A vehicle comes in. Someone writes it on a clipboard. Maybe it gets entered into a system, maybe it doesn't until someone complains. Three days later a buyer calls asking about a 2019 Silverado and your dispatcher is guessing.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Vehicle intake is the bottleneck at most tow lots — and it's also the fix that pays off fastest.
Why Intake Matters More Than You Think
Every minute a vehicle sits without a complete record is a minute it can't be sold, parted, or dispatched efficiently. Intake debt compounds:
- Uncatalogued vehicles get missed in buyer inquiries
- Incomplete records slow insurance and lien processing
- Parts lots can't price or list a vehicle they haven't fully inventoried
- Theft and damage disputes are harder to resolve without intake documentation
The goal of a tight intake process isn't paperwork — it's turning a vehicle into a revenue-generating record in the shortest possible time.
The Standard (Broken) Process
Most tow lots intake a vehicle like this:
- Tow driver radios in a vehicle
- Dispatcher writes it on a whiteboard or paper log
- Someone enters it into a system later — if there is one
- Condition photos get taken on a personal phone, saved somewhere random
- Parts lots do their own walk-around separately
- Insurance paperwork gets initiated from incomplete intake data
Total time: 30–90 minutes spread across multiple people and days. Data quality: inconsistent.
What a Modern 10-Minute Intake Looks Like
The entire process compresses when you build it around a VIN scan instead of manual entry.
Step 1 (30 seconds): Scan the VIN Pull up DerbyDay on your phone, scan the VIN barcode or type it in. The system immediately returns the full vehicle record: year, make, model, trim, engine, factory options.
Step 2 (3 minutes): Condition walk-around Photograph each side of the vehicle. The app prompts you through the standard angles. Photos are tagged to the vehicle record automatically.
Step 3 (2 minutes): Damage notes Select damage zones on a vehicle diagram. Add voice or text notes for anything unusual — fluids, keys present, missing parts, odometer reading.
Step 4 (2 minutes): Location assignment Assign to a row/spot in your lot. The system maps it.
Step 5 (2 minutes): Parts valuation (if applicable) If the vehicle is headed to parts, approve the AI-generated parts list and pricing. This step alone used to take 2–3 hours.
Total: under 10 minutes. One person. On a phone.
What This Enables Downstream
Buyer inquiries get answered immediately. Your dispatcher can search the system and tell a buyer exactly what's on the lot, with photos, in 30 seconds.
Parts lots work faster. The vehicle is already inventoried before anyone walks to it. Pullers know what they're pulling and where it's going.
Insurance and lien work uses clean data. VIN-verified records with timestamped intake photos are much cleaner for title work than handwritten notes.
Theft documentation is airtight. Condition photos taken at intake are timestamped and tied to the vehicle record. If something goes missing between intake and auction, you have evidence.
Common Objections
"My drivers won't use an app." If the app takes less time than a clipboard, most drivers adopt it within a week. The key is starting simple — VIN + photos only — and adding steps as the team gets comfortable.
"Our lot is big. We'd need everyone on the same system." Yes. That's the point. The value is a single shared record, not individual logs. Start with one intake station and expand from there.
"We already have software." Most tow lot software is built for dispatch and billing, not parts inventory. If you're parting vehicles or selling to recyclers, the intake data needed is different from what dispatch tools capture.
The Numbers
A lot processing 20 vehicles per week at 30 minutes per intake is spending 10 hours/week on intake alone. At $20/hr, that's $800/month.
Cut intake to 10 minutes per vehicle: $267/month in labor. The delta more than covers most software subscriptions.
The bigger number is what you make from parts and faster vehicle turns when the data is actually good.
DerbyDay's mobile intake takes a vehicle from the gate to a complete, priced record in under 10 minutes. Try it free — no credit card required.