A moving truck needs curb space, and in San Francisco curb space has to be reserved in advance. The city posts temporary tow-away signs for the dates you ask for, and anything parked there gets towed. Here is what it costs in the 2026–27 fiscal year, how far ahead you have to apply, and the two rules that catch people out.
What the permit actually is
The SFMTA calls it a Temporary Tow-Away No Stopping zone — TANS for short. It is not a parking space for your car. It is a reserved length of curb, posted with dated signs, that keeps other vehicles out while a truck loads or unloads. Residential moves are one of the uses it is explicitly meant for, alongside commercial moves, corporate events and funerals.
Two things follow from that, and both matter on move day:
- The signs do not override existing rules. Street cleaning, red curb, an existing No Stopping zone — all of those still apply. A TANS permit reserves the space from other parkers; it does not exempt your truck from everything else painted or posted on that block.
- Moves are limited to 7am–10pm. Start times for moving requests cannot begin earlier than 7am or end later than 10pm on any day.
What it costs
Price depends on how many signs the block needs, and the number is set by SFMTA staff after they inspect the requested area — not by you. A typical one-truck residential move is usually in the 1–4 sign band.
There are two ways to apply, and they have separate price lists.
Through the SFMTA portal or 311 — permits up to 3 days
This is the route for an ordinary move.
| Signs | From July 1, 2026 | From July 1, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | $355 | $370 |
| 5–9 | $489 | $510 |
| 10–15 | $614 | $640 |
| 16–21 | $736 | $768 |
| 22–28 | $857 | $894 |
| 29–35 | $981 | $1,023 |
| 36–43 | $1,100 | $1,148 |
| 44–51 | $1,226 | $1,280 |
Through an ISCOTT permit — filed 14 or more days ahead
Cheaper above four signs, and worth knowing about if you are moving an office or need a long stretch of curb.
| Signs | From July 1, 2026 | From July 1, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 | $357 | $372 |
| 5–9 | $478 | $499 |
| 10–15 | $597 | $623 |
| 52 or more | $21 per additional sign | $22 |
| Late filing, under 14 days | +$140 | +$147 |
One detail that surprises people on longer jobs: the zone is billed in five-day increments for metered spaces and seven-day increments for unmetered ones. A two-day move and a four-day move at a meter cost the same.
How far ahead you have to apply
Allow a minimum of five business days between the day you apply and the first day the zone is enforced. Legal holidays do not count as business days, which quietly pushes requests out around Thanksgiving, Christmas and the July 4th week.
SFMTA’s own worked example: apply on Friday the 5th, and the first date of enforcement is Saturday the 13th.
That is the application deadline. Posting the physical signs has its own, separate deadline — and it is the one that actually ruins move days.
The 72-hour rule
Signs have to go up well before the zone is enforceable, and how far before depends on the curb:
- Unmetered curb: at least 72 hours ahead. Three full days.
- Metered spaces: at least 24 hours ahead.
The logic is fairness — somebody who parked legally on a residential block needs time to see the sign and move. The consequence for you is that a permit applied for on time but posted late is not enforceable, and a car sitting in your space on move morning cannot be towed.
Put together, an unmetered block in the Sunset or the Richmond needs about eight days of lead time: five business days to process, then 72 hours of posting before the first enforced hour.
Moving PODs and storage containers are a different office
If your move involves a container dropped at the curb rather than a truck that comes and goes, SFMTA is not who you talk to. That permit comes from San Francisco Public Works, Bureau of Street-Use & Mapping:
49 South Van Ness Avenue, Suite 300, San Francisco, CA 94103
(628) 271-2000
Applying to the wrong agency is a common way to lose a week.
White zones
A white passenger-loading zone can be blocked off, but only with written permission from whoever owns it. That permission goes to [email protected] and has to name the white zone owner, the date and time of allowed use, and the service request number it belongs to. Forwarding the owner’s email is acceptable as long as it contains all three.
Who files it — you or us
Either works. We file permits for customers as part of scheduling a move, and on buildings we have worked before we usually know how many signs the block takes and whether the curb is metered. If you would rather do it yourself, the application is on the SFMTA portal; first-time users register through the “Not a Member?” link, or you can call 311 — 415.701.2311 from outside San Francisco.
What we need from you to file it is the address, the building’s loading situation, and your move date. The sooner the date is fixed, the cheaper and calmer this part gets — late filing on the ISCOTT route adds $140, and on a short-notice move the permit, not the truck, is usually what sets the date.
Moving to or from somewhere else we cover? Every city runs its own permit at its own price, and San Francisco is the most expensive of them by a wide margin — a one-day residential permit is about $70 in San Jose, about $75 in Sacramento and about $139 in Oakland, against $355 here. What the other three save you in money they ask back in work: in each of them the signs are yours to post.
Questions we get about permits
Do I always need a permit to move in San Francisco?
No. If the building has a loading dock, a driveway you control, or a stretch of legal unrestricted curb that is reliably empty, you may not need one. The permit buys certainty on blocks where that is not true — which is most of the city on a weekday.
What happens if a car is parked in my permitted zone?
If the signs went up on time, the vehicle can be towed to clear the space. If they went up late, it cannot. That is the whole weight of the 72-hour rule.
Can I get a permit for tomorrow?
Not through the normal process — five business days is the minimum, and unmetered curb needs another 72 hours of posting on top. A same-day move usually means working without reserved curb and carrying further.
Does the permit cost change by neighborhood?
The published fee does not. What changes is how many signs the block needs, and that is set by inspection — a long frontage or a steep block can push a job from the 1–4 band into 5–9.
Is the permit included in your hourly rate?
No, it is billed at cost — the city’s fee, not a marked-up one. 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.
Fees and rules on this page are from SFMTA Temporary Signage, checked 17 October 2026, covering fiscal year 2026–27. SFMTA revises its fee schedule annually, normally effective July 1.
