#160 - GPS Best Practices w Jake Frank
28 Jan 2026 · 46 min
Jake Frank, founder of Pastime, discusses GPS tracking devices for auto dealers. The company moved from payment assurance into GPS in the 1990s, now offering products like the Elite tracker combining GPS and collection. Frank covers battery technology, regulatory compliance including disclosure requirements, and why dealers should avoid continuous 24/7 tracking without clear purpose.
Questions this episode answers
Early 1990s (around 1992).
Around 1997–1998 (idea for collections developed then).
Lithium manganese dioxide battery.
Designed to last about four to five years depending on mode and usage.
Development took over three years and cost north of $1.5 million.
Chapters
Hello everyone. Welcome to this episode of the Independent Dealer podcast. Thank you, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate the listenership. It keeps growing every single week. The Google reviews, the itunes reviews, all the reviews that we get and the input from the dealers. We really appreciate it. This week we are going to talk GPSs and best practices. We have an awesome, awesome guest, Mr. Jake Frank of Pastime, the CEO of. He has been at the forefront of GPSS since the beginning of the GPS era. So you guys know, stick around. We talk a lot about his history, we talk about innovations in the GPS community, we talk about the future of gpss and we give you some tips at the very end. Best practices for GPSs. Correct, Luke?
Yes, sir. Thanks for being us, being with us today, Jack.
Yeah, it's a pleasure. Glad to be here with you guys. Thanks for asking me.
All right guys, here we go.
Welcome to the Independent Dealer podcast with hosts Luke Godwin and Jeff Watson, a podcast by dealers for dealers. Here we go.
Okay, guys and gals, we have a industry legend here, Jake Frank, founder, CEO, I guess is his title from pastime. Jake, you've been in this a long time. Can you kind of give us a background of how you got into the car business and how this evolved from then?
Sure. It's a long story. I'll try to make it brief. Back in the, My business partner Stan Schwarz and I started this business back in the early 90s, like around 1992 and we cut our teeth in the franchise industry where we were providing, developing aftermarket technology like anti theft devices and daytime running lights before they were standard equipment. And you know, and then, you know, we were, we did well. But franchise industry is a very competitive industry. We always had our eyes set on the subprime industry, independent car industry, because we thought it was, we thought there was a lot of opportunity there, but we just didn't have the right product to get into it. And then finally in the, probably around 1997, 1998, we came up with this idea of using technology to, for collections. You know, we started to learn more about your industry. Couldn't believe the numbers we were hearing, the delinquencies, the interest rates, all of that, the risk that you guys were taking it taking. And few years way before, probably five years before GPS was even applicable to the auto industry, we basically developed our automatic collection technology and basically at that time really just revolutionized the industry. I mean it's the first time that anybody has really come up with the concept of using technology for collections. It's really interesting, you know, breaking in people. We were at Ken Shielson's first buy here, pay here show in Reno, Nevada, I think, in like 1990. And, you know, the reactions that we got from people were really, you could do. At first they burst out laughing and then really, you can do that and is it legal? And all of that. And so it was really a grassroots effort trying to bring this technology to market. You know, people loved it, but they were very suspect. And. And so it took a little. Took a while, and now we got to a point where it is. God, I would say the majority of the people in your industry couldn't live without it. I mean, it's a.
You.
It's very fundamental part of your model, your business models. So I guess we've come mainstream.
You know, I agree, Jake, and you know, everybody. I grew up where we didn't have payment interrupter devices and we didn't have gps. We've been in the buy here, pay here industry since about 88 or so. And I've been working it day to day since 92. 3. So I use your original devices and just, I'll say right now, I have used their GPS devices. I've used their products since probably close to the original device. And I truly believe that you revolutionized our industry. We have, you know, we use the. The keypads are actually on the devices and we use the remote keypads. And now we've developed, you know, evolved into wired and wireless GPSs. So the risk that we take as dealers now, I believe has been lessened because of your products. Is that what you. Is that what drove you to do what you do, I guess.
Oh, absolutely. You know, listening to your background. My God, Luke, you can do this interview so long. Literally, you have, you have basically used. Are one of our most introductory technologies, you know, if you were going back that far. Matter of fact, our name originally was passtech, right. And that stood for payment assurance technology, which I thought was a great name. I really liked it at the time. Many years ago, we had a third partner and didn't really work out. She didn't have the stomach to develop a product in an industry like we did. And so getting out of that, we decided it was best to change the name. And that's how we ended up with Pastime. But yeah, you go back a lot farther, way back. And yeah, that's absolutely why we developed the industry. We saw a void in your industry and it was a big void. And we had an opportunity with some of the technologies we Were already using to implement a few more functionalities and literally capitalize that on that and make it applicable, you know, to the industry. That was the goal, to make your job easier, right? To, you know, it's.
