TowingBossPro Blog — Driver App & Routes

Writing Call Notes the Next Tow Driver Can Actually Use

Every tow company has a driver who knows everything. Which gate at the auction lot opens before 8. Which shop leaves keys under the mat. Which apartment complex has a garage with clearance too low for the flatbed. When that driver is off, or quits, all of it goes with them. Good notes keep that knowledge in the company.

The Owner-Operator's Tow Driver App: Driving and Dispatching From One Phone was about owner-operators, who often carry everything in their heads. This article is about getting it out of heads and into the system.

Two Kinds of Notes

There are notes about the call and notes about the place. Call notes describe this job: the vehicle is on its side, the customer is waiting in the store, the drop-off contact is Maria at the service desk. Access notes describe the location: gate code, where to enter, clearance, where keys go.

Call notes are used once. Location notes are used every time someone goes back. In TowingBossPro, customers and locations are stored, so location knowledge stays with the place and shows up whenever there is another call there.

Knowing which is which keeps notes clean. A note about this customer waiting at the coffee shop does not belong on the location forever. A note that the garage clearance is low does.

What Makes a Note Useful

A useful note is specific, short and written for someone who has never been there. Compare these:

• "Garage, back."
• "Parking garage, enter from Elm St side. Level 2, stall 214. Clearance is low; wheel lift to pull out, then flatbed at the curb."

The second is longer, but it saves the driver ten minutes of hunting. A good test: could a driver who has never been here find the vehicle and get it out using only this note?

Order matters too. Put the first thing the driver needs at the top: how to get in. Then where the vehicle is. Then anything about getting it out. Then the drop-off details. A driver reading on a phone should not have to scroll to find the gate code.

What to Leave Out

Notes are not a diary. Skip opinions about the customer, complaints about the office, and anything you would not want the customer to read. Stick to facts the next driver can use.

Abbreviations are fine if every driver knows them, but avoid private shorthand that only one person understands. "WL then FB" might be obvious to you; spell it out for the new hire.

Do not put anything sensitive in a note that does not belong there. If something needs a conversation, have the conversation.

Drivers Write Notes Too

Dispatchers write the first version of a note from what the caller says. Drivers know what was actually there. When a driver finds the note wrong or incomplete, they should get the correction to the office, so the location is updated.

That loop is how notes get good. After a few months, the notes for your regular locations are better than any one driver's memory.

Keeping Notes Current

Old notes are worse than no notes, because the driver trusts them. A gate code that changed last month sends a driver to a locked gate. When something changes, update it immediately. When a driver finds a note that is wrong, it gets fixed that day.

For commercial accounts with lots of calls, it is worth reviewing location notes every few months with the account contact.

Ask the contact a simple question: is anything about getting vehicles in and out different from what we have on file? Contacts change, lots get reorganized and gates get new codes. A five minute check saves a lot of wasted trips.

Notes as Training

New drivers learn your territory partly through notes. A new driver going to a dealer for the first time with a good note looks like they have been there before. That builds confidence and makes them faster sooner.

Good notes are a quiet investment that pays every day. See how notes appear in the driver app on the Tow Truck Driver App page.