5 Effective Ways to Manage Tow Tags or Tow Stickers

In many areas, tow tags or stickering (maybe you know it as a walk and tag) is required before a vehicle can legally be impounded. Let’s face it, physically tagging vehicles is difficult to manage and very time consuming. Below are 5 ways to effectively manage tow tags or stickers.

1. Have spotters write tow tag or sticker information in ALL CAPS. Poor handwriting is nothing new, but illegible tags/stickers could be costing your business money, and potentially a lot of it. One way to improve legibility of a tow tag or stickers is to have your spotters write the tag information in ALL CAPS. This will help make deciphering the handwriting easier.
2. Color code and number your properties.  Over the past couple years, we have visited several PPI operations across the country. It is very common to see a large printout of the city on the wall with all of the towing company’s client properties marked. Some even have the map subdivided in regions and each region is color coded. An additional step can be taken to further categorize your clients. Within your color coded regions, number your properties.  Try and number the properties in a logical order working geographically through the region—this will help make routing for spotters and drivers easier to find a property. Obviously we understand that new properties are being added to your routes every week but just do the best you can to make everything as orderly as possible.
3. Use FREE Google Sheet resource with a smart device. If handwriting is still an issue with your spotters or drivers, Google offers free online resources that can help make tagging easier. Google Sheets is essentially a simplified version of Microsoft Excel. Spotters can type into a smart device all of tags/stickers they do for the day. The great thing about Google Sheets is that because it is web based, it updates in real time. The spreadsheet can be shared with all of the necessary staff: spotters, dispatch, and drivers. Once a spotter enters a tag, the dispatcher can make note of where it is and when it expires. The dispatcher can then notify the driver of the expired tags to patrol and tow.
4. Have scheduled offset patrols. Making things easy to repeat is a critical component of scaling a process. Have your spotters perform daily routes in scheduled, orderly fashion. Then offset the driver patrols to be able to collect as many private property impounds as possible. Spotters or taggers essentially create a “breadcrumb” trail for drivers. Then the driver can follow the spotter’s trail after the set expiration time for your particular area or property (ie. 24 hours, 48 hours, etc.). Have the process scheduled and repeatable will help to increase efficiency.
5. Utilize the latest web based towing software. Data management becomes a large issue with tow tags or stickers. A lot of tags are created everyday and as such it can be very difficult to manage the exact location and expiration of a tag/sticker. Omadi Mobile Management streamlines the process of tagging vehicles. Creating a tag/sticker with the Omadi mobile app is simple. Drivers/spotters can quickly enter in the necessary information. Much of the information will even automatically be input once the license plate is entered. If a property manager needs to approve the tag, they will receive an alert via text or email. Or if the tag is simply a time parameter, that can be specified in the app according to the laws and regulations of your local area.  The omadi parking enforcement app also helps with photo sharing and photo management of every vehicle being tagged.

Drivers can easily view and search expired tow tags in the Omadi app. This digital process updates in real time will help to increase your tow companies productivity, efficiency, and revenue. As always, you can learn more about Omadi Mobile Management, including our tag management system, at www.Omadi.com.