It's great.
It's hard enough selling a product, especially even a product that is advantageous to the dealer, but actually selling a product that, when you really think about it, it's actually making you money or saving you money. And I really like that business model. But yeah, the whole point was we saw the, you know, the interest rates, the delinquencies, the risks, you know, the defaults. And I'm like, my God. I mean, literally, we knew they were finance companies, they have armies of collectors. Still do. But we just thought, man, we could just make your jobs a lot easier. So that was the goal.
That's interesting.
The.
You have saved us money. And do you remember when, before the product started, the amount of collectors per accounts compared to if using device does it. Have you seen that evolution and how big of a difference it is?
You know what, no question about it. It's been so long since I've talked about it, but right out of the shoot, I think it went from. And I'm guessing, because I really don't remember, but I went. I think it went from like.
Four.
Or maybe three or four collectors for one person to from eight collectors for one account to down to four.
The opposite. Yes. Eight accounts for one collector down to four.
Okay.
So as you know, it just really made you guys, your operations a lot more efficient. And you could cut down your collection department drastically from that.
So you, you went from getting out of the. The franchise to focusing on subprime, and now you got a product that leads you back into the prime business, the intouch. Can you describe that and tell dealers what that's about?
Sure, yeah. Yeah. We've come full circle. As I said, we cut our teeth in the franchise industry. And then probably about four or five years ago, we decided to take our GPS technology and use it, modify it back for the franchise market or even independent dealers. What we use it for is lot management. What we're able to do is especially helpful for dealers with large lots in many locations. Right. But it allows you to locate your vehicles on the lot where they are at all times. Right. And of course, if vehicles are stolen off the lot, you know, you can locate it at all times. Loaner vehicles, you name it, delivery trucks, whatever it allows you to keep, it allows the dealer to keep track of. Of their entire inventory. Okay. It also pretty Much pays for itself because it, what they do is they, they take that same product, that same technology and they'll use it as an aftermarket, which is what we did 30 years ago. Right. Or 25 years ago. And when we first started in the franchise market as a profit center, you know, basically not only were they using it for lot management for their own purposes.
Right.
To track their vehicles, protect from theft, but now they can use it as a profit center and sell it, make it available to their dealers. And so really it was just the same business model, only with a lot better technology. And now with our Encore, our wireless product that we introduced a couple of years ago, it made it even easier for the. We call that, we call that in Touch plus. But that's another. Sometimes some of the dealers just use that for lot management. Don't even try to sell it. You don't get as much functionality in the wireless piece as you will with the one that is actually wired in the car. But it's been incredibly successful and primarily we're using it for franchise dealers, but we're starting to see a lot of independents use it as well. Again now that. Why wouldn't they use it for the same reasons as the franchise dealers and especially to help their bottom line and use it as a profit center.
Yeah, you mentioned Jake a little bit about the wireless. Were you guys, were you guys the first one out with a wireless product?
Absolutely.
Okay, I remember that. And I think I talked to Luke and this was probably two or three years ago when I was using one of your competitors and I'd used them for, I mean I've been with them for 10, 15 years, ever since it was a massive brick and you had to have a small trailer behind your car to make the thing work. And it, and then you guys came out with the wireless and I'm like, this is, it's an absolute no brainer for buy here pay heres, especially ones like me that do a mix of in house and subprime outside finance type deals. Because I was just, it was such a hassle that put the GPS in and is it an outside deal? Is it an inside deal? Do I got to hardwire it? Is there a mechanic at the store at 10 o' clock at night when I'm delivering it? So this, the wireless solution has really been a huge deal for us and saves so much time, so much effort. Any salesman can walk out there, hit the button and drop it in the headliner or drop it in the door panel or something.
Right.
