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#424 - Reducing Repos with GPS Technology: What Independent Dealers Need to Know

#424 - Reducing Repos with GPS Technology: What Independent Dealers Need to Know

The Independent Dealer Podcast Mar 26, 2026 34 min
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About this episode

GPS tech is shifting from simple location tracking to “critical business events” that trigger real dealer actions. Ariad (Ida Ron/Ituron) explains how smarter alerts—like accident detection, device tampering, and unauthorized driving—can be triangulated with other signals and routed through dealer workflows. The biggest highlight is integration with payment processing: when a vehicle is starter-disabled, the system can text the customer, take payment instantly, and send an enable command automatically. The discussion also covers compliance rules, location blacklists, and why dealers must audit and retrain processes so tech actually delivers ROI.

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Technical Too Afraid to Ask
Term

GPS

"Specifically, what the integration allows is, as soon as the GPS in the vehicle identifies that somebody is at the car trying to start the car, there is an attempt to start what we call an attempt to start in a vehicle that is disabled."

GPS is the system that helps a phone or car know where it is. Here, it’s being used to notice when someone is messing with the car and to trigger the dealer’s process right away.

Company

Blitzfee

"Integration immediately sends notification to the payment processing, let's say Blitzfee in this case. Blitzfee will send a text message on the spot to the customer..."

Blitzfee is the company handling the payment. The idea is that the customer gets a text right away with a way to pay immediately.

Concept

CBE, critical business events

"So we're talking about smarter actionable alerts or what we call CBE, critical business events."

CBE means “critical business events.” It’s basically GPS alerts that point out when something important is happening, so a dealer can take action instead of watching location data all day.

Concept

big data

"What are the, how can the GPS system identify, you know, through big data, through unfortunately or fortunately AI systems, how can we identify those actionable items that dealers should know about and they can take action quicker?"

Big data just means lots of information being analyzed together. The idea is that the GPS system can spot important patterns by looking at more than just one car’s location.

Concept

location is commodity today

"You know, GPS is a location only, location is commodity today. This is old news."

They’re saying that simply knowing where a car is isn’t special anymore. What matters is using that location information to make better, faster decisions.

Term

impact sensors

"[240.0s] Are you talking about a GPS that's hooked into like my OBD2... or are you talking about like, these GPS's have impact sensors in them and they know if they have a sudden stop?"

Impact sensors are sensors that feel sudden hits or hard stops. If the device detects that kind of sudden movement, it can assume there was a crash and send an alert.

Concept

fleet management

"[289.5s] A lot of them are coming from different businesses than what we are used to either buy or pay it. [295.9s] it. [296.5s] Fleet management, asset recovery and so forth, so a lot of the technology that we employ..."

Fleet management is how companies keep track of lots of vehicles at once. They use tracking data to manage things like location and alerts.

Concept

asset recovery

"[295.9s] it. [296.5s] Fleet management, asset recovery and so forth, so a lot of the technology that we employ..."

Asset recovery is when a company tries to find and get back a vehicle it financed. Tracking tech can help them locate the car faster and respond to situations sooner.

Term

payment processing

"...has a huge success for those customers that are utilizing it through integration with payment processing. And we're integrated each one is integrated with several different payment processing..."

Payment processing is the service that takes the customer’s money and confirms it’s paid. In this case, it’s connected to the vehicle’s disabled state so the customer can pay right away.

Concept

payment reminder

"You can also dictate your specific business rule. You can utilize the automatic system... send a payment reminder after one day late or five days late..."

Payment reminders are messages sent to the customer when they’re behind on payments. The system can be set up to send them at specific times so everyone gets treated the same.

Concept

repossession

"When you disable a vehicle, as we know, it's an act of almost repossession and actually in several states it's considered an act of repossession."

Repossession is when a lender/dealer takes the car back because payments weren’t made. The speaker is saying that disabling the car remotely can count as repossession under some state laws.

Company

Buckeye

"make sure you guys know about Buckeye, longtime awesome sponsor of the podcast and who I use for all my reinsurance products... Keep it in house, call the guys and girls over at Buckeye, risk services"

Buckeye is the company sponsoring the show. The host says they help dealers with insurance-type products to protect against losses.

Concept

warranties and service contracts

"My customers have options of warranties and service contracts, gap. I think it's just been great, Jeff."

These are plans that help pay for repairs after you buy or finance a car. The host is saying customers can choose different coverage options.

Concept

gap

"My customers have options of warranties and service contracts, gap. I think it's just been great, Jeff."

