About

Ranger SST — Background

Ranger is not the largest solutions company in the market but seeks to be the best.   The Ranger team has a passion for service and for helping customers improve operational productivity: the revenue and profits they realize – ranging from passive recurring processing fees for parking permits, to more PPI impounds, to more calls and higher margins per truck/driver in towing.

• Ranger enables significant administrative process efficiencies – e.g., accounting and one-page “workbenches” for managing lien letter and auction processes for PPI.
• However, Ranger’s emphasis is on improved operational effectiveness from the assets deployed in the field – both trucks and drivers – because these improvements show up immediately as profits on the bottom-line

So to serve the market, Ranger has built a very robust, easy-to-use, and powerful platform.

• Ranger delivers for the company that is focused just on calls from a motor club like Geico or Quest, and for companies doing complex recoveries of 18-wheelers, or heavy hauling, auto transport, or relocations.
• Even on the “basics”, Ranger provides unique capabilities that enable improved operational productivity – such as Visual Dispatch for Tow Management from a map.
  • Dispatchers see ALL open jobs and ALL trucks in close proximity on the same screen, so that they can make the best decision on which truck to assign to a waiting service request.
  • And since in Ranger the GPS tracking/mapping is fully integrated (not a “bolt-on”), dispatchers can drag & drop a truck icon on the map to a job location pin, and Ranger assigns and sends the call to the driver.
• However, Ranger also has very distinctive and specialized functionality – with the most recently developments for Private Property Parking Management. This solution leverages advanced License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology in combination with mobile friendly apps for BOTH Property Management and Residents.  It is unique in the value delivered.
  • Spans both permitting AND enforcement – single source delivery; all-in-one software.
  • Uses vehicle license plates as the permit – building on advanced technology for mobile license plate recognition (LPR) for more frequent and effective security patrols.
  • Enables high transparency within the community – property managers and residents are able to enter and review all relevant permitting AND enforcement information from their mobile cell phone or tablet.
  • Tackles both the operational (daily policy violations) and strategic (how to increase asset value) challenges in parking management. The benefits are compelling:
• Ranger also has very distinctive and specialized functionality for the more diverse, “tough stuff” in Towing Management, like:
  • Heavy hauling – the planning and scheduling of equipment and drivers by type of load, advance notification of drivers, automatic job assignment, and issue tracking (such as drivers who forgot to set their alarm)
  • Swaps – taking a working Tractor or car to a breakdown, to replace an inoperable vehicle that must then be towed to a shop for repair.
  • Lot Management – with a specialized mobile application to track the condition of vehicles in the lot (including pictures) and physical inventory management.
  • In Relocation – that some refer to as Private Property Enforcement – Ranger has a fully integrated, specialized mobile app that can be used by a property manager who wants a “self-service” option for entering a parking violation, OR by a “patrolling-only” company that identifies infractions for relocation. In both cases, the relocation request goes straight to the PPI company.

Technically, Ranger has built and implemented a high-reliability SaaS solution that works seamlessly with mobile devices in the truck or in a spotter vehicle.

• Ranger has been a SaaS solution from its founding in 2004; this is significant because many of Ranger’s competitors started earlier, with a desktop/server solution and are still in the process of migrating to the cloud.
  • Operating a highly responsive, mission-critical solution in the cloud with very interactive business processes is challenging – and the processes that Ranger support are different by line of business.
  • There are a lot of nuances in exchanging data over the Internet that are quite different than when connecting directly to a server on a wired network.
• Experience is interesting, but RELIABILITY is the benefit to customers.
• If Ranger’s service is interrupted, our customers’ operations revert to paper and phones, and a motorist stranded on the highway is left waiting.
• So Ranger customers, rightly, have high expectations — Ranger provides a 24/7 mission-critical operating system upon which demanding customers depend.
• Ranger has decades of experience, and the scars that go with it, in delivering a highly reliable, always on solution. Most competitors are playing catch-up.
• The Ranger Solution is also “mobile intensive” – with 3 different specialized applications (towing, relocation, and lot management)
  • The mobile applications are in effect extending real-time operational processes from the office to the driver/service technician executing from the truck.
    • Not just sending call information and navigation instructions to locations
    • But also equipping the driver/technician with a mobile app on the device that utilizes customer-specific rate formulas, so that a driver can correctly price the call on-site – adding any extra services delivered as appropriate (note: the negotiated rates for one customer are likely to be different than those for another)
    • And the drivers/technicians can also accept payments (including with an integrated credit card processing functionality) and can trigger the emailing of the final invoice to their customer or account.
  • And as many have discovered the hard way, managing the real-time exchange of information with mobile devices has its own unique challenges.
    • The connection over the network is an uncertainty – drivers/technicians will be in and out of coverage.
    • And some of the field-based resources are often granted a greater scope of responsibility than others, e.g., for pricing.

Ranger also provides extensive business management reporting – not as exciting as other feature/functionality, but critically important. Ranger has over 35 reports, each with options for user-defined variants for content and printing.

• Accounting – Invoices, Statements, AR, Driver Commissions (which vary by time of day and individual). Even invoices can get complicated.
  • Multi-task jobs in heavy haul – with multiple pick-ups and drop offs.
  • State-specific requirements for invoices in Private Property Enforcement
• Revenue reporting – By Account, Driver, and Truck
• Sales and Marketing – Heat Maps to identify underserved market areas
• Truck History – “Replay” on the breadcrumb trail, “Stop” reports to flag potential driver fraud, and event logging.
• Driver Time and Activity logging
• Truck Maintenance actions and costs
• And the list goes on.

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Ranger provides a competitively distinctive and valuable solution for tow management, and private property parking management.

— January 2023