When American Valet Services of Phoenix began to explore alternatives to traditional booting, they examined alternatives that included smart boots, non-wheel mounted. They decided on The Tire Tag.
According to Lance Henry, Facilities Manager for American Valet, The Tire Tag made sense for a variety of reasons. “We were using traditional boots and we found the boots to be cumbersome, slow to deploy and generally hard to handle,” said Henry.
“The weight itself was a challenge, but so was the actual way we had to install. It placed our employees in a compromised position, both regarding where the wheel boot was placed (rear wheel drivers’ side) but also, they had no vision if a confrontation was imminent. Due to the slow nature of deployment, several times our employees were faced by a not-so-happy violator. This situation was leading to fear for our employees’ safety. We needed to look at alternatives before things got out of control.”
So, the company began to explore alternatives. “We looked at a windshield mounted device that we liked but it proved too cumbersome for some of our smaller employees, so we had to look elsewhere,” Henry said.
“This system gave us the best of all worlds since it is lightweight, easy to deploy and the speed at which we can install it virtually eliminates interactions with upset parkers,” said Henry. In addition to the speed of deployment, an added benefit was that employee retention and morale all improved dramatically.
“This was an unexpected benefit since we reduced turnover among our key employees who liked how light and easy it to transport and use. Also, since potential conflicts were avoided, morale improved with our team members as well.”
From an operational standpoint, American Valet can now have available several units in hand, or in a small vehicle rather than a large vehicle. Because of this, the system is eco-friendly and allows the company to use smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles thereby reducing pollution and congestion. “Not that it was always smooth sailing to launch,” said Henry, “but the company’s team was always there for us to overcome the hurdles. The support was fantastic.”
In the end, the company realized improved revenue opportunities because the unit was easy to use and lightweight. It also realized a compliance lift because of the enforcement ease.
“We couldn’t be happier with our decision since we not only solved our initial problem with the difficulty handling boots, but with improved employee retention and morale, tremendous support, more revenue opportunities and increased compliance, our business simply runs smoother,” Henry said.
Bart Christenson is VP of Sales fo TireTag. He can be reached at bart@thetiretag.com
Also contributing to this article were Janice Pendegraft, Director of Finance and Mark Bell, Claims and Compliance of American Valet.