We actually launched it About a year and a half ago. And really, that's something that I really think will revolutionize, or is revolutionizing again, your industry. I don't think there's only maybe one or two other of our competitors that have started coming out with one, but their technology is totally different. I can't really say what their technology is, but they're bigger batteries or more batteries. Nobody has the technology that we have developed, which is we use a lithium manganese dioxide battery, which is really small. And because of the, the makeup of that battery, we are, it's enabling us to give a much more, a longer shelf life or lasting life to the, to the unit itself. And not only that, but it's really small. You know, it's probably, it's smaller than my cell phone, which is one of the first, you know, Apple cell phones. But so basically it's the size of a credit card and maybe, I don't know, quarter of an inch thick, if that eighth of an inch thick. And.
I just, I just started thinking about something, Jake, and I'm sorry to interrupt, but battery technology is a big holdback for so much of the car industry right now when it comes to the EVs, and we just haven't gotten over the hump yet. I mean, I'm sure you're, you talk to people a lot about battery technology. Where do you see that? How much, you know, first, how long does your wireless GPS last for that battery? And what do you see coming down the pipe?
So we have different, different modes you can put it in, which allows our battery to, to last for at least for, you know, four to five years, right? Depending on how you use it, you know, and depending what modes you, you know, you put it in, you decide to put it in. And before I get into that, Luke, I want you to know one of the things that this, this took us. I, I think, Jeff, you brought it up. I, I think it was about three years ago. I made a presentation at, I think it was down in Florida at niada. Nad. Naadb.
Na.
Nadb.
Okay.
And really launching that product and was expecting to have that product available. This was in June, expected to have it available in the following fall. Did not have that launched till a year later. And at that time, we were already working on our development of this technology for two years. This is something that I thought might take a year and a half at best to develop. And I had budgeted like 500 to $700,000 tops, and it ended up taking over three years to develop. And north of $1.5 million.
Wow.
Get it to market. So it's not an easy thing to do. And like I said, there's nothing else out there on the market that can compete with that. And I think some of the people, some of the dealers who have used competitive products can see that, you know, not only in the size, you know, it's so much smaller than everything else, but also in its performance. And we're on our second version already, so it's just getting better and better. And I. I'd say I couldn't be more pleased, you know, with the performance. Whatever hiccups we had in version one, we. We took care of and made it even easier to use in version two. Now, I'm sorry, I was going to answer your second question, but, Jeff, you were going to say.
No, no, go ahead. Yeah. Where do you see that? Where do you see the technologies going? You know, Luke's question about batteries, but also for you guys, I'd love. Can you share with us what's on the horizon for GPS units? I know you're probably innovating, because you guys always are.
Yeah.
So there's no question it's the wireless piece. Right. And I really do think that's the future, but it's not the cure.
All right.
Because it's wireless, you're really just using it for reporting and locating. Right. You're not using that. That collection technology that, Luke, you have been using since the beginning, which I believe if I was in this business, I would be using that technology, you know, combined with our gps. Right. You know, that's. People don't understand. Some people don't understand that there's GPS technology and there's collection technology.
Right.
GPS technology is a unbelievable technology, but it's a recovery technology.
Yeah.
Collection technology is collection technology. You're sending out payment reminders. You're tracking everything. You know, you're. You're babysitting, you're.
Yeah. You're retraining this person how to. How to be a good payer. Right.
I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna say this and it. Because it goes along with what you say. I believe that the starter interrupter technology cuts down on my repo by repos by 75%. I truly believe that if I were just using GPS, the only option I would have would be to go out there and recover the car. And so I totally believe in what Jake is saying, and I'm hoping there at some point will be technology where it's wireless and started disabled, too. But Honestly, I don't know how. I don't know how that would work. Is that something you're looking. I mean, I don't know. Can it. Can it even be done? Jake.
The answer to that question is I don't know. But we're looking into it. We would like. Yeah. As you know, years ago, you had GPS technology and collection technology, and that's when we came up with Elite, maybe longer than 10 years ago, where we took both technologies, the collection technology and the GPS technology, and put it into one unit. So you had the best of both. Both worlds. Now we have Elite, which is totally wireless, right. Which you don't have to wire in the car. And it just doesn't have the functionality. That's. Why do I think wireless technology is the future? No question. But not the cure.
All right?
It's because there's still people like yourself, a lot of people who are, you know, they want a more robust unit. And this is. This unit just tracks and reports, which, believe it or not, is a large percentage of your industry. That's all they want to do.
