Jim’s Towing: Complex Logistics Made Simple With Swoop
Third-Generation Towing Company Reinvents Their Business
“Time and efficiency, that’s number one,” says Jim’s Towing Vice President Tyler Harden, echoing a sentiment heard all around the towing industry. “Knowing where your people are, when they’re supposed to be there, when a job’s complete…Swoop has changed our game a thousand percent.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Jim’s Towing lacked access to the data that now drives their increased efficiency. When Harden’s grandparents founded Jim’s Towing in Bakersfield, CA in 1968, the pen-and-paper method ruled the day. When his father took over the business, they switched to a towing management software solution, but there was still something missing.
Swoop Demonstrates the Power of Simplicity
For a business with over 45 pieces of service equipment — ranging from roadside service vehicles to heavy-duty tow trucks — their previous tow management system was slow, crashed frequently, and was just generally difficult to use. There was a high volume of vital information flowing through the company, with no convenient way to efficiently organize it all. However, that all changed when the third-generation Harden transitioned Jim’s Towing to Swoop’s towing management software.
Since Jim’s Towing is far more than just a standard roadside towing service, they needed a software product that helped them deliver the premium services they specialize in. “We have corporate accounts, and we do a lot of towing for trucking companies,” Harden says. “We have transportation trucks. We move equipment — construction equipment, paving crews, paving equipment.” Clearly, they needed a comprehensive tow management solution, which made Swoop an ideal fit for the evolving needs of Jim’s Towing.
Of course, for such an established business, it took some convincing for Harden to get everyone on board with the switch to Swoop. Once he did, he says the implementation couldn’t have gone more smoothly. “I’m a very ‘rip the band-aid off’ kind of guy,” Harden explains. His first step in implementing Swoop was to test it out on his least tech-savvy driver.
“I said, ‘Here’s the phone. Here’s how to use the app. Go on your first call.’ And he really did it without fault on the first one.”
Clearing Up Location Confusion
Locating customers has always been a major issue for Jim’s Towing. Due to their location in central California, Jim’s Towing serves a vast expanse of Interstate 5 — much of which is rural and without many landmarks. According to Harden, sometimes a customer only knows that they’re “on I-5, and they just passed a Burger King. It makes it a little bit difficult.” Thankfully, Swoop provided a solution.
“Even if the customer doesn’t know where they are, Swoop’s got the technology to where we can actually send them a text link and they can share their location, or mark their location on the map,” Harden says. “That has helped us tremendously. We send them a text, and GPS picks them up. It’s great.” Especially considering the desert locale served by Jim’s Towing, the quicker they can get a location nailed down, the faster they can get their stranded customers out of the hot desert sun.
Single Software Platform, Many Benefits
Another aspect of Jim’s Towing that Swoop helped streamline is accounting.
“Swoop integrates with QuickBooks, and it works very well. I now have visibility to my revenue on the hour if I choose, or every five minutes.”
According to Harden, Swoop makes it easy to pull up financial data by the truck, by the driver, or by the day, which allows him to quickly determine where improvements can be made.
In an industry that moves as quickly as the towing and transportation industry does, Harden has been impressed with how Swoop evolves with his business. “Updates are coming out all the time — great updates that are really helpful. I think Swoop listens to the user, and then makes those changes based on what’s the most requested,” he explains. “Everybody wants little pieces and parts, but I think Swoop does a good job of managing what’s really important.”
If you would like to learn more about Swoop, call the sales team at 415–360–3328 or visit joinswoop.com to download your free trial!
