Greg isn’t the greatest driver on the planet. In fact, after having a few drinks, he just got into a car accident with Jill. They’re both OK, but their cars are not. The police arrive on the scene and soon after, Greg’s vehicle is towed away. Jill’s vehicle isn’t drivable either and she hasn’t done anything wrong. But her car still needs to be towed too, so her troubles aren’t over either.
Where’s My Towed Car Going?
Greg is in the dark for a couple of hours as far as knowing the exact location of his towed vehicle. In fact, so is the municipality’s records clerk! That’s because until the police officer issuing the tow ticket provides the ticket to the clerk, that records clerk has no idea if Greg’s car is in a tow lot and where.
Let’s not forget about Jill. Jill is experiencing a time delay of information that’s also causing her undue stress on top of being in an accident due to the towing too. She wonders, “Where are they taking my car?” She calls the police station for an answer but guess what? They can’t help her because she didn’t get a citation. They tell her she has to deal with the towing company that towed her vehicle. And who would that be? Jill’s much too shook up to try and remember a towing company.
You can only imagine what this lack of information does to a driver who doesn’t yet know where his or her vehicle is. Especially if it’s a tow due to a street violation that they discover later – in which case the driver might think their car was stolen!
Enter A Better Towing Receipt Workflow From DACRA Tech
Today, when the very same scenario of a car accident occurs and one or more cars need to be towed, the minute a towing ticket is issued, DACRA Tech is able to make all that information instantly LIVE.
No longer is there any delay in which the driver or records clerk is without answers. A driver like Greg or Jill could speak to a records clerk right after the tow, ask them where their car is and the records clerk can give them a definitive answer as to where the vehicle is. “I don’t know” isn’t part of their vocabulary.
One terrific feature of the DACRA Tech platform is that when a tow ticket is issued, a tow receipt automatically prints as well. The offender receives the tow ticket and tow receipt simultaneously, giving them a more complete picture.
Towing Management with Strong Checks and Balances
As those of us working in municipalities know, certain procedures have to be followed before a vehicle (or person) can be released. For a vehicle, you have the ability to put a “hold” on that vehicle to prevent its release for a period of time if other circumstances apply.
For example, say a police officer brings a tow receipt into the police station and puts a 48-hour DUI hold on the vehicle. The driver of the car has had too much to drink and nobody was hurt, but he clearly shouldn’t be operating a vehicle. End of story? Not quite. The driver’s spouse shows up at 3 am and says, “I want to pay his bond to get his vehicle released.” The clerk says that’s no problem and starts to release the vehicle.
But wait! DACRA Tech’s software communicates to the clerk that the vehicle actually can’t be released because the officer who issued the tow ticket put a hold on it. Releasing the vehicle at this point will require a supervisor’s permission.
Whether you’re a police Sergeant working at 2:00 am or a records clerk, you can easily release the vehicle when you wish and have DACRA print an impound release form. So when our fairly intoxicated driver has sobered up in 48 hours and wants to get his vehicle, he must also have an impound release form.
Therefore, DACRA Tech’s towing management software becomes an outstanding system of checks and balances in which a vehicle will not be released unless the proper procedures have been followed.
Live Towing Inventory Makes Tracking A Breeze
An administrator in your municipality comes in for work that morning and sees three vehicles were towed last night. What can he do with that information?
He can use DACRA Tech to view a complete tow inventory list, which reflects the fully updated number of tows at that moment. And we know that a tow receipt gives administrators practically all of the major information they need to know, including who owns a vehicle thanks to a title search.
Now you can send a notice directly to the vehicle owner and title company and communicate to them that:
Their vehicle was towed
If they want to go to a hearing and dispute their tow ticket, they can.
The hearing date
Certificate of purchase information
Focus on that last bullet point for a moment – certificate of purchase or COP information.
When does a certificate of purchase come into play? Let’s say Jack has just committed a homicide and clearly, he’s headed to jail. What happens to his vehicle, though?
His vehicle gets impounded. The tow yard will charge Jack $50 a day to keep that vehicle there – a vehicle that is worth $2,000. When that daily charge catches up to the vehicle’s value and flips the equation upside down, the tow yard keeps the right to the vehicle through a certificate of purchase.
And guess what?
You can track the number of days the vehicle has been at the tow yard and when it is eligible for you to complete the State COP form.
Remember our friend Jill, who got in the accident with Greg but wasn’t issued a ticket? DACRA Tech will give Jill a towing receipt that will communicate where the vehicle was towed to. We’re also going to give a copy of that tow receipt to the tow company to introduce Jill.
Now we have data we can use. When Jill’s husband hears Jill has been in an accident and learns the car was towed (and he can’t get a hold of Jill), the records clerk can run the car’s license plate in the DACRA Tech system and say, “Sure, sir. Your vehicle is at ABC Towing on 1234 Anywhere Street.”
Towing Management Designed By Police Officers For Police Officers
If two officers arrive at a crash scene, one officer might instruct the other to issue a tow receipt for the vehicle to a tow company. Meanwhile, the first officer can be working on generating the tow ticket. The officers can sync the tow ticket and tow receipt when they return to the station. In the interim, they can get the crash scene cleaned up faster and gone a long way toward getting everyone the information they’ll soon need.
It’s Amazing How Far One Towing Receipt Can Go. And One Municipality With It.
Of course, a more advanced approach to towing management is just one of so many different ways DACRA Tech can transform your municipality. So let’s talk about where the bottlenecks are and how we can free your team up for the better with a demo of the DACRA Tech platform. You’ll see why so many cities, towns, and villages wish they made the switch even sooner. Call 847.490.8440, email solutions@dacratech.com or visit our Contact page.