GAP insurance helps pay the “gap” between what the car is worth and what you still owe if the car is totaled. Dealers often offer it as part of a coverage package.

Concept

buy here, pay here

"So if you are a buy here, pay here, lease here, pay here or retail dealer, it works for all dealers."

“Buy here, pay here” means the dealer both sells you the car and collects your payments. The dealer uses tools like GPS to help customers stay on track and avoid losing the car.

Concept

promise to pay

"because so many of these base level decisions and even the decision to shut off a GPS, if you get to day 10 without a promise to pay, it just gets turned off."

A “promise to pay” is when the customer agrees to pay soon. In this system, that promise can affect whether the car stays on or gets shut off.

Term

known address of a customer

"I have a rule we don't disable unless the car is at a known address of a customer..."

The listener prefers a rule like: only disable the car when it’s at the customer’s known address. That way it’s less likely to affect the wrong place.

Term

mileage

"So the whole trends and again, big data is something that is coming up very big and already implemented in the system. It starts with mileage. Think about just regular mileage driven."

Mileage is how far the car has been driven. Tracking it over time helps the system tell what “normal” looks like and spot when something seems off.

Concept

top five parking spots

"In regards to parking location, your question, then again, the answer is it makes a big difference when you know what are the top five parking spots of your customers are, and if there's any change in those."

They’re saying you should learn the car’s usual parking locations. If it suddenly starts parking in unusual places, that can be a warning sign.

Concept

impound lots

"but it's not only the impound lots or the insurance total loss slots or the auctions, but definitely competitor is one of them."

An impound lot is a storage yard for cars that have been taken by authorities. If a car ends up there, GPS tracking can help someone find it faster.

Concept

vendor

"I encourage dealers to either assign a person or do themselves to ask questions, to audit the processes, to reach out to their vendor. We encourage, for example, our dealers to reach out to us and say, hey, can we have a retraining?"

A vendor is the company that sells the GPS system to the dealer. They can also help with training so your team uses it the right way.

Concept

we always done that the way it's

"So I always like to say that the most dangerous thing to say in business is, oh, we always done that the way it's, no business owner should accept that."

They’re warning against getting stuck in old habits. If you keep doing things the same way, you might not get the best results from new tools.

Company

BlitzPay

"I do it through BlitzPay. The guys and girls at BlitzPay are great, amazing, attentive on top of it... And also, they got this AI thing..."

BlitzPay is a company that helps dealers take credit card payments. The host says it also automates parts of the payment and texting process so collections are easier.

Term

AI

"And also, they got this AI thing, Jeff. Pretty cool. Yeah, I'm stoked. They got the audio AI, the phone caller, and hopefully very soon the texting version of that."

AI here is used to automate parts of dealer outreach—specifically audio/phone calling and potentially texting. The speaker suggests this can reduce manual work and make collections more efficient.

Term

credit card processing

"...if you're taking credit cards at all... even retail dealers can take advantage of this and use BlitzPay for their credit card processing, incredibly competitive rates, super easy interface..."

“Credit card processing” is the payment infrastructure that enables dealers to accept card payments. The segment frames BlitzPay as offering competitive rates and an easy interface, which matters for dealer profitability and customer conversion during collections.

Term

install it properly

"So I think that if you take the time to install it properly in the dash, like really hidden behind the radio, behind the cluster, buried as deep as possible, you'll never have problems with it."

They mean installing the GPS the right way, not just quickly. If it’s placed and wired carefully, it’s less likely to have problems later.

Term

hardwire

"Do we need to tell the customer to come back because it takes an hour to hardwire it the right way?"

Hardwire means connecting the GPS directly into the car’s power using wires. It takes longer to do correctly, so it affects how busy the shop is.

Concept

auditing all those procedures

"...And then if you're not a huge dealership, you need to be auditing all those procedures. And it's not like going out there, you can go out there and watch them"

Auditing means checking the work to make sure the steps are really being followed. It helps catch mistakes before they cause bigger problems.

Concept

spot audit

"But even within that, you do still need a spot audit too, right? I mean, are you doing something like that? Yep, you do a spot audit."

A spot audit means you randomly check some deals to see if the process is being followed. Doing it regularly helps you catch problems early.

Concept

recon

"You can do a post-mortem or repost, do a post-mortem on recon. All these things to figure out where the problems are, then you just have to go back and retrain."

“Recon” means getting a used car ready to sell. It can include repairs and inspections, and if it’s not done right, it can cause bigger problems later.

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