That's all I do. I just track and I just track and report. And if I have a problem child, I like to jump in and make sure they're not in, you know, five states over. And so I get a little peace of mind. Like, this guy is going where he's supposed to be going. He's at work. He's at his home. We're going to give him some time. We're going to keep trying to get a hold of him. Or no. This thing's been showing up in an impound lot for three weeks. We're in big trouble. We got to go take some action. I'd be really interested in, you know, I do only use wireless, but to swing the complete other direction and say, I want a GPS unit that tells me everything about the car. Like, what was its top speed? What were the miles it was driven? Is there a check engine light on? What is that? Check engine light. What's the code? Are the TPMS sensors going off like that? Would be super interesting to have something that fed you back, like a Constant kind of OBD2 output. Hey, guys, sorry to interrupt the podcast real quick. Our sponsor this week is independent dealer podcast guys, so be sure you are, A, sharing this with a friend and B, leaving us a review on Spotify or the Apple Store. Right, Luke?
Yeah. And just. Jeff, it is so important that we. That we get out there right. Dealers need education, so we're not doing this for Us, we're doing this to try to help. So if you ever need us, to reach out to us, if you ever need us for anything, we probably know somebody that can help or we can help. So we're here to help you.
Huge. And Our email is infoheindependentdealer.com. it's in all the show notes stuff. So, Luke, should we get back to the episode?
Let's do it.
What you just described as our in touch unit, okay, that was for the franchise, the lot management use. Why now we have two of them. Not the one with Encore, which is.
Wireless, but the in touch that we.
Actually wire into the car, it gives you the low battery. Whether your battery's low.
It's all.
How fast it's going, it will. And that's where the best.
Does it give you code readouts? Pardon me? Would it give you codes, like computer codes.
For in touch? I don't believe so.
Not yet. Yeah, I don't know if that's even possible. But to be able to know, like, hey, my check engine light came on. Okay, let me log in and see what it is. Oh, it's no big deal. Or, hey, this is a big issue. We just got to notice that your check engine light's flashing. You've got a misfire. You need to get that car in here. Yeah.
I'll be honest with you, Jeff. I'm not sure if it tells you your check engine light, but it will give you a low battery. You know, the batteries are low. Cars sitting on the lot, it can tell you how fast you're going. It can tell. That's the value add for using as a profit center, you know, in the. For franchise dealers and independents, you know, when they're selling it to their customers. Yeah.
And if. If people didn't catch that, the in touch system, I use it as a GPS to locate you if I need to get the car back. But at the same time, the customer has an app on their phone that can also locate it and tell them if it was stolen. So you guys are basically both using the same GPS unit for your own purposes, and they're using it to maybe keep track of their kids or know if the car is being abused or if it got stolen. And you're using it obviously, as a, you know, kind of a collections effort or a repo effort.
Separate products. But what you just described.
Yeah, I mean, you don't need to hide, you know, the unit. The customer paid for it.
They know what's in the car here. You know, you're not selling it to the customer. I mean, you actually can if you wanted to, you could. Functionality with Elite and you know, some of our other products, not many people do that, but totally different uses because in, in your industry, in the buyer pay industry or subprime industry, you know, you're literally using it for your use, not the customer's use.
Right.
Even though you're helping the customer, you.
Know, rebuild their credit and make their.
Payments and get into a better car and all of that.
Right.
But let me circle back to, back to, you know, where this is all going again.
We're the, we're encore. I think one of the better, best.
Uses for it, obviously you can.
It doesn't have the robust functionality as.
Our Tracks or our Elite, but as a tracking device. First thing, right off the bat, you can take away the installation cost, right? Very easy to install. You can put it into several places, obviously easier to hide, you know, where.
People can't.
Can'T trace the wires back and find out where the unit is if they wanted to tamper with it.
I think a great use for it is with finance companies, right? Where they are, you know, they're dealing with dealers. Dealers are, you know, stocking their own product and they're doing the installations. We've heard so many issues with finance companies, not only with the logistics, but just dealers. You know, look, hey, they're selling off their paper. Yes, they're installing the unit, but they don't care if they do such a great job because it's not their problem. Right. And that was an issue. Right. We have done things with our other units, you know, our wire units that are wired in like Trax, where we know we can make sure they do a great install. Not all companies can do that. But now, now with the Encore, you're taking all, I would say, 95% of the, the installation questions or problems out of the equation. Right. It's so simple. They can drop it in and, and now they don't have to worry about bad installations like they did. So that's been huge for that industry. I mean, we. Look, I know this may not be of interest to you, but there's plenty of other verticals that we can now use this product in, you know, in the medical industry and the, you know, heavy equipment and agricultural accessory industry, you know, now because you can put this thing, anything, anywhere, you know, I have people, we have people coming out of the woodworks saying, my God, I can't believe you have this technology that can be applicable to so many things. And applicable to their specific industries. And that all comes down to that technology. It's technology.
