires each tow truck participating in a freeway service patrol to bear a specified logo that identifies the Department of the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Transportation, and, at the option of the entity, the participating regional or local entity.

This bill would require the Department of Transportation, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, and participating and eligible regional and local entities to, each time the guidelines for program operations are updated after January 1, 2026, consider developing or revising and including in the guidelines operational requirements for sponsorship agreements between a participating regional or local entity and any private third party that allow for the display of the sponsors name and logo on participating tow trucks, as provided. The bill would authorize a participating regional or local entity to generate additional revenue for its freeway service patrol by entering into exclusive a sponsorship agreements agreement, subject to those operational requirements, that allow allows for the display of a sponsors name and logo on participating tow trucks, as specified, that are in addition to the above-described required logo.