By John Haliburton
October 8, 2025
Time-sensitive occurrence notices for vehicles, including those for impound, storage, collision & repair, stolen, import/export, lien sales/changes, are costing fleets unnecessary charges.
A fleet manager’s best strategy is to recognize potentially fraudulent situations as early as possible. This is before a vehicle or piece of equipment is lost and gone or pointless storage fees have to be paid to a vehicle impound storage lot due to the utilization of mail notifications. These notifications can often take a very long time to arrive – if they arrive at all. And because of the time it takes, fleet staff can also somehow miss it when it does arrive.
What is obvious is appropriate fleet staff needs to be made aware of the vehicle occurrence as soon as possible. This has to occur initially, before any of the other actions can take place for the lien holder to protect their lien.
A service that does this for instance, Locator Technologies (www.LocatorTechnologies.com), is being used now by fleets such as Hertz, J.B. Hunt, FlexiVan, Knight-Swift Transportation, AVR Van Rental, and others, including 85% of the lenders with vehicles on the road, which shows its value.
Is monitoring and notification through the use of either mail or certified mail effective in helping fleets save money? No, it is not. Some criminals will send certified mail and have an empty envelope inside. Worse, mail and certified mail are often sent long after the towing and storage lot, repair shop, or another party obtains the vehicle. Or worse, it never arrives at all due to either the sender not sending it in the first place or errors within the U.S. Postal Service, which is happening more and more every day.
How can fleet managers ensure then that their assets are being protected? How can they be notified quickly and instantly about vehicle occurrences? The answer is through using a vehicle monitoring service that has access to unique and valuable vehicle occurrence information and sends daily electronic notification reports showing occurrences from the day before, so appropriate fleet staff can quickly act to protect their assets.
Vehicle occurrence information comes to these types of service providers from numerous databases, including private sector databases such as eimpound.com, which accesses over 9,000 towing and storage provider users across North America including towing companies, repair shops, municipalities, and law enforcement. Other private sector and law enforcement databases, such as Nlets, NVS, Customs and more, are very good options for fleet managers to address this problem, as well. This allows the user to stay on top of their vehicle occurrences and get electronically notified the next day instead of waiting for ‘snail mail’ that comes way down the road or doesn’t come at all.
On top of this, a service provider should also ensure their fleet’s VINs and assets are listed in law enforcement databases, which will expedite these agencies’ awareness when needed. This is so law enforcement and DMV agencies will be able to identify and notify the lienholder on an occurrence in order to stop vehicle crimes and lien fraud as soon as possible.
Locator Technologies has been providing this type of service for fleets and lien holders for over 25 years and is the leading provider monitoring vehicles for leading fleet operations and for 85% of lenders in North America with vehicles on the road today, which speaks to its value. Simply go to www.LocatorTechnologies.com and www.AutomobileMonitor.com to find more information.
AutomobileMonitor.com is the optimal solution for those managing up to 40,000 VINs. Locator Technologies, the parent company, is another great option for those with over 40,000 VINs. Both offer free trials, and the sign up process is very simple and fast.
About the author
For over 20 years, John Haliburton has worked in the vehicle towing world, supporting stakeholders such as Locator Technologies and their services, lien holders, insurers, tow and storage providers & managers, law enforcement, and more. Reach out to John at [email protected] or 678-230-2796 with questions, interest, or anything at all.