Especially if you don't. If you're. If you're trying to track something without a battery, it doesn't have its own power source. You know, guys, that was one of the issues back in the day is like, well, if the battery dies in the car, I can't find the darn thing because I'm reliant on them keeping their battery charged and not running it down or letting it sit or killing it. So, yeah, that's probably huge for things like power sports and trailers and ATVs and RVs and pretty much, I guess, anything that moves with, you know, with or without a battery. Kids, whatever.
Yeah.
And as we. As we move along, as you go.
Into version three and version four, we're gonna try. We're gonna try to get more technology or more functionality built into that product.
Okay, so it's just, again, because it's.
Not wired in, it's just not that easy. But that's.
That's what we're looking to do. Will we be able to do it? I don't know when we'll be able to do it. We'll see. It's something that we aspire to do. One of the other things, to answer your question, Luke, as far as the future of the technology, we're also working with a new technology called Pulte, where it's basically, you know, there's all these new constellations and new technologies for making improvements and the ability to locate. And one of the ones that we're using is called pulte. Right. And it's basically uses extremely precise cell tower information to locate in buildings. So we're about to launch that here very soon. So which, look, it's. That's really great for other verticals, but also in your industry, you know, now we can locate in garages or workshops, you know, where maybe the location wasn't as precise or wasn't as good before. Again, there's, you know, how it is. You know, technology just gets better and better and better. More robust, more robust. And we are. That's one more level that we're going to be adding to our. Our systems, which I think is great.
What. What is 5G going to do for. For your industry? Is that. Is that part of that Pulte, or is that even relevant to you?
Very relevant. It's. Pulte is different. You know, the net. Like right now, I can't speak for what other GPS technologies are doing, but we're on the Cat M LTE system, which is comparable to 5G. So when 5G comes in.
I should.
Say compatible with 5G, we just piggyback, we just have a smooth transition. So Basically it is 5G, it's 5G compatible. So when 5G does come in, we're good. So our customers, they can rest assured that their technology you're using now is going to be lasting for a long time because of that. So yeah, very relevant to us.
Yeah, I remember that back in the day when I had some units that were either like 1G or 2G or whatever the original was and they were like, well these aren't going to work after January. And I was like, what?
I was like, I've got hundreds of.
Cars out there that just are suddenly going to stop working.
Like what is going on?
I mean it's hard to future proof these things.
But we all knew this was coming, right? The transition to 2G and 3G.
Right.
Nobody wanted to talk about it but us.
Right?
Because you have to let people know and we would, well I would say at least a year and a half in advance that this was coming, right? And that you know, they as 3G came in, they're going to start taking the 2G towers and replacing with 3G units aren't going to work anymore. And I remember, you know, Chris Macheco, president of our company, he gave a presentation, I don't know if it was at a lead them conference or a NABD conference. Basically that was the whole purpose for his presentation was talk to talk about the transition from 2G to 3G and talk about killing the messenger. My God, we got so much lack from that. But we were the only ones willing to step up and you know, tell you guys what's going on.
Heads up.
Transition. Guys got to transition. We still have people coming to us saying hey, there's still, I don't even, I don't know if there's. Every once in a while we got some people still trying to use 2G and it works a little bit with some areas, a little bit in other areas, but for the most part it just gets worse and worse. But yeah, yeah, I think when you.
Say the word transition that is like such a dirty word with GPS's for me because that was one of my biggest headaches was transitioning to a new company and saying okay, well now I'm going to have to figure out like all these guys are on this old system and I got to log in there and look them up here and all these Guys are on this new system and I've obviously been with you guys long enough that it's kind of, I've kind of phased out of all the old stuff. But maybe we could talk a little bit about some best practices for dealers and independents and you guys can all kind of share your ideas. But that would be one that I would look into is say, hey, I know you guys can go with XYZ company or new startup Yahoo that's going to promise you these cheap dollar units. But you got to be aware, like, what if they aren't in business in three years? You know, what if, what if their technology isn't proven and all of a sudden they're trying to switch you over or do this or do that and then you're stuck with a whole bunch of GPSs out there that are either not usable or not trackable. So definitely when you're making that decision, I think track record is a huge, huge deal.
