Sacramento does not issue a moving permit either. What it issues is a Meter & Space Reservation, run by Parking Services, and it works on a different principle from the Bay Area cities: the city reserves the curb, and you make the signs, post them, photograph them and keep them standing. Get the timing wrong and it costs $225 before anything else.
What the permit actually is
A Meter & Space Reservation takes metered or unmetered curb out of public use for dates and hours you nominate. On a metered block you name the meters by their PKGS number, read off the meter screen or the city’s online parking map. On an unmetered residential street you submit a parking-space map with the application instead.
One eligibility line matters for a move. Reserved spaces are for contractors, commercially licensed trucks and approved event vehicles — not personal vehicles. A moving company’s truck is commercially plated and fits; a rental van in your own name is the grey area, and worth one phone call to Parking Services before you pay.
What it costs
| Fee line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Administration fee | $55 per application |
| Daily space fee | $7 per space, per day — every day, holidays included |
| Sign posting, first space | $50 — waived if you post it yourself to standard |
| Sign posting, each additional space | $6 |
| Expedite fee, filed under 10 business days out | $225 per application |
| Meter head removal or installation, if needed | $50 first head, $25 each after |
The daily fee runs Monday through Sunday with no holiday break, which is unusual — Oakland and San Jose both pause meter charges on Sundays or holidays. On the other hand Sacramento charges by the space rather than by the meter, so a long unmetered frontage is cheap here in a way it is not in San Francisco.
What a normal residential move adds up to
| Job | Total |
|---|---|
| Two spaces, one day, signs posted by you | about $75 |
| Two spaces, two days, signs posted by you | about $89 |
| Two spaces, one day, city posts the signs | about $125 |
| Two spaces, one day, filed eight days out | about $300 |
That last line is the whole point of this page. The expedite fee is three times the permit. Nothing else about a Sacramento move is improved by booking a fortnight ahead as much as this one number is.
One figure to watch if you go looking yourself: the city’s Meter Reservation Requirements PDF, last revised in November 2023, still prints the expedite fee as $175. The current fee page says $225. Assume the higher one.
Ten business days, or $225
Applications go in at least 10 business days before the start date. Ten business days is two full working weeks, so a Saturday move at the end of the month wants the application in at the start of it.
The $225 lands on anything filed inside that window — and not only on new applications. A change order inside ten business days costs the same, and a cancellation inside ten business days has $225 taken off the refund. Changing a move date in Sacramento is therefore an expensive habit, which is a real argument for fixing the date with the building before you file rather than after.
Applications go through the online Meter & Space Reservation portal, which is the only accepted route. One application per continuous block of dates and times: a move split over a Saturday and the following Saturday is two applications and two sets of fees.
You make your own signs
This is where Sacramento diverges from everywhere else in the state. San Francisco posts signs for you. Oakland and San Jose print them and hand them over. Sacramento gives you a template and a specification, and the city explicitly does not lease or supply the materials.
The specification is exact:
- 12 inches wide by 8 inches tall, with a red border.
- “Tow Away” on one line, “No Parking” on the next, each at least one inch tall.
- Each sign carries the days, times and date range, the permit number, the reservation type and the Sacramento Police Department non-emergency number.
- One sign per metered space, zip-tied to the meter pole. On unmetered curb, one sign every 25 feet, mounted on A-frame barricades you provide.
- Signs face oncoming traffic, and barricades may not block the sidewalk or the parking lane.
- Where a restriction sign is already on the pole, a second sign is allowed as long as both stay legible.
The city publishes a list of local barricade and sign vendors precisely because it does not supply them. Hiring barricades for a day is cheap; discovering on Thursday that you need them for Friday is not.
The 72-hour photo email
Signs go up and are verified at least 72 hours before the start date, set-up included. Verification is not somebody driving past. It is you emailing photographs of every posted space to [email protected] with the permit number in the subject line, at least 72 hours out.
The city puts the consequence plainly: without photo verification sent 72 hours before the start, no tow and no citation can happen. The reservation exists on paper and means nothing on the kerb.
Both San Jose and Sacramento hang the whole permit on an email that costs nothing and takes two minutes. It is the single most common way people lose a zone they have already paid for.
Keeping the zone alive
Posting is not the end of it. Check the signs are still in place every 24 hours after you put them up, and again at least 12 hours before the reservation starts. Missing, collapsed, damaged or badly placed signs make the zone unenforceable, and a three-day posting window on a windy street is long enough for that to happen.
Afterwards, clear any debris from the reserved area within 24 hours. Only city staff may remove meter heads, kiosks or city signage — doing it yourself brings fines plus repair costs.
Nobody tows for you
Sacramento splits enforcement in a way that surprises people on move morning. If a car is sitting in your verified zone, you call 3-1-1 (916-264-5011 from outside the city) to ask for Parking Enforcement. The line is staffed around the clock; enforcement dispatch is not.
Parking Enforcement writes citations. It does not tow. Only the Sacramento Police Department can authorise a tow from the public right of way, and you may be asked to prove the signs went up 72 hours ahead before anyone moves the car. If the photos never went in, nothing moves.
What the same move costs across our service area
| City | One truck, one day, residential curb | Signs | File it |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose | about $70 | city prints, you post | 2 weeks ahead |
| Sacramento | about $75 | you make and post | 10 business days ahead |
| Oakland | about $139 | city prints, you post | counter is shut on Fridays |
| San Francisco | $355 | city makes and posts | 5 business days ahead |
The pattern is consistent: the more the city does, the more it charges. San Francisco is five times Sacramento’s price and asks nothing of you on the day. Sacramento is cheap and hands you a specification, a camera and a deadline.
Who files it — you or us
Either works, and in Sacramento the argument for letting us do it is stronger than elsewhere, because the parts that go wrong are the parts a crew does weekly: making compliant signs, placing them at 25-foot intervals facing traffic, and getting the photographs in inside the window.
What we need from you is the address, the building’s loading situation and a firm date — firm because of the ten-business-day rule. Our hourly rate covers crew and truck: $175 an hour for two movers with a truck, $270 for four, with a three-hour minimum that is our own booking policy rather than a state requirement. The reservation is billed at cost.
Questions we get about Sacramento permits
Do I always need a permit to move in Sacramento?
No. Much of Sacramento is single-family streets with driveways and unrestricted curb, and those need nothing. The reservation earns its money downtown, in midtown, on metered blocks and anywhere the truck would otherwise be parked a long carry from the door.
How much is a Sacramento moving permit?
About $75 for two spaces for one day if you post the signs yourself: $55 administration, $7 per space per day, and $6 for the second space’s posting. Letting the city post the first space adds $50.
What happens if I book it late?
Anything filed less than 10 business days before the start date carries a $225 expedite fee, which is three times the cost of the permit itself. The same $225 applies to a late change order, and to a late cancellation it is taken out of the refund.
Who supplies the no-parking signs?
You do. Sacramento publishes the template and the specification but does not lease or supply signs or barricades, which is the opposite of how San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose work.
Can the city tow a car out of my space?
Parking Enforcement can cite it; only the Sacramento Police Department can authorise a tow. Either way it depends on the signs having gone up 72 hours ahead and the photographs having been emailed in. Without that, the car stays.
Fees and rules on this page come from the City of Sacramento — Meter & Space Reservation Fees, the Meter & Space Reservation approval process and requirements, and the city’s Temporary Tow Away No Parking posting guidelines — checked 17 October 2026. Parking Services revises these fees from time to time; the additional-space posting fee shown has applied since 1 July 2025.
