What do you do when you need a tow truck, but can't be bothered with a phone call? The Tow Tracker is here!
The Tow Tracker is an inexpensive one-way GPS tracking device that is distributed BY the towing company for indivujual, or company use. About the size of a round drink coaster, or small cube, the tracking device can be activated and placed via suction cup to the vehicle that needs a tow. Local government agencies (meter maids and police) can use this to quickly dispatch a tow truck to pick up a vehicle without the need to call-in a lengthy description, or waste time boggling VIN or lisence plate numbers.
Towing companies can distribute the trackers and offer "pre-pay" towing services for companies that make frequent calls to a tow company. The every day driver can also pre-pay for one or two trackers just in case of a break-down, or other road-side mishap.-- Letsbuildafort, Nov 21 2003 Not a bad idea. Why not build this feature into cellphones for emergency tracking as well?-- murpee, Nov 22 2003 Well, the one Nokia phone on the Sprint networks does ... but this is kind of a thinly disguised rant ... our company tows quite a few cars per month due to parking infractions (ie parking here, and not being a customer) where it would be much easier to stick it and let the towing company ssort it out. But it also could prove useful to police having to tow abandoned vehicles on the roadside ... just stick it, and forget it ... makes their job easier. Same with meter maids, and if you wanted to pre-pay for one or two for your teenager's car, and put em in the glove compartment, they could be used incase of a roadside breakdown ...-- Letsbuildafort, Nov 22 2003 If I stuck one of these tow trackers on some poor victim's brand new car while he was taking in a movie, he would be punk'd.-- wombat, Nov 22 2003 So if I come out of the shop and find one on my car, I can just put it on someone else's car and then scram. Yeah, I like that bit.-- waugsqueke, Nov 22 2003 That would be a nasty game of Tow Tag. You're it!-- wombat, Nov 22 2003 The pre-pay should include the number-plate, so the tow driver could double-check, otherwise it'd be a little too easy to play some rather nasty tricks.
Also - for a parking tow - I pity the tow driver that finds they're searching for a moving car after the owner has driven off (without putting the tracker on the car next door)!-- Skrewloose, Sep 22 2008 You *actually* expect to need a tow so frequently that you'd subscribe to some kind of dedicated service?-- Custardguts, Sep 22 2008 random, halfbakery