And I think it's to be commended that pastime y' all have a legal team that, that honestly does all the research and puts it out there and really backs our industry very strongly. Fights for issues that may come up in states. But Jake, if you can, let's talk about how dealers should use them and the best practices and what y' all do to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing and legislation for us.
Well, you're right, Luke.
We.
God, we've been ahead of this curve for years, right? I would say 15 years. And we do, I think we're the only GPS company that literally that does have an in house compliant licensed compliance officer. Her name is Corinne Schwarz. I'm sure a lot of people have talked to her.
She's great. Yeah.
And we, you know, we work closely with Niada, we work closely with Hudson Cook, you know, to try to stay ahead of the curve.
Right.
We're constantly monitoring state and national regulations and laws, especially in the states.
Right.
And we want to get there early. You know, if we know bill is being proposed, we're right on it. We'll fly in and we'll meet with the attorney general and, and we will talk to them and explain, you know, we're a misunderstood industry. Right. And explain to them the benefits and explain to them, you know, why their bill is ultimately going to hurt the consumer. Right. And what we really do and then we try to compromise with them as far as, okay, how can we meet your demands and also meet the demands of our consumers and come up with a bill or Regulation that helps everybody.
So.
And plus, you know, if you let it go too far, you know, we have an issue going on in Illinois right now, but if you let it go too far, you don't want that domino effect and that, that hurts everybody. It's not just one state, but it's everybody. So that's huge. As you know, up until Covid hurt hit, we would go to Niada. With Niada, we would find, form a group and we go to Washington and we will, we would lobby and just so they know who we are, you can't just go once. You have to go every year so they know who you are. They start understanding your industry and you're not just, it just takes a while to build those relationships. Right. And when we, when we see things in different states that may come up and you know, and we have a very, very consumer advocate oriented congressman or politician trying to make a name for themselves and we're not getting anywhere. Most of the time when we were, we go in and we meet with them, we get very positive effects. They're willing to work with us, sometimes they're not. And at that point we hire a lobbyist to come in and help us with that. Now as far as best practices, really not a whole lot has changed other than the current political environment. Okay. So certain things like obviously disclosure, right?
Yeah.
I've been saying this for 20 years. You have to have rocks in your.
Head if you don't disclose.
Right.
Why would you put your whole business that you worked on for your whole life for five years, 10 years, why would you put that at risk?
Right.
Because you don't want it disclosed. Besides, I always thought disclosing was you wanted to know it's on there because that gives them the incentive to pay. So I never really understood that.
Right.
And I always thought it was underhanded anyway, not to disclosed. But the more the biggest part is legal. You can't put company at risk for that. Okay. And I think, you know, boy, you know, early on there was a lot of resistance to that. And, and we wouldn't sell the companies that if we found out they were disclosing, we wouldn't sell to them. So I think now it's mainstream people.
Understand and that's, I think back in the day we were scared as dealers to disclose it because GPSs were maybe so invasive that the customer would be upset or they wouldn't want to buy the car and they don't like the idea of us being able to track it. But now it's so Mainstream, most everyone in the buy here, pay here industry understands, hey, if you're buying a car from them and you've got bad credit, this is part of the gig. You do have a GPS in your car, it can locate it. And the beauty too is now with wireless, guess what? It's not just sitting underneath the dash like before. They could get their buddy mechanic to just look under the dash and see some wires that weren't supposed to be there. But now when you've got a wireless unit, good luck finding that thing like you are not. You would have to tear that car to the ground to find out where I put it. So I think my, I don't worry about tamper anymore. And that's, that's the great thing about the wireless.
And over the years we've had tamper proof and this and that. It's just not issue.
And, and you know, and for those.
Bad actors out there that don't want to disclose, you know, if they get caught, it gives everybody a black eye, you know, it's not good for the industry.
And that's why, you know, 15 years ago we were trying to form groups, you know, GPS groups, which we did to try to have GPS companies conform to best practices. Because if you have a fly by night GPS company and they're cowboys out there and they don't care and they get caught, we get the heat, you.
Know.
