TowingBossPro Blog — Towing Software

Card on File, Auto-Billing and Online Payments for Towing Companies

Towing has a payment problem that most trades don't. The customer is often stressed, sometimes not the person paying, and frequently standing on a shoulder when the subject of money comes up. Collecting at the scene is awkward and sometimes unsafe. Collecting later means chasing.

In Invoicing a Tow the Moment the Vehicle Is Dropped, we covered getting invoices out the same day. This article covers getting them paid.

Why Collecting on Scene Is Hard

Asking a stranded customer for a card while traffic goes by isn't a great moment for anyone. Drivers end up writing card numbers on scraps of paper, taking photos of cards or collecting cash they then have to account for. Each of those is a risk — to the customer's information, to your driver's safety and to your books.

Some customers will always pay on scene, and that's fine. But giving everyone else a better option takes pressure off your drivers and gets you paid faster.

There is also the customer who honestly can't pay right then: their wallet is in the car that's locked, their card is at its limit until payday, or the person paying is a parent two states away. On paper, those turn into IOUs on the back of a call sheet. With the invoice in the system and online payment available, they turn into an invoice that gets paid a day or two later from wherever the payer is.

Online Payments From the Customer App

In TowingBossPro, customers can pay their invoice online through the customer app. The driver drops the vehicle, the call becomes an invoice and the customer pays from their phone — from the shop's waiting room, from home or from wherever they ended up. The payment is tied to the invoice and the call it came from, so the office isn't matching payments to jobs by hand.

It's also easier for the person who's paying but wasn't there: a parent paying for a kid's tow, a business owner paying for an employee's breakdown.

Card on File for Repeat Customers

Some customers will call you again: the person with the old truck, the small business with a few vehicles, the shop that uses you for occasional runs. A card on file means the next time they call, payment is already settled. They don't have to read a card number over the phone, and you don't have to store it anywhere unsafe.

Customers can manage their card on file in the customer app, which keeps it in their control.

Ask for it at the right moment. The end of a good call — the car is at the shop, the customer is relieved, the invoice is paid — is the natural time to mention that you can keep the card on file for next time. Plenty of people say yes, and every one of them is a customer whose next call is simpler for both of you.

Auto-Billing for Accounts

For commercial accounts that are set up for it, auto-billing charges their card on file without anyone in the office doing it by hand. That's a fit for accounts that send regular work and prefer not to deal with individual invoices.

Not every account works that way. Many larger ones want an invoice they can approve and pay on their own terms. Calls and invoices under the account keep either style organized, and you can choose what fits each relationship.

Agree on the arrangement up front and write it down in the account's notes. An account that knows it will be charged automatically after each call won't be surprised by the charge, and an account that expects an invoice won't be surprised to receive one. Surprises are what turn payment into a dispute.

Payment Follow-Ups That Run Themselves

Unpaid invoices rarely mean someone is refusing to pay. More often, the invoice got buried. Payment follow-ups in TowingBossPro send reminders on invoices that sit unpaid, so the office doesn't have to remember who to call.

Keep the tone friendly and the message short: what's owed, for what, and how to pay online. Save personal calls for the accounts that ignore the reminders — and look at your reports to see who those are.

Fewer Checks, Less Cash, Cleaner Books

The more of your payments come in online or through a card on file, the less cash your drivers carry, the fewer checks get lost in the mail and the less time your office spends matching payments to invoices. Sales tax is already on the invoice, and your reports show what's been paid and what's outstanding.

Getting paid shouldn't be the hardest part of a tow. For how payments fit with dispatch, accounts and storage, see the towing software page.