TowingBossPro Blog — Accounts & Customers

Fleet Accounts: Serving Commercial Fleets That Call Again and Again

Delivery vans, utility trucks, rental cars, box trucks, service vehicles, municipal fleets — any business that runs vehicles will eventually need them towed. Fleet managers are some of the most demanding customers a tow company has, but they are also some of the most loyal. Once you are the company they trust, they do not want to shop around every time a unit goes down.

After the care-heavy work of Property Manager Accounts: Private Property Calls Without the Paperwork Mess, fleet accounts bring a different challenge: lots of vehicles, lots of locations and a manager who needs to account for every one of them.

What Fleet Managers Care About

A fleet manager is measured on uptime and cost. When a unit breaks down, they want to know three things quickly: when your truck will get there, where the unit is going and what it will cost. Later, they want to be able to answer their own boss: how many tows this month, which units, which shops, how much.

Your account record and call history are what let you answer those questions without a phone call and a guess. That is the real product you sell a fleet: not just the tow, but the clarity around it.

Unit Details on Every Call

Fleets identify vehicles by unit number. TowingBossPro stores year, make, model, color, plate and VIN on each call; add a custom field for the fleet's unit number so it shows up consistently on calls and invoices. When the fleet manager asks about unit 214, you can find it immediately.

Get the VIN on fleet calls whenever possible. Fleets often have dozens of identical white vans, and the plate alone is not always enough when a vehicle has been re-plated or the plate is missing.

Yards, Shops and Drivers in the Field

Fleets usually have a home yard, sometimes several, plus a preferred repair shop or two. Save these as locations on the fleet account with the notes your drivers need: gate hours, who receives vehicles, where to leave keys. Most fleet tows end at one of these, so a saved drop-off saves time on nearly every call.

The pickup is the variable part: wherever the unit broke down. The fleet's driver is usually standing next to it, and their phone number belongs on the call so your driver app can send on-the-way and arrival texts. A fleet driver who knows when you will arrive can tell their dispatcher, which makes the fleet manager's day easier.

Communication With the Fleet Office

Some fleet managers want to hear about every tow as it happens; others just want a clean invoice at the end. Ask, and set it up that way. Two-way texting lets the fleet office reply with instructions — "take it to the north yard instead" — and keeps those changes on the record.

The customer app gives account contacts a place to see invoices and pay online, so the fleet's office does not have to call you for copies. Fleets that want automatic payment can keep a card on file with auto-billing.

Invoices and Reports by Account

Fleet invoices should make the fleet manager's life easy: unit number, vehicle, pickup, drop-off and date on every one. Calls and invoices stay under the fleet account, so a monthly summary is a matter of pulling the account history.

Reports by account show how much work each fleet sends and what has been invoiced and paid. That helps you understand which fleets are worth extra effort, like keeping a truck staged near their routes during busy seasons.

• Unit number in a custom field on every call
• Saved yard and shop locations with receiving notes
• Fleet driver phone on the call for on-the-way texts
• Invoices that carry the unit and route details
• Regular review of the account history with the fleet manager

Keeping Fleets Long-Term

Fleet accounts are won on reliability and kept on information. The company that can tell a fleet manager exactly what happened to every unit last quarter — without a scramble — becomes very hard to replace. Offer a quarterly check-in where you review their calls together; it shows you are paying attention and often surfaces new work.

Fleets also grow. A delivery company that adds a new depot will need a tow company near it, and if your account record shows a great history, you are the first call. Fleets are one of the six account types covered in towing account management software. Next, we look at the thing that ties every account together: the history of calls and invoices kept under each one.