TowingBossPro Blog — Towing Software

Recording Year, Make, Model, Plate and VIN on Every Tow

If you have ever had a driver stand in a dealership lot with sixty silver crossovers trying to figure out which one is his, you already know why vehicle details matter. The customer's name doesn't help him find the car. The plate does.

In Why Every Tow Needs a Pickup and a Drop-Off Address on the Map, we covered why every tow needs two addresses. This piece covers the other half of a tow record: the vehicle itself.

The Fields That Matter

TowingBossPro keeps vehicle details on every call: year, make, model, color, plate and VIN. Each one does a different job.

• Year, make and model tell dispatch what kind of tow this is and which truck should take it.
• Color and plate tell the driver which vehicle to hook in a full lot or on a busy road.
• The VIN identifies the vehicle beyond doubt, which matters for storage, accounts and any vehicle that may go to impound.

None of these take long to collect on the phone. Most callers can read the plate off the car in front of them. The VIN can come later from the driver at pickup if the caller doesn't have it.

Better Dispatch Decisions

Vehicle details are dispatch information, not just paperwork. A heavy pickup, a long-wheelbase van and a lowered sports car each need a different setup, and sometimes a different truck. When the year, make and model are on the call before it is assigned, dispatch can match the call to equipment instead of discovering the mismatch on scene.

That is also why categories matter. A call that turns out to be a Heavy-Duty Tow rather than a Light-Duty Tow should be categorized that way, so your reports reflect the work you actually did.

What the Driver Gets

In the driver app, the vehicle details sit right on the call with the pickup and drop-off. The driver knows what he is looking for before he arrives, and he doesn't have to text the office to ask for the plate. If the caller gave a wrong color or the plate doesn't match, the driver catches it before loading the wrong car — a mistake that is far easier to prevent than to undo.

Pair the details with vehicle photos at pickup and drop-off and you have a solid record of exactly which vehicle you moved and the shape it was in.

Storage and Impound Depend On It

Once a vehicle goes into your yard, the vehicle details become the main way to find it and identify it. An owner calls asking about their car; the plate or VIN is how you look it up. A vehicle in storage with a storage start date and a daily rate is only useful information if you can tie it to the right car.

Rules around storage, impound and releasing vehicles vary by state and city, and many of them depend on accurate identification. Check what applies where you operate, and treat the VIN as a field you fill in every time a vehicle goes to storage.

Accounts Want It on the Invoice

Commercial accounts — dealerships, body shops, property managers, motor clubs and municipal customers — usually reconcile invoices against their own records, and their records are organized by vehicle. A dealer moving a dozen units a week wants to see which unit each line refers to. When the year, make, model and VIN are on the call, they flow into the invoice instead of being added by hand.

That makes your invoices easier to approve, and invoices that are easy to approve get paid sooner.

Vehicle details also help when a customer comes back. A repeat caller whose truck broke down again, or a body shop asking whether you moved a particular car last month, is a quick search instead of a trip through old call sheets. Over time, the call history becomes a record you can actually use rather than a box of paper in the back office.

Make It a Habit, Not a Burden

The way to get complete vehicle records is to keep the ask small. Dispatch collects year, make, model, color and plate on every call. Drivers confirm at pickup and add the VIN whenever the job needs it. Nobody retypes anything later.

It is a few seconds per call, and it pays back every time a driver finds the right car on the first try or an account approves an invoice without a question. For the rest of the system that uses these details, see the towing software overview.