It'S not good for anybody. I think some of the other things is you just gotta make sure that you're compliant, you know, with your local or state laws and regulations. Not just national, I think state, most important our units, our technology is compliant in all 50 states. Be very cognitive of right to cure loss, you know, in your individual states. And I think, look, there's technology out there that we can use but we won't. For instance, and I know a lot of dealers do this and some of our competitors allow them to do this. And that is the capability to track your customers 24 7. Yeah, not a good idea, right? So we won't do it. Now I guess the adage is you, if you're going to track somebody and you want to track somebody 24 7, do it with a purpose, right? There's got to be a reason.
For instance.
Okay, maybe for the first week you're tracking them just so you can verify their place of work, their residence, whatever, okay. After that no, okay, you know, just go. You have your reporting, it tracks every 20, every couple hours or 24 hours anyway. Used to be every 49 hours. And then if they're delinquent again, now, you have a purpose to track them all the time, get their car back. But in between those two things, don't do it.
Yeah, yeah. And shutting someone's ignition off is, it's electric repossession.
Right.
Well, that's what, that's what I was going to and what Jake talked about. I get this call in South Carolina. We have probably one of the toughest cure laws in the country. And I get calls from people, well, hey, I turned the customer off and now they're up in arms. I said, well, were there cure up? Well, no, the cure is not up. I didn't repossess the car. I said, yes, you did. When you disabled that car, you virtually repossess that car. So make sure you are following your cure law to the letter and don't disable somebody's car if their cure is not up because that will get us all in trouble.
Right. And you know, we, one of the things that we also do, again, since we do have our own in house compliance officer in Corinne and we offer this to all our customers, we'll do webinars, you know, for our dealers and sometimes we'll bring in Nikki Munro from Hudson Cook and we'll sit down for a half an hour and do a webinar with them again, letting you know what you should be doing and what you shouldn't be doing or if there are any questions, call us. You know, Corinne, she's open all the time. You know, our phone's open all the time. You got questions about something, you're not sure about something, call us. Will help you with that. If you're getting into some issues. We've had some dealers who weren't using their technology proper properly. We need to come in and talk to help them out, you know, with their local legislators. We do that. But I think, but as I said before, these are best practices that we've been using for a long time and nothing, nothing has really changed except the different regulations. So you have to stay on top of that. But I think best practices are more important now than ever. Now we have a administration that is, we don't know, but we know it's going to be a lot like the Obama administration where now they're beefing up the CFPB again. Right now they're going to be very consumer advocate and so we're very concerned and that's why we're monitoring it even closer. But that's why you guys really need to make sure that how you're using these devices, you're compliant. I mean, that's the other thing we do. I mean, we meet with the CFPB and the FTC on a regular, fairly regular basis. When I say regular basis, maybe every few years, Right. Or every couple years. And again, before things go too far, we want to meet with them, explain what our technology is, if they have any questions, because you can't leave it up to them to decide what you do and how you do it. We want to get ahead of that curve, and that's why we constantly stay in touch with them.
Super smart. Super smart. Jake and I could literally take your entire day because there's probably 20 more questions I need to ask. But we really, really appreciate your time. And how do dealers, if they want to learn more, get a hold of you or someone there pastime to get a demo or learn more? How do they do that? Where should they go?
Go to our website, you know, pastime gps.com.
Okay, perfect. And you guys will be. Are we doing in person convention? Luke, Is there a convention going on in Vegas? I don't know, Jake.
It's not on.
I'm on the board of trustees for niada and we just had a meeting last week and they were initially going to. They were looking to have a real conference in Las Vegas in June.
Right.
And then they were starting to get a little, you know, concerned again because.
Of COVID So what they did is.
We'Re pushing it back to August and it'll be in San Antonio, but it.
Will be in person.
Yes.
It's gonna be.
Hot, so.
Right.
So that'll be interesting. Look, you never know, right? With, you know, you never know what's going to come up. But right now I think it's looking pretty good. That's what the intention of NAADA is to have their conference in San Antonio.
Awesome bid.
The end of August.
Well, good. We. And there are going to be some state conventions as well. I know y' all are always in the Carolinas, so we'll see you there in early August. And Florida, I think, is having theirs in early August too, so a lot of places. Hopefully we'll see y' all at convention. And Jake, just thank you so much for being with us today. And thanks. Thanks for what you do for the industry.
Hey, thanks for having me. I love talking. I love talking to you guys about it. Really appreciate it. It's fun.
Take care.
So glad you joined us. Please take a minute to leave us a review and share this podcast with a friend, the independent dealer podcast dealers helping dealers.